Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910)

Born in New York state in 1826, Andrew Jackson Davis has been regarded as the "father" and "prophet" of American spiritualism, the movement's most influential character. Throughout Davis's teenage years, it seemed he had a gift for clairvoyance; he believed a spirit told him his family must move to Poughkeepsie, NY, and this they did, hence his nick-name 'The Poughkeepsie Seer'. In 1845 Henry attended a lecture on mesmerism, which he became fascinated by. Davis found he could be subject to mesmeric trances, when in which he felt his powers of clairvoyance most prominently, for example, he believed he could, when entranced, diagnose diseases as he could see through the body and into the organs.

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