Biography
Benjamin Paul Blood was an American philosopher and poet. He was born in Amsterdam, New York. His father, John Blood, was a prosperous landowner. Blood was known as an intelligent man but an unfocused one. He was born in 1832 and lived for eighty-six years. During that time he
wrote much, but unsystematically. His favorite form of publication was
letters to newspapers, mainly local newspapers with a small circulation.
These letters dealt with an astonishing diversity of subjects, from
local petty politics or the tricks of spiritualist mediums to principles
of industry and finance and profundities of metaphysics.
Early books included The Philosophy of Justice Between God and Man (1851) and Optimism: The Lesson of Ages (1860), a Christian mystical vision of the pursuit of happiness from Blood's distinctly American perspective. During his lifetime he was best known for his poetry, which included The Bride of the Iconoclast, Justice,and The Colonnades. According to Christopher Nelson, Blood was a direct influence on William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience [2] as well on James's concept of Sciousness, prime reality consciousness without a sense of self.[3]
After experiencing the anesthetic nitrous oxide during a dental operation, Blood concluded that the gas had opened his mind to new ideas and continued experimenting with it. In 1874, he published a 37-page pamphlet, The Anesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy.
He married twice; to Mary Sayles, and following her death, to Harriet Lefferts. He had six children from the first marriage, and a daughter from the second.
Blood died in Amsterdam, New York. His final work, Pluriverse, was published posthumously.
