Cosmic Citizen radio

A Spirituality Podcast for Truth Seekers

Are you ready to courageously follow your own sense of mercy, justice, and truth? Are you searching for religious teachings that make sense? Are you having a hard time accepting teachings which seem spiritually unholy and untruthful? Then, have we got a show for you! The Cosmic Citizen is a show for progressive religionists and spiritual people who are ready to find a spirituality worthy of an age of science and enlightenment.

Our hosts, Paula Thompson, Andre Radatus , Chuck Thurston and Marvin Gawryn are ministers, students and scholars of The Urantia Book, all with at least four decades of experience with it. We sometimes interview guests on topics related to modern and progressive spirituality, but most often we explore The Urantia Book together on air. We embrace diversity, civil and intelligent dialogue, and a willingness to serve a purpose that is true, beautiful and good. Please join us!

Important Announcement - New Zoom Platform

BlogTalkRadio has announced that as of January 31st, 2025, it will no longer be operating. However, The Cosmic Citizen will continue to broadcast via The Urantia Book Fellowship on Zoom in the same time slot (Saturdays 10 a.m. MST).  

Over the past 16 years, we have featured 1,060 episodes and have had 277,543 listens. We are so thankful for the BlogTalkRadio platform that has allowed us to share the Cosmic Citizen broadcast since 2008. It is truly sad to see this platform go, but we are committed to bringing great Urantia-based study and programming to our many friends and listeners. 

Our faithful sponsor, The Urantia Book Fellowship, has offered us a new platform on Zoom to continue broadcasting. We are confident that the Zoom platform will provide all the great features that our audience has come to count on. Everyone will still be able to join the live show to listen and chat, with video format for the hosts.

In addition, all of our past episodes are still available on demand and can currently be found here: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-cosmic-citizen--6415031

The next episode, the first via The Urantia Book Fellowship, will be broadcast on February 8 at 10 a.m. MST (see details below). Here's the link:

https://urantiabook-org.zoom.us/j/84607892056

Urantia Paper 12. The Universe of Universes. Section 8. Mind and Matter

This section covers the relationship between mind, matter, and spirit as follows:

Mind is described as the technique through which spirit realities become experiential to creature personalities. It is the mechanism that allows beings to experience and understand spiritual truths. The mind enables creatures to coordinate things, ideas, and values. It is through the mind that spiritual realities can be comprehended and appreciated. The importance of the mind in understanding and experiencing spiritual realities, while also acknowledging the roles of matter and spirit in the broader context of existence, is emphasized. The mind is seen as a crucial tool for bridging the gap between the material and the spiritual realms.

Spirit is considered the highest reality, followed by the mind, which allows for the experience of spirit, and then matter, which provides the physical context for experiences. Through the mind, the reality of spirit can be experienced and understood by creature personalities. The mind acts as a bridge between the material and spiritual realms, allowing beings to connect with spiritual truths. Spirit is portrayed as the ultimate reality and the source of all true values. It is the essence that transcends the material and is the ultimate goal of all beings.

Matter is organized energy subject to physical laws, including gravity. It is a necessary component of the physical universe. Matter provides the physical framework within which beings can actually have experiences. It is the medium through which creatures interact with the physical world.

This will be another great study from The Urantia Book. We hope you can join us on our new Zoom venue: https://urantiabook-org.zoom.us/j/84607892056

About the Hosts

Paula Thompson, Co-host

Paula Thompson began studying The Urantia Book early in 1976, when she committed her life to personal spiritual growth and ministry.  In 1983, Paula began coordinating and facilitating public outreach with The Urantia Book. Since then, she has traveled extensively in the USA, Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Central and South America publicly introducing the book. She co-founded and has hosted The Cosmic Citizen since 2008.

In 1989, she went to work for the Jesusonian Foundation and served as Executive Director there until 2006. She managed outreach activities, book distribution, and the Good Cheer Catalog of Urantia study aids and supportive works. She also oversaw the development of numerous outreach efforts, most notably the beautiful website www.Truthbook.com .

