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138-619: Oahspe comprises a series of related interior books chronicling earth and its heavenly administrations, as well as setting forth teachings for modern times. Included are over 100 drawings. The title page of Oahspe describes its contents with these words: A New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Ambassadors. A Sacred History of the Dominions of the Higher and Lower Heavens on the Earth for

276-576: A materialist orientation and rejected organized religion. In 1854 the utopian socialist Robert Owen was converted to spiritualism after "sittings" with the American medium Maria B. Hayden (credited with introducing spiritualism to England); Owen made a public profession of his new faith in his publication The Rational Quarterly Review and later wrote a pamphlet, "The future of the Human race; or great glorious and future revolution to be effected through

414-516: A (newly invented) typewriter for half an hour each morning at which time his hands would automatically type (without his knowledge of what was being written).) An article in The New York Times had him explain that, feeling the urge to write, he sat down with pen and paper until a bright light enveloped his fingers and they started writing. Moreover, many of the drawings contain symbols resembling hieroglyphs , presumably drawn. A copy of

552-429: A body). The Creator is all and was all and forever will be all; S/he was never born and is beyond all gods. The Creator is our father and mother, and all that are and were born are our brothers and sisters. Oahspe (the word is defined as "sky, earth (corpor) and spirit. The all; the sum of corporeal and spiritual knowledge as at present") was published in 1882. Newbrough started writing the book in 1880 and stated that

690-562: A career out of painting the dead or "spirit portraits". Mina Crandon (1888–1941), a spiritualist medium in the 1920s, was known for producing an ectoplasm hand during her séances. The hand was later exposed as a trick when biologists found it to be made from a piece of carved animal liver. In 1934, the psychical researcher Walter Franklin Prince described the Crandon case as "the most ingenious, persistent, and fantastic complex of fraud in

828-547: A critic of The Urantia Book , considered Oahspe to be a similar type of production. Gardner opined that Oahspe is even "crazier than the works of Swedenborg and Davis " and that rather than a religious work, the book "could just as well be classified as moonshine." Edgar Johnson Goodspeed included it in Famous Biblical Hoaxes (1956), and Gordon Stein in the book Encyclopedia of Hoaxes (1993) noted that Oahspe has not been taken seriously because it

966-559: A dubious Marie Curie . Thomas Edison wanted to develop a "spirit phone", an ethereal device that would summon to the living the voices of the dead and record them for posterity. The claims of spiritualists and others as to the reality of spirits were investigated by the Society for Psychical Research , founded in London in 1882. The society set up a Committee on Haunted Houses. Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from

1104-686: A few cases in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), Hebrew elohim with a plural verb, or with implied plural context, was rendered either angeloi ("angels") or to kriterion tou Theou ("the judgement of God"). These passages then entered first the Latin Vulgate , then the English King James Version (KJV) as "angels" and "judges", respectively. From this came the result that James Strong , for example, listed "angels" and "judges" as possible meanings for elohim with

1242-523: A house believed to be haunted by the ghosts of three murder victims seeking revenge against their killer's son, who was eventually driven insane. Many families, "having no faith in ghosts", thereafter moved into the house, but all soon moved out again. In the 1920s many "psychic" books were published of varied quality. Such books were often based on excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards . A few of these popular books displayed unorganized spiritualism, though most were less insightful. The movement

1380-499: A life of virtue , service to others, angelic assistance, spiritual communion, and communal living, (the smallest collective unit being ten families, the largest being a total of 3,000 persons then dividing to create a new community). Oahspe exhibits great interest in understanding and applying general ethical principles. The suffix ISM in Faith-ism is defined meaning adherence or following an ideology. The Book of Inspiration in

1518-591: A long history of exposing the fraudulent methods of mediumship. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini undertook a well-publicised campaign to expose fraudulent mediums; he was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains." Other magician or magic-author debunkers of spiritualist mediumship have included Chung Ling Soo , Henry Evans , Julien Proskauer , Fulton Oursler , Joseph Dunninger , and Joseph Rinn . In February 1921 Thomas Lynn Bradford , in an experiment designed to ascertain

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1656-643: A numerical but also as an abstract plural (corresponding to the Latin numen , and our Godhead ), and, like other abstracts of the same kind, have been transferred to a concrete single god (even of the heathen). To the same class (and probably formed on the analogy of אֱלֹהִים ) belong the plurals קְדשִׁים ( kadoshim ), meaning the Most Holy (only of Yahweh, Hosea 12:1 , Proverbs 9:10 , 30:3 – cf. אֱלֹהִים קְדשִׁים elohiym kadoshim in Joshua 24:19 and

1794-444: A numerical plural) is at least highly improbable, and, moreover, would not explain the analogous plurals (see below). That the language has entirely rejected the idea of numerical plurality in אֱלֹהִים (whenever it denotes one God), is proved especially by its being almost invariably joined with a singular attribute (cf. §132h), e.g. אֱלֹהִים צַדִּיק Psalms 7:10 , &c. Hence אֱלֹהִים may have been used originally not only as

1932-558: A numerical plural. There are a number of notable exceptions to the rule that Elohim is treated as singular when referring to the God of Israel, including Genesis 20:13 , Genesis 35:7 , 2 Samuel 7:23 and Psalms 58:11 , and notably the epithet of the "Living God" ( Deuteronomy 5:26 etc.), which is constructed with the plural adjective, Elohim ḥayyim ( אלהים חיים ) but still takes singular verbs. The treatment of Elohim as both singular and plural is, according to Mark Sameth, consistent with

2070-564: A plural verb in his Strong's Concordance , and the same is true of many other 17th–20th century reference works. Both Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon and the Brown–Driver–Briggs Lexicon list both "angels" and "judges" as possible alternative meanings of elohim with plural verbs and adjectives. Gesenius and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg have questioned the reliability of the Septuagint translation in this matter. Gesenius lists

2208-460: A series of intense mystical experiences, dreams, and visions, claiming that he had been called by God to reform Christianity and introduce a new church." Mesmer did not contribute religious beliefs, but he brought a technique, later known as hypnotism , that it was claimed could induce trances and cause subjects to report contact with supernatural beings. There was a great deal of professional showmanship inherent to demonstrations of Mesmerism , and

2346-642: A series of séances at Duncan's house and took flash photographs of Duncan and her alleged "materialization" spirits, including her spirit guide "Peggy". The photographs revealed the "spirits" to have been fraudulently produced, using dolls made from painted papier-mâché masks, draped in old sheets. Duncan was later tested by Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research ; photographs revealed Duncan's ectoplasm to be made from cheesecloth , rubber gloves, and cut-out heads from magazine covers. Spiritualists reacted with an uncertainty to

