Nearly One Million Words In Two Volumes. Text Reset For Clarity. Illustrations Added.

WHAT IS IT? Probably the best way to describe Oahspe is in the words of the book itself: A sacred history of the dominions of the higher and lower heavens on the Earth for the past 24,000 years, beginning with the submersion of the continent of Pan in the Pacific Ocean, commonly called the Flood or Deluge, to the Kosmon (present) Era. Also a brief history of the preceding 55,000 years, together with a cosmogony of the Universe, the creation of the 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 Jehovah to man of the present day.

WHAT DOES IT CONTAIN? Oahspe is best described as The Complete Book of The Cosmos and it might easily have been written by today s space scientists! Much of the science in OAHSPE has only recently been discovered. Newbrough could not have guessed so rightly, especially in the face of all the authorities of his day. Today space satellites are discovering how it is out in space, while in 1882 OAHSPE contained the same information! For instance, the now famous Van Allen radiation belts complete as to nature and height! The scientific reader is overwhelmed by the science of OAHSPE.

Do you think flying saucers are new? Then read OAHSPE! A whole panorama of aerial and space vessels are described as though from today s newspapers. Do you wonder at Einstein s theories? Then read OAHSPE! He could have gotten his information there! Uncounted thousands of tons of meteorites fall to Earth each day, yet space is nearly empty of them. OAHSPE knew it in 1882! Space is dark, say our daring astronauts. So did OAHSPE in 1882, and tells us why! Archaeologists have made amazing discoveries of ancient races and dead cities and civilizations since 1882. They might have discovered them sooner had they read OAHSPE. Ancient languages are described in OAHSPE.

Just where is Heaven? What do you do there? Is there anything for YOU to do when you get there - what kind of occupation? Is there really a hell? Who manages the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe - and how? How do the different religions fit into God's one Universe? OAHSPE tells all this, and a thousand more answers to man's most difficult questions.

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The linen winding sheet that is the Turin Shroud bears the faint image of a man (both front and back) said to be Jesus Christ and was allegedly used to wrap His body when, after His eventual death on the hill of Calvary, he was washed and laid out in the nearby unoccupied tomb of His uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. The fourteen-foot long piece of new linen cloth was all that remained after his body was found to have mysteriously vanished from the tomb. The morning after his burial, his mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene went to visit the tomb and found the rock covering the entrance had already been rolled back, and a stranger, who was present in the tomb, told the two women that Christ had returned to God his father.

The women claimed that the stranger was an angel. Whether or not this is true is almost secondary to the existence of the Shroud, it is however a rather neat way to tidy up any loose ends and is one sure way to explain the disappearance of the body. It also created a precedent for notions such as the already mentioned 'Rapture', when true believers and evangelical Christians will be whisked off their feet and lifted bodily into heaven, or possibly even a spaceship Among the many suggestions made is that, the dualist belief aside, Christ did not die on the cross and made his escape with the assistance of friends and the burial was a ruse, or, he did die and the body was simply removed elsewhere.

The reason for its removal would have been entirely pragmatic from the Roman perspective, because as long as the body was accessible then it might be used to foment further unrest. It was for similar reasons that the bodies of Adolph Hitler and also Eva Peron were never allowed to fall into the hands of sympathisers. It has, however, been argued that the story of Jesus' burial is entirely fictitious, because, as a rule, the Romans denied anyone who had been crucified the dignity of a decent and dignified burial. Since crucifixion was, after all, their most severe form of execution reserved for the worst offenders they considered that anyone whose behaviour had, in their view, merited such a punishment did not deserve any respect at all. As a result of this, bodies removed from the cross were normally thrown into a mass grave or pit. If Jesus did escape this fate, then it indicates that either his supporters wielded considerable influence, or he was not dead.

The winding sheet itself first appeared in the public domain when, in 1347, it was displayed in a church in the town of Liray in France. The Shroud had previously been in the charge of the de-Charney family, although there is no explanation of how it came into their possession. Due to the nature of this relic it might be more appropriate to refer to those who possess this artefact as its guardians rather its than owners, this may become relevant as we consider some of the possibilities. A few months after its initial exposition, the bishop of Troyes unequivocally declared it to be a painting and obviously a fake and ordered its destruction. However, for some reason the shroud was not destroyed and stayed hidden with the de-Charney family until circa 1453 when it came under the protection of the Savoy family after being sold, or perhaps bartered would be a better term, for two castles from Duke Louis of Savoy, who, interestingly, was the son of Pope Felix V.

