Welcome to The Urantia Book, a spiritual revelation that came into being in the early 20th Century and has inspired generations of adherents since. Today Jeff talks with Byron Belitsos, author of the new book, Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Revelation, about the principles of these deep and beautiful (and controversial!) teachings, and how they can illuminate our spiritual development.
Byron Belitsos
Byron Belitsos is a multiple award-winning author and book publisher, and also an editor and educator. After founding Origin Press (OriginPress.org) in 1996, he has worked with numerous leading authors including Peter Russell, Ralph Metzner, Jim Marrs, Charles Tart, James O’Dea, Timothy Wyllie, Anodea Judith, and Barbara Marx Hubbard.
Byron is also known as a leading expert on The Urantia Book, and has written, spoken, and given workshops widely on its teachings, including appearances on Gaiam TV and Coast-to-Coast AM Radio with George Noory. He is most recently author of Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Revelation (2017). He has also coauthored or edited five previous books about the Urantia Revelation, most recently The Adventure of Being Human II (2015), Healing a Broken World (2013), and The Adventure of Being Human (2011).
Belitsos has also trained extensively in the Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, having studied originally with Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche. Belitsos received a B.A. (Honors) in European intellectual history from the University of Chicago in 1977 and was a Rhodes Scholarship nominee. His graduate studies have embraced history, literature, religious studies, and theology. He attended Naropa Institute, where he studied with poet Allen Ginsberg; the University of California (Santa Cruz), where he studied cultural history with Hayden White; he also did graduate work at the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Graduate Theological Union at UC Berkeley.
Belitsos is principal author of the acclaimed One World Democracy (2005), which is based in part on political teachings of the Urantia Revelation. He also edited and published Discovery of Atlantis (2004), a pioneering title that was noted worldwide, whose argument is derived from the teachings of The Urantia Book about the location of the “Garden of Eden.” This book’s thesis was featured on the History Channel’s “Digging for the Truth” series in 2006 and on Gaiam TV.
Byron also coauthored A Return To Healing (2009) with Dr. Len Saputo, which won the Nautilus Gold Award for Best Health Book of the Year. He was also the editor and publisher of Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential (2014) and How Whole Brain Thinking Will Save the Future (2017), both of which won the prestigious Eric Hoffer Award for Most Thought-Provoking Book of the Year.
Byron was an inaugural member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute. He lives in San Rafael, California.