The Career of 'Allan Kardec' - II |
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This statement (given in the 1850's), to the effect that
seemingly empty space is really full of matter, has only received
confirmation quite recently by the discovery of what is termed
the 'quantum vacuum',30 and was given shortly after
the spirits had also casually announced that '...what you term a
molecule [or, perhaps, 'particle' or 'atom'] is still very far
from being the elementary molecule'.31 This latter
scientific fact would not be confirmed until J.J. Thomson
discovered the electron almost half a century later.
However, The Spirits' Book drew most converts to Spiritism
from the ranks of the French working classes,32
perhaps for the simple reason that the spirits had nothing good
to say about the inequity that was, and still is, inherent in
human society. In fact, the Spiritist attitude towards this may
is summed up in the spirits' answer to Rivail's question 'Which
amongst the vices, may be regarded as the root of the others?',
which received the reply:-
'Selfishness, as we have repeatedly told you; for it is from
selfishness that everything evil proceeds. Study all the
vices...Combat them as you will, you will never succeed in
extirpating them until, attacking the evil in its root, you have
destroyed the selfishness which is their cause. Let all your
efforts tend towards this end; for selfishness is the veritable
social gangrene. Whoever would make, even in his earthly life,
some approach towards moral excellence, must root out every
selfish feeling from his heart, for selfishness is incompatible
with justice, love, and charity; it neutralises every good
quality.'33
This meant that the Spiritist ethos became anchored on the
central principle of charity, not only in relation to material
goods, but also to just about everything else, including the
practice of mediumship. But the Kardec spirits also denounced
sexism, racism, capital punishment, slavery and every other form
of social injustice and prejudice as being contrary to Divine
Law; but recommended freedom of thought, freedom of conscience,
equality and tolerance. In effect, what was being advocated was
a program of social reform, framed within a 'spiritual' context,
that was light-years ahead of the pious conservatism of the
Catholic Church.
The foregoing point also represents what is perhaps the greatest
difference between the portrayal of Spirit life given by the
Kardec spirits and the account given by others since. Rivail
only seems to have been interested in the great moral and
scientific concerns of the human race and framed his questions
accordingly. So The Spirits' Book contains no mention of
Spirit houses etc. that are a familiar feature of the literature
of Spiritualism. The subject matter is almost wholly oriented
towards the effect that moral behaviour has upon the individual,
both on Earth and in the hereafter.
Encouraged by the success of The Spirits' Book, Rivail
decided to start a monthly journal. Unable to obtain financial
backing for this venture he sought the advice of his guides
through the mediumship of Miss E. Dufaux and was told that he
should fund the journal himself and not worry about the
consequences.34 Accordingly, the first issue of La
Revue Spirit appeared on January 1 1858 and, as with The
Spirits' Book, its success surpassed Rivail's expectations.
He also founded The Parisian Society of Psychologic Studies.
But his work for Spiritism had only just begun. He published
The Mediums' Book in 1861 which dealt solely with the
Spirits' views on the development and uses of mediumship itself.
For this and the other works that would follow, he used even more
mediums than for The Spirits' Book but the employed the
same method of presentation i.e., his questions followed by the
spirits' answers which were supplemented by his own comments and
observations.
Rivail quickly became regarded as the foremost authority on
mediumship in France and was held in awe in by the Spiritists in
his home town of Lyon, so much so that, in 1862, he had to plead
with them not to waste money on honouring him with a lavish
banquet as they had done the year before.35 Anna
Blackwell mentions that he was constantly visited by those 'of
high rank in the social, literary, artistic, and scientific
worlds' and he was summoned by the Emperor Napoleon III, several
times to answer questions about the doctrines of
Spiritism.36
But, of course, the rapid rise of Spiritism did little to endear
Rivail, or Spiritists in general, to certain sections of the
French Establishment and even some Spiritists who came to resent
his influence on the movement. This opposition, particularly
from the Church, could hardly have come as any surprise to
Rivail, but one would imagine that that from within Spiritism
would have been particularly distressing to him. In fact, he had
been warned of both, and much else besides, by the spirits in
1856, before he had any idea that he would become such a
prominent champion of the Spiritist cause:37
'Terrible hates will be incited against you; implacable enemies
will plot your downfall. You will be exposed to calumny and
treachery, even from those who seem most dedicated to you. Your
best works will be contradicted and banned.'38
The communication was given, appropriately enough as it
transpired, by a communicator who called himself the 'Spirit of
Truth'.
Predictably, the Catholic church, both in France and elsewhere,
was particularly eager to discredit both Spiritism and Rivail.
David J. Hess, in Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism
and Brazilian Culture mentions a number of actions taken by the
Church against the new movement which it regarded as being worse
than Protestantism.39 Before the publication of
The Spirits' Book in 1856, the Holy Office, under Pope
Pius IX, had prohibited mediumship and 'other analogous
superstitions' as 'heretical, scandalous, and contrary to the
honesty of customs'. But in 1861 the Bishop of Barcelona took
more direct action. He ordered an auto-da-fe (act of the faith)
known as the Edict of Barcelona, against three-hundred Spiritist
books, including many by Rivail, that were confiscated and burnt
in public.40 However, the Bishop's actions did
nothing more than stir up French nationalism and contribute to
the further growth of Spiritism in both France and Spain. Hess
adds that when the Bishop died nine months afterwards, his
repentant spirit manifested through several French mediums
begging for Rivail's forgiveness which was, apparently, granted.