The Savoy's, who still actually retain the legal stewardship/ownership of the shroud, after some consultations and negotiations decided to have it kept in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin where it lies in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud. As most people will be well aware this piece of fabric bears a unique image, both back and front, of the body that it covered, the image is assumed to be that of Jesus Christ. It should be made clear that religions, all religions, like nothing better that relics of their key figures for the purely pragmatic reason that it strengthens belief, and there is no more important a figurehead for Christianity than Jesus Christ.

On the other hand we should keep in mind that at the time when the shroud first appeared superstition was rife and there was a huge and lucrative market in relics and if there was no solid evidence of Christ, then any sliver of wood from the Middle East could be declared as a piece of the 'true cross', or a strand of bramble a part of the crown of thorns. Other than that, and of course multitudes of biblical texts, there is absolutely no remaining physical proof that he ever existed. From this basis it is obvious why the Church should now view the shroud as such a vital element in the canon of evidence offered for public consumption.

Due to the nature of this artefact, proof of its authenticity is vital and there have been no shortage of individuals and organisations eager to, by turns, either prove or disprove its validity. There have been many competing theories and techniques employed in this process, each one making claim and counterclaim as to the authenticity of the cloth and in particular the identity of the image. The tests include microscopic inspection of the cloth, carbon dating and possible DNA profiling of the blood flows from the crucifixion wounds left on the cloth.

Some claim that it is indeed that of the crucified Christ, somehow miraculously imprinted on the virgin material, others aver that it is, in fact, nothing else but a photographic image of Leonardo da Vinci, citing the fact that there is a clear demarcation between the head and the body, then demonstrating that the face is identical to that of certain portraits of Leonardo. I have actually been privileged to witness this technique demonstrated using computers and 'morphing' technology, the match between Leonardo's face and the shroud image is startling. We shall return to the physical appearance of Christ and the issues this raised later.

Although the carbon 14 dating technique employed in 1989 established that the shroud dates from around 1260 to 1380, evidence from the pro-shroud camp has since emerged stating that these tests were flawed and conducted on sections of the shroud that had been repaired in 1534 using material from that era. Although feasible, it sees unlikely that those who took the samples should have done this since they must have been well aware that the repaired sections were of a different date. The only way that this could have happened was if those supervising the removal of the samples had an agenda and wanted it to happen. It is certain that those who are convinced of the shroud's authenticity would have ensured that the main body of the material was sampled.

The image itself has to be contentious since, as we have seen earlier, no one knows with any degree of certainty what Christ actually looked like and the face on The Veil of Veronica looks nothing like the face on the shroud. In fact recent forensic tests using cutting edge techniques which compare points on the eye sockets, nose and lips, indicated that the faces are not of representations of the same person. What is however of supreme importance is how the image on the shroud was produced, and if, as has been suggested in some quarters, the image was produced by a burst of 'radiation', then we are bordering on the edge of a highly advanced technology. Where it becomes problematic is whether this technology was science based or 'miraculous', because in some cases there is no difference except, as always, in the context.

If the image was formed by a mysterious surge of radiation where did it come from? Did it appear due to some miraculous/magical act orchestrated and initiated by God? Because if it did, then if we could determine the source and kind of radiation it was then we are indeed on the way to unravelling at least some of the secrets of the universe, we may even be able to catch a glimpse into God's laboratory. If on the other hand the radiation was not from God, but from a much more earthly, but still remarkable source, then who might have been behind it?

The Knights Templar have been suggested as a possibility and certainly had the money, resources, knowledge and ambition to carry out such a project, but would they have had the patience? We have already seen how modern forensic techniques were used to compare two images ostensibly showing the face of Jesus, but the technology does not stop there. Using computer scanning and imaging techniques a complete three-dimensional image had been created showing a life-like reproduction of the shroud image. So far this is confined to the memory banks of a computer, but it would not be difficult to create a full sized life model of the body.

