The Origin of Weird: The Mechanical Messiah - John Murray Spear

A decent, hard-working reformer walks into the 1850s, discovers spiritualism, and decides electricity can save the world. That’s not a metaphor. We’re telling the true story of John Murray Spear, a Universalist minister and outspoken abolitionist who believed people and systems could be redeemed, then took that same hope and aimed it at building a literal mechanical messiah.

We talk through why spiritualism was so contagious in mid-19th century America: the Fox sisters, seances as social events, automatic writing, and the idea that invisible forces might be “science” when electricity itself still feels magical. We also get into why the movement created a rare platform for women, since mediumship let them lead gatherings and speak with authority in a culture that regularly denied them power.

Then it gets truly wild. Spear claims a spirit collective called the Association of Electrizers, featuring famous dead minds like Benjamin Franklin, telepathically sends him blueprints for a device called the New Motive Power. His followers build it from batteries, copper wires, and metal parts, perform rituals to charge it with life force, and stage a full labor-and-delivery reenactment with a chosen “New Mary” to help “birth” the machine into the world. The reaction outside the group is swift and brutal, and the ending raises a question that still matters today: when new technology arrives, how easily can hope turn into belief, and belief into something dangerous?

Listen now, then subscribe, share the episode with a fellow history nerds, and leave us a rating and review. What modern “miracle tech” do you think people are treating like a religion right now?

Transcript

Cold Open And Introductions

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Oh hey there. I'm leaving that fucking in.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Oh hey there. I'm just having a beer. Sorry, this is Kate.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

This is Bradley.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

And this is the History Buffoons Origin of Weird. And boy do I have a weird one for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

You got a good one for me? Oh yeah. I look forward to it. What do you got?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Okay. So sometimes if I don't have so I have a whole list of like topics that I eventually want to get to, but sometimes nothing calls to me, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

No, like you're looking at the list like Yeah Yeah, yeah, exactly. I totally get it.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

So I went to Reddit.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

And I searched for weird historical figures.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Okay.

The Reddit Hook That Started It

SPEAKER_00 1:05

And what popped up did not disappoint. Okay. So I am going to read what drew me in on Reddit.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

And it was um by then you expanded on that? Oh, for sure, for sure. Okay, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah. So it was written by Broken Eye 3 on Reddit. Broken i3, okay. And this is what he said.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

John Murray Spear.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

John Murray Spear.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Was a 19th century. Oh, you just don't interrupt. Like let me. Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. Just this one part. It's just one whole big sentence. Yep. John Murray Spear was a 19th-century American activist, humanitarian, and all-around outstanding, decent human being who tried to build his own messiah out of mechanical parts animated by the disembodied soul of the non-existent baby from a female follower's phantom pregnancy based on designs transmitted to him telepathically by a secret society of famous dead people. What the actual fuck exactly drew me right in.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

How could it not?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Somebody, somebody responded with, I don't think I could inhale while reading that.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

All right, do tell, do tell.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Okay, so yeah, that drew me in real quick. So thank you so much. Broken Eye 3 of Reddit.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, shout out broken eye. Uh that is fucking weird to begin with. All right, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So in the mid-1800s, when electricity was new, people were beginning to figure out what it could actually do. Man was this man was looking at all that buzzing, buzzing, and like crackling potential, and he thought, this is how we're gonna save humanity. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Okay.

