The Career of 'Allan Kardec' - I |
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The reason I feel it necessary to reiterate the foregoing is that, for the next few months, I will be using a different word at times when referring to a 'religion' that has coalesced around the concept of mediumship. 'Spiritism' is the word associated with mediumistic practise throughout Latin America, particularly in Brazil where it rivals Catholicism, and the Philippines. However, the influence of one man in particular upon Spiritism may be judged by the fact that the movement is also often referred to in Brazil as 'espiritismo kardecismo' or 'Kardecism'.
There are many paradoxes in the impact that the Frenchman Allan
Kardec (1804-1869) has had upon human affairs. The chief of
these is that his work constitutes the only example of a modern
appraisal of mediumship that has had (and continues to have) a
truly obvious and major effect upon a very significant section of
human society. In his book Spirits and Scientists: Ideology,
Spiritism and Brazilian Culture, anthropologist David J. Hess
even cited evidence which suggests that the spirit teachings
collected by Kardec were a major theoretical influence (Hess
almost implies naked plagiarism) on some of the most important
founders of modern psychology and psychiatry, such as Pierre
Janet.1
Yet, despite this, Kardec remains almost unknown or poorly
understood by Spiritualists in Britain; the most common, and most
fatal, error being that he was a medium himself and that the
teachings were his own. Arthur Findlay showed his own
misunderstanding by dismissing Kardec in the following terms:-
'In Brazil the extensive movement there has been directed by the writings of the Frenchman, Allan Kardec. He, however, influenced the thoughts of his followers more to the doctrine of reincarnation than to the belief in progress advanced by both American and British Spiritualists, and he gave mediumship little consideration.' (italics added)2
The fact that a third of the most important volumes of Kardec's work was published under the title of The Medium's Book may give some indication as to how wide of the mark Findlay was here. This, together with the fact that Spiritism, like Spiritualism, observes the concept of eternal progress as a central tenet, suggests that he was unfamiliar, to say the least, with the Frenchman's work. In fact, the only major difference between Spiritism and Spiritualism is that, in the former case, the 'doctrine' of reincarnation is a central teaching whereas, with Spiritualism, belief in reincarnation, although extremely common, is more generally diffused throughout the movement and, although the SNU is officially uncommitted either way on the issue, there are many Spiritualists who reject the concept with apparent contempt.
However, it is not my intention to fuel the already overheated debate about the reality or otherwise about reincarnation. The only thing that I, personally, can say for sure on this matter is that I don't know, and that I find elements of the arguments from both sides of the debate persuasive on the one hand and, sometimes, hopelessly illogical on the other. What I do hope to show, however, is that Kardec's way of looking at spirit communications of a philosophical nature may have the potential to provide a way forward in increasing our understanding on this issue and, perhaps, also of diffusing some of the acrimony that seems to be provoked on both sides whenever the subject is raised.
But first, if we wish to gain an understanding of why Kardec's
work continues to enjoy such relatively spectacular success, and
also place it in its correct context, we must take a look at his
background.
'Allan Kardec' was the nom de plume adopted by Hippolyte
L�on Denizard Rivail under which he published his books on
Spiritism. Rivail was born in Lyon on October 3, 1804 into a
family who had, for many generations, been lawyers and
magistrates. As a child he showed an aptitude for the sciences
and philosophy and, at the age of ten, he was sent to the
Pestalozzi Institute in Yverdun.3 This was the school
of the influential Swiss educationalist Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi, whose radically new methods of teaching were
attracting pupils from well connected families all over
Europe.
Hess stresses the importance of this early event in Rivail's life
in that the 'Pestalozzi method' of teaching was based on the
principles of the Enlightenment. Students were encouraged to
embrace ideals of political and social reform and, therefore,
although Rivail remained a Catholic, he adopted the open minded
attitude of a Freethinker. He came to believe (to quote Hess)
that education was 'the key to harmonizing the relations between
rich and poor'.4 These factors must have played a
major role in making the spirit teachings that Rivail would
encounter later in his life appear so attractive to him. Not
only would he be open minded enough not to reject them for
religious reasons, but they would also appear to be confirmation
of his egalitarian beliefs which ran counter to many of the
Church's dogmas.