2484-519: A single Heaven, but rather a series of higher and lower heavens and hells; second, that spirits are intermediates between God and humans, so that the divine sometimes uses them as a means of communication. Although Swedenborg warned against seeking out spirit contact, his works seem to have inspired in others the desire to do so. Swedenborg was formerly a highly regarded inventor and scientist, achieving several engineering innovations and studying physiology and anatomy. Then, "in 1741, he also began to have

2622-565: A single deity, particularly the God of Israel . In other verses it refers to the singular gods of other nations or to deities in the plural. Morphologically , the word is the plural form of the word אֱלוֹהַּ ( eloah ) and related to el . It is cognate to the word ' l-h-m which is found in Ugaritic , where it is used as the pantheon for Canaanite gods , the children of El , and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most uses of

2760-604: A singular and plural verb). Regarding this, the Jerusalem Talmud states: "All Names written regarding our father Abraham are holy [i.e., referring to the one God] except one which is profane, it was when the gods made me err from my father's house. But some say this one also is holy, [i.e.,] 'were it not for God, they [humans] already would have made me err'." The same disagreement appears in Tractate Soferim , where Haninah ben Ahi R. Joshua maintained that

2898-616: A study of Indian ghosts in seances: Undoubtedly, on some level spiritualists recognized the Indian spectres that appeared at seances as a symbol of the sins and subsequent guilt of the United States in its dealings with Native Americans. Spiritualists were literally haunted by the presence of Indians. But for many that guilt was not assuaged: rather, in order to confront the haunting and rectify it, they were galvanized into action. The political activism of spiritualists on behalf of Indians

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3036-531: A theory put forth by Guillaume Postel (16th century) and Michelangelo Lanci  [ it ] (19th century) that the God of Israel was understood by the ancient priests to be a singular, dual-gendered deity. In the Septuagint and New Testament translations, Elohim has the singular ὁ θεός even in these cases, and modern translations follow suit in giving " God " in the singular. The Samaritan Torah has edited out some of these exceptions. In

3174-568: A type of séance in which spirits were said to communicate with people seated around a table by tilting and rotating the table. By 1897, spiritualism was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes . Spiritualism was mainly a middle- and upper-class movement, and especially popular with women. American spiritualists would meet in private homes for séances, at lecture halls for trance lectures, at state or national conventions, and at summer camps attended by thousands. Among

3312-843: A variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers such as Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research , and professional conjurers such as John Nevil Maskelyne . Maskelyne exposed the Davenport brothers by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the trick was done. The psychical researcher Hereward Carrington exposed fraudulent mediums' tricks, such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning , trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading, and spirit photography . The skeptic Joseph McCabe , in his book Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? (1920), documented many fraudulent mediums and their tricks. Magicians and writers on magic have

3450-515: A variety of races, were pampered and treated with love and kindness. By the time Newbrough died (on 22 April 1891, of influenza ), the colony consisted of the Fraternum, the Children's House (completed in 1890), and a church and other buildings. After the majority of the original volunteers left Shalam in 1886 when the financier, Howland resumed ownership of the property, a second type of colony

3588-544: Is best known as a chronicler of the movement's spread, especially in her 1884 Nineteenth Century Miracles: Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth , and her 1870 Modern American Spiritualism , a detailed account of claims and investigations of mediumship beginning with the earliest days of the movement. William Stainton Moses (1839–92) was an Anglican clergyman who, in the period from 1872 to 1883, filled 24 notebooks with automatic writing, much of which

3726-734: Is called God. God is an advanced angel ordained into office for a season. The morphologically plural name Elohim , often translated as god-singular in the Old Testament, is not used to mean the Creator throughout the main body of Oahspe ; the singular Hebrew terms "Jehovih" (SHD 3069) and "Eloih" are used instead. According to Oahspe , the history of humankind is marked by a series of progressions. These lessons come in cycles: advancement followed by recession, being in turn succeeded by other cycles of improvement and regression. Cycles exist within cycles, but one important cycle, used in improving

3864-509: Is commonly translated as "God", and capitalised. For example, in Genesis 1:26 , it is written: "Then Elohim (translated as God) said (singular verb), 'Let us (plural) make (plural verb) man in our (plural) image, after our (plural) likeness ' ". In the traditional Jewish understanding of the verse, the plural refers to God taking council with His angels (who He had created by this point) before creating Adam . It should also be noted that in

4002-422: Is determined by what their habits were as mortals; as well as by their aspirations and diet. Selfish behavior, low thoughts, or eating animal derived food will place a newborn angel in the lowest level, being on the earth. Evil oriented persons enter heaven into hellish conditions. Nevertheless, all in descension eventually turn around and ascend upward to more delightful places within an organized heaven, whose chief

4140-555: Is given as to the rise and fall of civilizations. The various regions mentioned in the previous Cycles section are under the administration of spiritual or "etherean" beings with titles such as "God" and "Chief" and whose ranks and ages vary in ascending grade, from tens of thousands of years to hundreds of thousands of years old and older. Their dominions cover vast distances and include many spiritual and corporeal worlds of various grades and densities. These chief officers are designated "Sons and Daughters of Jehovih," and in accordance,

4278-536: Is not universally accepted as later literary scholarship seems to show evidence of a later "Elohist redaction" ( post-exilic ) during the 5th century BCE which sometimes makes it difficult to determine whether a given passage is "Elohist" in origin, or the result of a later editor. In the Latter Day Saint movement and Mormonism , Elohim refers to God the Father . Elohim is the father of Jesus in both

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4416-571: Is placed into its own stable orbit around its sun. After cooling - the transformation of gases and its first life-forms - and finally to the appearance of the human race and its progression from beast to physical and spiritual maturity. The process, according to Oahspe, has reached its last stage with the emergence of the "herbivorous men and women of peace" of this Kosmon era. Oahspe explains physical science as having its basis in subtler realms (which include spiritual forces), and then how to predict from them. Oahspe devotes an entire interior book to

4554-499: Is plural, even though one would expect the singular. This is one of several instances where the Bible uses plural verbs with the name elohim . Some Jewish sources (e.g., Targum Jonathan , Ibn Ezra , add Chizkuni ), seeking to explain the plural language of Genesis 35:7, translate elohim here as "angels", noting that in the story being referenced Jacob experiences a vision of malakhei elohim (angels of God) ascending and descending

