Think it's pronounced "waspy". Anyway, I saw it in a second hand bookstore, under $10. I had heard about it years ago. It's like the Book of Mormon on steroids. It even has a section decrying Mormonism. I'll put that up some time

The thing is huge. It calls itself a "Kosmon Bible" and is likely the same length as a real Bible. I doubt I'll ever read it all. Unlike the BoM and like the BoA, it contains copious illustrations and discussions of cosmic events

Here is a cut and paste about it:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Oahspe

The bulk of Oahspe contains cosmological revelations concerning the evolution of the human race and life on Earth. The text seems to suggest that the Earth travels through various regions of space, and that each of these regions has spiritual and physical consequences for Earth and its inhabitants. These several regions are under the presidency of various supernatural beings who are designated "sons of Jehovih," and as such the text of Oahspe contains separate books like the "Book of Sue, Son of Jehovih" and even the "Book of Thor, Son of Jehovih."

One typographical peculiarity of these books is that many of them are printed on pages divided in two, top and bottom. In these, the top half of the page contains a narrative of celestial events, while the bottom half describes the corresponding events on Earth. Oahspe also contains a body of teaching that attempts to explain the origin of all of Earth's religions other than the one it seeks to establish.

While Joseph Smith, Jr. claims to have translated The Book of Mormon from hieroglyphs (termed Reformed Egyptian) engraved on golden plates, Oahspe goes one step further and is profusely illustrated with its hieroglyphs. Unfortunately, the text of Oahspe bristles with unusual jargon, and is also written in a pastiche of King James English. These aspects, combined with the sheer bulk of the tome, make it rather daunting to the casual reader.

Editions of Oahspe contain a "Glossary Of Strange Words Used In This Book," but this glossary is sadly inadequate, covering only a small fraction of the strange words that appear in the text, and giving incomplete explanations of the ones it covers. It is helpful to learn that Es'enauers are "heavenly musicians, composed of singers and instrument players," and that Ughs are "foul air from dead people" is something the reader might figure out. But the intelligence that Egisi are "volunteers who may have previously registered themselves for such an excursion" is not helping.

The following is a sample of the text of Oahspe (specifically, The Book of Jehovih, chapter II), which will give an impression of this style:

======
1. JEHOVIH said: By virtue of My presence created I the seen and the unseen worlds. And I commanded man to name them; and man called the seen worlds Corper, and the unseen worlds Es; and the inhabitants of Corpor, man called corporeans. But the inhabitants of Es he called sometimes es'eans and sometimes spirits, and sometimes angels.

2. Jehovih said: I created the earth, and fashioned it, and placed it in the firmament; and by My presence brought man forth a living being. A corporeal body gave I him that he might learn corporeal things; and death I made that he might rise in the firmament and inherit My etherean worlds.

3. To es I gave dominion over corpor; with es I filled all place in the firmament. But corpor I made into earths and moons and stars and suns; beyond number made I them, and I caused them to float in the places I allotted to them.

4. Es I divided into two parts, and I commanded man to name them, and he called one etherea and the other atmospherea. These are the three kinds of worlds I created; but I gave different densities to atmospherean worlds, and different densities to the etherean worlds.

5. For the substance of My etherean worlds I created Ethe, the MOST RARIFIED. Out of ethe made I them. And I made ethe the most subtle of all created things, and gave to it power and place, not only by itself, but also power to penetrate and exist within all things, even in the midst of the corporeal worlds. And to ethe gave I dominion over both atmospherea and corpor."

When I was younger, my boss turned me on to The Urantia Book. It was making its rounds throughout the Hollywood community, and was quite the rage.

It is as far-fetched as any other religious tome.

If you are without any passion or joy in life, devour it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOC0452cD4A

First heard of Urantia on TV some years ago. Obviously a bit easier to pronounce than Oahspe. The two seem very similar, although Oahspe did come first. Both seem to be monstrous tomes putting their own spins on the Bible and modern (meta)physics.

I suspect there is an LDS influence on both of these.

Found this - hmm...

http://mormonuniversalism.com/category/restoration-texts/

If I had to pass judgement, I am still not sure where to classify Oahspe’s “heavenly origins”. The channeled material in the popular “Ra” book suggest that some unknown organization from the terrestrial or celestial levels of heaven approached some of the beings who govern our solar system, and suggested to aid man’s progression through revealing this book which spreads truth and error by its presentation of historical accounts of previous cycles of the earth’s existence. To me, there are a few problems with this possibility, but notwithstanding my opinion, the similarities to Mormonism in the book are not easily dismissed.

