Everything about Allan Kardec totally explained
Allan Kardec was a pseudonym of the French teacher and educator
Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (
Lyon,
October 3,
1804 –
Paris,
March 31,
1869), who is known today as the systematizer of
Spiritism.
Rivail was born in
Lyon,
France, in
1804. Rivail was a disciple and collaborator of
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and a teacher in courses in
mathematics,
physics,
chemistry,
astronomy,
physiology,
comparative anatomy and
French in
Paris. For one of his research papers, he was inducted in
1831 into the
Royal Academy of Arras. He organized and taught free courses for the underprivileged.
On February
1832 he married
Amélie Gabrielle Boudet.
He was already in his early fifties when he became interested in the wildly popular phenomenon of
spirit-tapping. At the time, strange phenomena attributed to the action of
spirits were reported in many different places, most notably in the
U.S. and France, attracting the attention of high society. The first such phenomena were at best frivolous and entertaining, featuring objects that moved or "tapped" under what was said to be spirit control. In some cases, this was alleged to be a type of communication: the supposed spirits answered questions by controlling the movements of objects so as to pick out letters to form words, or simply indicate "yes" or "no."
At the time,
Franz Mesmer's theory of
animal magnetism was popular in the upper reaches of society. When confronted with the phenomena described, some researchers, including Rivail, pointed out that animal magnetism might explain them. Rivail, however, after personally seeing a demonstration, quickly dismissed the animal-magnetism hypothesis as being insufficient to completely explain all the facts observed (see Chapters VIII and XIV in the
The Book on Mediums). Rivail was determined to understand exactly what was causing the physical effects popularly attributed to spirits.
As a teacher with some scientific background (he had never attended a university), Rivail decided to do his own research. Not being a
medium himself, he compiled a list of questions and began working with mediums and channelers to pose them to spirits. Soon the quality of the allegedly communication with spirits appeared to improve.
Rivail used the name "Allan Kardec" allegedly after a spirit identified as Zefiro, whom he'd been communicating with, told him about a previous incarnation of his as a
Druid by that name. Rivail liked the name and decided to use it to keep his Spiritists writings separate from his work, basically books for high school students.
In
April 18 1857 Rivail (signing himself "Allan Kardec") published his first book on Spiritism,
The Spirits' Book, comprising a series of 1,019 questions exploring matters concerning the nature of spirits, the
spirit world, and the relations between the spirit world and the material
world. This was followed by a series of other books, like
The Book on Mediums and
The Gospel According to Spiritism, and by a periodical, the
Revue Spirite, which
Kardec published until his death.
Allan Kardec coined the word
"spiritism" and followed modern scientific methods in its study, which was recognized among others by
Camille Flammarion, a famous French astronomer and author, who said
"spiritism isn't a religion but a science".
Having died due to
aneurysm, Kardec is buried at the
Cimetière du Père Lachaise. The eulogy was delivered by
Camille Flammarion.
Visitors from all over the world, especially from
Brazil where his doctrine has millions of followers, come bringing flowers to his tombstone, which is reputed to be one of the most flowered at the Cimetière. The body of his wife
Amélie Gabrielle Boudet is also buried there. At the top part of his burial chamber is written a sentence that became a sort of spiritist's motto:
Naitre, mourir, renaitre encore et progresse sans cesse, telle est la loi.
Further Information
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