Spear The Reformer And Minister

SPEAKER_00 3:00

His name was John Mary's Murray Spear. Yeah. And he for a while was a perfectly reasonable person.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

For a while. What age are we talking? Do you have an age on him?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I don't. Of course you don't. He um I think he was in his 40s. I think he was born in like 1804-ish. And we're talking about like the 1840s, 1850s, so somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I'm in my 40s.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

So as a universalist minister.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Universalist? What is a universalist? Something that Kate didn't look up.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Uh so when I think of universalist now, I think of pretty much um a church who welcomes and loves absolutely encompasses everybody.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Everyone. Okay. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Okay. Exactly what I thought.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Is that more or less what it is?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Everyone is ultimately saved. It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe, what gender you are, who you love, you are already you are saved. You can be saved.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Well, it shouldn't matter what gender you love. I mean, tweet your own on that, but it's like, okay. So continue.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So he believed that no one was beyond redemption. Everyone regarded.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Shouldn't we all believe that though? I mean, in theory, you would think. Because, like, yeah, there's some terrible fucking people in this world. And some probably are beyond redemption. However, some people do shitty things, but maybe it was an accident, maybe it was a cause of situation.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

And that's when they ask for forgiveness, and then they're saved.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Yeah, I just gotta go throw it in the confessional and you're good.

unknown 4:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

So if you're Catholic.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

So well, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Regardless of their past, their status, their mistakes, they had value. And it was a theology rooted in compassion. And at the time, it set him apart from the tradition that lead the tradition that leads. I've had a couple beers.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

It set him apart from the traditions that leaned heavily on punishment and damnation. Right. And he didn't just talk the talk.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

He walked the walk.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

He walked the walk.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So what kind of walk was it? Was like a strut?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Oh, it was like a run because Spear became deeply involved in reform movements that were gaining traction in the early 19th century.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

He was an abolitionist at a time that taking a stance wasn't just controversial. It could cost you your position, your reputation, and sometimes your life. Oh, wow. So speaking out against slavery meant challenging powerful systems. And Spear didn't shy away from that. He also worked in prison reform, which at the time was already pretty fucking bleak. Prisoners weren't designed at the time for rehabilitation. They were harsh, they were overcrowded, they were inhumane a lot of times.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Sounds like today.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

And Speer believed that people inside them weren't lost causes. They were human beings who deserve dignity and the chance to change.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Well, and honestly, again, there's probably a lot that time and today. Yes. That that is true, yeah. 100% true. Yes, there's some lost fucking causes that are straight up fucking evil fucking people.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

However, some again, depending on your situation, circumstance, whatever. I don't even want to know what just happened there. Um I had a niche. You really know where do you want to tell the folks where? Okay. Because all I saw was a reach back, but anyways.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

It was my lower back. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Lower crack.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Keep going. You derailed me again, just like there are some shitty people in prisons.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

There's some shitty people, but there's some people, again, who can be redeemed if you will. Because of shitty circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

And maybe something went wrong. Not I'm not gonna say everyone's rehabilitable.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I heard I believed it.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah. But there's a lot that are.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

So Spear visited these prisons. He preached to these inmates and he advocated for better conditions for them.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Well, that's actually pretty awesome.

Why Spiritualism Exploded In America

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah. So if you think about it, it already tells you something really important about him. Yeah. He was a man who believed deeply that systems could be improved.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

He was a man of the people.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah. People could be saved. That as that the world as it was wasn't good enough yet.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Well, it still isn't.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

And then.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

No and then.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Like many people in the 1840s and the 1850s, he became interested in spiritualism.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I say like occult type stuff. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. More or less. More or less, absolutely. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

You're right on. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Oh dear. Was he speaking with the dead?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yep. Seriously? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

No way.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So spiritualism at the time wasn't a hobby. It was actually wildly popular. Business almost. People held seances in their living rooms. They held used spirit boards and table tapping and automatic writing and basically anything that might let them. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

So it is a way to supposedly the spirit travels through you, through your hand, and you actually write.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

So like okay. Like I call on you, spirit of blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

You write out, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Which is so fucking okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

I'll just leave it at so fucking so. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

It was part curiosity, part comfort, and part boredom. Like, what else are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

