Andrew Davies: pioneer of spiritualism. Biographies of Great Men Episode in the Catskill Mountains

(1910 ) A place of death: Father:

Samuel Davis

Mother: Spouse:

Catherine H. de Wolfe (1806-1853)
Mary Fenn Robinson (1824-1886)
Della Elizabeth Markham (1839-1928)

Biography

Andrew Jackson Davis was born on August 11, 1826 in Blooming Grove, New York, a small community on the banks of the Hudson River. His father, who worked as a shoemaker and weaver, was an alcoholic. The mother, an illiterate woman, was distinguished by her fanatical religiosity. The boy spent a difficult and poor childhood without receiving any education and began working from an early age as a shoemaker's assistant. According to his autobiography (“Magical,” “The Magic Staff”), by the age of 16 he had read only one book, “The Catechism” (although opponents later hinted that he was actually much more educated than he pretended to be). Jackson claimed that his “psychic” abilities began to manifest themselves already in childhood: he allegedly heard “angelic voices” giving him advice and consolation, and on the day of his mother’s death he saw “a house in a picturesque area where, according to Davis, her soul went.” .

In 1838 the family moved to Poughcopse, New York. At the age of 17, Davis attended a lecture on mesmerism given by Dr. J. S. Grams, professor of jurisprudence at Castleton Medical College. He tried to apply the acquired knowledge in practice - at first without success. But soon a tailor named William Livingston, who had hypnotic abilities, put Davis into a trance and found out that his ward in this state was able to do strange things: read closed books, make diagnoses and even (without having any medical knowledge) prescribe treatment, which somehow - in a way it really helped the sick. Under Livingston's patronage, Davis began to develop clairvoyance and began to practice healing. At the same time, he argued that the human body becomes transparent to his “inner vision,” emitting a radiance that fades in diseased organs. At the same time, he sometimes performed diagnostic exercises at a distance, allowing the “etheric body” to be released from the physical shell as a result of “magnetic manipulation.”

Davis, in his own words, made “spiritual journeys”, after which he described in detail the earth as it was visible from a great height, described mineral deposits, underground voids, etc.

It is noteworthy that in the early stages of the development of his psychic powers, Davis could not remember his impressions immediately after emerging from the trance. But the subconscious registered impressions, and over time he could restore them to the smallest detail. For a long time, Davis remained a source, open to everyone, but closed to himself. - A. Conan Doyle. History of Spiritualism. Chapter Three

In New York, Davis began to educate himself and attracted the attention of famous people, including Edgar Allan Poe. Soon he was able to go into trance on his own and began to analyze his own “psychic experiences.” He spent a lot of time at the beds of the dying, observing, in his words, the departure of the soul from the body. The results of these observations were published in the form of a brochure, but were not successful and were then included in the first volume of The Great Harmony.

Episode in the Catskill Mountains

On the evening of March 6, 1844, something happened to Davis that left an imprint on the rest of his life. He himself claimed that, under the influence of a certain “force” in a state of trance, he ran out of Poughkeepsie and ended up in the Catskill Mountains, forty miles from home. Here he entered into communication with two “outstanding men”, whom he later, in retrospect, recognized as the Greek philosopher Galen and Emmanuel Swedenborg, who talked with him about medicine and morality. The meeting, according to Davis, brought him his greatest enlightenment. Later there were suggestions that he made this journey in a dream or in a trance, without leaving home, but, be that as it may, after this incident the nature of the messages that he began to receive changed.

Davis began preaching about the nature of life, the structure of the world, and the origins of spirituality. During his continuous travels around the country, he met the practicing hypnotist Dr. Lyons and the Reverend Fishbow, who undertook to record the speeches that Davis delivered in a trance. In November 1945, Davis began dictating the texts that formed the basis of his book The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. This literary-hypnotic experience lasted 15 months and many famous people witnessed what was happening. In particular, Dr. George W. Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University, claimed that “... I heard from Davis a statement in Hebrew, which was a statement of the geographical concepts of that era, which at his age he could not study in such a short time. He talked about ancient biblical history and mythology, about the origin and roots of language, about the development of civilization among various nations of the globe. Any renowned school could be proud of such knowledge. Such a depth of knowledge cannot be obtained even by reading the books of all the libraries of the Christian world.”

In the book, Davis described his “soul flights,” his plunges into “highest states of exaltation,” and the function of his “spiritual eye.” He analyzed in detail the process of the soul’s departure from the body (which he observed specifically while staying at the bedside of dying people), and described how the etheric body leaves “the poor bodily shell, leaving it empty, like the shell of a chrysalis that a moth has just left.”

Davis's predictions

Before 1856, Davis predicted in detail the advent of the automobile and the typewriter. In his book "Penetration" he wrote, in particular:

In The Principles of Nature (1847), Davis predicted the rise of spiritualism:

Davis's personality

Davis was not religious in the generally accepted sense of the word. Moreover, his version of the Gospel was rather critical. According to A. Conan Doyle, he was, however, “...an honest, serious, incorruptible man who fought for the truth... and was distinguished by great scrupulousness in all his words and actions.”

