BEGINNINGS OF SPIRITISM IN FRANCE
From 1850, modern spiritualism spread throughout the United States thanks to propaganda in which, be it noted, socialist periodicals were particularly conspicuous. In 1852 the 'spiritualists' held their first general conference in Cleveland. It was also in 1852 that the new belief made its first appearance in Europe, having been imported first to England by American mediums. From there it reached Germany the following year and then France. Nevertheless, in these countries there was at that time nothing comparable to the agitation caused in America, where for a dozen years phenomena and theories were the objects of the most violent and passionate discussion.
It was in France, as we said, that the term 'spiritism' was first employed. This neologism served to designate something which, although based on the same phenomena, was in fact quite different in theory from what the modern spiritualism of the Americans and English had been until that time. In fact it has often been remarked that the theories set forth in the 'communications' dictated by socalled 'spirits' are generally related to opinions current in the circles in which they are produced and where, naturally, they are all the more readily accepted. This observation enables one to account, at least in part, for their real origin. The teachings of the French 'spirits' thus differed from those of the Anglo-Saxon countries on a number of points which, though not among those included in the general definition of spiritism, are in any case of no less importance.
The greatest difference was the introduction of the idea of reincarnation, of which French spiritists made a veritable dogma, while almost all others rejected it.[1] Also, it was in France that a need was felt to gather together the received 'communications' in such a way as to form a body of doctrine, and this gave the French school of 'spiritism' a certain unity, at least at the outset. This unity was difficult to maintain, however, and various schisms subsequently gave rise to many new schools.
The founder of the French school of spiritism, or at least the person whom his followers agreed to consider as such, was Hippolyte Rivail, a former school teacher from Lyon and a disciple of the Swiss pedagogue Pestalozzi. He had abandoned teaching to come to Paris, where for a time he was manager of the Folies-Marigny theater, and on the advice of the 'spirits', took the Celtic name Allan Kardec, which was said to have been his name in a previous existence. It was under this name that he published his several books, which served as the doctrinal foundation for French spiritists and have remained so for most of them.[2] We say that Rivail published these works, but not that he wrote them by himself, for the composition, and subsequently the founding of French spiritism, was really the work of a group for which he was only the spokesman. The books of Allan Kardec are a kind of collective work, the result of a collaboration, and by this we understand something other than the collaboration of 'spirits' alleged by Kardec, who stated that they were composed with the aid of 'communications' that he and others had received and that had been verified, reviewed, and corrected by 'superior spirits'. For the spiritists, in fact, since man is altered very little by death, one cannot rely on what is said by the 'spirits', among whom there are those who would deceive us, either from malice or from simple ignorance. It is thus that spiritists claim to explain contradictory 'communications'. But one may ask how 'superior spirits' are to
be distinguished from the others. Whatever the case may be, there is a widespread but entirely erroneous opinion among the spiritists themselves that Allan Kardec wrote these books under a kind of inspiration. The truth is that he never was a medium but was on the contrary a mesmerizer (we say 'on the contrary' because the two qualities seem incompatible) and that it was by means of his 'subjects' that he obtained his 'communications'. As to the 'superior spirits' by whom these messages were corrected and coordinated, they were not all 'disincarnate'. Rivail himself took part in this work, although apparently not the greater part. We believe that the arrangement of the 'documents from beyond the grave', as they are called, must be attributed to several members of the group that was formed around him. It is probable that most of those in this circle preferred that their collaboration remain unknown to the public; in addition, had it been known that there were professional writers in the circle, this might have cast some doubt on the authenticity of the 'communications', or at least on the fidelity with which they were reproduced, even though their style was far from being remarkable.
We think it well to report here what the famous English medium, Dunglas Home, wrote regarding Allan Kardec and the way his doctrine was composed, for Home often showed himself more sensible than many other spiritists:
I consider the doctrine of Allan Kardec among the illusions of this world, and I have good reasons for this.... I do not in any way question his good faith.... His sincerity is projected like a magnetic cloud onto the sensitive minds of those whom he called his mediums. In this way their fingers committed to paper the ideas thus forcibly imposed upon them, and Allan Kardec received his own doctrines as messages sent from the world of the spirits. If the teachings furnished in this way really emanated from great intelligences who, according to Kardec, were their real authors, would they have taken the form which we see? Where did Iamblichus learn contemporary French so well? And how did Pythagoras completely forget Greek, his mother tongue...? I have never encountered a single case of hypnotic clairvoyance
where the subject did not directly or indirectly reflect the ideas of the magnetizer-hypnotist. This is demonstrated in a striking manner by Allan Kardec himself. Under the dominion of his energetic will, his mediums were so many writing machines slavishly reproducing his own thoughts. If sometimes the published doctrines did not conform to his desires, he corrected them to his liking. It is known that Allan Kardec was not a medium. He did nothing but magnetize or 'psychologize' . . . persons more impressionable than himself.[3]
This is quite true, except that the correction of the 'teachings' must not be attributed to Allan Kardec alone, but to his entire group. In addition, the very tenor of the 'communications' could have been previously influenced by other persons present at the séances, as we shall explain further on.
Of Allan Kardec's collaborators who were not simple 'subjects', some were endowed with various mediumistic faculties. One in particular possessed the curious talent of 'sketching'. We found an article on this subject that appeared in 1859, two years after the publication of Livre des Esprits, a passage that we think worthwhile quoting, given the personality in question:
Several months ago, some fifteen people belonging to educated and polite society were gathered in a salon of a Saint-Germain suburb to examine designs executed by a medium present at the gathering but inspired and dictated by...Bernard Palissy. Indeed, Monsieur S..., a pen in hand and a piece of white paper before him, but with no artistic subject in mind, had conjured up the famous potter. The latter had come and had guided his fingers through the sequence of movements necessary to execute on the paper designs of an exquisite taste, of great richness of ornamentation, and of very delicate and fine execution, one of which represented-if it be permitted-the house occupied by Mozart on the planet Jupiter! In order to forestall any stupefaction, it must be added that Palissy is Mozart's neighbor in that remote place, as he indicated quite positively to the medium.
