The Book on Mediums

Leon-Denizarth-Hippolyte Rivail, better known by his nom de plume of Allan Kardec was born at Lyons, on the 4th of October 1804, of an old family of Bourg-en-Bresse, that had been for many generations honorably distinguished in the magistracy and at the bar. His father, like his grandfather, was a barrister of good standing and high character; his mother, remarkably beautiful, accomplished, elegant, and amiable, was the object, on his part, of a profound and worshipping affection, maintained unchanged throughout the whole of his life. Educated at the Institution of Pestalozzi, at Yverdun (Canton de Vaud), he acquired at an early age the habit of investigation and the freedom of thought of which his later life was destined to furnish so striking an example. Endowed by nature with a passion for teaching, he devoted himself, from the age of fourteen, to aiding the studies of those of his schoolfellows who were less advanced than himself; while such was his fondness for botany, that he often spent an entire day among the mountains, walking twenty or thirty miles, with a wallet on his back, in search of specimens for his herbarium. Born in a Catholic country, but educated in a Protestant one, he began, while yet a mere boy, to meditate on the means of bringing about a unity of belief among the various Christian sects, a project of religious reform at which he labored in silence for many years, but necessarily without success, the elements of the desired solution not being at that time in his possession. Having finished his studies at Yverdun, he returned to Lyons in 1824, with the intention of devoting himself to the law; but various acts of religious intolerance to which he unexpectedly found himself subjected led him to renounce the idea of fitting himself for the bar, and to take up his abode in Paris, where he occupied himself for some time in translating Telemachus and other standard French books for youth into German. Having at length determined upon his career, he purchased, in 1828, a large and flourishing educational establishment for boys, and devoted himself to the work of teaching, for which, by his tastes and acquirements, he was peculiarly fitted. In 1830 he hired, at his own expense, a large hall in the Rue de Sevres, and opened therein courses of gratuitous lectures on Chemistry, Physics, Comparative Anatomy, and Astronomy. These lectures, continued by him through a period of ten years, were highly successful, being attended by an auditory of over five hundred persons of every rank of society, many of whom have since attained to eminence in the scientific world. Always desirous to render instruction attractive as well as profitable, he invented an ingenious method of computation, and constructed a mnemotechnic table of French history, for assisting students to remember the remarkable events and discoveries of each reign. Of the numerous educational works published by him may be mentioned, A Plan for the Improvement of Public Instruction, submitted by him in 1828 to the French Legislative Chamber, by which body it was highly extolled, though not acted upon; A Course of Practical and Theoretic Arithmetic, on the Pestalozzian System, for the use of Teachers and Mothers (1829); A Classical Grammar of the French Tongue (1831); A Manual for the use of Candidates for Examination in the Public Schools; with Explanatory Solutions of various Problems of Arithmetic and Geometry (1848); Normal Dictations for the Examinations of the Hotel de Ville and the Sorbonne, with Special Dictations on Orthographic Difficulties (1849) These works, highly esteemed at the time of their publication, are still in use in many French schools; and their author was bringing out new editions of some of them at the time of his death. He was a member of several learned societies; among others, of the Royal Society of Arras, which, in 1831, awarded to him the Prize of Honor for a remarkable essay on the question, "What is the System of Study

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART ONE PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS CHAPTER 1 DO SPIRITS EXIST? CHAPTER 2 THE MARVELOUS AND THE SUPERNATURAL CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY AND PROCESS Materialists - Extreme Materialists - Materialists from lack of any better hypothesis - Skeptics from ignorance, from ill-will, from self-interest, from dishonesty, from pusillanimity (spiritual cowardice) from religious scruples, from hoaxes - Three classes of Spiritists - Experimental Spiritists - Imperfect Spiritists - Christian or True Spiritists - Order of studies in the investigation of Spiritism. CHAPTER 4 THEORIES Different opinions in regard to Spiritism - Theories of Negation - Charlatanism - Madness - Hallucination - Cracking Muscles; Physical Causes - Reflection or Cerebration - Affirmative Theories - The Collective Soul - Sleepwalkers - Pessimists - The Diabolical or Demoniacal - Optimists - Non Spiritists or Mono-Spiritists - Multi Spiritists or Poly-Spiritists - Theory of the Material Soul. PART TWO SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS CHAPTER 1 ACTION OF SPIRITS ON MATTER CHAPTER 2 PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS - TABLE TURNING CHAPTER 3 INTELLIGENT MANIFESTATIONS CHAPTER 4 THEORY OF PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS Movements and levitations - Sounds - Temporary increase and decrease of the weight of bodies. CHAPTER 5 SPONTANEOUS PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS Noises, racket, and disturbances - Things thrown about - Objects introduced spontaneously into rooms - Statements by a Spirit in regard to these phenomena. CHAPTER 6 VISUAL MANIFESTATIONS Theoretical explanation of Apparitions - Theory of Hallucination. CHAPTER 7 BI-CORPOREITY AND TRANSFIGURATION Apparitions of the spirit of people in the flesh - Doubles - Saint Alfonso of Liguori and Saint Antony of Padua - Vespasian - Transfiguration - Invisibility. CHAPTER 8 LABORATORY OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD Spirit-clothing - Spontaneous formation of tangible objects - Modification of the properties of the matter - Curative action of animal magnetism. CHAPTER 9 HAUNTED PLACES CHAPTER 10 NATURE OF SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS Coarse - frivolous - serious - instructive communications. CHAPTER 11 SEMATOLOGY AND TYPTOLOGY The language of signs - raps and tilting - Alphabetical typtology. CHAPTER 12 PNEUMATOGRAPHY OR DIRECT WRITING - PNEUMATOPHONY OR DIRECT SPIRIT-SOUNDS CHAPTER 13 PSYCHOGRAPHY Indirect Psychography: Planchettes, etc. - Direct or Manual Psychography. CHAPTER 14 MEDIUMS Physical Mediums - Sensitive or Impressionable Mediums - Clairaudient Mediums - Trance Mediums - Clairvoyant Mediums - Sleepwalking Mediums - Healing Mediums - Automatic Writing. CHAPTER 15 WRITING MEDIUMS OR PSYCHOGRAPHS Mechanical Mediums - Intuitive Mediums - Semi-Mechanical Mediums - Inspired or Involuntary Mediums - Presentient Mediums. CHAPTER 16 SPECIAL MEDIUMS Special aptitudes of Mediums - Synoptic table of the different varieties of Mediums. CHAPTER 17 FORMATION OF MEDIUMS Development of Mediumship - Changes in the writing of Mediums - Loss and Suspension of Mediumship. CHAPTER 18 DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS OF MEDIUMSHIP Influence of Mediumship on the Health - Idem on the Brain - Idem on Children. CHAPTER 19 THE ACTION OF THE MEDIUM IN THE OBTAINING OF SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS Influence of the Medium - Mediumship attributed to inert bodies - Aptitude of certain mediums for languages, music, drawing, etc., of which they have no present knowledge - Dissertation of a Spirit on the action of mediums in Spirit-Manifestations. CHAPTER 20 MENTAL AND MORAL INFLUENCE OF THE MEDIUM Questions - Dissertation of a Spirit on the Mental and Moral Influence of Mediums on Spirit-Manifestation. CHAPTER 21 INFLUENCE OF SURROUNDINGS ON SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS CHAPTER 22 MEDIUMSHIP OF ANIMALS CHAPTER 23 OBSESSION Simple Obsession - Fascination - Subjugation - Causes of Obsession - Means of combating Obsession. CHAPTER 24 IDENTITY OF SPIRITS Obtainable proofs of Identity - Distinction between Good and Evil Spirits - Questi