In 1994, Paula was elected to the Urantia Book Fellowship’s General Council, where she served for 27 years. In 2006, she took over as Executive Director for The Fellowship.  She recently retired after serving in that capacity for 16 years

Andre Radatus, Co-host

The Urantia Book’s truths have spoken compellingly to André since 1976 revealing God more fully than any other compendium of truth. For him, it is the “the ever-illuminating 'Handbook Earth’ speaking of dozens of spiritual realities never-before-known. He has participated in or co-led many different study groups and formats since 1978. Canadian-born son of eastern European immigrants, he is the father of three adult children.

André emigrated to the United States in 1980 to teach and tutor at a Urantian-founded school for learning-difference youngsters until 1995. 

André participated in the first-hosted Urantia booth disseminating the Book and its teachings in Denver, Colorado in the early-1980s. He is a member of Rocky Mountain Spiritual Fellowship and its parent The Urantia Book Fellowship since 1989, its General Council since 2016, and International Fellowship Chair since 2019.

He joined the UrantiaUniversity Board of Trustees in 2010, has Chaired and Cochaired its Curriculum Committee since 2012, and is on its Urantia Education Center’s Teacher Training Program team since its inception in 2019.

André first cohosted The Cosmic Citizen with Christilyn Biek Larson in March of 2012 and has cohosted regularly with Paula Thompson and the gang for more than ten years.

Marvin Gawryn

Marvin Gawryn considers himself incredibly lucky. Fifty years ago, when he was seventeen and barely sentient, at his high school job at one of the first metaphysical book shops in Los Angeles, he stumbled upon The Urantia Book. It has shaped his entire adult life from that day forward.

He has participated in and led study groups weekly for forty years, and served in numerous leadership roles with Urantia Book Fellowship and other service organizations. His dearest friends are fellow readers. He is the author of “Reaching High: The Psychology of Spiritual Living”, and has presented workshops at many movement conferences. He was especially fortunate to serve as Chair of the Fellowship’s Liaison Committee during efforts to restore cooperative relations with Urantia Foundation and UAI after the turbulence of the 1990’s. He is currently a member of the Standard Reference Text Committee, and of UUI’s Curriculum Committee.

Marvin is semi-retired after 30 years in practice as a Family Therapist, and currently works as the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. He has, over the past thirty years, researched and offered workshops on the socialization of religion material in The Urantia Book, and in 1988 completed a two year Certificate of Theological Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in the history and sociology of religion.

He is President of the Family of God Fellowship (familyofgodfellowship.org), which is dedicated to helping people live their lives more fully in spiritual family relationship, and to spreading Jesus’ gospel as expressed in The Urantia Book — a thrilling and dynamic Way of Life in the Family of God.

Most importantly, Marvin and his lovely and wise wife, Francyl, continue to enjoy the remarkable experience of serving as parents to two amazing young women, their husbands, and two beloved grandchildren. “Such a life on such a planet!” 111:7.5

Chuck Thurston

Chuck Thurston began his study of The Urantia Book in the mid-1970s. After exploring many other sources of spiritual insight, the discovery of The Urantia Book and its teachings marked the beginning of a new and profoundly life-changing growth in understanding of the nature of God and the meaning of our existence.

Over the years since then, Chuck has been closely involved with the international community of readers and students of The Urantia Book and has offered many workshops and presentations at annual conferences and other gatherings. He is currently a co-host on the Saturday morning Cosmic Citizen Blogtalk Radio broadcast and is working with Derek Samaras on the production of UBN (Urantia Book Network) video podcasts on a variety of topics.

Pamela Chaddock

Pamela Chaddock—early perplexed by the “Why” of it all—sought out Philosophy in her college years. In 1972 she was led to The Urantia Book and was immediately magnetized by the Table of Contents, and plunged herself for a time into the Pentecostal Christian world.  “God is ALIVE!”

Hoping for signs that “Some day a reformation in the Christian church may strike deep enough to get back to the unadulterated religious teachings of Jesus” (196.2.1), Pamela happened upon a progressive Christian movement known as the emerging church. Ever since, while signaling the Urantia community, she has immersed herself in conferences, gatherings, and podcasts as these prescient progressives attempt to transform outworn concepts of religion and philosophy. 

As a philosophical religionist, Pamela enjoys pursuing those conversations which attempt to unite science, philosophy, religion, and revelation, all with the purpose of freeing Jesus from the distortion and institutional shackles of secular-materialism. She is delighted to have been invited to participate with long-time colleagues on The Cosmic Citizen!