More or less. Like, hey man, what are you gonna do tonight? I don't know. I'm thinking of contacting some spirits. Yeah. I'm down, dude. Let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So spiritualism in the 1850 was in many ways the perfect storm of belief and curiosity, but just enough mystery to make people think that it made sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Well, and again, we're talking mid-1800s. I'm not gonna say anything bad about people in the mid-1800s. I mean, they're not alive still, so it's fine. Alright, fuck them, bitches. No, I'm just kidding. Um my point is Kate Spears out, and that is sad panda. Sad panda. So my point is, fucking hell, you keep derailing me. So sorry.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And uh my point is what else you gonna do? What else are you gonna do on a Thursday night?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

It's not like they're gonna what's on the telly? You know? Yeah. They didn't have TV, they didn't have internet, obviously. Nothing of like that.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Well, we could uh But they might have had back ammon.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

That's been around for what did we learn that was around since the 14s, 13, 16, 2800s? I don't I don't remember we looked it up. So recently, my my family 5,000 years ago. Yeah, that's what it was. It was a long in Mesopotamia? I fucking love Mesopotamia, am I right?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Um recently, my my family uh has has always had one. I've never learned how to play backgammon. Kate and I, we like learning old shit, hence history. We fucking learned backgammon and then we changed the rules so there's a couple rules that we just a hundred percent didn't agree with. So we we kind of did it our own way. Yeah, we tweaked it to our own way, and not for like and make it easier. No, we actually made it hard to do it. We actually made it harder, yeah. And uh yeah, so we're playing wow, this fucking went sideways. Let's get back to the story.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

So, spiritualism took off after two sisters, the Fox sisters, claimed in 1848 that they could communicate with a spirit through a series of knocks.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

They're full of shit and raps in their home. Oh, good lord.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Instead of being dismissed outright, their story spread rather quickly.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

You're not weird, you're on point.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So suddenly people weren't just hearing about spirits, they were trying to talk to them. And the methods were rather creative. Seances became social events, groups would gather in dimly lit rooms, sit around tables, and wait for signs from the other side. Tables would tilt and knock and even appear to move on their own as if people weren't doing it themselves. People claimed to receive messages through automatic writing.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Look at Oh my god, someone's moving this table.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Some medians would enter trance-like states and speak as if they were channels for the spirits. And to many, it did not feel ridiculous to them at the time because it was being framed as discovery.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Okay. Discovery of nonsense, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Spiritualists, I was gonna say scientists, not exactly scientists, spiritualists, believed that they weren't practicing superstition, they were uncovering a new kind of science.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

A way science?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yep. Okay. A way to study the soul, to understand what happened after death, to prove that consciousness didn't just disappear. In a world where electricity was still mysterious and invisible forces were clearly capable of doing real observable things like turning on a light. The idea that there might be another unseen force, one that connected the living and the dead, didn't feel like a stretch.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Do you think they do you think if these people knew about Wi-Fi, they'd be just fucking blown away?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Blown, mind blown. Reformers were drawn to it because it challenged traditional authority.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Right, which is always taught you like, nope, this is what it is. Moved on, blah, blah, blah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

So if you can could communicate directly with higher truths or even the spirits of great thinkers, you didn't need institutions to tell you what to believe. It was really empowering to these people.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

You didn't need institutions, you needed to be institutionalized. Fuck.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Women in particular found a unique space within spiritualism.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, because they already weren't people.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Technically. I mean mediumship refer to our um shit. What's it called?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Um Lizzie Seer.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Lizzie's yes, and Lizzie Seer episode and the famous five where women were not considered people yet.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

So and thank you for getting that.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Absolutely. So mediumship allowed them, allowed women to speak publicly, lead gatherings, and hold influence in ways that weren't typically available to them in other areas of society.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

So when a woman spoke as a medium, she wasn't just speaking for herself, she was speaking for something beyond which made people listen. So what you ended up with was something that didn't fit neatly into a single category. It was part religion, part science, part social movement. And people fully accepted this.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah.

