ALLAN KARDEC (Hyppolite-Léon-Denizard Rivail). He was the founder of the so called Spiritist Doctrine, born in Lyon on October 3rd, 1804 from the Bourg en Bresse, Department of Ain. Although son and grandson of lawyers and of an old family, distinguished in the magistrature and courts, he did not follow that career; he soon dedicated to the study of Sciences and Philosophy. Pupil of Pestalozzi, in Switzerland, he becomes one of the eminent disciples of that célèbre pedagogue, and one of the propagators of his educational system, which exerted great influence in the reformation of studies in France and Germany. It was in that school that he developed the ideas which would later place him in the class of men of progress and free thinkers.
Born in the Catholic religion, but raised in a protestant country, the acts of intolerance that he had to endure with that respect made him conceive, since he was fifteen years old, the idea of a religious reform, in which he worked quietly for many years, with the thought of achieving the unification of all beliefs; but he lacked the indispensable element to the solution of that huge problem.
Spiritism came to bring him that element later, providing him with a special direction to his works. Around 1850, when the manifestations of the spirits were in vogue, Allan Kardec dedicated to the perseverant observations of those phenomena, particularly by extracting the philosophical consequences from those occurrences.
They gave him initially a glimpse at the principle of the new natural laws: those that govern the relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds; he acknowledged in the action of the latter one of the forces of nature, whose knowledge should shed light onto a number of problems, considered insoluble, and he understood its reach from a scientific, social and religious stand point. His first publications about that subject are: The Spirits’ Book as for the philosophical part, whose first edition was released on April 18th 1857; The Mediums’ Book, for the experimental and scientific part (January 1861); The Gospel According to Spiritism, for the moral part (April 1864); Heaven and Hell, or God’s justice according to Spiritism (August 1865); the Spiritist Magazine, journal of psychological studies, monthly collection started on January 10th 1858.
He founded in Paris the first spiritist society regularly established, on April 10th 1858, with the name of PARISIAN SOCIETY OF SPIRITIST STUDIES, whose exclusive objective is the study of everything that can contribute to the progress of that new Science.
Allan Kardec denies having written anything under the influence of preconceived and systematic ideas; man of calm and cold character, he observed the phenomena and deduced their governing laws; he was the first to give them a theory and to form a methodic and regular body. By the demonstration that the facts falsely qualified as supernatural are submitted to laws, he brought them into the order of natural phenomena, thus destroying the last refuge of the marvelous and one of the elements of superstition.
During the initial years when the spiritist phenomena were observed, those manifestations were more object of curiosity than subject of serious meditations; The Spirits’ Book brought the matter to be considered from a completely different aspect; the dancing tables, which were only a prelude, were then abandoned, moving on to a body of doctrine that encompassed all questions of interest to humanity.
The publication of the Spirits’ Book is the milestone of the true foundation of Spiritism, that up to then had only sparse elements, without coordination, and whose reach could not have been understood by everybody; since that moment the Doctrine also attracted the attention of serious men, achieving a fast development.
In just a matter of a few years those ideas found innumerous followers in all classes of society and in all countries. Such unprecedented success is, no doubt, due to the sympathy found by those ideas, but it is also, in a great deal, due to the clarity which is one of the distinctions of Mr. Allan Kardec’s writings.
Avoiding the abstract formulas of metaphysics, the author knew how to speak to the reach of everyone and to be tirelessly read, essential condition to the vulgarization of an idea. His argumentation, about all controversial points, showing a sharp logic, offers almost no space for refutation, predisposing to conviction. The material proofs that Spiritism provides to the existence of the soul and the future life tends to the destruction of materialistic and pantheistic ideas. One of the most fecund principles of that doctrine, that follows the preceding one, is that of the plurality of existences, already envisaged by a number of old and modern philosophers, and lately by Jean Reynaud, Charles Fourier, Eugene Sue and others; but it remained in the state of hypothesis and system, while Spiritism demonstrates its reality, and proves that it is one of the essential attributes of humanity. The solution to all apparent anomalies of human life, all intellectual, moral and social inequalities derives from that principle; man thus know where he comes from and where he is supposed to go next, why he is on Earth and why he suffers.
The innate ideas are explained by the knowledge previously acquired in the preceding lives; the ascending march of the peoples and humanity, by men of former times who revive after having progressed; the sympathies and antipathies by the nature of previous relationships; these relationships that connect the great human family from all times, having the laws of nature as their basis and no longer a theory regarding the principles of fraternity, equality, freedom and universal solidarity. Besides, it directly touches religion since the plurality of the existences is a proof of the progress of the soul, that radically destroys the dogma of hell and eternal penalties, incompatible with progress; having that dogma overcome causes the fall of innumerous abuses originated from it. Instead of the principle: There is no salvation outside the church, that sustains the animosity and division among the different sects, cause of so much bloodshed, Spiritism brings the maxim: There is no salvation outside charity, that is, the equality of all men before God, tolerance, freedom of conscience and mutual benevolence. Instead of the blind faith that nulls the freedom of thought, it says: there is no unshakable faith but the one that can meet reason face to face in all ages of humanity. There is the need for a basis to the faith and that basis is the perfect intelligence of what is necessary to believe; it is not only necessary to see to believe but understand. The blind faith no longer belongs to this century; well, it is precisely the dogma of the blind faith that today unites the largest number of incredulous, since it wants to impose and demands abdication of one the most precious faculties of man: reason and free-will (Gospel according to Spiritism). The Spiritist Doctrine, as announced in the works of Allan Kardec, contains in itself the elements of a general transformation of ideas, and the transformation of ideas forcibly brings the transformation of society. From that point of view it deserves the attention of all men of progress. Having already its influence in all civilized countries, it gives to the personality of its founder a considerable importance, and everything leads to believe that, in a very near future, he will be positioned as one of the reformers of the XIX century.