With Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others he founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and became its president. In 1878 he and Blavatsky visited India. The two settled there in 1879 and in 1882 established the permanent headquarters of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, Madras. Olcott was born on August 2, 1832 and died on February 17, 1907.
Andrew Jackson Davis (August 11, 1826 – January 13, 1910), known as the “Poughkeepsie Seer,” was an early healing medium and spiritualist. As a young man, he developed the ability to go into magnetic trance on his own, and in that state, he was able to diagnose disease. In the late 1840s, he claimed he met the spirit of the ancient Greek physician, Galen, who gave him a magic staff that he believed he could use for healing.
Mollie Fancher, born on Aug. 16, 1848 was known as the Brooklyn Enigma. Despite spending 50 years bedridden , she gained fame as an intimidating spirit medium. She died on Feb. 11, 1915.
On Dec. 16, 1868, the renowned séance medium DD Home allegedly levitated out one third-story window and into another. Three witnesses were present, and each alleged that they saw his body float out horizontally through the window. The residence was in Ashley Place, London, and the window was about 70 feet from the ground.
Emanuel Swedenborg, born February 8, 1688 and died March 29, 1772, was a Swedish Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758). Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, culminating in a “spiritual awakening” in which he received a revelation that opened his spiritual eyes so he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons and other spirits. Some describe Swedenborg as a progenitor of modern Spiritualism.