There is no doubt, moreover, that this house could only be that of a great musician, for it is decorated throughout with musical notes and clefs.... The other drawings also represented buildings on various planets; one of them is that of the grandfather of Monsieur S..., who spoke of gathering them all in an album. This would be, literally, an album of the other world.[4]
This Monsieur S..., who, apart from executing these singular artistic productions, was one of the most steadfast collaborators of Allan Kardec, was none other than the celebrated dramatist Victorien Sardou. Another dramatist, Eugene Nus, much less well known today, belonged to the same group, but he later separated himself somewhat from spiritism[5] to become one of the first French adherents of the Theosophical Society. We will also mention Camille Flammarion because he is one of the last survivors of the first organization, called the 'Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies'. It is true that he came along rather later and was quite young at the time, but it would be difficult to contest that the spiritists regarded him as one of their own, for in 1869 he gave a eulogy at the funeral of Allan Kardec. Nevertheless, Flammarion sometimes protested that he was not a spiritist, although he did so in a somewhat embarrassed manner. His works also show his tendencies and sympathies clearly enough, and here we speak of his works in general and not only of those devoted particularly to so-called 'psychic' phenomena. These latter are more particularly collections of observations in which the author, in spite of his 'scientific' pretensions, had included many facts that were not seriously checked. We add that, whether avowed or not, Flammarion's spiritism did not hinder his being nominated as an honorary member of the Theosophical Society when this latter was introduced in France.[6]
If there was a certain 'intellectual' element in spiritist circles, even a very modest one, it may be asked how it came about that all the
spiritist books, beginning with those of Allan Kardec, were manifestly at such a low level. In this regard it is well to recall that every collective work reflects the mentality of the most inferior elements of the group by which it is produced. As strange as this may seem, it is nevertheless an observation familiar to all who have studied 'crowd psychology'. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why socalled 'revelations from beyond the grave' are generally only a web of banalities, for in fact they are often done collectively and, as they are the foundation of all the rest, this character is naturally found in all spiritist productions. Further, the 'intellectuals' of spiritism were for the most part literary men; we cite the example of Victor Hugo who, during his sojourn in Jersey, was converted to spiritism by Madame Gira.[7] With men of letters, sentiment most often predominates over intelligence-and spiritism is something especially characterized by sentimentality. We shall have occasion to return to the case of those scholars who have come to the study of [spiritist] phenomena without preconceptions but who have been led in a more or less circuitous and secretive manner to share the views of the spiritists (we do not mean Flammarion, who is rather a popularizer, but scholars enjoying a more serious and better established reputation). We can say here, however, that by reason of their very specialization the competence of these scholars is limited to their own restricted field and that outside that field their opinions have no more value than do those of anyone else. Moreover, genuine intellectuality has very little in common with the qualities required for success in the experimental sciences as these are conceived and practiced in the modern world.
But let us return to the origins of French spiritism. What we said earlier in this context can be reaffirmed, namely that the 'communications' are in harmony with the opinions of the circle in which they occur. In fact the first adherents of the new beliefs were recruited from among the Socialists of 1848 . We know that for the most part these people were 'mystics' in the worst sense of the word, or if it be preferred, 'pseudo-mystics'. It was quite natural therefore that they should be drawn to spiritism even before the doctrine was
developed; and as they influenced this development they subsequently found, also quite naturally, their own ideas reflected by those veritable 'psychic mirrors', the mediums. As a Mason, Rivail had been able to consort with Socialist leaders, and had probably read the works of those whom he knew personally. This was the source of most of the ideas he and others of his group expressed, notably, as we said previously, the idea of reincarnation. In this connection we have noted the undisputed influence of Fourier and Pierre Leroux.[8] Certain contemporaries also did not fail to note this relationship, among them Dr Dechambre, in the article quoted from above. Regarding the way spiritists envisaged the hierarchy of superior beings, and after having recalled the ideas of the Neoplatonists (who in fact were far more distant from the spiritists than he believed), he added this:
The invisible instructors of Allan Kardec would not have needed to converse at such length with Porphyry's spirit to learn of this; they need only have talked with Pierre Leroux, no doubt easier to locate, or again with Fourier.[9] The inventor of the Phalanstère would have been delighted to learn from them that our soul will be clothed in ever more ethereal bodies as it traverses the eight hundred existences (a good round figure) for which it is destined.
Then, speaking of the 'progressive', or as one would say today 'evolutionist', conception to which the idea of reincarnation is closely tied, the same author says again:
This dogma strongly resembles that of Pierre Leroux, for whom manifestations of universal life, to which he reduces the life of the individual, are at each new existence only one further progressive step.[10]
This conception had such importance for Allan Kardec that he expressed it in a formula from which he made a kind of motto: 'To
be born, to die, to be born again and progress without ceasing, such is the law.' It would be easy to find many other resemblances bearing upon secondary points, but for the moment we are not examining spiritist theories in detail, and what we have just said suffices to show that, if in reality the American spiritist movement was brought about by living men, it is to equally incarnate spirits that we owe the doctrine of French spiritists-directly, as concerns the contribution of Allan Kardec and his collaborators, and indirectly, as regards the more or less 'philosophical' influences that were brought to bear. But this time those who thus intervened were in no way initiates, even of an inferior order. For reasons already given, we do not intend to continue following spiritism in all its stages of development, but the preceding historical considerations as well as the explanations to which these have led are indispensable for an understanding of what is to follow.