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JOHN MURRAY SPEAR AND THE GOD MACHINE
In their efforts to create a Utopia or a more perfect world society, many a well-intentioned scientist have been led down dark roads to the abominable. The experiments of the fictional Dr. Victor Frankenstein (and the not-so-fictional Johann Konrad Dippel) come to mind. But they may have been eclipsed in their maniacal ambitions by the work of a group led by John Murray Spear, who gathered to create nothing less than the Messiah - God himself.
Spear, a minister of the Universal Church, brought together a group in October, 1853 to a cottage on a hilltop in Lynn, Massachusetts with the intention of physically constructing "Heaven's last, best gift to man" - what they hoped would be the New Messiah. Spear was deeply into spiritualism and participated in many séances as a trance medium in which many spirits spoke through him on a great many subjects. In 1853, through automatic writing he began to channel a group of spirits who called themselves the "Band of Electricizers," directed by the spirit of Benjamin Franklin himself.
These spirits and others, claiming to be working for the elevation of humankind, provided Spear with plans for advanced ships, "thinking machines" and great planned cities. A priority, however, was the creation of the New Messiah. Spear and several other spiritualists congregated at High Rock Cottage in Lynn to begin their audacious experiment. Over a nine month period, Spear channeled the instructions for the machine while the others built it, piece by piece, "much the same way...
that one decorates a Christmas tree."
The result was a crazy, if somewhat impressive, assembled mass of machined copper and zinc parts, shafts, flywheels, magnets, wires, insulators, chemical compounds and a "brain" made up of copper and zinc plates that were supposed to draw power directly from the atmosphere. All at the exorbitant cost of over $2,000.
Electricity was applied to the machine and then Spear, himself clad in metal and gemstones, sat near it. He fell into a deep trance and it was said that an umbilical of light stretched between the two. Some time later, one of the pregnant members of the group, near delivery, lay on the floor in front of the machine for two hours while she went through labor pains. And when she rose and touched the machine, the group claimed that for a few seconds their God machine actually became animate!
Did it? Critics and skeptics who saw the machine said that it did not move (except for a few dangling parts), but that it was beautifully put together. Eventually, it was torn apart by an angry mob and nothing of it appears to have survived.
YOUNG SCIENTIST AND THE INVISIBILITY SUIT
We know that today's stealth aircraft are virtually invisible to radar, but can true invisibility be achieved through electromagnetic or other means? Some believe exactly that was accomplished with the infamous "Philadelphia Experiment," but the account of that incident has become so muddled and fictionalized (like the alleged UFO crash at Roswell) that the truth may never be known.
In 1934, however, a young British scientist is said to have achieved full invisibility of himself - and he did so on a brightly lit stage in front of an audience. The scientist, whose name seems to be lost to history (might it have been "Potter"?), walked on stage in a crowded public hall in London, England and declared that he had discovered the secret to electromagnetically induced invisibility.
Wearing a device he called an Electro-Helmet and other gear that witnesses said made him look like "a deep-sea diver," he stepped into an open-front cabinet. He reached up and touched two contacts above his head with both hands, then gave the signal for the switch to be thrown. The switch appeared to send a current of electricity to his strange devices and through the scientist. His body at first became transparent... and then gradually vanished from his feet to his head!
According to the story, spectators invited onto the stage could touch and feel his body within the cabinet as if he were still there, but they could not see him. "All one could see," the story goes, "was the development of a cone of light such as might be projected between the two poles of a powerful transmitter." Naturally, the inventor refused to reveal how his contraption worked, stating only that it was the result of many years of experimentation. Photos were allegedly taken of this feat, but could not explain how it was accomplished - only that he was visible one moment and invisible the next.
Was he a brilliant scientist? Or a clever magician? Or perhaps he was a graduate of some real-life version of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
JOHN MURRAY SPEAR AND THE GOD MACHINE
In their efforts to create a Utopia or a more perfect world society, many a well-intentioned scientist have been led down dark roads to the abominable. The experiments of the fictional Dr. Victor Frankenstein (and the not-so-fictional Johann Konrad Dippel) come to mind. But they may have been eclipsed in their maniacal ambitions by the work of a group led by John Murray Spear, who gathered to create nothing less than the Messiah - God himself.
Spear, a minister of the Universal Church, brought together a group in October, 1853 to a cottage on a hilltop in Lynn, Massachusetts with the intention of physically constructing "Heaven's last, best gift to man" - what they hoped would be the New Messiah. Spear was deeply into spiritualism and participated in many séances as a trance medium in which many spirits spoke through him on a great many subjects. In 1853, through automatic writing he began to channel a group of spirits who called themselves the "Band of Electricizers," directed by the spirit of Benjamin Franklin himself.
These spirits and others, claiming to be working for the elevation of humankind, provided Spear with plans for advanced ships, "thinking machines" and great planned cities. A priority, however, was the creation of the New Messiah. Spear and several other spiritualists congregated at High Rock Cottage in Lynn to begin their audacious experiment. Over a nine month period, Spear channeled the instructions for the machine while the others built it, piece by piece, "much the same way...
that one decorates a Christmas tree."
The result was a crazy, if somewhat impressive, assembled mass of machined copper and zinc parts, shafts, flywheels, magnets, wires, insulators, chemical compounds and a "brain" made up of copper and zinc plates that were supposed to draw power directly from the atmosphere. All at the exorbitant cost of over $2,000.
Electricity was applied to the machine and then Spear, himself clad in metal and gemstones, sat near it. He fell into a deep trance and it was said that an umbilical of light stretched between the two. Some time later, one of the pregnant members of the group, near delivery, lay on the floor in front of the machine for two hours while she went through labor pains. And when she rose and touched the machine, the group claimed that for a few seconds their God machine actually became animate!
Did it? Critics and skeptics who saw the machine said that it did not move (except for a few dangling parts), but that it was beautifully put together. Eventually, it was torn apart by an angry mob and nothing of it appears to have survived.
YOUNG SCIENTIST AND THE INVISIBILITY SUIT
We know that today's stealth aircraft are virtually invisible to radar, but can true invisibility be achieved through electromagnetic or other means? Some believe exactly that was accomplished with the infamous "Philadelphia Experiment," but the account of that incident has become so muddled and fictionalized (like the alleged UFO crash at Roswell) that the truth may never be known.
In 1934, however, a young British scientist is said to have achieved full invisibility of himself - and he did so on a brightly lit stage in front of an audience. The scientist, whose name seems to be lost to history (might it have been "Potter"?), walked on stage in a crowded public hall in London, England and declared that he had discovered the secret to electromagnetically induced invisibility.
Wearing a device he called an Electro-Helmet and other gear that witnesses said made him look like "a deep-sea diver," he stepped into an open-front cabinet. He reached up and touched two contacts above his head with both hands, then gave the signal for the switch to be thrown. The switch appeared to send a current of electricity to his strange devices and through the scientist. His body at first became transparent... and then gradually vanished from his feet to his head!
According to the story, spectators invited onto the stage could touch and feel his body within the cabinet as if he were still there, but they could not see him. "All one could see," the story goes, "was the development of a cone of light such as might be projected between the two poles of a powerful transmitter." Naturally, the inventor refused to reveal how his contraption worked, stating only that it was the result of many years of experimentation. Photos were allegedly taken of this feat, but could not explain how it was accomplished - only that he was visible one moment and invisible the next.
Was he a brilliant scientist? Or a clever magician? Or perhaps he was a graduate of some real-life version of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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