This, however, brings us back to the physical appearance of Jesus and how he is typically presented to the public both by implication, painted representations and in films and television. He has been portrayed as tall, Aryan, blue eyed, slender, sometimes fair-haired, sometimes dark-haired, but always as physically appealing. In fact there is almost no direct reference to either his stature or his facial appearance. What we do have is an account by the early historian, Josephus Flavius, who was born in 37 AD four years after the crucifixion, and whose version of the life of Christ may be more unbiased than later Christian writers, who, for obvious reasons, would have added their own 'spin' to events. From this it is easy to see that the modern machinations of political spin-doctors an ancient art. According to Josephus, Jesus was long faced, had connate (joined) eyebrows and was 'crooked' i.e. he was a hunchback, and had 'goodly eyes', whatever that means.

This information came from an official document called the 'Acta Pilata' recording the trial of Jesus. The name of this document appears to infer that it gives an account of actions sanctioned by local governor, Pilate, which is typical of the thoroughness of the Roman civil service in keeping records and it was also a trait shared by the Nazi Party during the Second World War. Other accounts of the time add that, not surprisingly since he was of Semitic stock, Jesus had dark skin, was quite small, had his hair in a centre parting, which was a style favoured by the Nazirites, and had sparse beard.

To make matters even more confusing, according to Talmudic sources he was also known as Baalam the Lame. As you can see this is a far cry from the acceptable figure that popular and ecclesiastical culture both portrays and accepts as the norm. In itself this is not surprising since any portrayal of the Son of God would have to be a prefect specimen of humanity, while at the same time being superhuman. When one compares this description with what is depicted on the Shroud and the Veronica, although there are obviously a few similarities it is simply not the same person.

The Challengers of Christ

Before proceeding further we should pause to briefly examine the reasons for the promotion of the divinity of Christ, because he was not the first, or indeed only claimant for the role as the Jewish messiah. The use of the term, 'Messiah' derives from the Hebrew word, 'mashiah', which simply means 'anointed'; King David was a messiah as indeed was King Solomon. The use of the word was not merely confined to divine beings or Sons of God, although since the church and state were in fact one, then the ruler was a priest-king who carried out Gods laws on Earth.

Towards the end of Christ's ministry there was another leader who rose to lead the Jews against the rule of Rome, however this man did so in a much more robust fashion; his name was Simon bar Kochba. Bar Kochba, the name in Hebrew (????? ?? ?????) means Son of the Star who, like Jesus, was of the royal House of David, took arms to some effect against the occupying Roman army to the point where he and his followers were driven out of Judea. The population hailed him as a Messiah and treated him as a leader. Although bar Kochba was also hailed as 'Prince of Israel' he was also seen as a direct threat to the fledgling church founded by the followers of Christ.

However, like Jesus, bar Kochba also came to a sad end and was killed along with his followers in a final showdown with the Roman army in AD135. He was the antithesis of Christ in that Jesus was the epitome of peace, or a least that is how he is portrayed, and bar Kochba was a warrior. Is it possible that if taken at face value then bar Kochba could be described as an 'Anti-Christ', since, strictly speaking, as we have already seen with what constitutes an Anti-Pope, anyone who either defies, denies or denounces the teachings of Christ is also by definition an Anti-Christ.

It is also something of a shock to realise that although Christianity is a huge religion founded on the teachings of Jesus, his death attracted little or no attention outside Israel where it went largely unreported. The same is not true of Simon bar Kochba whose guerrilla attacks on the occupying Roman garrison in Judea lead to their eventual withdrawal and created sufficient furore outside the Holy Land to require that an army be sent to remove the threat. Although he is remembered for that he is not honoured as a spiritual saviour, why should this be?

