William S. Sadler

For other uses, see William Sadler (disambiguation).

William S. Sadler in 1915

William Samuel Sadler (June 14, 1875 – April 26, 1969) was an American psychiatrist and author who played a key role in the The Urantia Book movement. A native of Indiana, he moved to Michigan to work at the Battle Creek Sanitarium as a teenager. There he became acquainted with John Harvey Kellogg. Sadler was influenced by some of Kellogg's views, and married his neice, Lena Celestia Kellogg.

As a young man, Sadler worked for several Christian organizations and attended Medical school. He graduated from American Medical Missionary College in 1906 and began to practice medicine in Chicago. Sadler became a member of several medical associations, and taught at the McCormick Theological Seminary and the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago. In 1907, along with his wife, Sadler became a speaker on the Chautauqua adult-education circuit. He eventually became a highly-paid, popular speaker. He wrote many books on a variety of medical and spiritual topics, advocating a holistic approach to health. Although he had been a committed member of the Seventh Day Adventist church for almost twenty years, he left the church in 1907, having become skeptical of Ellen G. White. He extolled the value of religion, but embraced scientific consensus and was skeptical of mediums.

Around 1911, Sadler attempted to treat a patient with unusual symptoms related to his sleep patterns. The sleeping man began conversing with Sadler, he claimed to be an extraterrestrial speaking through the subject. Although he sought to debunk the phenomena, Sadler found himself unable to and concluded that extraterrestrials were communicating with him through the patient. For many years, Salder and a small number of assistants visited the man while he was sleeping and held long conversations about spirituality and history. A larger number of interested people met as a group to discuss the man's responses and suggest questions to be asked. The man's responses were eventually compiled in The Urantia Book and the Urantia Foundation was created to spread its message. Though it never became an organized religion, the book attracted committed followers who devoted themselves to its study. Sadler had close ties to the Urantia Foundation until his death in 1969.

Early life and education

Sadler was born June 14, 1875 in Spencer, Indiana, and was raised in Wabash, Indiana. He was the first child of Samuel Cavins Sadler and Sarah Isabelle Wilson; Sarah later gave birth to twin daughters, one of whom survived to adulthood. Although Samuel was a music teacher, he did not enroll his son in public schools. Initially non-religious, Samuel became a Seventh Day Adventist—and worked as a bible salesman—after the death of a daughter. His son was baptized as an Adventist in 1888 and became devoutly religious.

In 1889, Sadler moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. There he found work at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and attended Battle Creek College. Sadler graduated in 1894 and began working for John Harvey Kellog as a health-food salesman. Salder then attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, where he trained to be an evangelist. After finishing his education at Moody, he oversaw a mission, Life Boat Mission, that Kellog had founded on State Street. While overseeing the mission, Sadler also published a newspaper known as Life Boat Magazine.

In 1897, Sadler married Kellog's niece, Lena Celestia Kellog, a nurse and fellow Adventist who he had known for four years. They had two children, only one of whom (William S. Sadler Jr., born c. 1907) survived to adulthood. The couple moved to San Francisco, California, four years later to attend medical school at Cooper Medical College. That year, Sadler became an elder in the Adventist church. While in San Francisco, Sadler was active in the church, serving as the "superintendent of young people's work" for the church's California conference and the president of the San Francisco Medical Missionary and Benevolent Society. In 1904, Sadler and his wife returned to Michigan, where he attended the American Medical Missionary College. Two years later, Sadler received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the college.

Although Sadler was a committed Adventist for much of his early life, he left the church around 1907. At that time, John Kellogg left the Adventist church because she suspected Ellen White had demonstrated a lack of integrity. After Kellogg's excommunication, the Sadlers joined other former Adventists and criticized the church.