4692-512: Is possible, and that spirits may dwell on a higher plane—lead to a third belief, that spirits can provide knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about God and the afterlife. Many believers therefore speak of " spirit guides "—specific spirits, often contacted, and relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance. According to spiritualists, anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions ( séances ) are held by mediums, who claim thereby to receive information about

4830-546: Is that a number of its sub-books are printed on pages divided in two. In these, the top half of the page contains a narrative of celestial events, while the bottom half describes the corresponding events on Earth. Oahspe includes doctrinal books, and precepts for behavior can be found throughout its many books. Freedom and responsibility are two themes reiterated throughout the text of Oahspe . Some core doctrines include an herbivorous diet ( vegan , vegetable food only), peaceful living (no warring or violence; pacifism ), living

4968-426: The pluralis excellentiae (plural of excellence), which is similar to the pluralis majestatis (plural of majesty, or "Royal we"). Gesenius comments that the singular Hebrew term Elohim is to be distinguished from elohim used to refer to plural gods, and remarks that: The supposition that אֱלֹהִים ( elohim ) is to be regarded as merely a remnant of earlier polytheistic views (i.e. as originally only

5106-590: The Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve. The Elohist source often presents Elohim as more distant and frequently involves angels , as in the Elohist version of the tale of Jacob's Ladder , in which there is a ladder to the clouds, with angels climbing up and down, with Elohim at the top. In the Jahwist version of the tale, Yahweh is simply stationed in the sky, above the clouds without the ladder or angels. Likewise,

5244-532: The Gnostic text known as the Secret Book of John , Elohim is another name for Abel , whose parents are Eve and Yaldabaoth . He rules over the elements of water and earth, alongside Cain , who is seen as Yahweh ruling over the elements of fire and wind. However, the 2nd century Gnostic teacher Justin proposed a cosmological model with three original divinities. The first is a transcendental being called

5382-461: The Hebrew Bible and external literature often contain the related noun ʾĒl ( אֵל ) in their theophoric names such as Michael and Gabriel . The Hebrew language has several nouns with -im (masculine plural) and -oth (feminine plural) endings which nevertheless take singular verbs, adjectives and pronouns. For example, Baalim , Adonim , Behemoth . This form is known as

5520-710: The Kingdom of Judah and during the Babylonian captivity , and further in terms of monotheism by the emergence of Rabbinical Judaism in the 2nd century CE. Another theory, building on an idea by Gesenius, argues that even before Hebrew became a distinct language, the plural elohim had both a plural meaning of "gods" and an abstract meaning of "godhood" or "divinity", much as the plural of "father", avot , can mean either "fathers" or "fatherhood". Elohim then came to be used so frequently in reference to specific deities, both male and female, domestic and foreign (for instance,

5658-563: The Spiritualist , attempted to view spiritualist phenomena from a scientific perspective, eschewing discussion on both theological and reform issues. Books on the supernatural were published for the growing middle class, such as 1852's Mysteries , by Charles Elliott, which contains "sketches of spirits and spiritual things", including accounts of the Salem witch trials , the Lane ghost, and

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5796-467: The abolition of slavery and women's suffrage . By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud perpetrated by mediums, and formal spiritualist organizations began to appear. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational spiritualist churches in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. Spiritualists believe in

5934-646: The biconsonantal root . Discussions of the etymology of elohim essentially concern this expansion. An exact cognate outside of Hebrew is found in Ugaritic ʾlhm , the family of El, the creator god and chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon , in Biblical Aramaic ʼĔlāhā and later Syriac Alaha ("God"), and in Arabic ʾilāh ("god, deity") (or Allah as "The [single] God"). "El" (the basis for

6072-741: The orthodoxy of the LDS Church, established early in the 19th century. The Book of Abraham , a sacred text accepted by some branches of the Latter Day Saint movement, contains a paraphrase of the first chapter of Genesis which explicitly translates Elohim as "the Gods" multiple times; this is suggested by Mormon apostle James E. Talmage to indicate a "plurality of excellence or intensity, rather than distinctively of number," in contrast to his contemporary apostle Orson F. Whitney 's explanation that, while to "the modern Jew [Elohim] means

6210-463: The spirit world "at a rate more rapid and under conditions more favourable to growth" than encountered on earth. Elohim Elohim ( Hebrew : אֱלֹהִים , romanized :  ʾĔlōhīm : [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im] ), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ ( ʾĔlōah ), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is grammatically plural , in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to

6348-797: The "Banner of Light" letter accompanied Oahspes published by the Kosmon Press in England (such as it was received in New Zealand in 1895). The first presentation of the book took place on 20 October 1882 in Newbrough's house, at 128 West 34th Street in New York City, where he presented the "new bible," "a large quarto volume of over 900 pages," to a group of people. According to the New York Times news article, Newbrough said that

6486-418: The "elohim" of Israel), to seraphim , and other supernatural beings, to the spirits of the dead brought up at the behest of King Saul in 1 Samuel 28:13 , and even to kings and prophets (e.g., Exodus 4:16 ). The phrase bene elohim , translated "sons of the Gods", has an exact parallel in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts, referring to the council of the gods. Elohim occupy the seventh rank of ten in

6624-624: The "honorific plural", in which the pluralization is a sign of power or honor. A very common singular Hebrew word with plural ending is the word achoth , meaning sister, with the irregular plural form achioth. Alternatively, there are several other frequently used words in the Hebrew language that contain a masculine plural ending but also maintain this form in singular concept. The major examples are: Sky/Heavens ( שמים shamayim ), Face ( פנים panim ), Life ( חיים - chayyim ), Water ( מים mayim ). Of these four nouns, three appear in

6762-663: The 1840s in the " Burned-over District " of upstate New York , where earlier religious movements such as Millerism and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Great Awakening , although Millerism and Mormonism did not associate themselves with spiritualism. This region of New York State was an environment in which many thought direct communication with God or angels was possible, and that God would not behave harshly—for example, that God would not condemn unbaptised infants to an eternity in Hell. In this environment,

6900-537: The American Civil War was Cora L. V. Scott (1840–1923). Young and beautiful, her appearance on stage fascinated men. Her audiences were struck by the contrast between her physical girlishness and the eloquence with which she spoke of spiritual matters, and found in that contrast support for the notion that spirits were speaking through her. Cora married four times, and on each occasion adopted her husband's last name. During her period of greatest activity, she