Also, Rivail arrived at the Pestalozzi Institute at a time of
bitter political in-fighting between the domineering
administrator, Joseph Schmid and Johannes Niederer, a
theoretician who had helped to publicise Pestallozi's ideas.
Hess speculates that Rivail probably learned valuable lessons
from both men: from Schmid, the political and administrative
skills that would later help him to found and maintain an
international movement; and from Niederer, the art of presenting
new and controversial ideas to a sceptical public and
Establishment.5
Rivail quickly proved himself to be a child genius of rare
distinction. The internecine strife at the school caused the
resignation of 16 of the masters,6 and, at the age of
fourteen, Rivail was asked to teach his own
classmates.7 He also became one of Pestallozi's
favourite pupils and most ardent disciples and left Yverdun with
a degree in letters and science and a doctorate in
medicine.8
After leaving the Pestalozzi Institute Rivail settled in Paris
and in 1824 he published his first book. This was based on his
own system for teaching mathematics and was reprinted until 1876.
The following year, at the age of 21, he opened his own 'First
Grade School' and in 1826 he opened another, 'The Rivail
Technical Institute'. He taught chemistry, physics, mathematics,
astronomy, comparative anatomy and rhetoric, and also spoke nine
languages...Italian and Spanish fluently.9 Rivail
also submitted proposals for educational reform to the French
Legislative Chamber which were highly praised although not
adopted.10
In 1832, he married Amelie Gabrielle Boudet, a fine arts teacher
and writer, but disaster struck in 1835 when huge gambling debts
accrued by his uncle, who was also his partner, forced the
closure of one of his schools.11 However, Rivail
began writing a series of textbooks on diverse subjects for the
French University and also began to give free lessons in his own
home.12 By 1848, when the mediumship of the Fox
sisters was creating such a stir in America, he was a well known
and highly respected educator who could have existed quite
comfortably for the rest of his life by living on the proceeds of
his books
In 1854 a friend with a shared interest in the phenomena of
mesmerism, a Mr Fortier, told Rivail of the table-turning craze
that had, by that time, reached France. He would later recall
that Fortier told him how '...not only is a table made to tilt,
magnetising it, but it can also be made to speak. Ask it a
question, and it replies.' Rivail's response was not untypical
of the initial reaction of many other successful nineteenth
century academics who would later risk their reputations by
publicly endorsing mediumship. He replied 'I will believe it
when I see it and when it has been proved to me that a table has
a brain to think and nerves to feel and that it can become a
sleep-walker. Until then, allow me to see nothing in this but a
fable told to provoke sleep.'13
Like many others in America and England, Rivail assumed that
table-turning was a 'purely material effect' and it was not until
the following year that he allowed himself to be persuaded to
attend a table-turning session in the home of one of Fortier's
mesmeric subjects, a Mrs Roger. It was here that he first
witnessed the phenomenon of tables which 'jumped and ran under
conditions that precluded doubt' and some 'very imperfect
attempts at mediumistic writing on a slate'.14
But this did no more than arouse Rivail's natural curiosity and
cause him to make a mental note to investigate the matter
further. He wrote:-
'My ideas were far from being modified, but I saw in those
phenomena an effect that must have had a cause. I glimpsed
beneath the apparent frivolities and entertainment associated
with these phenomena something serious, perhaps the revelation of
a new law, which I promised myself I would
explore.'15
Rivail was then introduced to a Mr Baudin who held weekly seances at his home. Baudin's two daughters (who, by all accounts, were rather frivolous and empty-headed) were in the habit of obtaining communications by use of table-tipping.16 Normally the results of their experiments were ample confirmation of the golden rule 'like attracts like', but whenever Rivail was present, the nature of the communications changed completely. The usual stream of banalities was replaced by philosophy of a 'very grave and serious character' and Rivail adopted the regular practice of arriving at every meeting armed with a list of penetrating questions for the new communicators. Although English accounts of events during this period vary greatly, it is apparent that, at some point, the planchette medium Celina Japhet also became involved in providing answers to his questions.17
In the brief biography of Rivail (given in the preface of her
definitive English translation of his first book) Anna Blackwell
mentions that these sessions provided the basis of Spiritist
theory by use of table-tipping, raps and planchette writing.