As the teachings of Christ continued to thrive in spite of continued suppression by the Romans, the emperor Constantine eventually came to accept their validity and when the basis for the articles of Christian belief was finally set, began to suppress other competing beliefs such as those of Simon Magus, Mithras and Isis. Following the death of Constantine, his successor, Theodosius, made belief in Christianity mandatory and continued with the suppression of the other faiths, effectively reversing the persecution that Christians had endured for decades. Showing remarkable pragmatism and to ease the transfer, the Christian church began to subsume many parts of the suppressed religions into its own rituals. In the case of Isis, who in her own belief system was known as the 'Queen of Heaven', 'Mother of God' and Star of the Sea', these titles were appropriated and bestowed on Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Belief in Mithras, which was confined to male worshipers, was slightly different, because this faith also had a form of communion where bread and wine in effect became a Eucharist. This was of course not acceptable and the followers of Jesus decided that communion in the Mithraic tradition was an abomination and invented by the devil to confound and confuse good Christians. Interestingly, these precursors of Christ were rationalised by such eminent writers such as C.S. Lewis, creator of the 'Chronicles of Narnia' books, who argued that they were 'rehearsals' for the arrival of Christ.

Such a paradigm raises some fascinating points; not least being that fact that if they were rehearsals then who orchestrated them? It is also fair to comment that the work of C.S. Lewis has been favourably compared as an allegory of the story of Christ. If one considers the background of two other precursors we find that Krishna was born of a virgin and harried by an evil potentate and the Lord Buddha walked on water, attributes that are found united in Christ.

In addition, the existence of John the Baptist caused serious issues within the church, because among certain factions he was also seen as the Messiah and one who predated Jesus by several years. The reasoning went that if John baptised Jesus, who they regarded a false prophet, then logically he was baptising him into his faith and not the other way round, because surely Christ did not require to be baptised into the faith He himself had created. Although the faith in the Baptist was a heresy, it did not stop many followers attaching themselves to John and leaving the country. They eventually established themselves as the Mandaeans (or the Mandæan heresy, sometimes the Johannite heresy, as it was known) and there are still approximately 100,000 believers in this strand of theology existing around the world. In common with the Freemasons, the Mandaeans employ elaborate handshakes and signs within their ceremonies and it is frequently speculated that there is a connection between the two.

There is still one other puzzle relating to the early Christian church and this was created by the 1947 discovery in Egypt of the Nag Hammadi library, which once again introduced the concept of Gnostic Christianity. Like the aforementioned Cathars and Bogomils, this source of information introduced the concept of dualism into Christianity and insisted that Christ could not have died on the cross. One of the gospels from the Nag Hammadi scrolls states that Christ detached Himself from His body and watched the spiritless corpse being tortured. In other words the separation between the divine and the corporeal, and it is from the same source that the hypothesis that Mary Magdalene and Christ had a physical relationship developed. Apocryphal works such as 'The Gospel of Mary' state that Jesus frequently kissed Mary on the lips and to quote from this source, 'loved her more than the rest of the disciples', and, in addition, hints at other forms of affection. Quite obviously this was an anathema and vigorously denied by the Church and efforts made to suppress this highly controversial and dangerous information; the reasons why are not difficult to see.

So, in the absence of evidence to the contrary we are still left with the elevation of Christ to the status of a supernatural being; born of a virgin, able to raise the dead, heal the sick, walk on water, change water into wine and all the other magical and miraculous acts ascribed to Him. The requirement for Him to be supernatural is therefore essential, otherwise you are left with the rather more prosaic but understandable practise of the Roman emperors to elevate themselves as a deity to be worshipped by the population of the Roman Empire.

This was all very well, but even if the population was willing to accept a self-proclaimed deity, it did not also confer the ability to produce miracles and wonders. On the other hand, over the centuries certain royal houses, the Merovingian dynasty in France is a good example, have supposedly had the ability to work magic and heal though what was called 'the healing touch' Such a reputation would of course enhance the reputation of any royal house immeasurably.

As far as belief in the deity worshipped by the Christian faith goes, it is one thing to believe that two thousand years ago the populace was able to accept the reality of a creator God and Christ was not only his Son, but a God in his own right and an avatar as well, however, are we now as ready to accept this paradigm without question? In some areas the answer is yes, we still do, and for almost the same reasons except that no one now expects a human being to be divine, but as we have seen in the case of some cults this remains a fact, although these specious 'gods' do appear to have feet of clay and a conspicuous lack of the ability to work miracles on demand. There are of course exceptions in the form of self styled guru's such as Sai Baba and other eastern mystics, but the miracles, wonders and claims attributed to Sai Baba and others like him, when examined closely simply don't hold water, but that, as they say, is another tale.

