Andrew Jackson Davis is often referred
to as the John the Baptist
of Modern Spiritualism; for it was he
who firmly set into place and
definitively proclaimed the coming
revelation of Spirit communion.
Andrew Jackson Davis grew up in
poverty. He was born at Blooming Grove,
a small hamlet along the
Hudson River
, in
New
York
State
. His
mother was a simple, uneducated woman,
and his father, between binges of
drunkenness, earned a scanty living as
a weaver and a shoemaker.Young Davis
showed signs of clairvoyance and heard
voices very early in life and, on the
advice given from Spirit, he convinced
his father to move to
Poughkeepsie
in
1838. In 1843, Dr. J. S. Grimes
visited the city and gave a series of
lectures on mesmerism (hypnosis). With
Davis
's
curiosity getting the better of him,
he attended one of the lectures and
was tested as a subject, with no
results. Later, a local tailor named
William Levingston helped induce upon
Davis
a
state of mesmeric trance and found
that in this altered state of
consciousness, he (Davis) could
accurately diagnose medical disorders.
In this condition,
Davis
described how the human body became
transparent to his spirit eyes; this
seemed to come from the center of the
forehead. Each organ stood out clearly
with a special luminosity of its own
which greatly diminished in cases of
disease.
In 1844, Andrew Jackson Davis had an
experience which was to change the
course of his life. On the evening of
March 6th,
Davis
was
suddenly overcome by some power which
led him to "fly" from
Poughkeepsie
,
where he lived, and hurry off in a
semi-trance state, upon a rapid
journey. Upon gaining full
consciousness the next morning, he
found himself amidst the
Catskill Mountains
,
some 40 miles away. Here, he claims to
have met two very distinguished men,
whom he later identified as the
philosopher Galen and the Swedish seer
Emanuel Swedenborg, both of whom were,
of course, dead. He also claimed to
have experienced a great mental
illumination and revelation. Now, it
is very difficult to ascertain exactly
what happened to
Davis
during this evening: was the
experience a vision; was it an actual
levitation and/or transportation to
the
Catskill Mountains
; or
did he really walk 40 miles in the
trance condition? Regardless of what
actually happened, the effect upon
Davis
was
tremendous.
From that time onward, he traveled
extensively, giving public lectures
and teachings. In the course of a
teaching tour,
Davis
met
Dr. Lyons and Rev. Fishbough. Dr.
Lyons was a qualified mesmerist and
often induced the trance state upon
Davis
.
During these episodes, a wealth of
material came through, all of which
was transcribed by Rev. Fishbough. In
November, 1845,
Davis
began
dictating his great work, The
Principles of Nature: Her Divine
Revelations and A Voice To Mankind.
The dictation lasted for 15 months,
with many enthusiastic people bearing
witness to these trance utterances.
Nandor Fodor, in his Encyclopedia of
Psychic Science, writes of one of
these witnesses:
"Dr.
George Bush, Professor of Hebrew at
the
University
of
New
York
,
declared that he heard
Davis
correctly quote Hebrew. The seer's
good faith was also established by his
answers to impromptu questions put to
him as tests while he was in the
clairvoyant state. Professor Bush
summed up his opinion thus: 'Taken as
a whole the work is a profound and
elaborate discussion of the philosophy
of the universe, and for grandeur of
conception, soundness of principle,
clearness of illustration, order of
arrangement and encyclopedic range of
subjects, I know no work of any single
mind that will bear away from it the
palm.' It was partly due to Bush's
enthusiasm that the book, published in
1847, met with eager interest. Within
a few weeks of its appearance, however,
Professor Bush published a small
pamphlet, Davis's Revelations Revealed,
in which he solemnly warned the public
against being misled by the numerous
errors, absurdities and falsities
contained in that work. It was clear
to him, he said, that
Davis
,
although himself apparently an honest
and single-hearted young man, had been
made the mouthpiece of uninstructed
and deceiving spirits ..... The book
attained 34 editions in less than 30
years which alone proved the appeal of
the style and the qualities of this
stupendous work."
The book opens with the
following:
"In the beginning the Univercoelumm
was one boundless, indefinable, and
unimaginable
ocean
of
Liquid Fire
. The
most vigorous and ambitious
imagination is not capable of forming
an adequate conception of the height
and depth and length and breadth
thereof. There was one vast expanse of
liquid substance. It was without
bounds - inconceivable - and with
qualities and essences
incomprehensible. This was the
original condition of Matter. It was
without forms, for it was but one Form.
It had no motions, but it was an
eternity of Motion. It was without
parts, for it was a Whole. Particles
did not exist, but the Whole was as
one Particle. There were not suns, but
it was one eternal Sun. It had no
beginning and it was without end. It
had not length, for it was a Vortex of
one Eternity. It had not circles, for
it was one infinite Circle. It had not
disconnected power, but it was the
very essence of all Power. Its
inconceivable magnitude and
constitution were such as not to
develop forces, but Omnipotent Power.
"Matter and Power were existing as a
Whole, inseparable. The Matter
contained the substance to produce all
suns, all worlds, and systems of
worlds, throughout the immensity of
Space. It contained the qualities to
produce all things that are existing
upon each of those worlds. The Power
contained Wisdom, and Goodness,
Justice, Mercy and Truth. It contained
the original and essential Principle
that is displayed throughout immensity
of Space, controlling worlds and
systems of worlds, and producing
Motion, Life, Sensation and
Intelligence, to be impartially
disseminated upon their surfaces as
ultimates."
One can see clearly from this passage
that much of the teaching that was
given through Andrew Jackson Davis is
similar in style and content to that
of Emanuel Swedenborg; yet
Davis
was
not at all an educated person during
his earlier years. It is this fact, we
feel, which makes the revelations of
Davis
so
very interesting. Here we have two
seers, Emanuel Swedenborg and Andrew
Jackson Davis. Each came from totally
different social, economic and
educational backgrounds, yet both were
channels for some of the most profound
and esoteric philosophies and
teachings to come out of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Davis
's
prediction of the movement of Modern
Spiritualism was given in his
Principles of Nature, first published
in 1847. In it he wrote:
"It is a truth that spirits commune
with one another while one is in the
body and the other in the higher
spheres - and this, too, when the
person in the body is unconscious of
the influx, and hence cannot be
convinced of the fact; and this truth
will ere long present itself in the
form of a living demonstration. And
the world will hail with delight the
ushering in of that era when the
interiors of men will be opened, and
the spiritual communion will be
established."
Finally, on
March
31, 1848
, in
his diary, Andrew Jackson Davis
recorded the following:
"About daylight this morning a warm
breathing passed over my face and I
heard a voice, tender and strong,
saying, 'Brother, the good work has
begun - behold, a living demonstration
is born.' I was left wondering what
could be meant by such a message."
At that very moment, not too far
away, in
Hydesville
,
New
York
, the
events which literally shook the world
into looking at the very real
possibility of communicating with
those in Spirit were taking place.
Indeed, the good work had begun.
The contributions made by Andrew
Jackson Davis to the cause of
Spiritualism simply cannot be
enumerated. This simple, uneducated
man, through whom so very much was
given, should be noted as the prime
forerunner to Modern Spiritualism.
From 1845 to 1885, he wrote over 30
books dealing on subjects from
cosmological philosophy and
dissertation, to health, to a
descriptive analysis of the afterlife.
In the latter years of his life,
having finally acquired a medical
degree, Andrew Jackson Davis retired
to
Boston
,
where he opened a small book shop.
There he sold books and prescribed
herbal remedies to his patients.
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