Researchers of the Davis phenomenon noted that he was almost illiterate and did not read books.

- A. Conan Doyle

Features of Davis' philosophy

Davis believed that the path of progress for humanity is the “fight against sin,” not only in the biblical sense of the word: he attributed blind fanaticism and narrow-mindedness to the latter.

He called his “teaching” (expounded using long, incomprehensible terms that required the creation of an entire dictionary) “documentary religion,” although it was not a religion in the usual sense of the word, but rather resembled a set of opinions about the structure of the world, the mechanisms of nature and the origins spirituality (“Philosophy of Harmony”, “Divine Revelations of Nature”, “Univercoelum”).

According to A. Conan Doyle, -

Last years

From 1845 to 1885, Davis wrote about thirty books on topics ranging from cosmology to medicine, and two autobiographies: The Magic Staff(1857) and Beyond the Valley(1885). In 1878, Davis broke with spiritualism, condemning its adherents' desire for sensational "miracles" in séances and lack of interest in the philosophy of the phenomenon. In 1886, Davis received a medical degree from the New York Medical College and entered into orthodox medical practice. He returned to Boston, where he opened a small bookstore, where he also sold medicinal herbs, which he himself prescribed to patients. Andrew Jackson Davis died in Boston in 1910.

Major works

"The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind"
The Great Harmonia (1850-1861), an encyclopedia in six volumes
The Philosophy of Special Providences (1850)
The Magic Staff (1857), autobiography
Arabula: or the Divine Guest (with the New Gospel collection)
Stellar Key to the Summer Land (1868)
Tale of a Physician or The Seeds and Fruits of Crime (1869)
Views of Our Heavenly Home (1878)
The Fountain with Jets of New Meanings (1870)

Notes

p·o·r Spiritualism
Founders	Emmanuel Swedenborg Allan Kardec Andrew Jackson Davis

