Andrew Jackson Davis
Early years
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. In the following year he had, he said, spiritual messages
telling him of his life work.
Work
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 30 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) and others;
A Stellar Key to the Summer Land (1868);
Tale of a Physician, or, the Seeds and Fruits of Crime (1869) Internet Archive;
online edition (pdf format, 22 MB, entire book on one pdf);
Views of Our Heavenly Home (1878), each with illustrative diagrams and The Fountain
with Jets of New Meanings (1870) Illustrated published by McCrea & Miller
Books