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| Andrew Jackson Davis |
If you know much about American history, you’ve no doubt heard about Andrew Jackson, the fourteenth president. But you’ve probably never heard about American mystic named Andrew Jackson Davis. So here’s a history lesson from the mystical underground.
In 1844, at the age of 18, a shoemaker named Andrew Jackson Davis went into a state of semi-trance and wandered from his home in Poughkeepsie, New York. The next morning he found himself forty miles away in the mountains where he claimed he encountered the spirits of Swedish philosopher and mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg and the second-century Greek physician Claudius Gale. He came away from the experience claiming he was mentally illuminated. Even though he never attended school, he began teaching and writing about supernatural powers, which he called human magnetism and electricity.
Davis, who became known as the Poughkeepsie Seer, also exhibited these powers. In 1845, he began to dictate, while in trance, a book entitled The Principles of Nature. In the book, Davis made the following prediction regarding a new era of communication with the other side.
“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…”
In Davis’ notes, dated March 31, 1848, are the following words: “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.”
It wasn’t long before he realized the meaning of the message. March 31, 1848 was the day that Maggie Fox and her two sisters established a means of communicating with the others side, which gave birth to Spiritualism, a movement that flourished in the waning decades of the Victorian Era. Davis had experienced a synchronicity through his contact with the other side.
While synchronicity doesn’t always involve spirit contact, it can serve as connective tissue between the everyday world and the other side, the world of spirit. The more contact we make, the more the so-called ‘dead’ appear to be quite alive and willing to communicate.
Nats, I think Wayla is on duty!
BTW, Is Poughkeepsie pronounced like doughkeepsie or puffkeepsie?
Thanks, Nat! More soon!! XX
Welcome to your new home. I hope the guard dogs are better here. ♥
Good one, Dale. Maybe they're related, or soul brothers.
Anybody else think the guy in the picture looks like a bearded Robin Williams? LOL 🙂
Lauren, I met Hans Holzer as well. I agree. Amazing man with such a wealth of knowledge and information to share.
thanks, I didn't know about this man, who certainly sounds like a seer and prophet for his time.
Mathaddict……I knew Hans Holzer when I lived in NYC in the 90's, an amazing man with so many stories to tell…..Hans passed away in 2008.
I'll vouch for the fact that the more you talk to them, the more they will come. 🙂
Such an interesting person, I would have loved to get my shoes fixed at his shop. 🙂
Mike, there's a lot of confusion regarding the Fox sisters and their proof of spirit contact, spawned by a massive debunking effort that has continued right to the present.
Part of the problem was that Maggie Fox, was impoverished late in her life and was offered a sizable sum of money to say she and her sisters faked the rappings.
A year later she retracted the confession.
The explanation that the sisters could crack their toes to make the rapping sound didn’t explain the body that was dug up under the the house after the rapping spirit guided investigators to it, claiming that he was murdered in the house.
Maggie's confession also did explain the intensity of the rappings. The sound was described as “loud enough to be heard several rooms off,” by British William Crookes, a prominent scientist, who examined Kate Fox between 1871 and 1874.
“For several months I enjoyed almost unlimited opportunity of testing the various phenomena occurring in the presence of this lady, and I especially examined the phenomena of these sounds. With mediums, generally it is necessary to sit for a formal séance before anything is heard; but in the case of Miss Fox it seems only necessary for her to place her hand on any substance for loud thuds to be heard in it, like a triple pulsation… I have had these sounds proceeding from the floor, walls, etc., when the medium's hands and feet were held – when she was standing on a chair-when she was suspended in a swing from the ceiling- when she was enclosed in a wire cage – and when she had fallen fainting on a sofa. With a full knowledge of the numerous theories which have been started, chiefly in America, to explain these sounds, I have tested them in every way that I could devise, until there has been no escape from the conviction that they were true objective occurrences not produced by trickery or mechanical means.”
That statement was part of an article Crookes that appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Science in January of 1874.
Curiously, a recent book that debunks the Fox sisters and spiritualism, The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox, by Nancy Rubin Stuart fails to mention Crookes’ investigation of the Fox sisters.
I was writing about the Fox sisters in our upcoming book and was puzzled by the blatant omission so I wrote the author.
She replied by email: Thank you for your note. I welcome your comments and agree that I should have insisted upon including Crookes' conclusion but an editorial decision was made to use the allotted word count for the book primarily on American investigations, specifically those involving William James.
Frankly, it also appears
convenient to leave out a significant study by a scientist of the era that contradicts the theme of the book.
Examples of "evidential" information: the deceased individual describes to me what he or she was wearing when they were buried (if they were buried and not cremated). The name of a favorite pet or best friend. Something special they cooked that everyone loved….and they drench me with the fragrance of, say, gingerbread. (This happened!) Or a favorite perfume or flower, and they tell me and give me the fragrance. Sometimes they tell me they are with a beloved pet, will describe the pet, allow me to "see" it, and surely enough, the client will confirm that the pet is also deceased. More often than not, when a deceased individual initially makes connection with me, he or she will actually envelope me with the symptoms experienced at the moment of death….heart attack, a certain kind of cancer pain, car accident,stroke head pain, whatever. I can't tell you how many different kinds of deaths I've experienced! Those death-causes come in thru the crown of my head, localize wherever in my physical body, then once recognised by me and acknowledged, pass out thru the bottom of my feet. Is it uncomfortable? Yes indeed. But it only lasts moments, and the results are worth it because it's the very best evidence a deceased person can offer for on-going existence. I don't accept the general stuff such as "I'll always love you", "I'm still with you", yada yada yada. That's meaningless and worthless. For me, it's got to be absolutely specific and dead-spot-on. That's also how I'm able to determine if the visiting spook is a trickster or is genuine. It's a wonderful and exciting but awesome responsibility requiring diligence and dedication to truth and not fancy.
Very interesting. Thanks for the history lesson.
I have a really good bio of the Fox Sisters in a text by Dr. Hans Holzer, who was/is one our oldest and most legitimate, renowned researchers in the paranormal fields. Maggie, deceased individuals can and do send messages to other people through active mediums, and often through people who don't recognize that they are mediums. The word "medium" is self-explanatory.
We are simply voices for Spirit. Go-betweens, if you will. I compare it to being a radio receiver whose antennae reach certain frequencies through which
energies, or waves, are able to flow from one dimension to another.
For me, there is ittle in my life that has been more gratifying than to be able to give valid, evidential proof of the AfterLife to folks left behind who are grieving the loss of a loved one. I insist on evidential information that I cannot possibly know by any other means than contact with the deceased individual, and I never ask questions. Not ever. I refuse to offer "general" information in a session that can have several interpretations and fit anyone….an "all-one-size" type of thing. Nor do I allow a client to give me anything but their first name when they make an appt with me. This prevents me from being able to obtain any information prior to their session with me via the computer or by any method. I won't cheat, and have spent my adult life in efforts to "out" the charlatans who give true mediumship its negative reputation. Spirits can and do speak through the thin veil that separates their worlds from ours, and it's a blessing when it's real and not faked.
Interesting stuff. I'm not sure what to think of the Fox sisters though – but it's true that they were a catalyst for spiritualism. Didn't know about Davis – thanks for the intro.
This was really interesting. I am always learning something new on your site!
I think this is so true..at least through my own experiences. Even though I don't understand a lot about this…I wonder if the dead are able to use me to communicate with those around me?