In France, the dean of the Faculty of Theology of Lyons began
public education courses against Spiritism and Mesmerism in 1864
and Spiritism was widely branded as a form of demon worship in
writings by clergymen.
Rivail accused the Church of deliberately inciting hatred against
Spiritists:-
'From the pulpit, we Spiritists have been called enemies of
society and public order...In some places, Spiritists were
censured to the point of being persecuted and injured on the
streets, while the faithful were forbidden to hire Spiritists and
were warned to avoid them as they would avoid the plague. Women
were advised to separate from their husbands...Charity has been
refused to the needy and workers have lost their livelihoods,
just because they were Spiritists. Blind men have even been
discharged, against their will, from some hospitals because they
would not renounce their beliefs.'41
As with Spiritualism in America and Britain, certain sections of
the French scientific establishment also reacted with hostility
to the spread of Spiritism. Hess mentions that a Dr Dechambre, a
member of the Academy of Medicine, published a critique of the
movement in 1859, and also cites reports of insanity, allegedly
caused by Spiritism, that had started to circulate by
1863.42 There was even a French equivalent to the
theory, which originated in America, that spirit raps were
produced by the cracking of the knee and toe joints. The French
variation on this theme was presented to the Academy of Medicine
by a surgeon, M. Jobert, who attributed the noises to skilful
cracking of the short tendon of the muscle of the
instep.43
However, in accordance with the spirit prediction just mentioned,
Rivail also faced bitter opposition from within Spiritism itself.
Writing of the accuracy of the 'Spirit of Truth's' warning
eleven years later he complained:-
'The Societe Spirite de Paris (Spiritist Society of Paris) has
been a continuous focus of intrigues, devised by those who
declared loyalty and friendship to me, but who slandered me in my
absence. They said that those who favoured my work were paid by
me with money I received from Spiritism.'44
I have already mentioned above that Rivail's endorsement of the
doctrine of reincarnation had caused a certain amount of friction
with the followers of the mesmerist, Alphonse Cahagnet and it is
easy to imagine that the prominence he had achieved so rapidly in
the Spiritist movement would excite jealousy in others. After
all, few human endeavours, even those supposedly dedicated to
'spiritual' motives, are free from rivalry and controversy. It
would appear that, far from being grateful to Rivail for the
wider exposure and support that he had gained for Spiritism, some
Spiritists resented his influence.
It would not be unreasonable to assume that, in Rivail's case, a fair amount of this acrimony was the result of the way in which he viewed mediumship. As we have already seen, he appears to have come to the Spiritist movement as a relatively disinterested outsider with no emotional attachment to any particular idea about the subject. Once he had reached the conclusion that the communications were, indeed, the work of discarnate entities he may therefore have been more suited to judging these objectively than some individual mediums and their followers who, then as now, must have been occasionally prone to what could be termed 'My Guide Knows Better Than Your Guide Syndrome'.
I have given an outline of the way in which Rivail judged the
worth of spirit statements of a philosophical nature above. But
he also adopted criteria for deciding whether or not a
communicator was likely to be the person that they were claiming
to be.45 Working according to the famous principle of
'like attracts like' on the basis that every human being has some
imperfection in their moral nature, he took it for granted that
even the best mediums (especially writing mediums) could, at some
point in their careers, fall prey to spirit personalities who
would try to lead the medium astray by borrowing some revered
name, thus flattering the medium's vanity to gain acceptance for
the most ridiculous statements. In cases such as this, where
good evidence of identity, as such, might be difficult or
impossible to obtain, he recommended that the communication be
judged on whether or not the sentiments expressed, and the manner
of their expression, were in general accordance with what one
would expect from the personality concerned. And, even if this
condition was met, he only accepted (at best) the 'moral
probability' that the identity was correct.
The Mediums' Book, published in 1861, as the title
suggests, is wholly concerned with mediumship itself. It is
really a handbook for the development and proper use of the gift
that is, ostensibly, written from the communicating spirits'
point of view; needless to say these were all claimed to be
highly advanced personalities, some well-known, others anonymous.
The material for The Mediums' Book, and the others which
followed, was drawn largely from automatic writing mediums at
Rivail's 'Parisian Society For Psychologic Studies' but it also
included the work of others who sent communications from
elsewhere in France and abroad.46 As with The
Spirits' Book, Rivail claimed to be presenting a view on the
various subjects dealt with that could be considered
authoritative because it was drawn from a wide variety of
independent sources that broadly agreed with each other...a sort
of consensus of opinion amongst 'advanced' spirits.
