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Biographies
Andrew
Jackson Davis
Spiritist Group of
New York
Sept. 2002
Great Forerunners of Spiritism
Forerunners to Modern Spiritualism
Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910)
By Rev. Simeon
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.
First
Spiritual
Temple
The Ayer Institute
16 Monmouth Street
,
Brookline
,
MA
,
02446
-5605
USA
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