In 1933, psychic founded spiritualist retreat in Utah

An amazing story which I had not heard of another of teh aberrations that occur in Spiritualism as it reaches into the new age and "divine revelations"

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51045979-76/ogden-peshak-utah-god.html.csp?page=2
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Living History: In 1933, psychic founded spiritualist retreat in Utah
By eileen hallet stone

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: January 15, 2011 07:31AM
Updated: January 15, 2011 02:44PM
Near to God and far from man, Marie Ogden founded a religious community in the wilderness area of Dry Valley, 14 miles north of Monticello in San Juan County, in 1933. She called it the Home of Truth.

Ogden, a widow from Newark, N.J., was an educated woman and talented amateur pianist. Married to a successful insurance executive, she raised two daughters and was active in community affairs and welfare reform.

When her husband, Harry, died suddenly from cancer in 1929, the grieving widow turned to metaphysics and spiritualism to communicate between this world and the next.

Encouraged by spiritualist William Dudley Pelley’s tales of otherworldly encounters, Ogden briefly supported his mission.

An American extremist claiming the ability to levitate, Pelley’s politics may have caused a rift in their relationship. In 1933, Pelley organized the anti-Semitic Silver Legion in honor of Adolf Hitler.

Parting ways, Ogden wove astrological elements, numerology and the principles of pyramidism into her metaphysical study — and touted this esoteric philosophy across state lines. She lectured on the occult, natural disasters, pre-ordained catastrophes, final judgment, reincarnation, resurrection and redemption.

Believing herself “divinely informed,” Ogden communicated with God through a typewriter. One revelation delivered through its keys led the psychic to Utah’s high desert to purchase 1,000 acres of land.

Another “automatic writing” prophesied a cataclysmic meltdown of the world, a transformation in southeastern Utah from arid desert to tropical paradise, and the “rebirth of society” from within the commune’s faithful.

True believers — like-minded converts from New York to Boise — descended on the new utopia.

The Home of Truth comprised three physical groupings, constructed several miles apart, called “portals.” In the outer portal, colonists built a communal home, single men’s dormitory, wood shop and guest quarters. The middle portal contained residential homes, multi-use buildings, a commissary, chapel and an unfinished cobblestone church.

The inner portal, according to Ogden, was sited on the “exact center of the Earth’s axis,” guaranteeing everyone’s survival. This complex included cabins for single women, Ogden’s domicile and, later, her grand piano.

At its height, 100 colonists relinquished their personal possessions and financial assets that, collected by Ogden, went toward the betterment of the community. They cleared ground, built a windmill-powered water pump, concrete cistern, homes and furniture. They gave up tobacco, alcohol and wrestled with celibacy. Some unsuccessfully prospected for gold in the Blue Mountains. Others, unable to farm the hardscrabble land, leased garden plots near Monticello or worked for hire. A few raised chickens and purchased local beef and mutton. After another revelation, some ceased eating meat.

In 1934, Ogden bought the San Juan Record, and as publisher/editor added a column on metaphysics. She received ongoing communication from God. Convinced she could raise the dead, she offered promises of an afterlife.

Cancer-riddled Edith Peshak, of Boise, took stock in the seer’s self-promoted restorative powers. She and her husband were colony members and contributed generously, hoping for a spiritual cure. In 1935, Peshak died.

News of her death was kept quiet because the poor woman was “between worlds.” To “stimulate” Peshak’s pledged revival, Ogden applied resuscitation therapy — ritualistic washings, forced feedings and the laying of hands — three times a day for four months.

By the time the county sheriff learned of the corpse, he determined Peshak’s mummified body posed no health risk because the climate was so dry. Two years later, Ogden publicized her intent to again revive Peshak. The state of Utah and the Peshaks’ son requested a death certificate. But no body was found.

Ogden insisted neither death nor suggested cremation had occurred, and members fled.

Largely abandoned, she lived on in the colony for nearly four decades. She wrote metaphysical papers, taught piano to Monticello children and relied on her typewriter keys to converse with God — and Mrs. Peshak.

At 91, Marie Ogden died in a nursing home in Blanding with no resuscitation requested.

Eileen Hallet Stone, an oral historian, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com.

Source: University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections


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© 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune

It was hard to find many Spiritualist principles in this bizarre mumbo-jumbo following.

Where do you find 'em, Jim?