Andrew Jackson is called the father of modern spiritualism. From the world of spirits, he drew strength and abilities, knowledge about the medicine of the future and the events of ancient history. Humanity has yet to appreciate the full significance and depth of these revelations.
BIRTH OF A PROPHET
The future great medium was born into an unremarkable American family. His father made a living as a shoemaker and weaver, drinking away most of his money. The mother ran the household and spent long hours in prayer. Davis's biographers note a rather revealing fact from his biography associated with the name Andrew. It so happened that the newborn lived for several days anonymously: his parents had no time for him. When a friend of their father came to visit them, the topic of the US presidential elections taking place at that time was raised in the conversation.
The guest suggested naming the boy in honor of the Democratic candidate Andrew Jackson, the famous general and governor of Florida. And then, thoughtfully, he said: “However, the name of this big man will not be more significant than the name of your son when he grows up.” A simple worker surprisingly accurately guessed the child's future. The seventh President of America, Andrew Jackson, is known and remembered much less well than his spiritualist namesake.
My father drank and did not stay long at any job, so the family constantly wandered from place to place. The boy was not even properly taught to read - his parents themselves were illiterate, and moving and work prevented him from regularly attending school: from childhood he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and most of the household chores were placed on the shoulders of his young son. In his autobiography, The Magic Wand, Andrew repeatedly mentions that his childhood was poor, hungry and joyless. However, it was then that spirits first began to appear to him - with instructions, advice and consolation. Their voices sounded like heavenly music, which evoked unknown, beautiful images and filled the teenager’s soul with unprecedented delight. Of course, the boy did not tell anyone about his visions, but they significantly strengthened his spirit.
At the age of 12, the voice that Davis heard so often gave him clear instructions to move with his parents to the town of Poughkeepsie.
The father, by his “tumbleweed” nature, oddly enough, responded to his son’s request. Soon the family moved to a new place of residence, which later brought Andrew Davis new abilities and fame. There he had his first completely clear and definite vision. This happened at the time of the mother's death. The teenager did not yet know that he was orphaned when he saw a picture amazing in its brightness and clarity: the snow suddenly disappeared from the dirty February street, flowers bloomed, birds chirped... Golden light spilled from the blue sky, in the reflections of which a beautiful house, and Andrew heard his mother’s gentle voice, saying that she now lives there and is doing well. The vision disappeared, the boy returned home, found out that his mother was no longer there, and realized that he had seen a new, happy world, where his mother had moved after her death. Being a religious man, Davis believed that the Lord showed him a piece of Heaven.
OPENING OF THE "THIRD EYE"
The adolescence and youth of Andrew Jackson Davis occurred at a time when unprecedented interest in mysticism and hypnosis flared up in America. Entire troupes toured the United States, performing unprecedented tricks and putting audiences into a trance. Naturally, the young man, who constantly saw and heard something inaccessible to others, became interested in this topic. He went to a scientific lecture on hypnosis, but his lack of education prevented him from understanding the essence of the phenomenon presented by the lecturer. Then Davis attended a performance by hypnotists touring in Poughkeepsie. Imagine the artist’s amazement when he was unable to put the thin, sickly-looking young man into a trance!
Davis told his good friend William Levingston, who worked as a tailor but was very interested in everything related to hypnosis, about the “defeat” of the touring artist. Intrigued, Levingston suggested the young man try again, and the new experience turned out to be more than successful. Andrew not only fell into a hypnotic state, but declared himself as a potential healer and diagnostician. While in a trance, he informed a tailor friend about the illnesses of himself and his wife, and at the same time gave both diagnoses and methods of treatment!
Both decided not to stop there and continued their experiments. During the following trances, Davis demonstrated completely unique things: he read closed books, guessed the names of people he did not know, and predicted small events that would actually happen soon. He was best at healing sessions. Perhaps this was facilitated by a childhood unrealized dream of becoming a doctor, perhaps this was a destiny from above, but Davis made diagnoses that were amazing in their accuracy and gave detailed instructions for treatment. The most interesting thing is that sometimes these “recipes” were not taken seriously by contemporary doctors, since at that time there were no recommended drugs and treatment regimens - all this was to be discovered and invented much later.
MEETING IN THE MOUNTAINS I
Apparently, regular immersions in trance helped Andrew Jackson Davis reveal his gift to the fullest. On the night of March 7, 1844, he made what later became known as “astral travel.” While in a state of spontaneous semi-trance, the medium was transported tens of kilometers from his home - to the Catskill Mountains, where he spent several hours communicating with two great people of the past: the ancient Greek healer and philosopher Galen and the Swedish scientist and spiritualist Emmanuel Swedenborg. According to Davis, Galen gave him a magic wand that could be used to cure most diseases, and Swedenborg promised support in all scientific endeavors.
This meeting significantly changed the nature of Davis' visions and revelations. For example, he began to better understand the nature of his gift and try to explain it to others. When asked how he managed to “see” diseases, he described his method of diagnosis as follows: the human body becomes transparent to his gaze, shrouded in a certain radiance, and diseased organs “shine” dimly, less intensely, which allows one to understand the nature of the disease and give appropriate recommendations.
His astral, or, as he himself called them, “spiritual journeys” became no less interesting for those around the spiritualist. The spirit of Davis, put into a state of trance, hovered above the earth, noting what is invisible to the ordinary eye: mineral deposits, topography of the area, underground rivers and voids... Inspired by new possibilities, Andrew began to preach his visions, first in his hometown, and then went on a trip around the country.
"SPIRITUAL WRITER"
The truths revealed to Davis in a trance required some kind of systematic presentation. Moreover, outside the trance, he was so uneducated and tongue-tied that he could not clearly explain his visions. Levingston, unfortunately, did not support the idea of writing a “book of revelations”, because by that time he had left the tailor’s craft and was completely immersed in a new business based on Andrew’s gift. The young man moved to his patron and, put into a trance by him, began to heal the sick, of course, for a decent reward.
However, heavenly protection helped Davis this time too. He soon met Pastor William Fishbaugh and practicing hypnotist Dr. Lyon, who helped him achieve what he wanted. For 15 months, one put him into a trance, and the second took shorthand notes of the revelations. The result of this titanic work was the monumental tome “Principles of Nature: Divine Revelations and Messages to Humanity.” The book made a huge impression on scientists of that time. His knowledge in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, philosophy, and linguistics baffled serious materialist researchers. Davis couldn't have known anything like that, but he knew it!
Andrew Jackson's most significant work was the 6-volume encyclopedia "Great Harmony", which he dictated for about 11 years. The knowledge and revelations contained in it turned out to be so unusual that the collection went through more than 40 reprints in the United States alone.
COMMUNICATION WITH SPIRITS
A deeply religious man, Andrew Davis believed in an afterlife and the ability to communicate with the dead. After all, in his life there was a vision of his dead mother and a “meeting” with the spirits of Galen and Swedenborg. Fascinated by this topic, Davis spent a long time at the bedside of the dying and clearly saw how at the moment of death the soul is separated from the body. He said that the ethereal body, separated from the flesh, is always met by other souls, leading it to the afterlife.
In March 1848, Davis heard a voice that predicted the beginning of a new era: people would see what they could not see before. Andrew understood the meaning of the prophecy a little later - thanks to the Fox sisters, who were able to “see” the spirit of the murdered man. Subsequently, both became famous American mediums. Indeed, a new era has begun. Spiritualism loudly declared itself, and Davis became one of its main adherents. He devoted a lot of time to studying the life of the soul after the death of the body. The result of numerous spiritualistic sessions was the book “Philosophy of Communication with Spirits.”
Davis believed that communicating with spirits is useful, as it allows you to lift the veil of secrecy about the future and understand the mysteries of the past. He repeatedly repeated that the souls of the dead with whom he had contact were mentors, good advisers, warning against evil deeds and helping to bring good into the world. However, his contemporaries did not listen to Davis: very soon, spiritualist sessions, like hypnosis sessions, turned into a farcical show. Realizing that people were only interested in “miracles” and did not care at all about the deep philosophy of spiritualism, Andrew Davis moved away from this movement.
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Andrew Jackson Davis