Brian Allan is the editor of Phenomena Magazine, the world's most recognised e-zine of its kind.

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Since 1987, one year after the Chernobyl disaster, 76-year-old Russian factory worker Leonid Tenkaev, his wife Galina, their daughter Tanya and grandson Kolya have all been able to make metal objects stick to their bodies. Leonid can hold individual objects weighing up to 23kg on his chest.

Doctors in Russia and Japan appear to have been convinced that the Tenkaevs' abilities are genuine. "There is absolutely no doubt that the objects stick as if their bodies were magnetic," an impressed Dr Atusi Kono told reporters in 1991.

Remarkably, the Tenkaevs are not alone. In 1990, the Superfields conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, attracted 300 such "human magnets" after a young woman, Marinela Brankova, demonstrated her powers on television by supporting a 7kg weight from her vertical palms.

In his book True Life Encounters (1998, p.14), Keith Tutt reports on another ‘magnetic’ man called Miroslaw Magola who was born in Poland in the 1960s. Magola apparently not only has the ability to attract metal, ceramic and wooden objects to his body, but originally claimed that he could also levitate. Tutt claims that Magola appeared on an English television program, called Beyond Belief, in 1996 but was unable to levitate, although his other abilities apparently created strong public interest. Magola claims to have learnt to increase the strength of his ‘magnetic’ abilities so that when he was "investigated by Dr Friedbert Karger of the Max Planck Institute in Germany" in January 1997, he was able to demonstrate the ability "to pick up a cup from the floor without touching it, and to control its suspension in mid-air" (Tutt, 1998, p.15).

Vincent Gaddis describes the 1889 case of Frank McKinstry, from Joplin, Missouri, who was supposedly a good dowser, but whose body was charged with a strange energy. "His charge was so strong in the early morning that he had to keep moving. If he stopped even for a second, he became fixed to the ground and had to wait until a helpful passer-by would pull one of his legs free. There would be a small faint flash and the grip would be broken.

Another famous example was seventeen-year-old Caroline Clare from Ontario in Canada, who in 1877 took to her bed for about two years with what might be described as a Western version of shamanic initiation illness. She lost about a third of her weight, but the doctors could find nothing wrong with her. After a while she started going into trances and would describe distant locations as if she was spontaneously remote viewing. When she eventually recovered, she was a different person. "She seemed now to be supercharged with electricity. She had only to enter a room and everyone in it would feel the influence, which was strong enough for her to give twenty people a shock if all linked hands with her. If she wanted to take up a knife, the blade would leap towards her hand; needles would hang from her fingers.

Jennie Moran, who lived at Sedalia, Missouri, in 1895, was so highly charged at times that one day, when her powers were strongest, she killed the family cat simply by picking it up; an investigator who held her hand for a few seconds was rendered unconscious.

Within the past decade it has been shown that magnetic particles do exist in the human brain, but only in minute quantities. There seems to be no connection with the phenomenon at hand, which, if genuine, appears to be a form of telekinesis. Although people with the gift are usually referred to as magnets, many of them can also hold plastic, glass, wood and paper objects, with some stating preferences for specific materials. Nor does it seem to be an electrostatic phenomenon: subjects at the Superfields conference were able to demonstrate this by attracting items through thick rubber gloves.

The adhesive force seems predominantly to affect the upper body - the chest, arms and hands. Practitioners say it can be fortified through practice and increased concentration: some people, while supporting several objects at once, can release specific items to order. One Bulgarian woman, Victoria Petrova, entertained delegates by making objects move about her body in time to music.

Some human magnets also claim other abilities, such as x-ray vision similar to that claimed recently by the young Russian, Natalia Demkina. Curiously, there does seem to be a preponderance of - or perhaps interest in - such powers in Russia, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries, leading some researchers to connect it to radiation leakages. However, reports of human magnets from at least the mid-19th century would suggest that its origins lie elsewhere.