Dead Geniuses Give Electrical Blueprints

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yes. So Spear, Mr. John Murray Spear. John Murray Spear did not just dabble in spiritualism.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Oh, he fucking went full board.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

He walked the walk on this.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Talk that talk.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Before long. Yeah. He claimed he was receiving communications for from oh ho wait. From a group of spirits who called themselves the Association. I pronounced that weird.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

He really did.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

The Association of Electrizers. Electrizers? Yes. Like electric. Yeah. Only without the C, it's a Z. Electrizers.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

What the fuck? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Doesn't that sound like a band or something? I am the Association of Electrizers.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

I think I'm gonna start a new band. My arms don't work anymore, but I'm gonna start a new band and be like, I'm the electricizers.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

You've got lateral epicondylitis.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

And tennis elbow.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah. That's tennis elbow.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Oh, I didn't know. You could have just told me that.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

It's tennis elbow. It's also called lateral epicondylitis. It's also spawn it's also called tendinitis.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I got tinnitus too. You do have tinnitus. Tinnitus.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So, anyways, not to get weirder on subjects. Let's get weird here.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Spear described them as a collective of advanced spirits.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Former great thinkers, inventors, and intellectual minds who were continuing their work from the other side.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Did he ever name any of the people?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Of course he did.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Of course he did.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Sir Isaac Newton?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

No.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Really?

SPEAKER_00 16:55

That was not named.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

That's actually kind of surprising.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Of what I recall.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Jesus Christ. Continue, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

These spirits had a message, and it was Benjamin Franklin. Mm-hmm. It was really specific, supposedly, what they said. Well, humanity, they said, was not doing great. Society was flawed. Religion as it existed wasn't cutting it. What the world needed was a new force. Something that could really guide people into being better, more enlightened future. And it needed to be built physically with wires.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

And stupidity.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Instead of saying, I'm gonna get a second opinion on this, bought into it. Got to work. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Well, he didn't buy into it, he sold it. He sold, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

He began constructing what he called the new motive power. A device that he believed would usher in a new era of uh for humanity.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

It wasn't just a machine, it was meant to be a kind of divine engine, a physical embodiment, embodiment of embodiment of spiritual truth.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Something that everybody's looking for spiritual truth.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yep. So something that would, in his mind, replace traditional religion and solve the problems of the world through a combination of electricity and optimism.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Optimism. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Descriptions of the machine vary. There's no image of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Right. Well, 1850s.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

But the general picture is this.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

It was built from a mix of zinc batteries, copper wires, metal spheres, and other components, all housed in a wooden frame. It included a system meant to mimic breathing as if it were designed to function like a living orgas organism rather than just than just a device.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

But of course, to Spear and his followers, because he's now a cult leader, this was not a pile of parts. It was the future. As the machine took shape, the group surrounding Spear grew more invested and more convinced that they were part of something extraordinary.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

So is this basically like 1850s AI?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

It's like 1850s cultism.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

With AI?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

No.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Because he's like putting it out there like this thing is real. And that's what people are talking about AI these days. True. However, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Oh, let me get to the real part. Okay, okay, okay. It gets creepy. It gets weird. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Well, it better origin of weird.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

So the spirits continue to guide them, offering instructions and encouragement, and presumably com presumably a complete lack of hesitation to bring it to life like he's fucking Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

No, fix that.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Frankenstein, the doctor.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Frankenstein's monster.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

I'm not talking about the monster. I'm talking about Frankenstein the Doctor.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

To bring it to life like he is Dr. Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

I see what you're saying, though. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Spear and his followers performed a series of elaborate rituals meant to charge it with life force.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

What do you make his female followers do? Because that's what it sounds like we're headed towards. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Groups of people physically gathered and touched the machine as though transferring energy into it. Spear then took these things a step further, dressing it in specifically designed outfit covered in metal plates and gemstones before entering a deep trance. During this state, witnesses claimed there was a visible connection described as a stream of light linking him directly to the machine.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