Birth name:	Andrew Jackson Davis
Occupation:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Blooming Grove Orange County NY
Citizenship:
Date of death:
A place of death:	Boston, USA
Father:	Samuel Davis
Mother:	Elizabeth (Robinson)
Spouse:	Catherine H. de Wolfe (1806-1853) Mary Fenn Robinson (1824-1886) Della Elizabeth Markham (1839-1928)

Andrew Jackson Davis(English) Andrew Jackson Davis, August 11, 1826 - January 13, 1910) was an American medium and clairvoyant, considered by followers of spiritualism to be one of the founders of this teaching. Davis was first known for his book, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, which he dictated in a trance, followed by The Great Harmonia, which went through 40 reprints in the United States.

Biography

In 1838 the family moved to Poughcopse, New York. At the age of 17, Davis attended a lecture on mesmerism given by Dr. J. S. Grams, professor of jurisprudence at Castleton Medical College. He tried to apply the acquired knowledge in practice - at first without success. But soon a tailor named William Livingston, who had hypnotic powers, put Davis into a trance and found out that his ward in this state was able to do strange things: read closed books, make diagnoses and even (without having any medical knowledge) prescribe treatment that somehow - in a way it really helped the sick. Under Livingston's patronage, Davis began to develop clairvoyance and began to practice healing. At the same time, he argued that the human body becomes transparent to his “inner vision,” emitting a radiance that fades in diseased organs. At the same time, he sometimes performed diagnostic exercises at a distance, allowing the “etheric body” to be released from the physical shell as a result of “magnetic manipulation.” Davis, in his own words, made “spiritual journeys”, after which he described in detail the earth as it was visible from a great height, described mineral deposits, underground voids, etc.

It is noteworthy that in the early stages of the development of his psychic powers, Davis could not remember his impressions immediately after emerging from the trance. But the subconscious registered impressions, and over time he could restore them to the smallest detail. For a long time, Davis remained a source, open to everyone, but closed to himself. -
A. Conan Doyle. History of Spiritualism. Chapter Three

Incident in the Catskill Mountains

On the evening of March 6, 1844, something happened to Davis that left an imprint on the rest of his life. He himself claimed that, under the influence of a certain “force” in a state of trance, he ran out of Poughkeepsie and ended up in the Catskill Mountains, forty miles from home. Here he came into contact with two “outstanding men”, whom he later, in retrospect, recognized as the Greek philosopher Galen and Emmanuel Swedenborg, who talked with him about medicine and morality. The meeting, according to Davis, brought him his greatest enlightenment. Later there were suggestions that he made this journey in a dream or in a trance, without leaving home, but, be that as it may, after this incident the nature of the messages that he began to receive changed.

In November 1845, Davis began dictating the texts that formed the basis of his book The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. This literary-hypnotic experience lasted 15 months and many famous people witnessed what was happening. In particular, Dr. George W. Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University, claimed that “... I heard from Davis a statement in Hebrew, which was a statement of the geographical concepts of that era, which at his age he could not study in such a short time. He talked about ancient biblical history and mythology, about the origin and roots of language, about the development of civilization among various nations of the globe. Any renowned school could be proud of such knowledge. Such a depth of knowledge cannot be obtained even by reading the books of all the libraries of the Christian world.”

In the book, Davis described his “soul flights,” his plunges into “highest states of exaltation,” and the function of his “spiritual eye.” He analyzed in detail the process of the soul’s departure from the body (which he observed specifically while staying for a long time at the bedside of dying people), and described how the etheric body leaves “the poor bodily shell, leaving it empty, like the shell of a chrysalis that a moth has just left.”

Davis's predictions

Before 1856, Davis predicted in detail the advent of the automobile and the typewriter. In his book "Penetration" he wrote, in particular:

Long before the discovery of Pluto (in 1933), Davis wrote about the nine planets of the solar system, and accurately indicated the density of Neptune. (On the other hand, he believed that the solar system has a “second center” and pointed to the presence of a certain “superior race” inhabiting Saturn.).

In The Principles of Nature (1847), Davis predicted the rise of spiritualism:

In his diary for March 31, 1848, Davis wrote: “In the morning, as soon as it was dawn, a warm breath touched my face, and I heard a strong sonorous voice: “My brother, today we have begun a glorious work: you will see the birth of a new manifestation of life.” I remained. in bewilderment, not understanding the meaning of the message received.” That day in Hydesville, the Fox sisters first communicated with an invisible entity through knocking.

Character traits

Davis was not religious in the conventional sense of the word. Moreover, his version of the Gospel was rather critical. According to A. Conan Doyle, he was, however, “...an honest, serious, incorruptible man who fought for the truth... and was distinguished by great scrupulousness in all his words and actions.”

Researchers of the Davis phenomenon noted that he was almost illiterate and did not read books.

