You may have heard of Allan Kardec associated with John of God in Brazil. We visited Kardec’s final resting place in Paris.
Kardec is known as the organizer of the Spiritual movement of the late 19th century which is the basis of modern Spiritism in many parts of the world. Today the work of Allan Kardec is followed by people in connection with spiritual contact and mediumship especially strong in Brazil. His books form the basics and teaching on which Spiritism is based.
Born in Lyon, France Oct 3rd 1804, Kardec was raised as a Catholic. As a young man he moved to Paris where he taught Physics, Math and Astronomy.
In the 1850’s Spiritism had become exceedingly popular with séances and table tapping sessions attracting the attention of the high society. Most notably the craze had started in America with “table raping sessions” and spirit contact meetings that were taking place. Kardec attended several of these meetings and believed that in many cases they were truly communications from the other-side. In 1855 Kardec became a member of the Spiritism movement after attending a séance he believed proved spirit communication.
Kardec was not a “medium” himself, or at least he never portrayed himself that way. Rather he was a learned scholar, writer and researcher who became very interested in the subject. He attended and documented numerous meetings, following mediums and their work in these early sessions. He transcribed these connections with spirits on the other side and posed questions to them.
From these many session he documented the communications with the spirits and the process of how the mediums worked as well as received messages from the other-side.
From these, he wrote five books that now form the basis of Spiritism the most notable being “The Spirits’ Book” his first book published in 1857 and “The Book on Mediums” which were the first books on this subject and perhaps in some ways never bettered. He was the organizer of Spiritism that is practiced widely in Brazil and many other countries, based on mediumship, connection to spirit and working with spirits on the other side.
Born Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, the name Allan Kardec was given to him from a spirit during a mediumship session. This name was said to be his former name in a past life as a druid and Kardec decided to keep this name to separate his writings about spiritualism with his other writings.
In the early days, table rapping “tap one for yes, 2 for no” became popular. Then levitation, mesmerism, hypnosis and even ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is when the medium would produce an ether from their mouth to produce an actual vision of a spirit in the room using a type of plasma.
Spiritism is the belief and practice at the Casa de Dom Ignacio, John of God Brazil.
You will find a photo hanging on the wall in the casa which shows a medium Chico Xavier, who was a friend of Medium Joao (John of God). Next to Chico is what appears to be a nun or bride standing holding his hand. This is not actually a person, rather it is a spirit that has been conjured up through ectoplasm and is in such form as to actually appear on a photo.
Allan Kadec passed to the light on March 31st 1869 aged 64 and now rests in the cemetery Pere Lachaise with Jim Morrison and several other notable individuals. His memorial site was adorned with fresh flowers, clearly demonstrating that Spiritism and the love for him is alive and well today.
The inscription says
“Naitre, mourir, renaitre encore et progresser sans cesse, telle est la loi”
Which means
“To be born, die again, be reborn, and so progress unceasingly, such is the law.”