7038-505: The Civil War was Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825–1875), a man of mixed race, who also played a part in the abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, many abolitionists and reformers held themselves aloof from the spiritualist movement; among the skeptics was abolitionist Frederick Douglass . Another social reform movement with significant spiritualist involvement was the effort to improve conditions of Native Americans. Kathryn Troy writes in

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7176-460: The Elohist source describes Jacob wrestling with an angel. The classical documentary hypothesis, first developed in the late 19th century among biblical scholars and textual critics , holds that the Jahwist portions of the Torah were composed in the 10th-9th century BCE and the Elohist portions in the 9th-8th century BCE, i.e. during the early period of the Kingdom of Judah . This, however,

7314-679: The Father), Jehovah (the Son of God, Jesus Christ), and the Holy Ghost , in a non-trinitarian conception of the Godhead . In Mormonism, the three persons are considered to be physically separate beings, or personages, but united in will and purpose; this conception differs significantly from mainline Christian trinitarianism . As such, the term Godhead differs from how it is used in mainstream Christianity. This description of God represents

7452-516: The Fox sisters became a sensation. As the first celebrity mediums, the sisters quickly became famous for their public séances in New York. However, in 1888 the Fox sisters admitted that this contact with the spirit was a hoax, though shortly afterward they recanted that admission. Amy and Isaac Post , Hicksite Quakers from Rochester , New York, had long been acquainted with the Fox family, and took

7590-565: The God of Israel. According to the documentary hypothesis , these variations are the products of different source texts and narratives that constitute the composition of the Torah : Elohim is the name of God used in the Elohist (E) and Priestly (P) sources, while Yahweh is the name of God used in the Jahwist (J) source. Form criticism postulates the differences of names may be

7728-739: The Jewish God, Elohim is usually understood to be grammatically singular (i.e., it governs a singular verb or adjective). In Modern Hebrew , it is often referred to in the singular despite the -im ending that denotes plural masculine nouns in Hebrew. It is generally thought that Elohim is derived from eloah , the latter being an expanded form of the Northwest Semitic noun ' il . The related nouns eloah ( אלוה ) and el ( אֵל ) are used as proper names or as generics, in which case they are interchangeable with elohim . The term contains an added heh as third radical to

7866-641: The LXX), which also has ἀγγέλους in a version of the Greek Septuagint. In the KJV, elohim (Strong's number H430) is translated as "angels" only in Psalm 8:5. The KJV translates elohim as "judges" in Exodus 21:6 ; Exodus 22:8 ; twice in Exodus 22:9 as "judge" in 1 Samuel 2:25 , and as "gods" in Exodus 22:28 , Psalm 82:1 , Psalm 82:6 , Psalm 95:3 , Psalm 96:4 , Psalm 97:9 , and Psalm 138:1 . Angels cited in

8004-637: The London Spiritualist Alliance, which published a newspaper called The Light , featuring articles such as "Evenings at Home in Spiritual Séance", "Ghosts in Africa" and "Chronicles of Spirit Photography", advertisements for " mesmerists " and patent medicines , and letters from readers about personal contact with ghosts. In Britain, by 1853, invitations to tea among the prosperous and fashionable often included table-turning,

8142-881: The NSA in October 1909, at a convention in Rochester, New York . Then, in October 1944, a ninth principle was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, at a convention in St. Louis, Missouri. In the UK, the main organization representing spiritualism is the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) , whose teachings are based on the Seven Principles. Spiritualism first appeared in

8280-521: The Oahspe states "I will have no sect . I will have no creed ". Oahspe speaks of the need for all religions to help the various nations and peoples to rise upward. It also speaks of what it calls "the religion of Gods themselves," in which its adherents have no need for intermediaries such as Saviors and Idols, but who commune directly with, the Creator, the All Person, the collective unconscious of

8418-991: The Past Twenty-Four Thousand Years together with a Synopsis of the Cosmogony of the Universe; the Creation of Planets; the Creation of Man; the Unseen Worlds; the Labor and Glory of Gods and Goddesses in the Etherean Heavens; with the New Commandments of Jehovih to Man of the Present Day. "The Great Spirit", "Ormazd", "Egoquim", "Agoquim", "Eloih", "The I Am", and "Jehovih" are some of the names used throughout Oahspe as

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8556-403: The Rochester rappings. The Night Side of Nature , by Catherine Crowe, published in 1853, provided definitions and accounts of wraiths, doppelgängers, apparitions and haunted houses. Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and haunting as they would any other news story. An account in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1891, "sufficiently bloody to suit the most fastidious taste", tells of

8694-606: The United States, Russia and Poland. Palladino was said by believers to perform spiritualist phenomena in the dark: levitating tables, producing apports, and materializing spirits. On investigation, all these things were found to be products of trickery. The British medium William Eglinton (1857–1933) claimed to perform spiritualist phenomena such as movement of objects and materializations . All of his feats were exposed as tricks. The Bangs Sisters , Mary "May" E. Bangs (1862–1917) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow Bangs (1859–1920), were two spiritualist mediums based in Chicago, who made

8832-422: The Universe. Oahspe purports to describe events in the spirit realms and their corresponding influence on events in the physical world starting from approximately 72,000 years ago, although many of such events are not recorded in the existing human records. The Book of Eskra and the Book of Es, according to Oahspe, are the more recent historical records (as they were recorded in the spirit realms) from 1550 BCE to

8970-464: The afterlife. As an informal movement, spiritualism does not have a defined set of rules, but various spiritualist organizations within the United States have adopted variations on some or all of a "Declaration of Principles" developed between 1899 and 1944. In October 1899, a six article "Declaration of Principles" was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association (NSA) at a convention in Chicago, Illinois. An additional two principles were added by

9108-649: The agency of departed spirits of good and superior men and women". A number of scientists who investigated the phenomenon also became converts. They included chemist and physicist William Crookes (1832–1919), evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) and physicist Sir Oliver Lodge. Nobel laureate Pierre Curie was impressed by the mediumistic performances of Eusapia Palladino and advocated their scientific study. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912) and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). Doyle, who lost his son Kingsley in World War I,

9246-413: The ancient words, symbols and ceremonies. Oahspe contains chronologically-ordered accounts that are cosmological revelations concerning the development of humanity from approximately 78,000 years ago. This also includes a narrative of the genesis of life on earth, from its start as a planet being formed from its beginnings as a comet gathering material as its vortex (subtle envelope) matures till it

