THE ORIGIN OF OAHSPE
In view of the numerous enquiries which reach the Kosmon Press regarding the origin of OAHSPE the following brief account of how the work came to be written and published is offered to the public.
The teachings contained in the volume were communicated from the interior planes through an American medium, J. B. Newbrough (1828-1891). From the testimony of those who knew him while on earth he appears to have been a man of exceptional moral character who possessed also the most remarkable powers in the direction of inspiration and clairvoyance. The exercise of these faculties over many years culminated in 1881 in his becoming the instrument through which OAHSPE was communicated to the world. Fortunately enough in a letter addressed to The Banner of Light, Boston, in 1883 he himself has given a detailed account of the origin of the book so that it will be sufficient here to reproduce his original words :-
New York.
January 21st, 1883.To the Editor of
The Banner of Light,
Boston, Mass.Dear Sir,
In compliance with your request that I furnish for publication a brief article in regard to the writing of Oahspe, the new bible, I cheerfully proceed to do so.
You have observed, no doubt, that in Oahspe no mention is made of the manner in which the book was written, nor by whom. Well, was it not plain to anybody acquainted with such matters, that any statement on my part would not be believed by persons unacquainted with spiritual manifestations? And had I said that I myself wrote it, my own acquaintances would have known better. Had I said that the angels wrote it through my hands, then I would have been denounced as a pretender. Again, if a book have merit, what matters it as to who wrote it? And if it have no merit, then certainly it does not matter whence it came. The time has been when the name of an author clothed his product with some sort of authority. I rejoice that that day is past; that man-worship is at an end, and that all books, including Bibles, are perused not as authorities, but as pastimes, to lead us nearer and nearer to the Everlasting Light. And if a man turn out a good book, I accord him little more credit than I would a ripe apple for being on the sunny side of the tree. But I rejoice most of all because our Heavenly Father, through his angels co-operating with our forefathers, provided us a government that protects us in publishing our highest conceptions, regardless of creeds or dogmas. Why, to-day we have Protestant preachers in their pulpits denying the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, and only in the slightest possible degree less than Thomas Paine. They begin to judge so-called sacred books according to what they are, and not by a supposed authority. This is progress, undoubtedly.
On reflecting on these things, it was concluded to publish the first edition of Oahspe without any reference to its authorship. No attempt has been made to conceal the method in which, it was written, but most of the particulars have been told from time to time to inquiring friends.
Briefly, then, Oahspe was mechanically written through my hands by some other intelligence than my own. Many spiritualists are acquainted with this automatic movement of the hands, independent of one's volition. There are thousands and thousands of persons who have this quality. It can also be educated, or rather, the susceptibility to external power can be increased. In my own case I discovered, many years ago, in sitting in circles to obtain spiritual manifestations, that my hands could not lie on the table without flying off into these "tantrums." Often they would write messages, left or right, back- ward or forward, nor could I control them in any other way than by withdrawing from the table. Sometimes the power thus baffled would attack my tongue, or my eyes, or my ears, and I talked and saw and heard differently from my normal state. Then I went to work in earnest to investigate spiritualism, and I investigated over two hundred mediums, travelling hundreds and hundreds of miles for this purpose. Often I took them to my own house and experimented with them to my heart's content. I found that nearly all of them were subject to this involuntary movement of the hands, or to entrancement. They told me it was angels controlling them. In course of time, about ten or fifteen years, I began to believe in spiritualism. But I was not satisfied with the communications; I was craving for the light of heaven. I did not desire communications from friends or relatives, or information about earthly things; I wished to learn something about the spirit-world; what the angels did, how they travelled, and the general plan of the universe. So, after awhile I took it into my head that wise and exalted angels would commune better with us if we purified ourselves physically and spiritually. Then I gave up eating flesh and fish, milk and butter, and took to rising before day, bathing twice a day, and occupying a small room alone, where I sat every morning half-an-hour before sunrise, recounting daily to my Creator my shortcomings in governing myself in thought and deed. In six years' training I reduced myself from two hundred and fifty pounds down to one hundred and eighty; my rheumatism was all gone, and I had no more headaches. I became limber and sprightly. A new lease of life came to me.
Then a new condition of control came upon my hands; instead of the angels holding my hands as formerly, they held their hands over my head (and they were clothed with sufficient materiality for me to see them) and a light fell upon my hands as they lay on the table. In the meantime I had attained to hear audible angel voices near me. I was directed to get a typewriter, which writes by keys, like a piano. This I did, and I applied myself industriously to learn 'it, but with only indifferent success. For two years more the angels propounded to me questions relative to heaven and earth, which no mortal could answer very intelligently. I always look back on those two years as an enigma. Perhaps it was to show me that man is but an ignoramus at best; perhaps I was waiting for constitutional growth to be good. Well, one morning the light struck both my hands on the back, and they went for the typewriter, for some fifteen minutes, very vigorously. I was told not to read what was printed, and I had worked myself into such a religious fear of losing this new power that I obeyed reverently. The next morning, also before sunrise, the same power came and wrote (or printed rather) again. Again I laid the matter away very religiously, saying little about it to anybody. One morning I accidentally (seemed accidental to me) looked out of the window and beheld the line of light that rested on my hands extending heavenward like a. telegraph wire towards the sky. Over my head were three pairs of hands, fully materialised; behind me stood another angel, with her hands on my shoulders. My looking did not disturb the scene; my hands kept right on, printing . . . printing.
