Thursday, January 22 2026
My connection with public intellectual, author, and television producer Robert Lawrence Kuhn began in 2014. His Closer To Truth series of interviews on PBS, with scientists, philosophers, and theologians about cosmos, consciousness, and God, drew me in as a long‑term listener and student.
Over time, I reached out to scores—eventually hundreds—of his guests, thanking them for their work and, where appropriate, sharing Urantia Book references that touched their topic. That quiet, steady outreach was my way of practicing the COSAR principle—coordinating science and religion—by introducing revelatory insights into contemporary conversations one person at a time.
Recently, Kuhn launched his Landscape of Consciousness (LoC), a comprehensive and up-to-date resource for theories of consciousness serving professional consciousness communities worldwide. It is a life‑passion project that grew out of his PhD in neuroscience and more than 25 years of CTT interviews. As he describes it in a personal note to our community:
“My Landscape of Consciousness is a life passion, from my PhD in neuroscience to 25+ years of interviews of leading scientists, philosophers, and creative thinkers on Closer To Truth. My purpose must be humble: collect and categorize, not assess and adjudicate. Seek insights, not answers. I seek to identify and organize a wide range of views about what consciousness is and what it implies for reality. My goal is not to privilege any one theory, but to represent, as best I can, the range of humanity’s diverse thinking about consciousness. I consider consciousness a key to existence and ultimate reality.”
Within that context, a Urantia‑based model of consciousness, formulated by Bob Debold and myself, now appears on the Landscape of Consciousness website as: “Johnson and Debold’s Urantia Theocosmic Cosmopsychism”.
On the Landscape Map, “Urantia” is now visible in the Anomalous & Altered States sector alongside figures such as Bergson, Jung, Radin, Tart, Sheldrake, Wilber, and others—placing our revelatory model among a curated set of serious consciousness theories.
In simple terms, The Urantia Book presents consciousness as the coordinated activity of matter, mind, and spirit, unified by the unique organizing power of personality. The brain supplies the physical platform, but genuine awareness arises from interaction between mind and a deeper spiritual presence.
The book teaches that every person is indwelt by a Thought Adjuster, a fragment of divine spirit guiding moral insight, personal growth, and the evolution of the soul. In this view, consciousness is not an accidental by‑product of neural complexity; it is a purposeful system designed for learning, decision, and spiritual transformation.
To describe this architecture for contemporary discourse, our paper uses the term “theocosmic cosmopsychism.” Philosophical cosmopsychism suggests that the universe as a whole is somehow conscious. The Urantia model shares that intuition but extends it by rooting the cosmos’s very consciousness in Deity causation—the Universal Father as First Source and Center, with mindal coordination delegated to the Infinite Spirit. Human consciousness becomes a local reflection of universal mind, capable of responding to the Spirit presence within.
Kuhn explains why he chose to include our theory:
“When I was first writing Landscape, I ignored many theories that did not fit my own mindset in science, philosophy, or theology. I soon learned that many smart and dedicated people take seriously many theories that I do not, and for Landscape to properly represent humanity’s thinking, they need to be included.
“I still set high standards, of course—it is not ‘anything goes’—I require some combination of originality, rationality, systemization, and certainly internal coherence, and I was pleased to discover that Johnson and Debold’s Urantia‑based theory of theocosmic cosmopsychism meets this standard, including, as it seeks the ‘truth of reality,’ by connecting its revelatory framework with contemporary philosophy and science. As such, it, along with the other more than 350 theories, enriches the Landscape by expanding the conceptual space in which theories of consciousness can be compared, contrasted, and further developed.
“The Landscape of Consciousness website contains over 350 theories of consciousness that can be accessed in five ways: Landscape Grid; Landscape Categories; All Landscape Theories; Landscape Map; Interactive Visualizations.”