Medical career

In 1912, Sadler and his wife, who was also a doctor by then, practiced medicine in the Chicago area. They operated a joint practice that focused on "women's and children's diseases". Sadler served as a consulting psychiatrist at Columbus Hospital, as well. Brad Gooch writes that Sandler and his wife moved into an Art Nouveau-style house on Chicago's Diversey Parkway that year. (The couple also had a summer home in Beverly Shores, Indiana.) It is the first steel-frame residence in Chicago. The couple operated their medical practice out of the building. Sadler was also a professor of psychiatry at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago. He was a member of numerous medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Pathological Society, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sadler joined the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary, and taught pastoral psychology. He also delivered a keynote address on the subject at a event for members of College religious organizations. He interested ministers in improving their work of personal counseling through profiting by the experience of psychiatric practice.

Sadler was a humorous orator and was a member of the Eugene Field Society, the National Association of Authors and Journalists, and International Mark Twain Society. As was common practice for those associated with the Battle Creek Sanitarium, the Sadlers were speakers for the Chautauqua assemblies. For many years, at the Chicago Institute, Sadler taught clinics for physicians, ministers, and laity that covered the entire field of mental medicine that he liked to term "personology."

Sadler did not adhere to purely mechanistic or materialistic views of psychology and psychiatry and was a consistent advocate of broad and rational principles of psychiatry; he was among early American psychiatrists who placed an emphasis upon the importance of the preventive aspects of mental hygiene.

Writing and lecturing

Sadler wrote and lectured on many topics. In 1909, he published his first book, an evangelical work titled Self-Winning Texts, or Bible Helps for Personal Work. He wrote forty two books on health issues.

In 1907, Sadler and his wife began giving Chautauqua adult-education lectures. Sadler often spoke about attaining physical and mental health without the use of drugs. He also promoted hydrotherapy and discussed moral issues that related to men. While lecturing, he came across as humorous and extroverted. Along with his wife, her sister, and a friend, Sadler was part of a four-member lecture company that gave two or three-day lecturing engagements. They were sometimes accompanied by an Orchestra. Sadler's books were also sold at the events. Newspapers published favorable reviews of the productions. The lectures proved to be a lucrative endeavor; he was rumored to be one of the best paid Chautauqua speakers.

Views

In a 1917 lecture, Sadler predicted the advent of organ transplantation. Around that time, he argued that alcoholism is a hereditary condition. Sadler's early writings writings about health bore noticeable similarities with ideas advanced by Kellogg, including the concept of autointoxication and the idea that caffeine has negative health effects. He similarly condemned the consumption of tobacco, meat, and alcohol. Later in his life, Sadler dropped these themes from his writings. (He also became a heavy smoker.) He also differed from Kellogg by accepting masturbation as a harmless act. However, Sadler shared Kellogg's interest in eugenics.

Sadler believed that religion was beneficial to individuals for mental health reasons, and specifically promoted the use of prayer. He argued in 1914 that it is most effective as a product of Christian faith. Although he spoke of exceptionally supernatural aspects of Christianity in a 1912 publication, he later disavowed ideas such as the Virgin birth of Jesus, the Blood atonement, and the Resurrection of Christ. He also rejected his faith in some Seventh Day Adventist teachings, such as the status of Ellen G. White as a prophetess and the importance of Saturday as the Sabbath. It is also likely that he accepted the Theory of Evolution as well as the scientific consensus about the Age of the Earth and the Age of the universe. According to Wilensky-Lanford, Sadler "prided himself on his rationality and progressiveness." He was an relatively early adopter of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Sadler believed that mediums were a source of false comfort to people. After World War I ended, he fought against an increased interest in communication with the dead. He also argued that glossolalia and levitation had been "proved to be fraudulent." He was a well-known skeptic of psychic phenomena and devoted a substantial amount of his time to attempting to expose the proponents of the paranormal as frauds and charlatans and writing numerous books on the topic. He worked with magician Howard Thurston in exposing frauds. He was considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject and held the life-long opinion that all psychic phenomena was explainable within the confines of the laws of nature.