9384-455: The beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox , of Hydesville , New York, reported that they had made contact with a spirit that was later claimed to be the spirit of a murdered peddler whose body was found in the house, though no record of such a person was ever found. The spirit was said to have communicated through rapping noises, audible to onlookers. The evidence of the senses appealed to practically minded Americans, and

9522-448: The book was not a sacred text per se , but rather a history of religions going back 24,000 years, and that the first publication of the book came about with the financial assistance of a number of unnamed contributors. The first (1882 edition) publication, as it was originally presented in 1882, contained various glyphs, whose resemblance to real Egyptian hieroglyphs was attested to by Prof. Thomas A. M. Ward, who claimed to have deciphered

9660-450: The charge of blasphemy Jesus replied:) "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" – "Now what is the force of this quotation 'I said ye are gods.' It is from the Asaph Psalm which begins 'Elohim hath taken His place in

9798-400: The conditions within one's own soul, and the better the place awaiting one in heaven. According to Oahspe , when mortals die their spirits continue to live, regardless of who they worshiped, or even whether they disbelieved in an afterlife. The spirit realm becomes their new home, which is called heaven, and the individual spirit is called an angel. There are unorganized heavens close to or on

9936-492: The cyclical variations in heat and light upon the earth. Oahspe presents many illustrations of symbols said to be of ancient languages and of rites and ceremonies. It states the concept that there was an original language called Pan or the Panic Language , meaning "Earth Language," which originated from the ability of humans to mimic sounds. Its Book of Saphah has details on the claimed meanings and roots of many of

10074-460: The early nineteenth century. Spiritualist camp meetings were located most densely in New England, but were also established across the upper Midwest. Cassadaga, Florida , is the most notable spiritualist camp meeting in the southern states. A number of spiritualist periodicals appeared in the nineteenth century, and these did much to hold the movement together. Among the most important were

10212-403: The earth is traveling with the sun and its planets through regions of space in a large circuit of 4,700,000 years, which is divided into sections of 3,000 years average, which also occur within larger cycles of 24,000 years and 72,000 years, and so on. Each of these regions has variations in density and other qualities, and so, engender varying conditions that the Earth encounters. Also, explanation

10350-558: The earth when she summoned the spirit of the Prophet Samuel at Saul's request. The word elohim , in this context, can refer to spirits as well as deities. Some traditional Jewish sources say that the spirits of deceased human beings are being referred to . The Babylonian Talmud states: " olim indicates that there were two of them. One of them was Samuel, but the other, who was he? – Samuel went and brought Moses with him." Rashi gives this interpretation in his commentary on

10488-417: The earth. Also starting there – and linking to the highest heavens – are the organized heavens. Both types of heavens are accessible to mortals. If a portion of heaven lives in a state of chaos and delights in evil, that portion is called hell. An angel must subsist for a season after death somewhere along a continuum of delightful to abysmally wretched conditions. The heavenly place where angels initially live

10626-520: The existence of an afterlife, committed suicide in his apartment by blowing out the pilot light on his heater and turning on the gas. After that date, no further communication from him was received by an associate whom he had recruited for the purpose. The movement quickly spread throughout the world; though only in the United Kingdom did it become as widespread as in the United States. Spiritualist organizations were formed in America and Europe, such as

10764-556: The extended root ʾlh ) is usually derived from a root meaning "to be strong" and/or "to be in front". The word el (singular) is a standard term for "god" in Aramaic, paleo-Hebrew, and other related Semitic languages including Ugaritic. The Canaanite pantheon of gods was known as 'ilhm , the Ugaritic equivalent to elohim . For instance, the Ugaritic Baal Cycle mentions "seventy sons of Asherah ". Each "son of god"

10902-541: The father of spiritualism. The movement developed and reached its largest following from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-speaking countries . It flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums . Many prominent spiritualists were women, and like most spiritualists, supported causes such as

11040-459: The first sentence of Genesis (along with elohim ). Three of them also appear in the first sentence of the Eden creation story (also along with elohim ). Instead of "honorific plural" these other plural nouns terms represent something which is constantly changing. Water, sky, face, life are "things which are never bound to one form". God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among

11178-529: The following verse of Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them"; the singular verb בָּרָא (bārāʾ), meaning "He created" is used as it is elsewhere in all the acts of creation featured in Genesis. This shows us that the actual creation of man (and everything else) in Genesis was a singular act by God alone. Wilhelm Gesenius and other Hebrew grammarians traditionally described this as

11316-559: The goddess of the Sidonians in 1 Kings 11:33), that it came to be concretized from meaning "divinity" to meaning "deity", though still occasionally used adjectivally as "divine". The word elohim or 'elohiym ( ʼĕlôhîym ) is a grammatically plural noun for " gods " or "deities" or various other words in Biblical Hebrew . In Hebrew, the ending -im normally indicates a masculine plural. However, when referring to

11454-488: The gods. ... I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Marti Steussy, in Chalice Introduction to the Old Testament , discusses: "The first verse of Psalm 82: 'Elohim has taken his place in the divine council.' Here elohim has a singular verb and clearly refers to God. But in verse 6 of the Psalm, God says to

11592-557: The grade of humanity, is a 3000-year cycle (average), and it is this cycle around which the books in Oahspe are organized. The first few books of Oahspe lay the groundwork for understanding the nature of the work. This merges into a concise history taking the reader up to the present time, the new era. Separate from the history books are a series of books intended to illume for the reader the requirements of humanity for this day and age. An interesting graphological characteristic of Oahspe

11730-583: The hieroglyphics on the Cleopatra's Needle obelisk in Central Park . Ward was present at Oahspe ' s first presentation, as was Dr. Cetliniski, an Oriental scholar, who affirmed that mere mortals could not have produced such a book and that "supernatural agents" must have been responsible. The first reporter on the book, writing for The New York Times , compared the book's content to a revised fusion of Indian and Semitic religions, and said its style

11868-514: The history of psychic research." The American voice medium Etta Wriedt (1859–1942) was exposed as a fraud by the physicist Kristian Birkeland when he discovered that the noises produced by her trumpet were caused by chemical explosions induced by potassium and water and in other cases by lycopodium powder. Another well-known medium was the Scottish materialization medium Helen Duncan (1897–1956). In 1928 photographer Harvey Metcalfe attended