For fifty weeks this continued, every morning half-an-hour or so before sunrise, and then it ceased, and I was told to read and publish the book Oahspe. The peculiar drawings in Oahspe were made with pencil in the same way. A few of the drawings I was told to copy from other books, such as Saturn, the Egyptian ceremonies, etc.
Now during all the while I have pursued my vocation (dentistry) nor has this matter nor my diet (vegetables, fruit and farinaceous food) detracted any from my health or strength, although I have continued this discipline for upwards of ten or more years. I am firmly convinced that there are numberless persons who might attain to marvellous development if they would thus train themselves. A strict integrity to one's highest light is essential to development. Self-abnegation and purity should be the motto and discipline of every one capable of angel communion.
Yours truly,
J. B. NEWBROUGH.
Newbrough immediately printed and published the manuscript, the first edition of the work, a folio, being issued in New York and London in 1882. A second edition, a quarto, and cheaper in price, was published in Boston and London in 1891. This contained in addition, a series of reproductions of paintings of great spiritual teachers made by the author when in the trance state. They were not, however, an integral part of the original work.
Half a century later in 1936 the Kosmon Press in California acquired a number of sheets of this imprint (including two important pages which for some reason were not included therein) and issued a new edition, which is now obtainable in America and England.
The first cheap edition was one which was printed privately in England in 1912, but which is now no longer in circulation. It may be identified through the fact that the plates are all bound together at the end of the volume.
Almost at the same time there appeared the first English edition (also at a low price) issued by the Kosmon Press in London. A revised edition was published in London, Sydney and Melbourne in 1926.
As to the original manuscript of OAHSPE, from which all these editions ultimately take their authority, for some time after Newbrough's death this was kept in the basement of a house in El Paso, Texas, until it was ultimately destroyed by a flood. Although this happening may appear to be unfortunate from the point of view of the scholar and the archaeologist it is clear also that there was thereby avoided all danger that authority should come to be vested in a historical document rather than in that interior light of the soul in which OAHSPE itself teaches man to place his trust.
It appears, however, that the destruction) of the manuscript took place only when its correspondence with the printed version had already been carefully established. In the Preface to the second edition it is stated that although certain errors had crept into the first edition they had been thoroughly eliminated by comparison with the original, which was then (1891) still in existence. As Newbrough died the same year in April it is just possible that he himself was able to undertake the task before he passed over.
With regard to the contents of this extraordinary book, it will suffice here to say that it contains detailed teachings regarding the Creator and His relation to Man and the Universe; the history of the earth and its heavens for the past 24,000 years; the principles of cosmogony and cosmology, embracing a completely revolutionary conception of physics; the nature of the angelic worlds and their relation to the earth; the origin of man and his path onwards and upwards during life and after death towards spiritual emancipation; the principles of an enlightened morality; the lost keys to all the different religious doctrines and symbols in the world; the history of the great teachers who have been sent to humanity in different cycles; the character of the civilisation which will supersede that in which we are at present living; and a mass of remarkable teachings regarding metaphysics, rites and ceremonies, magic, prophecy and the like.
Like all Bibles OAHSPE is so conceived that it can profitably be read on every level. The simple may find set forth therein that which they need to know, while the philosopher, the mystic and the esotericist will never exhaust the profundity of its more recondite pages.
Publications of
THE KOSMON PRESS
39, Chestnut Road, West Norwood, London, S.E.27.
OAHSPE : A NEW REVELATION FOR THE KOSMON ERA.
Crown qto. Large type 21/-, post free.
Crown oct. 12/6 and 8/6, post free.
905 + xiv pp. Numerous plates.
THE LIGHT OF KOSMON
Five books (112 pp.) from Oahspe, embodying some of its most
fundamental teachings. 9d., post free.
LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERSISTENCE
A constructive examination of present-day spiritual thought.
Demy 8w. 62 pp. 2/6 and 1/6, post free.
THE CONFRATERNITY OF FAITHISTS AND THE
KOSMON CHURCH
A brief explanation of Faithist Aims and Ideals.
16 pp. 6d., post free.
THE WONDER BOOK- "OAHSPE"
A radio message from Station 2 GB, Sydney, N.S.W.
Reprinted from an Australian Magazine, l^d., post ITCP.
THE ESSENIAN COMMUNION
An epitome of several addresses on Angel Communion, delivered in
Kosmon Church, London. Ud., post free.
THE ORIGIN OF OAHSPE
A brief account of how the book came to be written, l^d., post free.
Issued for the Confraternity of Faithists by the
Kosmon Press, 39, Chestnut Road, IT. Norwood, S.E.27.
-
Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
-
Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
-
Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
-
Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
-
Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
-
Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
-
Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
-
Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.