Oahspe's Genesis and First Presentation
Oahspe (the word means "sky, earth (corpor) and spirit. The all; the sum of corporeal and spiritual knowledge as at present") was published in 1882.
Dr. Newbrough had started writing the book in 1880 and stated that the writing was done automatically; he had been a spiritualist since the early 1870s. Not all details about his automatic writing are clear; an article in The New York Times has 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, the text contains symbols resembling hieroglyphs, presumably drawn. However, in a leaflet accompanying the book (such as it was received in New Zealand in 1895), Newbrough claims it was written using a typewriter.
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. Newbrough claimed that the book was not a sacred text per se, but rather a history of religions going back 24,000 years; Newbrough did not claim any knowledge of ancient religions. He published the book with the financial assistance, he claims, of a number of unnamed contributors.
Read more about this topic: Oahspe: A New Bible
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