It's probably a candle.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And then the plan escalated. Because building the machine wasn't enough, it had to be brought to life. So enter Miss Mary Ann Brown.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Who's Mary Ann Brown?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

She was one of Sparr's devoted followers. Of course she was. And she was chosen for a very specific and important role. She would act as New Mary. A symbolic. A symbolic mother figure who would give birth to the machine, like Exhiley.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

No. Thank God.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

What followed was a ritual that can only be described as a full scale enactment of labor and delivery. Delivery, much like a handmaid's tale.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I've never seen the show.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

In the handmaid's tale.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

I give the gist of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

The the wit the the rich women would fake labor while their servants were actually delivering their babies. So that's exactly what's happening. They're fake delivering this machine. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

So over the course of several days, Brown went through what the group interpreted as labor pains. She was surrounded by followers, guided by the supposed instructions of the equ eclipse. Oh my god. Eclizers. Ecliotrizers. Oh my god. I can't even pronounce it. It's so weird.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

It's just fucking weird.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

All of them fully committed to the idea that this machine was about to be born into the world as a living spiritual entity.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

This is fucking weird.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

At no point did anyone step back and say, just to clarify, we are currently talking about like the birth of a div like a machine, right? Like a device.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

So is this like an early. I'm not gonna finish that. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

The moment of delivery was treated with seriousness. There was a ceremony, there was anticipation, there was one assumes a level of emotional investment usually reserved for actual human beings. Right. And then at the end of all of it, the machine was declared alive.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Oh fucking hell.

The Mechanical Birth And Violent Backlash

SPEAKER_00 23:39

For a brief period, the new mode of power was treated as exactly what Spear claimed it to be: a revolutionary force that would change the world. It represented hope, progress, and a new direction for humanity. Unfortunately, the rest of humanity had not been consulted by this. So, news of the machine and the circumstances of its quote-unquote birth spread, and it wasn't enthusiastic. I don't know about that. Locals were confused and skeptical and increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that a group of people had gathered to midwife a mechanical savior.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Oh fucking hell.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

A group of locals confronted the situation. They destroyed the miss the machine. Because of they're like, we don't we don't get this, we don't believe in this, so we're gonna kill the machine.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

That's you, I mean, that's that's typical human nature, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

And just like that, humanity's brief experiment with an electrically powered messiah came to an abrupt end. And Spear, to his credit, did not entirely abandon his beliefs. He did remain involved in spiritualism, continued to promote his ideas, though he never tried to recreate the new mode of power. I found this on Wikipedia. So I don't know the truth of this. But it said his business card said, quote, guided and assisted by beneficent spirit intelligence, Mr. S will examine and prescribe for disease of body and mind, will delineate the character of persons when present or by letter, and indicate their future as impressions are given him, will sketch the special capacities of young persons, applications to lecture or hold conversations on spiritualism will be welcomed.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Jesus Christ. That is one hell of a business. How many business card? How many business cards did it take to carry that? Holy shit.

Aftermath And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_00 25:52

In 1872, Speer claimed to have received a message from the Associ Association of Electrizers, urging him to retire from the ministry. And then he died on October 1887 in the city of Philadelphia. And that is the story of James Murray Speer. And I'm going to read it again because it is just so lovely how Broken Eye 3 from Reddit explained all this in a simple paragraph. Yes. He said, John Murray Spear was a 19th-century American activist, humanitarian, and all-around outstandingly decent human being who tried to build his own messiah out of mechanical parts animated by the disembodied soul of the non-existent baby from a female follower's phantom pregnancy based on designs transmitted to him telepathically by a secret society of famous dead people. That is the story of John Murray Spear.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Whelp?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Ha ha! Was that weird or what?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

That was fucking word I can't say because you get mad. Welp? I suppose. Alright, buffoons, that's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at History Buffoons Podcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the lube.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Remember, the buffoonery never stops.