Davis's philosophy

E. J. Davis, ca. 1900

Davis believed that the path of progress for humanity is the “fight against sin,” not only in the biblical sense of the word: he attributed blind fanaticism and narrow-mindedness to the latter. He called his “teaching” (expounded using long, incomprehensible terms that required the creation of an entire dictionary) “documentary religion,” although it was not a religion in the usual sense of the word, but rather resembled a set of opinions about the structure of the world, the mechanisms of nature and the origins spirituality (“Philosophy of Harmony”, “Divine Revelations of Nature”, “Univercoelum”).

In describing the afterlife, Davis followed Swedenborg (whom many considered his spirit mentor), describing life as similar to earthly life - “semi-material”, only partially changed by death. Davis described in detail the stages of development that the human spirit must overcome in the process of ascension to the divine realms. According to A. Conan Doyle, “...He moved one step further after Swedenborg, without having such a developed intellect, which distinguished the great Swedish master. Swedenborg saw hell and heaven as Davis described them in detail. However, Swedenborg failed to clearly define the essence of death and the true nature of the spirit world, as his American successor did.”

Last years

Major works

"The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind"
The Great Harmonia (1850-1861), an encyclopedia in six volumes
The Philosophy of Special Providences (1850)
The Magic Staff (1857), autobiography
Arabula: or the Divine Guest (with the New Gospel collection)
Stellar Key to the Summer Land (1868)
Tale of a Physician or The Seeds and Fruits of Crime (1869)
Views of Our Heavenly Home (1878)
The Fountain with Jets of New Meanings (1870)

Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

PHENOMENON-MEDIUM ANDREW DAVIS

The American medium and clairvoyant Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910), whom followers of spiritualism consider one of the founders of this teaching, was an incredibly interesting person. Its phenomenon has not yet been solved.

*********************************************************************************************

“...The human world will open up for contacts, and spiritual communication will become the same norm, as is possibly happening with the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn,” argued Andrew Davis.

BIOGRAPHY FACTS

Researchers of the Davis phenomenon noted that he was almost illiterate and did not read books.

The world-famous creator of books about Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, who was seriously interested in spiritualism, wrote about Andrew: “It is absolutely clear that any pipe can pass a flow no more than a certain diameter. Using this metaphor, we can say that Davis's "diameter" was different from Swedenborg's: Swedenborg was one of the most educated people in Europe, while Davis was just an ignorant teenager from New York State, but both received their knowledge in a state of trance. Swedenborg's revelation, perhaps more significant, was influenced by his own mind, while Davis's revelation was an incomparably greater miracle.

Indeed, Andrew’s childhood cannot be called happy or prosperous. He was born on August 11, 1826 in Blooming Grove, New York, a small community on the banks of the Hudson River. His father, who worked part-time as a shoemaker and weaver, drank relentlessly and became an alcoholic. The mother, who did not know how to read and write, was distinguished by her fanatical religiosity.

When they were choosing a name for the baby, a family friend, Uncle Muffet, visited the house. He looked at the baby and said, “I'm going to vote for the hero of New Orleans. This is a wonderful person! I want this boy to take his name - Andrew Jackson." After a pause, he added mysterious words: “However, the name of that big man will not be more significant than the name of your son when he grows up...”. But no one paid attention to Uncle’s prophecy.

Andrew's difficult and poor childhood did not involve receiving any education, but from an early age he began working as a shoemaker's assistant.

As Davis recounted in his autobiography (“Magical,” “The Magic Staff”), by the age of 16 he had read only one book, “The Catechism” (although opponents later hinted that in reality he was much more educated than he tried to imagine) . Jackson claimed that his “psychic” abilities began to manifest themselves at the age of 12, when he was sent to work with a neighboring farmer. He allegedly heard “angelic voices” giving him advice and consolation.

And on the day of his mother’s death I saw “a house in a picturesque area where, according to Davis, her soul went”: “...I heard my mother’s voice unexpectedly and clearly. She asked me to look at the large beautiful house, surrounded by the greenery of the garden. “I live here now,” said the voice, “and I feel very good...” A clear-sounding, familiar voice that could not be confused with any other! I saw and heard all this as I moved towards the house. Having crossed his threshold, I learned that my mother had recently died. A little later, I realized that everything I saw on the way home was evidence not of her death, but of the new life that my mother told me about so beautifully...”

FATAL MEETING

In 1838, the family, at the insistence of Andrew, who was told to take such a step by an inner voice, moved to the city of Poughcopse, New York. At the age of 17, Davis attended a lecture on mesmerism given by Dr. J. S. Grams, professor of jurisprudence at Castleton Medical College.

Davis said: “The professor, like a magician, made several movements with his hands, and imperiously said to me, who was sitting in front of him with his eyes closed: “You won’t be able to open your eyes!” He was wrong! I opened my eyes without any effort...” The story of hypnosis had an unusual continuation. Biographer Andrew Jurgen Oliver says: “In the city there lived a Jew, William Levingston, a tailor by profession. Having come to him three days after the failed public hypnosis session, Davis spoke about this episode and unexpectedly heard from William an offer to hypnotize him; the young man immediately agreed, but Levingston asked Davis to come to his house at night. The amateur hypnotist, unlike the professional one, quickly put young Davis into a trance and observed amazing things!

