Unlike other prophets, Davis was very specific in his predictions and his accuracy is much higher than any other known seer or prophet. Davis could actually see and observe the death process and the way in which the spirit leaves the body and forms a new spiritual being.  He even describes the hereafter in detail, which he was able to enter at will.   

Civil War era documents indicate that Davis may have advised Abraham Lincoln. 

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.

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.

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.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reviews the life and abilities of Andrew Jackson Davis

From A History Of Spiritualism, Vol. I (1926) by the great afterlife researcher, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of "Sherlock" fame:

It is to be understood that a pipe can carry no
more than its own diameter permits. The diameter
of Davis was very different from that of Swedenborg.
Each got knowledge while in an illuminated state.
But Swedenborg was the most learned man in
Europe, while Davis was as ignorant a young man as
could be found in the State of New York. Sweden-
borg's revelation was perhaps the greater, though
more likely to be tinged by his own brain. The
revelation of Davis was incomparably the greater
miracle.

Dr. George Bush, Professor of Hebrew in the
University of New York, [offered this]:

"I can solemnly affirm that I have heard Davis correctly
quote the Hebrew language in his lectures, and display
a knowledge of geology which would have been astonishing
in a person of his age, even if he had devoted years to the
study. He has discussed, with the most signal ability,
the profoundest questions of historical and biblical archae-
ology, of mythology, of the origin and affinity of language,
and the progress of civilization among the different nations
of the globe, which would do honour to any scholar of the
age, even if in reaching them he had the advantage of access
to all the libraries in Christendom. Indeed, if he had
acquired all the information he gives forth in these lectures,
not in the two years since he left the shoemaker's bench,
but in his whole life, with the most assiduous study, no
prodigy of intellect of which the world has ever heard
would be for a moment compared with him, yet not a single
volume or page has he ever read.

"Davis has a remarkable pen-picture of himself at
that moment. He asks us to take stock of his equip-
ment. The circumference of his head is unusually
small,' says he. If size is the measure of power,
then this youth's mental capacity is unusually limited.
His lungs are weak and unexpanded. He had not
dwelt amid refining influences manners ungentle
and awkward. He has not read a book save one.
He knows nothing of grammar or the rules of lan-
guage, nor associated with literary or scientific per-
sons."

Such was the lad of nineteen from whom
there now poured a perfect cataract of words and ideas
which are open to the criticism not of simplicity, but
of being too complex and too shrouded in learned
terms...

It is very well to talk of the subconscious mind,
but this has usually been taken as the appearance of
ideas which have been received and then submerged.
When, for example, the developed Davis could recall
what had happened in his trances during his un-
developed days, that was a clear instance of the
emerging of the buried impressions. But it seems
an abuse of words to talk of the unconscious mind
when we are dealing with something which could
never by normal means have reached any stratum
of the mind, whether conscious or not.

Such was the beginning of Davis's great psychic
revelation which extended eventually over many
books and is all covered by the name of the "Har-
monial Philosophy"...

foretells the coming of the automobile, airplane, and typewriter

The prophetic power of Davis can only be got
over by the sceptic if he ignores the record. Before
1856 he prophesied in detail the coming of the motor-
car and of the typewriter. In his book, "'The
Penetralia," appears the following:

"Question: Will utilitarianism make any dis-
coveries in other locomotive directions? "

"Yes; look out about these days for carriages and
travelling saloons on country roads without horses,
without steam, without any visible motive power
moving with greater speed and far more safety than
at present. Carriages will be moved by a strange and
beautiful and simple admixture of aqueous and atmo-
spheric gases so easily condensed, so simply ignited,
and so imparted by a machine somewhat resembling
our engines, as to be entirely concealed and manage-
able between the forward wheels. These vehicles will
prevent many embarrassments now experienced by
persons living in thinly populated territories. The
first requisite for these land-locomotives will be good
roads, upon which with your engine, without your
horses, you may travel with great rapidity. These
carriages seem to me of uncomplicated construction."

"He was next asked:

"Do you perceive any plan by which to expedite
the art of writing ? "

" Yes; I am almost moved to invent an automatic
psychographer that is, an artificial soul-writer. It
may be constructed something like a piano, one brace
or scale of keys to represent the elementary sounds;
another and lower tier to represent a combination, and
still another for a rapid re-combination; so that a
person, instead of playing a piece of music, may touch
off a sermon or a poem."

So, too, this seer, in reply to a query regarding
what was then termed " atmospheric navigation,"
felt "deeply impressed" that "the necessary mechan-
ism to transcend the adverse currents of air, so that we may sail as easily and safely and pleasantly as birds
is dependent on a new motive power. This power
will come. It will not only move the locomotive on
the rail, and the carriage on the country road, but the
aerial cars also, which will move through the sky from
country to country."

Editor’s note: As a young uneducated lad, Davis witnessed the materialization of Swedenborg. It is conjectured that the latter became the inspiring-spirit who spoke through Davis.