12006-483: The ladder. Radak agrees that this is a reference to angels but also presents the alternative view that the plural form in the verse is a majestic plural , as seen in other verses such as Psalms 149:2 and Job 35:10 . Elohim can be seen used in reference to the angels in a variety of other cases, such as in Psalms 8:6 and 82:1–6 . Elohim , when meaning the God of Israel, is mostly grammatically singular, and

12144-549: The living . The afterlife, or the " spirit world ", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to interact and evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to the belief that spirits are capable of advising the living on moral and ethical issues and the nature of God . Some spiritualists follow " spirit guides "—specific spirits relied upon for spiritual direction. Emanuel Swedenborg has some claim to be

12282-533: The loss of her son, organized séances in the White House which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln . The surge of Spiritualism during this time, and later during World War I , was a direct response to those massive battlefield casualties. In addition, the movement appealed to reformers, who fortuitously found that the spirits favoured such causes du jour as abolition of slavery, and equal rights for women. It also appealed to some who had

12420-542: The market. He was sued for patent infringement, but when the verdict was handed down in his favor, after he had supposedly consulted with spirits who visited him at dawn, he saw that as confirmation of his spiritual future. The Surrealist poet David Gascoyne at first found the claims of the book ridiculous, but eventually reread it and evaluated it as "the most astonishing book in the English language". Martin Gardner ,

12558-573: The meaning without agreeing with it. Hengstenberg stated that the Hebrew Bible text never uses elohim to refer to "angels", but that the Septuagint translators refused the references to "gods" in the verses they amended to "angels". The Greek New Testament (NT) quotes Psalms 8:4–6 in Hebrews 2:6b-8a, where the Greek NT has ἀγγέλους ( angelous ) in vs. 7, quoting Psalms 8:5 (8:6 in

12696-425: The medieval rabbinic scholar Maimonides ' Jewish angelic hierarchy . Maimonides wrote: "I must premise that every Hebrew [now] knows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries ..." In the Hebrew Bible, 1 Samuel 28:13 , elohim is used with a plural verb. The witch of Endor tells Saul that she saw elohim ascending ( olim עֹלִים , plural verb) out of

12834-576: The mighty assembly. In the midst of the Elohim He is judging. ' " The Hebrew word for "son" is ben ; plural is bānim (with the construct state form being "benei"). The Hebrew term benei elohim ("sons of God" or "sons of the gods") in Genesis 6:2 compares to the use of "sons of gods" (Ugaritic: b'n il ) sons of El in Ugaritic mythology . Karel van der Toorn states that gods can be referred to collectively as bene elim , bene elyon , or bene elohim . The Hebrew Bible uses various names for

12972-405: The more mainstream churches because those churches did little to fight slavery and even less to advance the cause of women's rights . Such links with reform movements, often radically socialist, had already been prepared in the 1840s, as the example of Andrew Jackson Davis shows. After 1848, many socialists became ardent spiritualists or occultists. The most popular trance lecturer prior to

13110-758: The most significant of the camp meetings were Camp Etna, in Etna, Maine ; Onset Bay Grove, in Onset, Massachusetts ; Lily Dale , in western New York State; Camp Chesterfield , in Indiana; the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp , in Wonewoc, Wisconsin ; and Lake Pleasant , in Montague, Massachusetts . In founding camp meetings , the spiritualists appropriated a form developed by U.S. Protestant denominations in

13248-404: The name of the Creator. According to Oahspe, the Creator is both masculine and feminine. Om is one of the names used to refer to the feminine (mother) aspect. Other references include, "The All Person", "The unseen" and "The Everpresent", "The All Light", "The Highest Light". God and Lord are titles of office for a person in the spirit realm who began life as mortal/in corporeal form (spirit within

13386-518: The next day Ellis demanded his money back. Newbrough refused to return the money. Members spent the first winter in adobe huts, and in 1885 began building a 42-room central building, the Fraternum. Children were "'gathered-up' from foundling homes; handed over by police sergeants; and left in Faithist depositories". Newbrough and his wife traveled as far as Kansas City , San Francisco , New Orleans , and Chicago to gather children. The children, from

13524-422: The notion of divinity underwent radical changes in the early period of Israelite identity and development of Ancient Hebrew religion . In this view, the ambiguity of the term elohim is the result of such changes, cast in terms of "vertical translatability", i.e. the re-interpretation of the gods of the earliest recalled period as the national god of monolatrism as it emerged in the 7th to 6th century BCE in

13662-590: The other members of the council, 'You [plural] are elohim.' Here elohim has to mean gods." Mark Smith, referring to this same Psalm, states in God in Translation : "This psalm presents a scene of the gods meeting together in divine council ... Elohim stands in the council of El. Among the elohim he pronounces judgment: ..." In Hulsean Lectures for... , H. M. Stephenson discussed Jesus' argument in John 10:34-36 9 concerning Psalm 82:6-7 . (In answer to

13800-598: The physical and the spiritual realms, whose name before birth is said to be Jehovah . In the belief system held by the Christian churches that adhere to the Latter Day Saint movement and most Mormon denominations , including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the term God refers to Elohim (the Eternal Father), whereas Godhead means a council of three distinct gods: Elohim (God

13938-601: The plural of majesty, not of number...to the Latter-day Saint it signifies both." The new religious movement and UFO religion International Raëlian Movement , founded by the French journalist Claude Vorilhon (who later became known as "Raël") in 1974, claims that the Hebrew word Elohim from the Book of Genesis actually means “those who came from the sky” and refers to a species of extraterrestrial aliens . In

14076-482: The possibility of communication with the spirits of dead people, whom they regard as "discarnate humans". They believe that spirit mediums are gifted to carry on such communication, but that anyone may become a medium through study and practice. They believe that spirits are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through higher spheres or planes, and that the afterlife is not a static state, but one in which spirits evolve. The two beliefs—that contact with spirits

14214-466: The practitioners who lectured in mid-19th-century North America sought to entertain their audiences as well as to demonstrate methods for personal contact with the divine. Perhaps the best known of those who combined Swedenborg and Mesmer in a peculiarly North American synthesis was Andrew Jackson Davis , who called his system the "harmonial philosophy". Davis was a practising Mesmerist , faith healer and clairvoyant from Blooming Grove, New York . He

14352-486: The publicity of fraud accusations and partly through the appeal of religious movements such as Christian science , the Spiritualist Church was organised. This church can claim to be the main vestige of the movement left today in the United States. London-born Emma Hardinge Britten (1823–99) moved to the United States in 1855 and was active in spiritualist circles as a trance lecturer and organiser. She