As co‑author, I appreciated that Kuhn explicitly highlighted “the truth of reality,” a phrase I have long advocated as central to understanding the Urantia revelation and its scientific and philosophical implications. (103:7.8)
For Urantia Book readers who prefer a straightforward overview rather than the more scholarly LoC essay, Bob has provided a plain‑language sidebar on his site deboldgroup.com. That page includes “Theocosmic Cosmopsychism: The Urantia Book’s Model of Consciousness – Sidebar: Plain‑Language Overview of the UB Model.”
Bob was kind enough to include this for those who may not care to take a deep dive into the academic version but still want to grasp the heart of this development.
From an academic and cultural standpoint, having “Urantia” on the Landscape Map does at least three things:
1. Legitimizes our presence in the wider conversation. The Urantia model is now listed among serious attempts to explain consciousness, rather than being ignored or dismissed without engagement.
2. Frames our model in comparative terms. Readers can see how the UB’s theocosmic cosmopsychism relates to materialist, dualist, idealist, panpsychist, and other cosmopsychist views—what it shares with them and where it diverges.
3. Creates a bridge for outreach. Scholars and spiritually curious seekers using the Landscape may now encounter The Urantia Book not as an isolated revelation, but as a distinct, Deity‑centered theory that integrates science, philosophy, and religion.
For Urantia readers who feel a call to serve at the frontier where science and spirit meet, Kuhn’s inclusion of our model is both an affirmation and an opportunity. It suggests that The Urantia Book’s vision of consciousness can stand in open comparison with other models, and that it has something distinctive to contribute to the world’s ongoing search for the truth of reality.
Our hope is that this development will help “catapult” our transcendent literary masterpiece more fully into the 21st‑century conversation—quietly, respectfully, and intelligently—where it belongs.
The recognition that consciousness is rooted in Deity causation dovetails directly with my recent book, Exploring the Urantia Revelation: Bridging Science and Spirit with the Truth of Reality (Distributed by Simon & Schuster). In the book, I highlight and engage the work of contemporary voices such as Stephen Meyer, Eric Weinstein, Graham Hancock, and others—many of them best‑selling authors in their own right. I compliment their contributions and, where appropriate, bring in Urantia Book‑based perspectives that may expand the discussion.
As feedback comes in from these and other notables, I intend to work with my publisher so that a future print run can include Kuhn’s acceptance of our Urantia model in the Landscape of Consciousness. That way, the book and the Landscape can mutually reinforce each other as gateways for thoughtful seekers.
Readers who feel aligned with this outreach are encouraged to:
• Access the book on Amazon
• Read the initial reviews, and
• If so inclined, leave one of their own to strengthen its visibility.
Anyone in the Urantia community who wishes to comment on Kuhn’s LoC, on the book, or on this overall direction can reach me directly at [email protected]. I will personally ensure that significant reflections are shared with Robert, as appropriate.
As an added creative dimension, Bob has produced a music track whose lyrics and music are based on my book, Exploring the Urantia Revelation. It offers an artistic entry point into the same themes that now find expression in the Landscape and the book: The Truth of Reality (Stay the Course)
About the Authors
JJ Johnson is a Urantia scholar, author, and former U.S. diplomat whose work engages The Urantia Book within contemporary consciousness studies. A fifty-year student of the revelation and past president of the Grand Canyon Urantia Book Society, he has written and presented widely within the Urantia community. His book Exploring the Urantia Revelation: Bridging Science and Spirit with the Truth of Reality (2025) develops the COSAR principle as a framework for coordinating scientific and spiritual explanations of reality.
Bob Debold is an independent researcher examining the intersections of cosmology, human history, and spiritual philosophy. Drawing on the claimed revelatory framework of The Urantia Book, he develops integrative models that articulate its universal theocentric architectures in dialogue with contemporary science. His academic background in organizational development, combined with nearly five decades of corporate and educational experience, informs a distinctively systems-oriented approach to understanding both subjective and objective reality. (www.deboldgroup.com)
Photo of Robert Lawrence Kuhn by Peter Getzels, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
How else could The Urantia Book be effectively introduced to the academic or scientific community? Leave a comment below if you have any ideas.
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