Every conceivable aspect of every type of mediumship and spirit
manifestation is dealt with in The Mediums' Book (even
charlatanism receives a chapter of its own) but Rivail devoted
special space to the effect that the moral characters and
preconceived ideas of mediums themselves may have upon the
ability of spirits to communicate effectively. He identified
twenty-six considerations that should be taken into account in
judging the worth of communications and gave examples of some
that could not reasonably be attributed to the author
claimed.47 A good example is the following:-
'Go forward, children, march forward with elated hearts, full of
faith; the road you follow is a beautiful
one...'48
This communication, which continued in similar platitudinous vein
at some length, was signed with the name 'Napoleon', and it drew
the following comment from Rivail:-
'If ever there were a grave and serious man, Napoleon, while
living, was such an one; his brief and concise style of utterance
is known to all, and he must have strangely degenerated since his
death, if he could have dictated a communication so verbose and
ridiculous as this...'.49
This attitude must surely have offended certain mediums and
Spiritist groups who were in the habit of accepting
communications such as this at face value. The fact that Rivail
referred to such people with barely veiled despair in a chapter
on the dangers of Spirit obsession,50 indicates that
he was only too aware of the ridicule that they were capable of
provoking from ever eager critics. His reference to 'enemies' of
Spiritism 'those who pretend to be its friends in order to injure
it underhandedly' and the recommendation that Spiritist societies
be kept small because 'such persons find it far more easy to
pursue their aim of sowing discord in large assemblies than in
little groups of which all the members are known to each
other',51 also suggests that he was worried that the
movement contained people who he considered to be wrongly
motivated.
Nonetheless, The Mediums' Book complemented The
Spirits' Book perfectly in that it provided a sound guide
through the many difficulties that can arise during the practice
of mediumship. It would be joined in 1864 by The Gospel
According to Spiritism which contained the spirit teachers'
comments on the New Testament. This trio of books is regarded by
Spiritists as being the cornerstone around which the modern
movement has been built. However, Rivail would publish two
further major works under the name 'Kardec': Heaven and
Hell (1864) which was based upon the spirits' comments about
the real nature of these as mental/spiritual states; and
Genesis (1867) which showed 'the concordance of the
spiritist theory with the discoveries of modern science and with
the general tenor of the Mosaic record as explained by
spirits'.52 He also published two short treatises
entitled 'What is Spiritism' (1859) and 'Spiritism Reduced to its
Simplest Expression' (1860) which was a dialogue between Rivail
and three critics of Spiritism...'The Critic', 'The Sceptic' and
'The Priest'.
In 1867, with the publication of Genesis, Rivail completed
the series of books that today are regarded by the more
evangelically minded Spiritists as comprising 'the third
revelation' of God to humankind, the first being the teachings of
Moses and the second those of Jesus.53 However,
Rivail himself would probably have balked at this as he had
merely claimed that Spiritism, or the modern explosion of spirit
communication, was the third revelation. But, as with almost
every other aspect of the 'Kardec' teachings this idea had come
not from himself, but from the Spirit communicators, one of whom
expressed it most succinctly in The Gospel According to
Spiritism:-
'Moses showed humanity the way; Jesus continued this work;
Spiritism will finish it.'54
Rivail himself wrote of this aspect of Spiritism:-
'The Law of the Old Testament was personified in Moses: that of
the New Testament in Christ. Spiritism is then the third
revelation of God's law. But it is personified by no one because
it represents teaching given, not by Man but by the Spirits who
are the Voices of Heaven, to all parts of the world through the
co-operation of innumerable intermediaries. In a manner of
speaking, it is the collective work formed by all the Spirits who
bring enlightenment to all mankind by offering the means of
understanding their world and the destiny that awaits each
individual on their return to the spiritual
world.'55
References
28David J. Hess, ibid., p.62.
29Allan Kardec (b), The Spirits' Book (London:
Psychic Press Ltd, 1975), p.13.
30Robert Mathews writing in Focus magazine,
December 1997, pp.10-11.
31Allan Kardec (b), p.12.
32See 5.
33Allan Kardec (b), p.354.
34Allan Kardec (a), p.196.
35See 6.
36Anna Blackwell, ibid., p.17.
37Allan Kardec (a), pp.196-197.
38Allan Kardec (a), p.197.
39David J. Hess, ibid., pp.67-68.
40Allan Kardec (a), p.100.
41Allan Kardec (a), p.99.
42David J. Hess, ibid., pp.77-78.
43Allan Kardec (c), The Mediums' Book (London:
Psychic Press Ltd, 1977), p.35.
44Allan Kardec (a), pp.197-198.
45Allan Kardec (c), pp.296-318.
46Allan Kardec (c), translator's note by Anna
Blackwell, p.417.
47See 8.
48Allan Kardec (c), p.441.
49See 11.
50Allan Kardec (c), pp.277-295.
51Allan Kardec (c), p.407.
52Anna Blackwell, ibid.,p.15.
53David J. Hess, ibid., p.18.
54Allan Kardec (d), The Gospel According to
Spiritism (London: The Headquarters Publishing Co. Ltd,
1987), p.28.
55Allan Kardec (d), p.25.
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