Allan kardec biography

Allan Kardec (Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869) was a Frenchphilosopher and teacher.

Works

He dedicated the last 15 years of his life to organise a philosophical doctrine called Spiritism. He spread the educational ideas of Pestalozzi in the 19th century. He published books on grammar, mathematics and suggestions for the improvement of public education in France. He was a teacher of physiology, astronomy, physics and chemistry. The classes were at his home in Paris.

In 1854, Kardec started studying phenomena which some people call "paranormal" or "supernatural". This was quite common at that time.

In his philosophy the spiritual manifestations were useful to the social and moral improvement of men.

Other websites

French educator, translator, and author (1804–1869)

For the Brazilian footballer, see Alan Kardec.

"Kardec" redirects here. For the film, see Kardec (film).

Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail ([ʁivaj]; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869), known by the pen name of Allan Kardec (French:[kaʁdɛk]), was a French educator, translator, and author. He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of Spiritism.

Early life

Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804 and raised as a Roman Catholic. He pursued interests in philosophy and the sciences, and became an acolyte and colleague of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Rivail completed a Bachelor of Arts and a doctorate 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), 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, 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 advan

Allan Kardec was the pen name of renowned French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, who codified Spiritism after studying a series of seemingly unexplained phenomena taking place in Paris during the 1850s.

Under the suggestion of his spiritual guides, he published the books we now know to comprise the beginning of Spiritism under a name from a previous incarnation to ensure the works would stand on their own merit, and not on that of his sizable academic credibility. This would also serve another purpose: to unequivocally establish that the ideas and concepts contained in the basic books of Spiritism were the work of the communicating spirits and not of Rivail himself — a point further made clear in the title of Spiritism’s first work, “The Spirits’ Book”.

To Rivail, however, was given the important task of acting as the editor-in-chief for the new body of knowledge that emerged. With diligence and dedication, Rivail gathered, analyzed, compared, and evaluated spiritual messages brought forth by different mediums, eventually compiling them into a coherent philosophy with far-reaching moral implications.

Some key names always appear when the theme is Spiritism, and it is important that we know a little more about them.

Allan Kardec, whose real name was Hyppolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, was a French educator that, despite his initial skepticism, started investigating some strange and unexplained phenomena that were occurring in France during the 1850's. Very soon he realized, however, the importance and the serious aspects of those phenomena and started doing careful research through mediums (chanellers) who received messages from spirits. The great work done by Kardec was to intensively question the spirits, searching for answers that could explain all the aspects of life. He published the questions he asked and the answers he received from the spiritual world in a book called "The Spirits' Book". These explanations were accepted as truth once Kardec’s group received messages in which the essence coincided in several instances. The Spirits’ Book was the initial mark of the so called The Spiritist Doctrine (or Spiritism), which strongly encourages mankind to respect, love and help one another. It also teaches the steps mankind should take in order to grow in its evolution.

Leon Denis was the consolidator of Spiritism. He was not just the substitute and continuator of Allan Kardec, as is generally supposed. Denis had a mission practically as significant as the one of the Codifier. To him, was assigned the development of the doctrinaire studies, to proceed with the mediumistic research, to propel the Spiritist Movement in France and all over the world, to deepen the moral aspect of the Doctrine and above all, to consolidate it in the first decades of the Century. In that new Bible, (Spiritism) the role of Kardec is that of the wise person and the role of Denis is that of the philosopher. Leon Denis was nominated the Apostle of Spiritism, due to his magnificent work, and the words written and spoken in behalf of the new Doctr