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Oahspe

Oahspe, Public Domain Image

 


Oahspe is a book written in 1880 by an American dentist named John Ballou Newbrough [1828-1891]. He claimed that it was the result of automatic writing, dictated to him by spirits in a trance. In this trance he wrote the entire book on a very early typewriter (possibly the first such book ever written on a machine!). The spirits were very profilic; Oahspe is about four-fifths the size of the King James Bible, and more than twice the size of the Book of Mormon. Other texts archived at Sacred-texts authored via automatic writing during the 19th century include the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, and Clothed with the Sun.

Oahspe appeared in the context of the Spiritualist movement, the Victorian predecessor of the “New Age” channelling and past life regressions. It has similarities to Theosophy, and, strangely enough, to the rumored science-fiction Scientology mythology (which, of course, has no relationship whatsoever to Oahspe or its adherents). Oahspe inspired a radically different set of spiritual beliefs, called Faithism which has a small following even today. The Faithists do not consider Oahspe the literal truth; instead they find inspiration in its many ethical and spiritual passages.


 Oahspe, A Kosmon Bible in the Words of Jehovih and his Angel Embassadors
by John Ballou Newbrough [1882]
(based on 3rd edition of 1912)
The full text of Oahspe.

 Book of Knowledge
There is even Oahspe apocrypha. This book, not part of the first or third edition, was found in the original proof sheets.

 The Origin of Oahspe “Issued for the Confraternity of Faithists by the Kosmon Press” [date unknown]
The text of a very rare short pamphlet about Oahspe which was written by the Faithist organization. The text was scanned by Joe Hirst and donated to sacred-texts.

For another etext of Oahspe and links to other Faithist sites, see this site.