Spiritualism In Andrew Jackson Davis's The Harmonial Man

It was a small group of mostly educated people that formed the basis of a radical spiritualism. Andrew Jackson Davis was the primary mover in moving past the upfront fact of spirit listening and applying it to the reorganization of a crumbling cosmos. While most other spiritualists reveled in individualism and abhorred structure, Davis had the most articulate plan for organization. “Davis was disturbed that the essence of spiritualism and it potential benefits to mankind were in danger of being obscured by the popular preconception with phenomena.”[11] He saw the essence of spiritualism, like health reforms, a way to reform the self and society. This is evident in his early work, The Harmonial Man (1853). His chief question is “how shall

“The rapid growth of spiritualism during the fifties was accompanied by a corresponding growth of opposition and criticism.”[38] It happened on all fronts. The first front was a practical popular attack. There was an overall hate of the movement. Newspapers in particular attacked them. Even in 1848, newspaper attacked the Fox family of using “‘an ingenious arrangement of springs, wires, etc’” to make the rappings.[39] In 1853, The National Intelligencer spoke out against séances and rappings, “However absurd and despicable it may appear to men of sound reason and resolute conviction, it [spiritualism] is spreading itself like a pestilence through our borders.”[40] An 1852 Evening Herald account of the spiritualist pestilence recalls a widowed man under the “blasphemous humbug doctrine of Spirit Rapping”.[41] While consulting a medium, the spirits informed him of his wife’s infidelity so he disinherited his kids as “common bastards”. Personal testimonies and warnings in papers hurt the credibility of

The Fox sisters were placed on a glass sheet (for unobstructed observance) and asked to perform certain actions like making a skull rap.[49] An 1852 article states that the knockings can be explained scientifically. Displaying an extensive knowledge of anatomy, the investigatory doctor decides that a complex flatulence problem makes the noise.[50] This heated attack continued into the 70s. An 1877 newspaper article proclaims, “Spiritualism Exposed”.[51] The article states at a Prof. Cooke has created a “clairvoyant test” to demonstrate that rappings and communication (spirits speaking or writing through a medium) are fraudulent and further proves that it is “a modern blasphemous attempt to rival the powers and attributes of Deity.” [52] In 1877, the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat published a half page detailed summary based on “science vs. occult power.”[53] While the author was English, its reprint in 1877 shows illustrates the intense battle between expert investigators and those who still believed in rappings, materialization, and communication. This criticism was no phenomenon. Rappings and other phenomenon posed a risk to the increasing scientific-minded America in the mid to late 19th Century. This is not to say that spiritualists were against science. Davis uses a scientific tone and even goes as far as to extol reason and elaborately correlate human action to