Q: I was wondering if The Urantia Book said anything about “aliens” coming to earth and helping us advance in the early stages of human civilization, as suggested by many ancient astronauts theories.

A: When people wonder about “aliens” coming to earth, they are simply reasoning that there must be more in the universes than just ourselves. And they are right; however, the “aliens” who have visited us are not of the kind that we might see depicted in sci-fi movies and books. Those creatures come from the fertile imagination of fiction writers who probably have not read The Urantia Book. Or, if they have, they are working from their own imaginary ideas of what beings on other worlds might look like.

Throughout the ages of evolution on this earth, mankind has been visited many times by personalities that are not of earth-origin. And they have come to earth to help us advance, as you suggest; most notably, the visitations connected with the five epochal revelations of God to mankind.

Please see HERE to read about these revelations

However, you will note that all of these visitations were in the form of spiritual beings that were made visible to humans. If all had gone according to God’s plan, we would still enjoy the presence of some of these beings, such as the Planetary Prince and Adam and Eve. Part of the reason that we humans are so fascinated by the tales of extraterrestrials can be found in this passage:

92:5.5 …there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons. On Urantia man has been deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers, and therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his human leaders with legends pertaining to supernatural origins and miraculous careers.

97:8.5 All modern religions have seriously blundered in the attempt to put a miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. While it is true that God has many times thrust a Father’s hand of providential intervention into the stream of human affairs, it is a mistake to regard theologic dogmas and religious superstition as a supernatural sedimentation appearing by miraculous action in this stream of human history. The fact that the “Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men” does not convert secular history into so-called sacred history.

Urantia presently enjoys the presence of angels, and even man himself is not entirely “native” to our planet, but has been evolved from transplantations seeded here by the Life Carriers.

It was many milennia later, when man had become receptive to his divine destiny, that these spiritual visitations began to occur. And God is still fellowshipping his creatures through the ministry of Thought Adjusters—those divine fragments of God himself—that indwell the minds of human beings.

We are not alone in the universe, it is true—and help has been offered many times by celestial personalities. It might even be conjectured that some of the aliens that have purportedly been reported as visitors in ages long ago could be distortions of the long-ago legends that sprang up after Adam and Eve came here and established the fabulous Garden of Eden, with all its wonders. Maybe we need to elevate our ideas of “aliens” from the fantastic to the spiritually real.

Thanks for this important question. I hope that this reply has been helpful to you.