[4] For the next three years (1844–1847) he practiced magnetic healing, a form of therapy regarded as pseudoscience, 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.

[3] In writing his 1845 short story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", Edgar Allan Poe was informed by Davis's early work after having attended one of his lectures on mesmerism.

[6] Davis described the concept of Summerland as an undefined location where souls go after death, the secular nature of which was attractive to some non-religious spiritualists.

[2] In 1855, Davis' spiritualism received an extensive critical analysis by theologian Asa Mahan: Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed.

Researcher Georgess McHargue pointed out that the supposed "scientific" passages from his writings are filled with "gobbledegook as to put it in the class with the most imaginative vintage science fantasy.