14490-423: The ranks of its adherents were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many families during the time of the American Civil War had seen their men go off and never return, and images of the battlefield, produced through the new medium of photography, demonstrated that their loved ones had not only died in overwhelmingly huge numbers, but horribly as well. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving

14628-1194: The repeated failure of crops, the lack of markets for the crops they did produce, and the frequent flooding of the Rio Grande ; Newbrough's wife, Francis van de Water Sweet, had married Howland in 1893 "to put an end to malicious gossip" but the cost of maintaining the colony proved too high. In 1901, the colony folded, and the children were sent to orphanages in Dallas and Denver . Numerous publications have been inspired by Oahspe , incorporating text and ideas from it, as well as reinterpretations, condensed and abridged versions. Many of these publications were from: The Essenes of Kosmon, Montrose, Colorado; Kosmon Press, London; Palmer Publications, Amherst, Wisconsin; Universal Faithists of Kosmon, Salt Lake City, Utah; Kosmon Publishing Inc., Kingman, Arizona; The Eloists, Massachusetts; Four Winds Village, Tiger, Georgia. 2009 Edition of Oahspe Seven Books of Spiritual Wisdom https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24615840M/Oahspe_Seven_Books_of_Spiritual_Wisdom 1998 Edition of Oahspe https://openlibrary.org/books/OL400274M/Oahspe John Ballou Newbrough

14766-525: The result of geographical origins; the P and E sources coming from the North and J from the South. There may be a theological point, that God did not reveal his name, Yahweh , before the time of Moses , though Hans Heinrich Schmid showed that the Jahwist was aware of the prophetic books from the 7th and 8th centuries BCE. The Jahwist source presents Yahweh anthropomorphically : for example, walking through

14904-522: The singular Aramaic עֶלְיוֹנִין the Most High , Daniel 7:18 , 7:22 , 7:25 ); and probably תְּרָפִים ( teraphim ) (usually taken in the sense of penates ), the image of a god, used especially for obtaining oracles. Certainly in 1 Samuel 19:13 , 19:16 only one image is intended; in most other places a single image may be intended; in Zechariah 10:2 alone is it most naturally taken as

15042-508: The subject, called the Book of Cosmogony and Prophecy , but a general overview can be read in the Book of Jehovih . Also, many examples and edifications are sprinkled throughout Oahspe . Other related subjects include physics and an integrating treatment of gravity, light, electricity, magnetism, heat, weather phenomenon, subtle planetary envelopes (called vortices) that respond to conditions beyond its boundaries and more. Vortex motion of planets

15180-406: The term Elohim in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for Deity, is distinct from generic usage as elohim , "gods" (plural, simple noun). Rabbinic scholar Maimonides wrote that Elohim "Divinity" and elohim "gods" are commonly understood to be homonyms . One modern theory suggests that

15318-408: The text of Oahspe contains separate sections or "books" such as the Book of Cpenta-Armij, Daughter of Jehovih , and also includes familiar names from non- Abrahamic religions , as in the Book of Apollo and Book of Thor , named as Sons of Jehovih. Each of these Chiefs, Chieftainesses, Gods and Goddesses are only advanced angels according to Oahspe . And every angel, regardless of rank or office,

15456-717: The theories of evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century. Broadly speaking the concept of evolution fitted the spiritualist thought of the progressive development of humanity. At the same time, however, the belief in the animal origins of humanity threatened the foundation of the immortality of the spirit , for if humans had not been created by God, it was scarcely plausible that they would be specially endowed with spirits. This led to spiritualists embracing spiritual evolution . The spiritualists' view of evolution did not stop at death. Spiritualism taught that after death spirits progressed to spiritual states in new spheres of existence. According to spiritualists, evolution occurred in

15594-474: The time Oahspe was transcribed in 1880 CE. The Book of God's Word teaches the record of Zarathustra and dates his time on earth at 9000 years ago. Oahspe gives details, including maps, about lost lands and new lands, particularly a large sunken continent called Pan or Whaga that once filled much of the Pacific Ocean. It also puts forward explanations on the causes of rapid loss or gain of fertility,

15732-422: The two girls into their home in the late spring of 1848. Immediately convinced of the veracity of the sisters' communications, they became early converts and introduced the young mediums to their circle of radical Quaker friends. Consequently, many early participants in spiritualism were radical Quakers and others involved in the mid-nineteenth-century reforming movement . These reformers were uncomfortable with

15870-595: The verse. Regarding this, Sforno states that "every disembodied creature is known as elohim; this includes the soul of human beings known as [the] 'Image of God'." In Genesis 20:13 , Abraham , before the polytheistic Philistine king Abimelech , says that "Elohim (translated as 'God') caused ( התעו , plural verb) me to wander". Whereas the Greek Septuagint (LXX) has a singular verb form (ἐξήγαγε(ν), aorist II), most English versions usually translate this as "God caused" (which does not distinguish between

16008-471: The visible, audible, and tangible evidence of spirits escalated as mediums competed for paying audiences. As independent investigating commissions repeatedly established, most notably the 1887 report of the Seybert Commission , fraud was widespread, and some of these cases were prosecuted in the courts. Despite numerous instances of chicanery, the appeal of spiritualism was strong. Prominent in

16146-777: The weeklies the Banner of Light (Boston), the Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), Mind and Matter (Philadelphia), the Spiritualist (London), and the Medium (London). Other influential periodicals were the Revue Spirite (France), Le Messager (Belgium), Annali dello Spiritismo (Italy), El Criterio Espiritista (Spain), and the Harbinger of Light (Australia). By 1880, there were about three dozen monthly spiritualist periodicals published around

16284-409: The word eloah and refers to the polytheistic notion of multiple gods (for example, Exodus 20:3 , "You shall have no other gods before me"). The word Elohim occurs more than two thousand five hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, with meanings ranging from "gods" in a general sense (as in Exodus 12:12 , where it describes "the gods of Egypt"), to specific gods (the frequent references to Yahweh as

16422-595: The word is "holy". An alternative view (held by Onkelos , Bahya ben Asher , Jacob ben Asher , Sforno , and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg ) is that the word means "gods" and the verse means that Abraham's distaste for the idolatry of his father Terah led him to decide to wander far from home. Others, such as Chizkuni , interpret elohim as a reference to wicked rulers like Amraphel (often equated with Nimrod ). In Genesis 35:7 , Jacob builds an altar at El-Bethel "because there elohim revealed himself [plural verb] to [Jacob]". The verb niglu ("revealed himself")