However, when a group of other investigators who had collected
over 50 notebooks full of communications asked Rivail to arrange
them into some sort of order he initially refused.18
Whether or not this was because he was not yet sufficiently
enthused about the subject to absorb himself in such an arduous
task is any body's guess, but he eventually changed his mind.
After two years of scrutinising the communications he remarked to
his wife:-
'My conversations with the invisible intelligences have
completely revolutionised my ideas and convictions. The
instructions thus transmitted constitute an entirely new theory
of human life, duty, and destiny, that appears to me to be
perfectly rational and coherent, admirably lucid and consoling,
and intensely interesting. I have a great mind to publish these
conversations in a book; for it seems to me that what interests
me so deeply might very likely prove interesting to
others.'19
When Rivail submitted this idea to the communicators they
replied:-
'To the book...you will give, as being our work rather than
yours, the title of Le Livre des Espirits (The Spirits'
Book); and you will publish it, not under your own name, but
under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec ['Kardec' was an old Breton
name in his mother's family]. Keep your own name of Rivail for
your own books already published.'20
Rivail then took on the task of editing the fifty notebooks,
classifying the different types of communication according to
their character and the inner consistency of their arguments. To
these he added further communications from Japhet and then, still
not being satisfied that the material was sufficiently verified,
submitted his questions to a number of other
mediums.21 Throughout, he used what he called the
principle of 'concordance' or 'conformity' by which he meant that
he accepted as most likely to be true, the answers that could not
only 'resolve all the difficulties of the question',22
but were also consistent with answers from other, independent,
sources.
When The Spirits' Book eventually appeared on April 18,
1857 it was so successful that a second edition, augmented with
yet more material, was printed the following year and the name
'Alan Kardec' became a household word all over the continent.
The publication of The Spirits' Book caused something such a sensation in France not least because its 'author' was a sober, respected intellectual, but also because it contained 'spirit communications' that answered his questions in relation to every subject from the internal structure of matter to the nature of God, human ethics, the universe and the place of humankind within it. Indeed, the contents of The Spirits' Book was probably not the sort of stuff that the public had been led to expect from the mediumship craze that had, over the space of only nine years, swept across America and Europe after being initiated by two children!
However, the ground had already been prepared for the acceptance
of the first Kardec book by the Mesmerist Alphonse Cahagnet who
had published the first of three volumes of a work entitled
Secrets of the Future Life Unveiled in 1848.23
Cahagnet, a cabinet maker by trade, took his information from
subjects who, after being 'mesmerised', would relay evidential
messages from the Spirit World. But there was a major difference
between Cahagnet and Rivail. Colin Wilson mentions that the
former did not believe in reincarnation, because his subjects
said nothing of the subject, and that he also looked upon writing
mediums with scorn.24
Rivail, on the other hand, relied heavily, although not totally,
upon writing mediums of one sort or another, and he seems to have
become convinced that reincarnation was a fact. This may have
been purely because a high proportion of the spirit personalities
who communicated through the many mediums that he consulted,
referred to reincarnation and explained its operation in
considerable detail. But the crucial factor was probably
Rivail's method of deciding whether or not a spirit statement of
a philosophical nature was likely to be true. He would write
many years later of his early attempts to explain mediumistic
phenomena and make sense of contradictory statements about spirit
life by spirits:-
'I tried to identify the causes of the phenomena by linking the
facts logically, and I did not accept an explanation as valid
unless it could resolve all the difficulties of the question
(italics added). This was the way I had always, from the age of
fifteen or sixteen, proceeded in my investigations...One of my
first observations was that the Spirits, being only the souls of
men, did not have either absolute wisdom or absolute knowledge;
their knowledge was limited to the level of their advancement and
their opinion had only the value of a personal opinion.
