Andrew Jackson Davis (11 August 1826 - 1910), American spiritualist, was born at Blooming Grove, New York. August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The oldest surviving photograph, Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... -1... Spiritualism is a religion in which contact with the spirits of the dead through a medium is central. ... Blooming Grove is a town located in Orange County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 17,351. ...

He had little education, though probably much more than he and his friends pretended. In 1843 he heard lectures in Poughkeepsie on animal magnetism, as the phenomena of hypnotism was then termed, and found that he had remarkable clairvoyant powers; and in the following year he had, he said, spiritual messages telling him of his life work. Poughkeepsie City of Poughkeepsie Town of Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie, Arkansas This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Animal magnetism is both a synonym for mesmerism as well as the 18th century term for the supposed ethereal medium postulated by Franz Mesmer as a therapeutic agent. ... Hypnosis, as defined by the American Psychological Association Division of Psychological Hypnosis, is a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests that a client, patient, or experimental participant experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behavior. ... Clairvoyance is defined as a form of radio waves). ...

For the next three years (1844-1847) he practised magnetic healing with much success; and in 1847 he published The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, which in 1845 he had dictated while in a trance to his scribe, William Fishbough. He lectured with little success and returned to writing (or dictating ) books, publishing about thirty in all including:

• The Great Harmonia (1850-1861), an encyclopaedia in six volumes
• The Philosophy of Special Providences (1850), which with its evident rehash of old arguments against special providences and miracles would seem to show that Davis' inspiration was literary
• The Magic Staff: an Autobiography (1857), which was supplemented by Arabula: or the Divine Guest, Containing a New Collection of New Gospels (1867), the gospels being those according to St Confucius, St John (G.Whittier),St Gabriel (Derzhavin),St Octavius (Frothingham), St Gerrit (Smith), St Emma (Hardinge), St Ralph (W. Emerson), St Selden (J. Finney), St Theodore (Parker), &c.
• A Stellar Key to the Summer Land (1868)
• Views of Our Heavenly Home (1878), each with illustrative diagrams. " The Fountain with Jets of New Meanings" (1870) Illustrated published by McCrea & Miller.

Davis was much influenced by Swedenborg and by the Shakers, who reprinted his panegyric of Ann Lee in an official Sketch of Shakers and Shakerism (1884). Emanuel Swedenborg, 75, holding the manuscript of Apocalypsis Revelata (1766). ... The Shakers are an offshoot of the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers) that originated in Manchester, England in the early 18th century. ... Mother Ann Lee (February 29, 1736 - September 8, 1784) was a member of the Shakers; who, during the 1770s, emigrated to Watervliet, New York. ...

Davis in turn directly influenced self-proclaimed psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) who adopted "trance diagnosis" and similar activities with few modifications from Davis's example. Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) (pronounced ) was an American psychic who channeled answers to questions on subjects such as astrology, reincarnation, and Atlantis while in trance. ... 1877 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.