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| , Seer and Clairvoyant of the 19th Century, was be able to enter into a higher sphere of consciousness and access higher spiritual and physical knowledge. |
Andrew Jackson Davis was born on August 11, 1826 in Blooming Grove (Orange County), NY. This town is a small hamlet along the Hudson River. His father was unstable and did odd jobs as a cobbler and weaver. He also was an alcoholic. His mother was illiterate and strongly religious. The family frequently moved an he had very little schooling. At an early age he became an apprentice to a shoemaker for 2 years.
In 1838, the family moved to Poughkeepsie, NY. When he was 17 (in 1843), he attended a lecture in his town on Mesmerism given by a traveling Doctor (Dr. J.S. Grimes, Professor of Jurisprudence in the Castleton Medical College). At first, he had no success with it. A short time later, a local tailor (William Livingston), who was experimenting with mesmerism, threw him into a trance. He found that he was clairvoyant and could understand incredible truths from a higher plane of consciousness which he found himself in. He was able to read closed books, diagnose illnesses, and also prescribe treatments which usually worked. Note that this is very similar to what Edgar Cayce did about
50 years later. Being in this superconscious state, he claimed that he could understand the universe, and its causes and effects. Divine truths and the laws of the universe were also revealed to him. He said that he had reached the Superior Condition, beyond clairvoyance where he received truth from the spiritual sun beyond the spiritual world. Davis also claimed to be able to visit the spiritual world at will. He stated that all spirits continue to progress throughout eternity. |
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| Davis was the first person to diagnose and prescribe cures for individuals while himself in a trance state about 50 years before Edgar Cayce. He also described in detail what happens to the soul at death, and explained spiritualism and other metaphysical phenomena. His scope of knowledge extended to education, health, psychology, philosophy, and government. |
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In 1846, for 15 months, he dictated a book based on these revelations. This book, Principles of Nature, was published in 1847. He was 21 years old at the time. Up to this time, he had about 5 months of schooling and never read more than a half dozen books. He eventually wrote and published over 30 books in 45 editions. His spiritual writings included topics such as the seven planes of existence, mental and physical health, astronomy, physics, chemistry, philosophy, education, government, and many others. In his writings about the human body and health, Davis described how the human body was transparent to him in this trance state. Each organ of the body stood out clearly with a special luminosity of its own which greatly diminished in cases of disease.
In 1844, Davis was suddenly overcome by some power which transported him to the Catskill Mountains (40 miles away). In this semi-trance state, he claims to have met the philosopher and Greek physician Galen and the Swedish Seer Emanuel Swedenborg, both of whom had been dead for some time. He also experienced a great mental illumination at that time.
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| His writings open up an entire new world and they speak to your inner most being. He claimed that his purpose was to help people advance spiritually and his writings help to do this. |
Davis also predicted the coming age of Spiritualism and is sometimes referred to as the John the Baptist of Spiritualism. In his Principles of Nature (1847), he states "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." Several years later, on March 31, 1848, the Fox sisters in Hydesville, NY began hearing spirit rappings and this event shook the world into the possibility of communications with spirits.
In 1850, in his book the Great Harmonia, Davis talks about how man evolved from animals and that evolution also took place in plants and animals up to man. He says that this is not a popular idea since many at that time believed in creationism. This is 9 years before Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species. It must be noted that in 1842 and 1844, Darwin wrote relatively short summaries of his theory, but they were not widely read outside of British scientific circles.
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| He predicted the existence of the planets Neptune and Pluto before their actual discovery. He wrote about The Theory of Evolution a decade before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" and discovered many other scientific laws before their discovery. |
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It is thought that Davis met and advised Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Several early sources mentioned that Davis had visited the White House to meet with Lincoln and that Lincoln visited him when he was in NY.
In his later years, he acquired a Medical degree and retired to Boston. There he opened a small book shop and prescribed herbal remedies to his patients. He died in 1910.
Andrew Jackson Davis is being rediscovered today and we hope that this web site will help you learn about him and his teachings.
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