16560-482: The world. These periodicals differed a great deal from one another, reflecting the great differences among spiritualists. Some, such as the British Spiritual Magazine were Christian and conservative, openly rejecting the reform currents so strong within spiritualism. Others, such as Human Nature , were pointedly non-Christian and supportive of socialism and reform efforts. Still others, such as

16698-445: The writing was done automatically; he had been a spiritualist since the early 1870s. On at least two occasions Newbrough wrote publicly about how the Oahspe came about through automatic writing. A letter published in the Banner of Light (a 19th-century Spiritualist newspaper), and an Addendum in the 1882 Edition republished by Raymond A. Palmer in 1972. Both accounts, written in the first person, indicate that Newbrough sat at

16836-409: The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and the teachings of Franz Mesmer (1734–1815) provided an example for those seeking direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with spirits while awake, described the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view particularly resonated with the early spiritualists: first, that there is not a single Hell and

16974-532: Was "in one place modern, and in another ancient, and the English of the King James version of the Christian Bible is mixed in with the English of today's." Oahspe emphasized service to others; each person is graded according to service to others. Each individual, group and nation is either in ascension or descension; sooner or later, all ascend, rising in grade. The higher one's grade, the better are

17112-473: Was also a member of the Ghost Club . Founded in London in 1862, its focus was the scientific study of alleged paranormal activities in order to prove (or refute) the existence of paranormal phenomena. Members of the club included Charles Dickens , Sir William Crookes, Sir William F. Barrett , and Harry Price . The Paris séances of Eusapia Palladino were attended by an enthusiastic Pierre Curie and

17250-428: Was also strongly influenced by the socialist theories of Fourierism . His 1847 book, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind , dictated to a friend while in a trance state, eventually became the nearest thing to a canonical work in a spiritualist movement whose extreme individualism precluded the development of a single coherent worldview. Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as

17388-580: Was born on 5 June 1828 near Mohicanville, Ohio , in a log cabin. His father, William Newbrough, was an Englishman who had attended the College of William & Mary ; his mother, Elizabeth Polsky, was Swiss and attracted to spiritualism . Their son was named for the universalist clergyman Hosea Ballou . Newbrough's father was a stern man, flogging his son when the latter "began to receive spirit messages"; his schooling (he went to high school in Cleveland )

17526-421: Was built a half a mile away from Shalam; called Levitica, it was founded for people who were not particularly followers of Oahspe teachings but needed a place to live. Levitica was designed in a less communal fashion, and inhabitants lived in more isolated homes. This arrangement also soon failed due to various factors including non-participation. Apparently, the colony was not a viable financial enterprise, due to

17664-433: Was extremely individualistic, with each person relying on his or her own experiences and reading to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organisation was therefore slow to appear, and when it did it was resisted by mediums and trance lecturers. Most members were content to attend Christian churches, and particularly universalist churches harboured many spiritualists. As the spiritualism movement began to fade, partly through

17802-576: Was formed in Las Cruces, New Mexico , in 1884, as a commune in which members would live peaceful, vegetarian lifestyles, and where orphaned urban children were to be raised. The commune was decided upon after a convention at Pearl River, New York, in November 1883, and was founded with the financial help of Andrew Howland. Newbrough raised money as well. He charged James Ellis $ 10,000 to join Shalam, and

17940-409: Was held to be the originating deity for a particular people ( KTU 2 1.4.VI.46). Elohim occurs frequently throughout the Torah. In some cases (e.g., Exodus 3:4 , " Elohim called unto him out of the midst of the bush ..."), it behaves like a singular noun in Hebrew grammar and is then generally understood to denote the single God of Israel. In other cases, elohim acts as an ordinary plural of

18078-532: Was known as Cora Hatch. Another spiritualist was Achsa W. Sprague , who was born November 17, 1827, in Plymouth Notch , Vermont. At the age of 20, she became ill with rheumatic fever and credited her eventual recovery to intercession by spirits. An extremely popular trance lecturer, she traveled about the United States until her death in 1861. Sprague was an abolitionist and an advocate of women's rights. Another spiritualist and trance medium prior to

18216-636: Was once a mortal, either from this planet earth or from some other planet in the universe. Soon after its publication, a number of groups/lodges formed in response to Oahspe . In New York City, the Oahspe Faithists met as early as 1883 in the Utah Hall (25th Street and 8th Avenue) with members only attending services. A first colony based on the book's principles was founded in 1882 by Newbrough in Woodside Township, New Jersey , but

18354-409: Was originally proposed by philosopher and mathematician René Descartes in the early 17th century, and was not a new scientific theory as Oahspe claims. Unfortunately for Descartes and Oahspe , vortex motion of planets was superseded by the scientific work of Isaac Newton . The text describes cyclical events that occur within a range of greater and smaller cycles. For instance, according to Oahspe ,

18492-564: Was paid for by his mother and him selling wool and eggs. He graduated from Cincinnati Medical College , but being highly sensitive to pain and suffering he chose dentistry , setting up practice first in Dayton , then Cincinnati, and then New York City . He ran into trouble with the Goodyear Rubber Company after he developed a much cheaper compound to set teeth in dental plates than the one produced by Goodyear, which dominated

18630-620: Was relocated five months later to a property in Pearl River New York State . It was from the Pearl River location that Newbrough and a number of Faithists and orphaned children went to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they founded the Shalam Colony in 1884. The Shalam Colony continued to exist until 1901, although Newbrough died in 1891 during a severe influenza epidemic . The Shalam Colony, or Land of Shalam,

18768-412: Was revealed to contain "many factual errors and unfulfilled prophecies." In modern times it has been stated "Newbrough was possibly the first to use the word ' star-ship '." Spiritualism (movement) Spiritualism is a social religious movement popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by

18906-436: Was said to describe conditions in the spirit world. However, Frank Podmore was skeptical of his alleged ability to communicate with spirits and Joseph McCabe described Moses as a "deliberate impostor", suggesting his apports and all of his feats were the result of trickery. Eusapia Palladino (1854–1918) was an Italian spiritualist medium from the slums of Naples who made a career touring Italy, France, Germany, Britain,

19044-518: Was thus the result of combining white guilt and fear of divine judgment with a new sense of purpose and responsibility. In the years following the sensation that greeted the Fox sisters, demonstrations of mediumship (séances and automatic writing , for example) proved to be a profitable venture, and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Fox sisters earned a living this way and others followed their lead. Showmanship became an increasingly important part of spiritualism, and

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