Andrew Jackson, without a request from the hypnotist, immediately informed Levingston about his long-standing illness. The owner of the house was quite surprised. He really suffered from an illness that he carefully hid from his relatives and friends. At the same time, William asked Davis, who was in a trance, to report on his wife’s health. Recently a woman visited the doctor. The doctor, upon examination, suspected she had a disease, but before announcing the final diagnosis, he decided to observe her. Davis calmly and confidently communicated the diagnosis, suggesting treatment and a cure. In the same night hypnosis session, Davis performed all of William’s tasks: he read closed books without touching them, told the time on the clock hanging in the next room, and warned about possible events in the life of the Levingston family, which actually happened a few days later.”

Under Livingston's patronage, Davis began to develop clairvoyance and began to practice healing. At the same time, he argued that the human body becomes transparent to his “inner vision,” emitting a radiance that fades in diseased organs. At the same time, he sometimes performed diagnostic exercises at a distance, allowing the “etheric body” to be released from the physical shell as a result of “magnetic manipulation.”

Doctors and priests became interested in the “young miracle”. William Fishbow, a pastor of the Protestant church, having met him and become convinced of his abilities, wrote in his diary: “... The boy showed clairvoyance in a trance.” He later noted that Andrew Jackson Davis, while in a trance, diagnosed patients, used medical terminology like a doctor, and did it without any effort. A young man with very modest knowledge and life experience, accurately followed the specific descriptions of the disease, noted its origins, the development of possible pathology and proposed known (and often then unknown!) treatments, medications and procedures that led patients to complete recovery.

Davis, in his own words, made “spiritual journeys”, after which he described in detail the earth as it was visible from a great height, described mineral deposits, underground voids, etc.

William Levingston, who offered Davis a joint business in treating patients, left the profession of a tailor and became Davis’s personal hypnotist in the town of Poughkeepsie, where both then lived. Davis moved into Livingston's house and treated patients based on only one criterion - successfully ridding patients of their illnesses.

Arthur Conan Doyle writes: “It is noteworthy that in the early stages of the development of his psychic powers, Davis could not remember his impressions immediately after emerging from the trance. But the subconscious registered impressions, and over time he could restore them to the smallest detail. For a long time, Davis remained a source open to everyone, but... closed to oneself."

IN THE BIG APPLE

Spiritualist biographer Jurgen Oliver writes: “In 1845, Andrew Jackson Davis approached Dr. Silas Lyon with a request to become his regular hypnotist. Both moved to New York, and Davis continues to make a living practicing hypnosis. At the same time, he wrote to Reverend William Fishbow, with whom he became friends, that his interests in the field of studying nature and the spiritual world of man were extremely broad and asked the pastor to become his personal stenographer in order to dictate material for his public lectures in a hypnotic trance. Davis felt an urgent need for publicity. The well-educated pastor was delighted with the new ideas in the field of biology, physics, cosmology, which Davis presented under hypnosis, and he agreed with his wishes. V. Fishbow leaves New Haven, where he was born and lived, and moves to New York, settling next to Andrew Jackson Davis.

However, Davis's lectures on dictated and recorded materials were not successful. This happens because while awake, standing at the pulpit, he loses the persuasiveness and fascination of his oral presentation. Ideas, unfamiliar and even daring at that time, are presented by the lecturer “on paper, monotonously and boringly. To many they even seem ridiculous. In addition, enlightened listeners are perplexed when they discover Davis’s tongue-tiedness and, at times, outright ignorance.

On the advice of his pastor, he stops public speaking. Now William Fishbow devotes all his time to recording texts dictated by Davis, introduced by Silas Lyon into a hypnotic trance. The pastor works a lot, carefully editing the notes, systematizing them by topic, forming a competent and very convincing text that deservedly claims to be a deep scientific treatise. This is how the first and most significant seven-hundred-page book by Andrew Jackson Davis was created: “The Principles of Nature...” (The Principles of Nature, her Divine Revelations and Vice to Making). The work lasted 15 months. What was happening was witnessed not only by the hypnotist, but by many then-famous scientists invited by Reverend William Fishbow to hypnosis sessions. Without interfering with the process of dictation and recording, they noted the amazing breadth of scientific erudition of Andrew Jackson Davis, recognized the originality of the ideas sounded from the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, psychology, to which he appealed in his reasoning.”

INCREDIBLE INCIDENT

As the source writes: “On the evening of March 6, 1844, something happened to Davis that left an imprint on the rest of his life. He himself claimed that, under the influence of a certain “force” in a state of trance, he ran out of Poughkeepsie and ended up in the Catskill Mountains, forty miles from home. Here he came into contact with two “outstanding men”, whom he later, in retrospect, recognized as the Greek philosopher Galen and Emmanuel Swedenborg, who talked with him about medicine and morality. The meeting, according to Davis, brought him his greatest enlightenment. Later there were suggestions that he made this journey in a dream or in a trance, without leaving home, but, be that as it may, after this incident the nature of the messages that he began to receive changed.

