Andrew Jackson Davis American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Spiritualist, was born at Blooming Grove, New York

Blooming Grove, New York

Blooming Grove is a town in Orange County, New York, USA. The population was 17,351 at the 2000 census.The Town of Blooming Grove is in the central part of the county, located southwest of Newburgh.- History :...

.

Early years

He had little education, though probably much more than he and his friends pretended. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie (city), New York

Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...

 on animal magnetism

Animal magnetism

Animal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...

, as the phenomena of hypnotism was then termed, and found that he had remarkable clairvoyant powers. In the following year he had, he said, spiritual messages telling him of his life work.

Work

For the next three years (1844–1847) he practised magnetic healing with much success; and in 1847 he published The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, which in 1845 he had dictated while in a trance to his scribe, William Fishbough. He lectured with little success and returned to writing (or dictating ) books, publishing about 30 in all including:

• The Great Harmonia (1850–1861), an encyclopaedia in six volumes;
• The Philosophy of Special Providences (1850), which with its evident rehash of old arguments against special providences and miracles would seem to show that Davis' inspiration was literary;
• The Magic Staff: an Autobiography (1857), which was supplemented by Arabula: or the Divine Guest, Containing a New Collection of New Gospels (1867), the gospels being those according to St Confucius, St John (G.Whittier),St Gabriel (Derzhavin),St Octavius (Frothingham), St Gerrit (Smith), St Emma (Hardinge), St Ralph (W. Emerson), St Selden (J. Finney), St Theodore (Parker) and others;
• A Stellar Key to the Summer Land (1868);
• Tale of a Physician, or, the Seeds and Fruits of Crime (1869) Internet Archive; online edition (pdf format, 22 MB, entire book on one pdf);
• Views of Our Heavenly Home (1878), each with illustrative diagrams and The Fountain with Jets of New Meanings (1870) Illustrated published by McCrea & Miller.

Influences and legacy

Davis was much influenced by Swedenborg and by the Shakers

Shakers

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, known as the Shakers, is a religious sect originally thought to be a development of the Religious Society of Friends...

, who reprinted his panegyric praising Ann Lee

Ann Lee

Mother Ann Lee was the leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or Shakers....

 in the official work, Sketch of Shakers and Shakerism (1884).

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

 was inspired by Davis, whose lectures on mesmerism he had attended, in the writing of "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe about a mesmerist who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death. An example of a tale of suspense and horror, it is also, to a certain degree, a hoax as it was published without claiming...

" (1845).

Davis in turn directly influenced self-proclaimed psychic Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce was an American psychic who allegedly had the ability to give answers to questions on subjects such as healing or Atlantis while in a hypnotic trance...

(1877–1945) who adopted "trance diagnosis" and similar activities with few modifications from Davis's example. In fact, Davis's complete library is now housed within the Edgar Cayce Library.

Sources

• Andrew Jackson Davis and His Wives http://web.archive.org/web/20050313094708/http://www.spirithistory.com/ajdavis.html via Wayback Machine, originally http://www.spirithistory.com/ajdavis.html (now a dead link)