Recognising this fact, from the beginning saved me from the
serious error of believing in the Spirits' infallibility and
prevented me from formulating premature theories based upon the
opinion of only one or a few Spirits.'25
This was, basically, the core of Rivail's approach. He required the spirits' answers to the questions that he posed to them to 'resolve all the difficulties of the question' even in relation to morality, ethics and 'divine' justice and he had, apparently, decided that the communicators who explained this in terms of reincarnation had satisfied this criterion in the most satisfactory way.
I shall give a fuller account of the Kardec Spirits' view of
reincarnation later. For the present it will be enough to say
that they presented reincarnation as being essential to spiritual
progression and that this was to cause much friction between
Rivail's supporters and those of Cahagnet.26
But, surprisingly, The Spirits' Book actually devotes
relatively little space to discussing reincarnation in depth.
And, although the influence of Cahagnet's earlier work probably
did account for much of its initial success in France and the
rest of Europe, its longer-term influence elsewhere must be due
to other factors.
David J. Hess attributes this to Rivail's superb skill as a professional educator that had been developed at the Pestalozzi Institute during his youth. In fact, Hess mentions that The Spirits' Book reads rather like a Pestalozzian textbook.27 It is certainly the case that the subject matter is presented in such a way that the vast range of subjects dealt with by the spirits all interrelate with each other, presenting a united front with no internal contradictions. What The Spirits' Book actually represents (or purports to) is a cohesive picture of the entire cosmos that is centred around the moral and ethical aspects of spirit life and how these relate to humankind's use of mediumship...all expertly presented in one volume. In effect, although Rivail certainly did not start French Spiritism, he had created a central body of teachings that was so ahead of its time that it, almost literally, became Spiritism from that point onwards.
References
1David J. Hess, Spirits and Scientists: Ideology,
Spiritism, and Brazilian Culture (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania
University Press, 1991), p.78.
2Arthur Findlay, The Way of Life (London:
Headquarters Publishing/Psychic Press Ltd.), p.23.
3Janet Duncan, Translator's Preface to Allan Kardec's
The Gospel According to Spiritism (London: Headquarters
Publishing, 1987), pp.ix-x.
4David J. Hess, ibid. , p.71.
5David J. Hess, ibid. ,p.70.
6David J. Hess, ibid., p.69.
7See 3.
8Allan Kardec (a), a compilation of short works
entitled Christian Spiritism (Philadelphia: Allan Kardec
Educational Society, 1985), p.189.
9See 3.
10Anna Blackwell, Translator's Preface to Allan
Kardec's The Spirits' Book (London: Psychic Press, 1975),
p.11.
11Allan Kardec, (a), p.190.
12See 11.
13Allan Kardec (a), p.191.
14Allan Kardec (a), p.192.
15See 14.
16Colin Wilson, Afterlife (London: Grafton
Books, 1985), pp.99-100.
17Details supplied by Janet Duncan to the author.
18Allan Kardec (a), p.194.
19Anna Blackwell, ibid., p.13.
20Anna Blackwell, ibid., pp.13-14.
21Allan Kardec (a), p.195.
22Allan Kardec (a), p.193.
23Colin Wilson, Afterlife (London: Grafton
Books, 1987), p.101.
24See 1.
25Allan Kardec (a), p.193.
26See 1.
27David J. Hess, ibid., p.71.
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