In particular, Dr. George W. Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University, claimed that “... I heard from Davis a statement in Hebrew, which was a statement of the geographical concepts of that era, which at his age he could not study in such a short time. He talked about ancient biblical history and mythology, about the origin and roots of language, about the development of civilization among various nations of the globe. Any renowned school could be proud of such knowledge. Such a depth of knowledge cannot be obtained even by reading the books of all the libraries of the Christian world.”

In the book, Davis described his “soul flights,” his plunges into “highest states of exaltation,” and the function of his “spiritual eye.” He analyzed in detail the process of the soul’s departure from the body (which he observed specifically while staying for a long time at the bedside of dying people), and described how the etheric body leaves “the poor bodily shell, leaving it empty, like the shell of a chrysalis that a moth has just left.”

Researchers of the phenomenon of Andrew Jackson Davis, comparing his way of thinking before and after the “Catskill Miracle”, noted a striking similarity in the style of the texts of the new works he presented in hypnosis with the works of Emmanuel Swedenborg, devoted to theological problems. The similarity was so great that the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, who personally met Davis, remarked: “It is absolutely clear that any pipe can release a stream of no more than a certain diameter. Using this metaphor, we can say that Davis's "diameter" was different from Swedenborg's: Swedenborg was one of the most educated people in Europe, while Davis was just an ignorant youth from New York State, but both of them received their knowledge in a state of trance . Swedenborg's revelation, perhaps more significant, was influenced by his own mind, while Davis's revelation was an incomparably greater miracle.

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ANDREW DAVIS' VIEWS

Davis based his philosophical views on the postulate that the path of progress for humanity is the “fight against sin,” not only in the biblical sense of the word, referring to the latter as blind fanaticism and narrow-mindedness. He called his “teaching” (expounded using long, incomprehensible terms that required the creation of an entire dictionary) “documentary religion,” although it was not a religion in the usual sense of the word, but rather resembled a set of opinions about the structure of the world, the mechanisms of nature and the origins spirituality (“Philosophy of Harmony”, “Divine Revelations of Nature”, “Univercoelum”).

COMPLETE PREDICTIONS

As if especially for those who do not believe in spiritualism and the possibilities of mediums, before 1856 Davis predicted in detail the appearance of a typewriter: “...The device will have the design of a piano: a set of keys with letters and a person will be able to write down poetry and even sermons...”: and the airplane: “...A mechanism will be invented capable of using oppositely directed air currents for easy, safe and pleasant flight, like the flight of birds, with the help of a new motive force...”.

In his book Penetration, long before Henry Ford invented the automobile, he wrote, in part: “The days are approaching when carriages and parlor cars for traveling will appear on rural roads. Without horses, without steam or any other visible force, they will be able to move at great speed and in complete safety. The carriages, equipped with mechanisms that fit conveniently between the front wheels, will move thanks to unusual and uncomplicated mixtures of liquid and atmospheric gases.

It is known that Pluto was discovered only in 1933. Long before this, Davis wrote about the nine planets of the solar system, and accurately indicated the density of Neptune. True, he mistakenly believed that the solar system has a “second center” and pointed to the presence of a certain “superior race” inhabiting Saturn.

In The Principles of Nature (1847), Davis predicted the rise of spiritualism, writing: “Spirits do communicate with each other, even though one of them is in the body and the other in the higher spheres. If a person is subconsciously obsessed with the flow of psychic forces and is not aware of this fact, then the forces can be realized in the form of vital manifestations. The world will welcome the advent of a new era, when the spiritual world of man will open up for contacts and spiritual communication will become the same norm, as is perhaps happening with the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn...”

In his diary for March 31, 1848, Davis wrote: “In the morning, as soon as it was dawn, a warm breath touched my face, and I heard a strong sonorous voice: “My brother, today we have begun a glorious work: you will see the birth of a new manifestation of life.” I was left bewildered, not understanding the meaning of the message I received.” On that day in Hydesville, the Fox sisters first communicated with an invisible entity through knocking."

LAST YEARS AND BREAK WITH SPIRITUALISM

Between 1845 and 1885, Davis wrote about thirty books on topics ranging from cosmology to medicine, and two autobiographies: The Magic Staff (1857) and Beyond the Valley (1885).

Davis's social circle included the most famous people in the country, including US President Abraham Lincoln, whom Davis supported by vigorously opposing racial discrimination and slavery of the country's black population.

The medium even published the Herald magazine for four years (from 1860 to 1864), whose office was in New York, which, along with articles about the Bible, spiritualism, published articles about the rights of women and children, and talked about the reforms planned by the government of Abraham Lincoln , about the Civil War that was going on in the United States at that time.

In 1878, Davis broke with spiritualism, condemning its adherents' desire for sensational "miracles" in séances and lack of interest in the philosophy of the phenomenon.

As the biographer writes: “Unexpectedly for everyone, at the age of 56, Davis became a student at a medical college.