The Urantia Book

Between 1906 and 1911, a woman consulted Sadler about her husband's deep sleeping. Joscelyn Godwin and Martin Gardner argue that the sleeping man was Wilfred Kellogg. Kellogg was married to Lena's sister Anna; the two were first cousins who shared John Kellogg as an uncle. Sadler observed him sleeping and noticed that he moved unusually. The sleeping man purportedly spoke to Sadler in an unusual voice and claimed to be an extraterrestrial being. Sadler and five others regularly visited the sleeping man and spoke with him. The man's voice was said by observers to represent several visitors. Sadler suspected that the voice was coming from the man's mind, and sought a scientific explanation for the phenomena. Although he examined him for psychiatric problems and hypnotized him, he was unable to find a satisfactory diagnosis. In 1925, a large handwritten document was discovered in the patient's house. Sadler presumed that the book was the product of automatic handwriting, but changed his mind after a handwriting analysis of the book. Sadler and the other observers argued that the man was not a medium, but believed that through him, they were conversing with extraterrestrial life. Although Sadler had left the Adventist church by the time The Urantia Book was published, the teachings of the Urantia Book are broadly consistent with Adventist theology, in addition to their novel doctrines. Brook Wilensky-Lanford argues that Sadler's departure from the Adventist church gave him a desire to build a new religion, citing the emphasis that Sadler placed on the discussion of the Garden of Eden in The Urantia Book.

In 1924, Sadler began hosting Sunday tea gatherings at their home. They could accommodate fifty people at the events. Many attendees worked in the medical establishment, and typically adhered to a progressive ideology.

The patient was often the topic of a philosophical discussion group the Sadler's held at their home. The group devised questions for the sleeping man, which were then posed to him by the select observers. The observers did not divulge the man's name to the group, but did relate some of his answers. In 1925, the group began to require a pledge of secrecy and ceased to accept new members. Sadler instructed the members not to publicize all the details of which they were aware, noting that many details of the revelation were unknown and fearing that the patient would face criticism if his identity was known. Wilensky-Lanford argues that Sadler and members of his forum attempted to avoid placing a person at the center of their beliefs owing to their disappointment in Ellen White.

Gooch sees a clear contradiction between Sadler's public reputation as a advocate of science and reason and the novel theological, extraterrestrial-focused contents of The Urantia Book. Sadler wrote a paper detailing the types of methods that he said were not used in the reception of the papers. "How We Did Not Get The Urantia Book" and Psychic Phenomena: Unusual Activities of the Marginal Consciousness (The Subconscious Mind). He was Chair of the Committee on Education and he worked, with his committee, after the book's publication to produce curriculum materials for the Urantia Brotherhood School.

Sadler used some of the proceeds of the sales to pay off the mortgage of his house, a decision which angered his son, who was then devoted to the message of The Urantia Book. (Sadler's son assisted him in the preparation of the Urantia Papers.) The two also came into conflict regarding the leadership of the Urantia Foundation. William Sadler, Jr. argued that the group should be promoted as an organized religion; the foundation's leadership opted for a policy referred to as "slow growth".

Final years

The Sadlers went into private practice when the institutions of the Chicago Medical Missions began to dissolve due to internal conflicts between mission founder John Harvey Kellogg and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In addition to private practice they also gave lectures for community organizations on a regular basis. For the rest of their lives the Sadlers were associated with the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

Sadler died on April 26, 1969, at 93 years of age. He received a full-column obituary in the Chicago Tribune, which prominently discussed his accurate prediction of organ transplants. The Chicago Tribune obituary did not mention his association with the Urantia Foundation.

Bibliography

• Gardner, Martin (2008), Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery, Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1-59102-622-8 
• Goodwin, Joscelyn (1998), Wouter Hanegraaff, ed., Gnosis and hermeticism from antiquity to modern times, Roelof van den Broek, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-3611-0 
• Gooch, Brad (2002), Godtalk: travels in spiritual America, A.A. Knopf, ISBN 978-0-679-44709-2 
• Lewis, Sarah (2003), Christopher Partridge, ed., UFO religions, Psychology Press, ISBN 978-0-415-26324-5 
• Lewis, Sarah (2007), James R. Lewis, ed., The Invention of Sacred Tradition, Olav Hammer, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-86479-4 
• Nelkin, Dorothy; Lindee, M. Susan (2004), The DNA mystique: the gene as a cultural icon, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-03004-0 
• Wilensky-Lanford, Brook (2011), Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden, Grove Press, ISBN 978-0-8021-1980-3