Andrew Jackson Davis, nicknamed the ‘Father of Modern Spiritism’ and the ‘American Allan Kardec,’ was born on 11 August 1826 to humble and uneducated parents in a rural district of New York State (USA), on the banks of the Hudson River, among simple and ignorant people. He was a slow-witted boy, lacking in intellectual activity, with a puny body, showing no signs of his future exceptional mediumship. As with Francisco Cândido Xavier, the famous Brazilian medium, Jackson Davis began to hear pleasant and gentle voices in the last years of his childhood, followed by beautiful clairvoyant visions, developing at the same time his mediumistic gifts - with application in medical diagnoses.

On 6 March 1844, probably in his perispiritual body, he was transported from the small town of Poughkeepsie, where he lived, to the Catskill Mountains, forty miles away. In these mountains, he met two elders, who revealed themselves to be his mentors, later identified as the Spirits of Galen and Swedenborg. This was the little boy's first contact with the so-called dead. Over time, his mediumship took on new directions. When in a trance, he spoke several languages, including Hebrew, all unknown to him, displaying admirable knowledge of geology and discussing, with rare skill, intricate questions of historical and biblical archaeology, mythology, as well as linguistic and social topics - despite knowing nothing about grammar or language rules and without any literary or scientific studies. Such were his answers that, according to Dr. Jorge Bush, professor at New York University, "they would do credit to any student of that age, even if, in order to provide them, he had consulted all the libraries of Christendom.

He soon caught the attention of Dr. Lyon, Rev. William Fishbough, and many serious and cultured men, among whom Edgar Allan Poe stands out. For two years, Davis dictated, in an unconscious trance, a book on the secrets of Nature, published in 1847 under the title ‘The Principles of Nature.’ Conan Doyle referred to it as ‘one of the most profound and original books on philosophy’ and it has had dozens of editions in the United States. A similar event would later take place here in Brazil with the aforementioned medium, who, born into equally poor and uneducated circumstances, and without sufficient knowledge, psychographed, at the age of twenty, the remarkable and highly original poetic work ‘Parnaso de Além-Túmulo’ (Parnassus from Beyond the Grave).

Like this medium, Davis also received many other books, about thirty, partly published under the general title of ‘Harmonic Philosophy,’ transmitted to him by the spiritual entity Swedenborg. Dozens of editions were published in the United States, which clearly shows the interest that his revealing doctrines aroused, winning over thousands of proselytes. Davis was neither a mystic nor a religious man in the ordinary sense, nor did he accept biblical revelation in its literal interpretation. However, he was honourable, serious, incorruptible, a lover of Truth, and sincerely aware of his responsibility in those renewing events.

In his material poverty, he never forgot justice and charity towards all. His mediumistic abilities reached their peak after the age of 21, and he was then able to observe more clearly the discarnation process of various people, narrating it in great detail. His descriptions are consistent with countless others made by mediums from different countries, acquiring a very relevant complement in the mediumistic work of Francisco Cândido Xavier.

Before 1856, Jackson Davis prophesied the appearance of automobiles and aerial vehicles powered by an explosive driving force, as well as typewriters and, it seems, locomotives with internal combustion engines. The wealth of detail that Davis left about these future inventions in his now century-old work ‘Penetralia’ is extraordinary, even astonishing. In addition, in 1847, he also predicted the ostensive manifestation of spirits to human beings, emphasising that it would not be long before this truth was revealed in an exuberant demonstration. His early work, of great luminosity, was a preparation for the emergence of Spiritism, and in one of his notes, dated 31 March 1848, we read this significant passage: "This morning a cool breeze passed over my face, and I heard a voice, soft and firm, say to me: 'Brother, a good work has begun; contemplate the living demonstration that is emerging.‘ I began to ponder the meaning of this message.’

Little did he know that, on the very night of that day, the Fox sisters in Hydesville would converse, through knocks, with the spirit of a dead man, inaugurating the great worldwide Spiritist movement. Because of this fact, Jackson Davis came to be cited by some Spiritist writers as ‘the prophet of the New Revelation.’ The series of books under the general title of ‘Harmonic Philosophy,’ books of high moral and intellectual level, were followed by the ‘Divine Revelations of Nature,’ whose reception absorbed the following years of his life. (...)

In his journeys to the Spirit World, detached from his body, Davis witnessed, in a place he called ‘Summerland,’ the harmonious education of discarnate children, gathered in groups in large, beautiful buildings, where they were given instruction and special care, all according to their age and knowledge. Davis was so amazed by the system adopted there and its ingenious organisation that he sought to implement it on the earthly plane. This led to the creation of the first Spiritist Lyceum, which he founded on 25 January 1863 at Dodsworth Hall, Broadway, New York. This lyceum movement spread throughout the United States and spread to England, Canada, Australia, etc.

The famous American seer suffered slanderous accusations and harsh criticism, levelled against him by the eternal misappropriators of Truth. A superior man, he overcame everything with evangelical tolerance and broad understanding. In the last years of his life, Andrew Jackson Davis ran a small bookshop in Boston, and on 13 January 1910, at the age of 84, he passed away at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, leaving humanity the dignified example of his fruitful existence.