Spirit Messenger, The.
A Weekly / Semi-Monthly Magazine Devoted to Spiritual Science, the Elucidation of Truth, and the Progress of Mind.
Brethren, fear Not: for Error is mortal and cannot live, and Truth is immortal and cannot die
Other titles: The Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Guide / The Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Advocate
1850–1853 Weekly, then semimonthly, then (May 1, 1852) weekly again
Springfield, MA, and then New York, NY. Publisher: R.P. Ambler. Editor: R.P. Ambler (with Apollos Munn until January 16, 1851) and Frances H. (Fanny) Green; then with the issue of May 15, 1852: "Edited by the Spirits of the Sixth Circle, R.P. Ambler, medium"; with issue of August 13, 1852, Ambler again took control. Succeeded by: The Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Guide-->The Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Advocate-->The Journal of Progress-->The Reformer-->The Messenger of Light

1/1, August 10, 1850-April 1853. 4-32 pp., 6 1/2 x 10. $1.00 a year. Illustrated (sheet music, composed by the spirits). With volume two (August 9, 1851) the journal changed its title to The Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Guide, and in October 1851 moved its offices to New York. In May 1852, the journal again resumed the title of Spirit Messenger and at the same time began another volume two, and on October 16, 1852, the journal adopted the title Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Advocate, restarting the numbering at volume 1. The journal ended with number 26, April 9, 1853. Originally, the journal attracted the talented group of Harmonialists who earlier had animated The Univercoelum and Spiritual Philosopher and had broken up over Andrew Jackson Davis's affair with a married woman. The journal carried articles by Ambler, Frances H. (Fanny) Green, Hon. John W. Edmonds, Thomas Lake Harris, George Lippard ("The Poor Man"), Andrew Jackson Davis ("The Origin of the Devil"), J.K. Ingalls, and others. Ambler was a Universalist minister who was converted to spiritualism by the phenomena of the Fox Sisters (he acted as advance lecturer on their tours in early 1850), and returned to the pulpit in later years, disillusioned with spiritualism. Apollos Munn (1816-1851), Ambler's original co-editor, resigned in January 1851 and died later the same year--though he continued to further the cause by appearing at seances after his death. Munn was a printer and newspaper publisher who was converted to spiritualism when a medium told him that the spirit of his sister "Lois" wanted to communicate. He scoffed and left, only to learn later from his mother that his dead sister's real name was Lois. His departure left Russell Perkins Ambler (1826-1908) to run the journal alone. Ambler did not have a head for business or, indeed, for rational discourse. He was the principal medium of the journal and increasingly lost control of his facilities to the spirits who spoke through him, and filled its pages with their communications. By May 1852, after a lapse in publication, Ambler had been replaced as editor by the "Spirits of the Sixth Circle" acting directly, and the pages per issue halved to save money. Initially the revived journal continued to devote itself almost exclusively to communications from the Spirits of the Sixth Circle (or, variously, from the Second Sphere) who communicated through Ambler and stressed that their principal purpose was the reform of renegade society. The journal soon lapsed again, and with the issue of August 13, 1852, Ambler again took editorial control in his own name, explaining that he had been overwhelmed by the spirits (who would, he said, thenceforth pour out their teachings, in books rather than in the magazine) and assured readers that the spirits had promised that the journal would last a year at least. It did not, and ceased with the issue of October 1, 1852, only to be revived as a weekly at $2.00 a year under the name Spirit Messenger and Harmonial Advocate, and in variants of this guise it lasted until April 1853. The rump of the journal was taken up in turn by The Journal of Progress, which was taken over by The Reformer, which was taken over by The Messenger of Light. A fair judgment on the journal was given by the Swedenborgian George Bush, in The New Church Repository and Monthly Review (December 1852): 546. In writing on "Pseudo-Spiritualism" Bush says that "Whole volumes of such sickly stuff . . . have doubtless been indited within the last three years . . . . If any one would see it in its perfection, let him consult the 'Spiritual Messenger' of R.P. Ambler, whose pages are a model on the score of diluted inanity." The Spirits of the Sixth Circle fulfilled their promise of inspiring books, and Ambler published a condensed version of their teachings, automatically written through him, as The Spiritual Teacher; comprising a Series of Twelve Lectures on the Nature and Development of the Spirit. Written by Spirits of the Sixth circle (New York July 1852). NYPL; LOC; Boston Athenaeum; Harvard University; Brown University; American Antiquarian Society; Wisconsin Historical Society.

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