It contains so much information about the “laws of the higher kingdoms” concerning ascending to the higher heavens (Terrestrial & Celestial Kingdoms in Mormonism) as to be uncanny. Also about building Zion, the united/communal order, and the condemnation originating from material inequality. How earthly religions turn into idols and must be renewed/torn down. The cycles/dispensations/times of the gospel and its messengers. How unselfishness in the key to exaltation. Detailed cosmology and physics principles, Etc, etc..

But at the same time the text typically condemns the earth’s religions and paints them in a negative light, instead of showing them as imperfect “schoolmasters” as Paul seemed to view Judaism. The scribe(s) is/are generally anti-religion but pro-spirituality and somewhat misrepresent or distort the role of religion in earth’s history from my perspective. It derides the four beasts/false Gods/religions of the Millennium (Hinduism, Buddhism, Gentile Christianity & Islam), but completely ignores the true/false dualism in all these religions and presents them in an attitude of criticism so as to try and destroy faith altogether instead of leading people to any kind of unity of faith or universalism. Its account of “Joshua” (Christ) would lead one to believe that the historical Jesus was indeed a high follower of “Jehovah” who did many miracles, but that the biblical account of Jesus was largely manufactured by the early Christian Church. An LDS reader would probably want to skip this section of the text altogether. I’ve come to my own conclusions about which parts might be true and which parts are distorted, but the reader will have to judge for themselves. I believe that even with the Spirit of discernment, many readers will get a little screwed up in their attempts to make sense of the historical aspects of this book. (The spiritual aspects are pretty spot on for most Mormon readers).

As is typical of restorationist text supposedly originating from or passing through the lower heavens, my opinion is that the work is the least accurate in its accounts of more recent Western World events (founding of Christianity, Islam, America, etc), almost as if it came through a more Eastern World religious tradition (perhaps even a Chinese tradition).

The book does however, present interesting similarities concerning the Book of Mormon “Jaredite” people (Algonquin) and the principles of exaltation (it’s group nature), as well as various peoples temple rights and histories.

To see examples of the many, many ways that this text correlates with Mormonism read “The Oashpe Text & Mormonism”

It was finding a copy of Oahspe in the Deering Library in Evanston, Illinois, when I was a graduate student that was one of the major causes of my beginning to doubt Mormonism. My immediate reaction was "This is just like the Book of Mormon!"

To see the entire text, plus a sketch about its origins (including the appearance of an angel) see

http://www.sacred-texts.com/oah/index.htm

congrats on your satanic book collection achievement OPie ~

ziller Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> congrats on your satanic book collection
> achievement OPie ~

A dangerous mind control cult responsible for the starvation death of 12 children in Colorado, starvation death of 2 children in so. California. LSD drugging and raping of 14 year old run away boys in Northern California.

15 UFO Doomsday cults in Southern California. And another another in Balingup, Australia.

Woodson Payne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A dangerous mind control cult responsible for the
> starvation death of 12 children in Colorado,
> starvation death of 2 children in so. California.
> LSD drugging and raping of 14 year old run away
> boys in Northern California.
>
> 15 UFO Doomsday cults in Southern California. And
> another another in Balingup, Australia.

Yes, I was reading about some of this online. It really ahocked me. I am fairly unshockable in many areas but I was surprised that it had caused this trouble because a) it seems to have few followers, b) it actually rails against organized religion (but so does the BoM perhaps in some ways), and c) it's such a complex book I'm amazed people derive much from it.

Given that it is far less read than the BoM and has fewer adherents (when was the last time you met an Oahspe/Faithist missionary?), I think it's done far more damage

NYTimes article, circa 2018, on a limited Faithist revival:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/nyregion/a-forgotten-religion-gets-a-second-chance-in-brooklyn.html

3X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NYTimes article, circa 2018, on a limited Faithist
> revival:
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/nyregion/a-forg
> otten-religion-gets-a-second-chance-in-brooklyn.ht
> ml

That was a very good article, thank you. It puts some flesh on the bones. I've looked at Oahspe a few times, but haven't been able to bring myself to read it properly. The thing's at least twice as long as the BoM, and even drier, with less storyline. In many parts, the pages are split in two, with one book running along the top half and a different book running along the bottom half.

The main point of interest I've found - and this is referred to in a pamphlet I found in the flyleaf - is that it talks about what sound very like the modern UFO phenomenon... Actual craft from space which appear as bright lights and have strange propulsion systems. Bear in mind that this was written in the 19th century, and it anticipates that fashion by fifty to a hundred years.