Heaven’s best, last gift to man

We have the birth of a new science, a new philosophy, and a new life

An angry mob destroyed the mechanical messiah. Few records exist of its violent end, and none seemed aware of what became of its components. It was, however, far from the first time John Murray Spear faced down an angry mob. A decade prior, the minister participated in the ‘One Hundred Conventions’ campaign to combat slavery. In 1863, campaign leader Frederick Douglass was beaten and left for dead during a speech in Indiana and the following year, Spear followed suit in Maine.

Both men ultimately pulled through. Douglass’ life had been saved by sympathetic Quakers. Spear sustained a serious head injury and required months of rehabilitation. Like Douglass, he continued the fight. Following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, he helped operate the Boston segment of the Underground Railroad.

"[A]lthough the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal but spiritual,” a fellow abolitionist wrote of the minister, “we [do] not object at all to the use of the 'Spear.'"\

Within a year, Spear’s focus began to shift. Though still a staunch abolitionist, pacifist and prison reform champion, he moved away from the Universalist Church to which he’d devoted much of his life. Spear became a disciple of spiritualism – very much in its ascendency at the time. He immersed himself in magnetic healing, automatic writing and other tools of the trade. By his own account, the dead informed him of the location of sick and dying residents and traveled long distances to help.

His spiritual guides weren’t just any ghosts. They were great men of history. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and his namesake – John Murray – aligned to form a Congress of Spirits. Oliver Dennett, a friend who had helped Spear in the wake of his mob attack, also contributed. Their goal was nothing less than a radical reformation of American society. Within seven months, a book, Messages for the Superior State, was communicated from Murray to Spear, promising “Important Instruction to the Inhabitants of Earth” in the subtitle.

 “The following work is presented to the public from a sense of duty,” the book opens, “and also with much pleasure in anticipation of the high moral gratification and radical utility these messages will undoubtedly afford and promote.” The preface instantly shifts gears to defend the automatic writing practice Spears employed to write an entire book in the voice of the dead Universalist leader.

Former colleagues in the church did their best to distance themselves from Spear, whom they feared had become dangerously deluded, as he recruited members and promoted the creation of societies dedicated to his new practice. In a few years a new book -- The Educator, being Suggestions, theoretical and practical, designed to promote Man-Culture and Integral Reform, with a view of the Ultimate Establishment of a Divine Social State on Earth – further spelled such utopian plans. In addition to his other causes, Spear had also become a champion of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights.

Another group of spirits soon commanded Spear’s attention. The Association of Electricizers, led by Franklin, enlisted the former minister to help create a number of world changing inventions, ranging from an intercontinental network for telepathic communications to a new sewing machine. The most ambitious of the bunch was New Motor. The perpetual motion machine would generate its power from magnetic forces and usher in a new era of enlightenment in the process.

The system took nine months and $2,000 to build. A combination of copper plates, zinc, wires, chemicals, magnets and batteries, Spear and followers nicknamed it the “new messiah.” Upon completion, he published a story in the Spiritualist paper New Era declaring, “THE THING MOVES” [emphasis his].

He continued,

We have the birth of a new science, a new philosophy, and a new life. The time of deliverance has come at last, and, henceforth, the career of humanity is upward and onward—a mighty, a noble, a god-like career. All the revelations of spiritualism heretofore; all the control of spirits over mortals, and the instruction and discipline they have given us, have only paved the way, as it were, for the advent of a great practical movement, such as the world little dreams of; though it has long deeply yearned for it, and agonized, and groaned away its life because it did not come sooner. And this new motive power is to lead the way in the great speedily coming salvation. It is to be the physical savior of the race. The history of its inception, its various stages of progress, and its completion, will show the world a most beautiful and significant analogy to the advent of Jesus as the spiritual savior of the race.

 Spear donned a ceremonial garb made of metal and gemstones, forming a mental umbilical link to system in anticipation of its birth. A New Era editor was declared "Mary of the New Dispensation,” channeling birth pains as she lay next to the device. According to Spears and others in attendance, the mechanical messiah began to move after two hours of labor.

“On one occasion,” New Era wrote of the machine, “the motion was of a very remarkable character, and with the intensest emotions of joy did the observer bend the knee and raise the heart in thanksgiving to the Eternal One for this—Heaven’s best, last gift to man.”

The New Motor was soon moved to Randolph, New York, where it ultimate met its grisly end.

“A temporary building was erected to shelter it,” wrote Davis. “Into that, under the cover of the night, the mob entered, tore out the heart of the mechanism, trampled beneath their feet, and scattered it to the four winds. I know the friends who were engaged in constructing this mechanism, and those who cheerfully gave of their means to promote the work, will mourn that the world has not yet arrived at a condition when it could welcome a philanthropic effort of this kind; but thus it is.”

Sources:

The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear by John Benedict Buescher

Messages from the Superior State by John Murray Spear

Metal messiah https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/feb/03/farout

When 19th-Century Spiritualists Believed a "God Machine" Would Save Humanity https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/571569/spiritualist-god-machine