Messages from the Superior State; Communicated by John Murray through John M. Spear in the Summer of 1852. Containing Important Instructions to the Inhabitants of the Earth. Carefully Prepared for Publication with a Sketch of the Author's Earthly Life and a Brief Description of the Spiritual Experience of the Medium
1852réf. 2094Boston: Bela Marsh 1852. First Edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. i-v vi-viii 9-167 pages. Bound in dark brown cloth over boards with gilt-stamped spine title blind-embossed ornamentation to spine and boards pale yellow endpapers. Minor extremity wear including shallow bumps to fore corners and spine ends slight chipping at spine ends. Overall near fine. Frontispiece engraving of Murray. Foundational American Spiritualist work in which John Murray Spear purports to reveal messages received from the spirit of Universalist pioneer and Spear's namesake John Murray. A blend of biographical sketch spiritual philosophy and early trance‑medium testimony this book captures the moment when American Spiritualism was crystallizing in the wake of the Fox Sisters' widely publicized manifestations of 1848. This volume represents the theological and mediumistic groundwork for Spear's later attempt to build the "New Motive Power" a spirit‑directed perpetual‑motion machine intended as a mechanical messiah. An unnamed woman ritualistically birthed the contraption in an attempt to give it life. This failed to have the desired effect and the machine was later destroyed by hostile local Spiritualists how feared Spear's actions would discredit the movement. Bela Marsh unknown
