Spirit of Things

Andrew Jackson Davis

By Samantha Duly

I have chosen Andrew Jackson Davis for this month’s column because he was an amazing man and pioneer for Modern Spiritualism.

Modern Spiritualism is reported to have started with the Fox sisters, but it was Davis who actually predicted and wrote in his diary, on 31st March 1848, that a ‘living demonstration would be born’. This is the actual day that spirit started to communicate with the Fox Sisters in Hydesville, New York (NY).

“In this state, he found that he could read closed books.”

Andrew Jackson Davis was a seer and clairvoyant of the 19th Century and who later became known as ‘John the Baptist of Modern Spiritualism’. He was born on August 11th 1826 in Blooming Grove, Orange County, NY. His father was an unstable alcoholic and did odd jobs as a cobbler and weaver but did not earn much, so the family lived in poverty. His mother was very religious and illiterate. The family moved frequently, so Davis did not have much schooling.

When he was 12, the family moved to Poughkeepsie. At the age of 17, he attended a lecture in his hometown on Mesmerism (hypnotism) by Dr J.S. Grimes. Davis experimented with what he had learnt but had no success until a local tailor, William Livingston who was also experimenting, put him into a trance.

Davis, from this experience, found out that he was clairvoyant and could also gain information from a higher plane of consciousness. In this state, he found that he could read closed books, diagnose illnesses, as he saw the body as transparent and each organ stood out. In this way he was able to prescribe treatments for the patient’s condition. He also found that he understood the universe, cause and effects, plus the divine truths and with this, the laws of the universe were shown to him.

Davis also claimed he could reach the spirit world at will, realising that all spirits continue to progress. He explained in detail what

“The laws of the universe were shown to him.”

happens to the soul after death and how the spirit leaves body forming a new spiritual being. Davis also explained Spiritualism and other metaphysical phenomena. Davis felt he had reached the Superior Condition, which is beyond clairvoyance, where he received information for the spiritual sun which is beyond the spirit world.

Davis was very specific in his predictions and his accuracy was higher than any other seer known before. Amongst his predictions, he foretold/predicted the existence of the planets, Neptune and Pluto, before their actual discovery. He eventually became known as ‘the Poughkeepsie Seer’.

Although Davis had not had much schooling, at 21 years of age, he dictated a book based on his revelations over fifteen months and while in a trance state, called Principles of Nature. In this book, he stated “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

In his lifetime Davis had over 30 books published within the years of 1845-1885. His spiritual writings included subjects on mental and physical health, philosophy, education, chemistry and physics, the seven planes of existence and much more. The way the books are written helps people advance their spirituality, as Davis claimed, they reach your ‘innermost being’.

“Davis met and advised Abraham Lincoln during the civil war.”

“He explained in detail what happens to the soul after death.”

It is thought that Davis met and advised Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War of 1861-1865. He visited the White House and Lincoln also met with him in New York.

In his later years, he obtained a medical degree and when he retired, he ran a small book shop and prescribed herbal remedies until his passing in 1910.

Andrew’s contributions to Spiritualism simply cannot be counted. A simple uneducated man, who gave so much and should be noted as the prime forerunner to Modern Spiritualism. Davis also achieved so much from such a poor start in his life and I feel spirit chose him specifically to do this extraordinary work.

In May, I will be writing about Telepathy and Psychometry.

Yours in Spirit Samantha Duly