Historians are silent about whether he completed his medical education, but it is known for certain that in 1883 he was awarded the title of Doctor of Medicine, and later the degree of Doctor of Anthropology. His wife, Delphine Elizabeth Marhamu, graduated from the medical college where he studied. As contemporaries emphasize, Davis, for the first time in the United States, actively implemented the requirements of preventive medicine and hygiene, even trying to teach this special course at a medical college together with his wife.

Tired of the tension associated with his desire in mid-life to look like an educated person with a really meager development of intelligence, limited by a religious-mystical orientation and activity in a hypnotic state, Davis retired to Boston, where he opened a small bookstore. The sale of books - these were mainly his personal writings, recorded under his dictation, edited and published under the tutelage of the Reverend William Fishbow - did not bring in any income. In a secret small room, Davis received patients whom he treated while in a hypnotic trance.

In those years, questions were often asked to him. “If you were gifted with the ability to visit the Higher Realms at will, and also had access to sources of unlimited knowledge and wisdom, why did you not give us more information regarding spiritual truths, natural laws and prophecies?” Andrew Jackson Davis replied: “Since the knowledge of this Sphere is beyond the understanding of the human mind, I am not allowed to dwell on it in as much detail as I would like. It seems to me that everything I received from the Higher Sphere was intended to spiritually elevate the inhabitants of the Earth, that is, to purify their spiritual feelings. I think that the knowledge that I received served the human race for a better understanding of itself, and what I was not allowed to, we should not yet know...”

Anna VASYLENKO

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The beginning of the development of spiritualism is usually associated with the activities of a medium and clairvoyant named Andrew Jackson Davis, a native of the New World. Davis also became famous as a healer, making diagnoses and prescribing medications in a state of ecstasy. In a trance, he prophesied and dictated his writings. The writer Conan Doyle called him “the prophet of a new revelation.”

Andrew Jackson Davis was born on August 11, 1826 in the small settlement of Blooming Grove, located on the banks of the Hudson River in New York State. The authors of many of his biographies note that the boy’s father was an alcoholic who worked as a shoemaker and weaver, and his illiterate mother Elizabeth, née Robinson, was distinguished by fanatical piety.

It is difficult to vouch for the truth, since Davis himself, in his autobiography “Magical”, or in another translation “The Magic Staff”, wrote that by the age of 16 he knew only one “Catechism”. Subsequently, opponents of the apostle of spiritualism argued that in reality he was better educated than he tried to imagine.

One day, the “angelic” voice that he had already heard demanded that Davis convince his parents to move to the town of Poughkeepsie, located a few kilometers from the house where he was born. In 1838, the family moved to the outskirts of New York, where Davis became an apprentice to a shoemaker, and his father Samuel opened a small grocery store.

Davis was not even 15 years old when he suddenly heard his mother’s voice: “She asked me to look at the big beautiful house, buried in the greenery of the garden. “I live here now,” the voice said, “and I feel very good...” Sounding clearly, my own voice, it was impossible to confuse it with any other! I saw and heard all this while moving towards the house. Having crossed its threshold, I learned that my mother had recently died. A little later I realized that everything I saw on the way home was evidence not her death, but the new life that my mother told me about so beautifully...”

In 1843, Davis turned 17, and then it became clear why the voices so insistently called him to change places. One of the leading hypnotists of the time, Dr. Edgar Cayce, came to Poughkeepsie. During the session, maestro Andrew did not succumb to suggestion: “The professor, like a magician, made several movements with his hands, and imperiously said to me, who was sitting in front of him with his eyes closed: “You will not be able to open your eyes!” He was wrong! I opened my eyes without any effort."

Lectures on "animal magnetism" and the influence of local tailor William Levingston shaped Davis into what he became. The ancient physician and anatomist Galen, according to Davis, handed him a magical healing rod, and Swedenborg himself promised his help.

The writer Conan Doyle also drew a parallel between the two mystics: “Swedenborg was one of the most educated people in Europe, while Davis was just an ignorant teenager from New York State, but both received their knowledge in a state of trance. Swedenborg’s revelation, perhaps, more significant, was under the influence of his own mind, while Davis's revelation was an incomparably greater miracle... Swedenborg saw hell and heaven as Davis described them in detail. However, Swedenborg failed to clearly define the essence of death and the true nature of the world of spirits, as he did his American successor."

Davis made a number of predictions regarding the advent of automobiles. Long before the discovery of Pluto, he reported on the nine planets of the solar system and accurately indicated the density of the planet Neptune.

Davis first married at the age of 22 to Katherine de Wolfe. This married woman, who was over 40, lived separately from her husband. Katerina was already ill when they got married in 1848. She died on November 2, 1853. After her death, she appeared to him several times, as he writes, under the name of Tsilonia. He called her that, never again uttering her former earthly name.

A year later, Davis met another woman on the verge of divorce. Mary Fenn Robinson was two years older than him. They married in 1855. After 30 years, at the request of Davis, the couple divorced.

The third wife, Delphine (Della) Elizabeth McHam, was 13 years younger than her husband. This was also her third marriage.

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