Allan Kardec () is the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of the French educator, translator, and author Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869). He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of

Spiritism Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Ri ...

.Moreira-Almeida, Alexander (2008)
''Allan Kardec and the development of a research program in psychic experiences''
Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association & Society for Psychical Research Convention. Winchester, UK.

Early life

Rivail was born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

in 1804 and raised as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

. He pursued interests in philosophy and the sciences, and became an acolyte and colleague of

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (, ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking r ...

. Rivail completed a number of educational courses including a Bachelor of Arts degrees in science and a doctorate in medicine. He was also fluent in German, English, Italian, and Spanish, in addition to his native French. Kardec became interested in Protestantism after his education in Switzerland. He was a member of several scholarly societies, including the Historic Institute of Paris (Institut Historique), Society of Natural Sciences of France (Société des Sciences Naturelles de France), Society for the Encouragement of National Industry ( Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale), and The Royal Academy of Arras (Académie d'Arras, Société Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts). He organized and taught free courses for the underprivileged. Rivail's work with Pestalozzi helped lay the foundations for the teaching model in schools in France and Germany. For several decades he helped advance Pestalozzi's pedagogy in France, founding schools and working as a teacher, educational writer and translator.

Family

On 6 February 1832 he married

Amélie Gabrielle Boudet Amélie Boudet (23 November 1795 – 21 January 1883) was a French teacher and artist, and wife of Allan Kardec, the founder of Spiritism. After his death, she became the world's leading authority on Spiritism. Early life She was the only daught ...

. In 1839, with a new partner, Mr. Maurice Delachatre, a merchant, he created a so-called "exchange" bank, which aimed to facilitate commercial transactions and thus create new opportunities for trade and industry, in order to support in default of pecuniary resources for the natural products. The duration of the trading bank was fixed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at ten years. According to “My predictions concerning spiritualism” as he himself described in his manuscript written between 1855 and 1856, "in May 1855, he met a certain Mr. Fortier, a magnetizer, who took him to Madame de Plainemaison, a medium who lived in the Rue de la Grange Bateliere in Paris, just a step away from the Opera House. In the presence of other guests for the session, he entered into communication with a spirit named Zephyr, who gave him the mission of being the spokesman of the Dead. For him, it was a revelation. He was there, for the first time, witnessing the phenomenon of turntables jumping and running".

Spiritism

Rivail was in his early 50s when he became interested in

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

s, which were a popular entertainment at the time. Strange phenomena attributed to the action of spirits were considered a novelty, featuring objects that moved or "tapped", purportedly under the control of 'spirits'. 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".A possible explanation for these movements is the ideomotor phenomenon. At the time, Franz Mesmer's theory of

animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all liv ...

had become popular. When confronted with the phenomena described, some researchers, including Rivail, pointed out that animal magnetism might explain them. Rivail, however, after seeing a demonstration, dismissed animal magnetism as insufficient to explain his observations. As a result of these influences, Rivail began his own investigation of psychic phenomena, mainly

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

. During his initial investigation, he stated that before accepting a spiritual or paranormal cause for some phenomena, it would be necessary first to test if ordinary material causes could explain them. He proposed that fraud, hallucination and unconscious mental activity might explain many phenomena regarded as mediumistic, and also proposed that telepathy and clairvoyance may be responsible. He compiled over one thousand questions concerning the nature and mechanisms of spirit communications, the reasons for human life on earth, and aspects of the spiritual realm. He asked those questions to ten mediums, all purportedly unknown to each other, and documented their responses. From these, he concluded that the best explanation was that personalities that had survived death were the source of at least some mediumistic communications. He became convinced that the mediums: * provided accurate information unknown to themselves or others present (e.g. personal information about deceased individuals); * demonstrated unlearned skills such as writing by illiterate mediums, handwriting similar to the alleged communicating personality, and speaking or writing in a language unknown to the medium (

xenoglossy Xenoglossy (), also written xenoglossia () and sometimes also known as xenolalia, is the supposedly paranormal phenomenon in which a person is allegedly able to speak, write or understand a foreign language that they could not have acquired by n ...

and xenography); * accurately portrayed a range of personality characteristics of deceased individuals. He compiled the mediums' responses that were consistent and adapted them into a philosophy that he called

, which he initially defined as "a science that deals with the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world."Spiritism and Mental Health: Practices from Spiritist Centers and Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Rivail wrote under the name "Allan Kardec", allegedly following the suggestion of a spirit identified as ''Truth''. On 18 April 1857, Rivail (as ''Allan Kardec'') published his first book on Spiritism, '' The Spirits' Book'', comprising a series of answered questions (502 in the first edition and 1,019 in later editions) exploring matters concerning the nature of spirits, the

spirit world Spirit world may refer to: In religion *Spirit world (Spiritualism) * Spirit world (Latter Day Saints) *Goloka, or Vaikuntha, often referred to as the "spiritual sky" or "spiritual world" in Hare Krishna contexts *Guinee, a spirit world in Vodou * ...

, and the relationship between the spirit world and the material world. This was followed by a series of other books, including '' The Medium's Book'', '' The Gospel According to Spiritism'', '' Heaven and Hell'' and '' The Genesis According to Spiritism'', and by a periodical, the ''Revue Spirite'', which Kardec published until his death. Collectively, the books became known as the Spiritist Codification. Kardec's research influenced the

psychical A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

research of Charles Richet,

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astrono ...

and

Gabriel Delanne François Marie Gabriel Delanne (23 March 1857 – 15 February 1926) was a notable French spiritist, psychical researcher, writer, and electrical engineer. He is best known for his book, "''Le Phénomène spirite''" (The Spiritist phenomenon). L ...

Memorial

After his death caused by

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus ...

, Kardec was buried at the '' Cimetière du Père Lachaise''. Raymond Buckland. (2005). ''The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication''. Visible Ink Press. p. 210;

Writings

* ''Cours pratique et théorique d’arithmétique'' (1824) * ''Plan proposé pour l’amélioration de l’éducation publique'' (1828) * ''Catéchisme grammatical de la langue française'' (1848) * ''Le Livre des Esprits'' ('' The Spirits Book''), 1857 * ''Le Livre des Médiums'' (' The Book on Mediums''), 1861 * ''L’Évangile selon le Spiritisme'' ('' The Gospel According to Spiritism''), 1864 * ''Le Ciel et L’Enfer'' ('' Heaven and Hell''), 1865 * ''La Genèse'' ('' The Genesis According to Spiritism''), 1868

Early life

Family

Spiritism

Memorial

Writings

Notes

References

External links