Source: The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/farout/story/0,13028,1205167,00.html

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An ordinary old armchair under a worn blanket in a three-room flat in Naples, Italy draws thousands of hopeful pilgrims. Pasted all over the walls around it are birth announcements: pink for girls, blue for boys.

Childless women from all over the world flock to the "miracle" chair -- close to Speranzella street whose name suggests hope -- in the picturesque Spanish Quarter of Naples. There they ask Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus for a miracle.

With her "miracles" reported on Weblogs, the saint's shrine has become a main stop on the religious tourism circuit in Naples, a city which in Italy is almost as well known for veneration of saints as for the Camorra crime syndicate.

"The saint is waiting for you," Sister Elisa, an energetic 65-year-old nun from the order that has guarded the shrine for two centuries, tells hundreds of men and women of all ages gathered for morning prayer at the nearby church.

After the Mass, worshippers are led up a steep staircase and along a narrow corridor into the flat where the saint, born Anna Maria Rosa Nicoletta Gallo, spent half her life in chastity and mystical suffering until her death in 1791 at the age of 76.

Hair shirts and a whip hanging from the walls remind pilgrims of the grim "voluntary penance" the saint adopted after joining the strict order of Saint Peter of Alcantara.

As the religious name she took suggests, she was believed to carry the "stigmata" or wounds of Jesus. She was the first woman saint born in Naples, but there is no hint in her life story as to why her help is sought by childless women in particular.

"Are you married?" Sister Maria Giuliana whispers to a young woman sitting on the armchair, before touching the visitor's breast and belly with a "monstrance" or reliquiary containing a vertebra and a lock of hair from the saint.

As the nun prays, the group waits in silence.

"I am here to pray for everybody's sake, not only for myself," one young woman, who declined to give her name, whispered to Reuters in the hushed room.

CITY OF CHURCHES

Later, Sister Elisa shows a picture of a 5-month-old baby and a letter from his parents.

"We came to Naples to visit Saint Mary Frances on January 21, 2006," reads the letter signed by Dejan and Jasmina Bogdanovic, a Serbian couple living in Germany.

Evidence of Saint Mary Frances' miracles is anecdotal, but the groundswell of devotion for the "saint of the family" -- who escaped a forced marriage and an oppressive father -- has spread by word of mouth and, more recently, through blogs like caffenews.wordpress.com.

Roman Catholic Italy is rich in relics, which may be all or part of a saint's body or a belonging such as clothing. The most famous example in Naples is a glass phial believed to contain the dried blood of Saint Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples who was beheaded by pagan Romans in 305 A.D.

Each year pilgrims crowd the cathedral to witness the "miracle" of Saint Gennaro's blood, whose liquefaction is seen as a good omen for the city. On his feast day, a statue of Saint Mary Frances is carried behind his along the streets of Naples.

But nobody appears to know exactly how many relics have been preserved over the centuries in the churches of Naples.

"It is not even possible to say how many churches there are in Naples," Don Luigi Merluzzo, head of public relations at the Archdiocese of Naples, told Reuters.

"There are 287 churches listed in our Archdiocese's website, but many others, which are either closed or privately owned, are still kept out of the public eye," he said.

BLESSED FROM AFAR

Back at Saint Mary Frances' shrine, when the morning visits are over the nuns spend few hours each day answering hundreds of letters from Italy and abroad.

"Hi, I'm Francesca Rosa Limongelli. I was born in London on January 22, 2007, but, even though we are far away, my mum and dad have been feeling the presence of Saint Mary Frances with them," reads a letter published on the congregation's brand new 2008 calendar.

"Even if we don't have an email address yet, we receive many prayer requests by mail or by phone," Sister Elisa said. "Our followers often send us an item of clothing asking us to intercede with the saint by placing their objects on the chair.

"We have a lot of work to do. But the saint has a prayer for everyone," she added in a reassuring tone.

In a city where saints play a role in everyday life for many believers, the saint's work goes beyond reproduction.

"Some days ago a man came to us," Sister Maria Aurora said. "He wanted a house, a job and children. We told him to be patient but, thanks to Saint Mary Frances, his prayers have been fulfilled."

Source: Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071203/wl_nm/italy_religion_chair_dc