Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869), known by the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume 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 name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Allan Kardec (), was a French educator, translator, and writer. He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of

Spiritism Spiritism may refer to: Religion * Espiritismo, a Latin American and Caribbean belief that evolved and less evolved spirits can affect health, luck and other aspects of human life * Kardecist spiritism, a new religious movement established in ...

.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 (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 1804 and raised as a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. 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 ...

. Rivail completed a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

and a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

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 also trained in positivist ideas, although he ended up not being an orthodox positivist.

Career

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 The Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (; ) is an organization established in 1801 to support French industry. Over the years it has provided prizes and support to inventors, promoted transfer of technology and management techniq ...

), 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. He was also involved, from the age of 19, with the controversial hypothesis of

animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...

, being a practitioner of mesmerism.

Educator

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.

Banker

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.

Spiritualism

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 language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

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 The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...

. At the time,

Franz Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...

's theory of

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 A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that ar ...

, mainly

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

. 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 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 ...

, 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 ...

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, as Allan Kardec, Rivail published his first book on Spiritism, ''

The Spirits Book ''The Spirits' Book'' (''Le Livre des Esprits'' in French) is part of the Spiritist Codification, and is regarded as one of the five fundamental works on Spiritism. It was published by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, und ...

'', 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, 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 ''The Gospel According to Spiritism'' (''L'Évangile Selon le Spiritisme'' in French), by Allan Kardec, is a book published in 1864 that relates the teachings of Jesus to Kardecist spiritism, Kardecist Spiritism, the moral and religious philosoph ...

'', '' Heaven and Hell'' and ''

The Genesis According to Spiritism ''The Genesis, Miracles and Premonition According to Spiritism'' (''La Genèse, les Miracles et les Preditions selon le Spiritisme'' in the original French) was the last book published (1868) by Allan Kardec, just before his death. It tries to re ...

'', and by a periodical, the ''Revue Spirite'', which Kardec published until his death. Collectively, the books became known as the

Spiritist Codification Denominated basic works of Spiritism (''Portuguese:'' Obras básicas do Espiritismo), also referred to as Codificação Espírita, are five books published by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Allan Kardec, b ...

. Kardec's research influenced the

psychical A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that ar ...

research of

Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet (; 25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Riche ...

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion 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 astronomy, several notable early science fiction ...

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). ...

Personal life

Family

On 6 February 1832 he married Amélie Gabrielle Boudet.

Death

After his death caused by

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, 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 b ...

in 1869, Kardec was buried at the '' Cimetière du Père Lachaise''.

Raymond Buckland Raymond Buckland (31 August 1934 – 27 September 2017), whose craft name was Robat, was an English writer on the subject of Wicca and the occult, and a significant figure in the history of Wicca, of which he was a high priest in both the Ga ...

. (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'' (''

''), 1857 * ''Le Livre des Médiums'' (''

The Book on Mediums ''The Book on Mediums'' or ''Mediums and Evokers' Handbook'' (a.k.a. ''The Mediums' Book'' —''Le Livre des Médiums'', in French), is a book by Allan Kardec published in 1861, second of the five Fundamental Works of Spiritism — the philos ...

''), 1861 * ''L'Évangile selon le Spiritisme'' (''

''), 1864 * ''Le Ciel et L'Enfer'' ('' Heaven and Hell''), 1865 * ''La Genèse'' (''Genesis'' or, The ''Genesis According to Spiritism''), 1868

Notes

References

External links

The Spirits' Book
by Allan Kardec (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

)
The Book on Mediums
by Allan Kardec (

)
The Gospel According to Spiritism
by Allan Kardec (

)
Heaven and Hell
by Allan Kardec (

)
Genesis
by Allan Kardec (

)
Allan Kardec Educational SocietyALLAN KARDEC: Free PDF spiritist books in several languagesKardec
a 2019 film.
U.S. Spiritist Council
by Allan Kardec
Divulgacion de Espiritismo en Argentina
de Allan Kardec
Libros de Espiritismo
de Allan Kardec
British Union of Spiritist Societies

Works by Allan Kardec
at Domínio Público *

by Federação Espirita Brasileira {{DEFAULTSORT:Kardec, Allan 1804 births 1869 deaths Writers from Lyon French spiritual writers French male writers Deaths from aneurysm Spiritism Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century occultists Founders of new religious movements