Publishing, psychical research and AMORC
Lewis was born in Frenchtown, New Jersey, and raised as a Methodist. Journalism and investigations of Spiritualism preceded his Rosicrucian organisation. In New York he established an institute for psychical research, while publishing and advertising supplied skills he later used to recruit and teach a wider membership.
AMORC’s history presents a visit to France in 1909 as an initiation authorising his American work. The organisation was incorporated in New York in 1915, and correspondence courses became central to its teaching. Moves through California and Florida preceded the establishment of headquarters in San Jose in 1927. Lewis wrote lessons and books and led the order as imperator. His son Ralph succeeded him after his death in 1939.
What continues from one life to another
Mansions of the Soul appeared in 1930 as volume eleven of the Rosicrucian Library. Its subtitle, The Cosmic Conception, places the soul within a larger religious explanation. The contents distinguish personality, survival, heredity and karma, requiring an account of what changes as well as what continues.
Lewis reads biblical references to Elias as support for rebirth and draws ethical consequences from further opportunities to live. Responsibility, compensation and renewed effort turn a doctrine about the soul towards present conduct and the approach of death. These conclusions depend on his interpretation of scripture and inherited beliefs. Their emotional and moral appeal helps explain the book’s place in a modern programme of Rosicrucian teaching.
