Kardec, was he a psychic? Part 2 (Final)

Later on, Kardec did confirm that there was a serious error on the 30th line, and he was surprised for having committed it. (KARDEC, 2006b, p.306).

This tapping episode could only occur if someone gave the necessary energy to cause this kind of phenomenon of physical effect, which we call ectoplasm.

L. Palhano Jr. (1946-2000) explains it as follows:

It is a substance that emanates from a medium’s body capable of producing phenomena of physical effects or apparitions at a distance. It is a like a fluidic breath, sensitive to thought, visible or invisible, plastic, with no odor or taste, originally colorless, and it resembles a protoplasmic mass. (PALHANO JR, 2004, p.96).

Kardec was probably the giver of this energy; however, we have no information that anything like this happened afterwards; so we prudently prefer not to identify Kardec as a medium of physical effects.

Kardec, in the dialogue with the Spirit of Truth, asks him, "May I invoke you in my house?" And the following answer was: "Yes, to assist you by thought: but for written answers in your house, you will only be able to obtain them after a very long time" (KARDEC, 2006b, 306, emphasis added). Well, from this we can already conclude that Kardec was, at least, an intuitive medium who was assisted by thought by his Guide, the Spirit of Truth. Surely objections will turn up regarding this issue; however, we shall next demonstrate that we are right.

We hereby copy one of the dialogues with the Spirit Pierre Le Flamand, published in the Spiritist Magazine 1859, on May:

47. Let us go back to Mr. Allan Kardec. – A. I went to his house the night before last; he was busy writing in his office... he was working on a new book... Ah! He shows the best of us, us poor Spirits; if we do not become known, it is not his fault.

48. Was he alone? - A. Yes, that is, there was no one with him; but approximately twenty Spirits were whispering above his head.

49. Could he hear them? - R.He could hear them, though he looked everywhere to see where the noise came from, to see if it did not come from thousands of flies; then he opened the window to see if it was not the wind or rain.

Note - The fact was perfectly accurate.

50. Among all those Spirits, did you not recognize him? - R. No, they are not those of my society; I looked like an intruder and I stood in a corner to watch.

51. Did these Spirits seem interested in what he wrote? - R. I believe they did and very much! Above all, there were two or three who blew what he wrote and who seemed to counsel with others; he, he naively believed that the ideas were his, and he seemed pleased with that.

(KARDEC, 1993a, pages 119-120, emphasis added).

If Kardec managed to hear Spirits murmuring around him, and even wrote what some of them were blowing; then, we can, once again, confirm that he was a medium even he was not an ostensible medium. In fact, this happens a lot with the "inspired" mediums, who generally think that what is written by them comes from their own inspiration (creation) and do not imagine that it comes from another source.

In the Spiritist Magazine, year 1861, we find a speech by Allan Kardec addressed to the Spiritists of Bordeaux, from which we transcribe the following passage:

I was no doubt helped by the Spirits in the works I did to achieve the purpose I set for myself, just as they told me several times, but with no outward sign of mediumship. I am not, therefore, a medium in the ordinary sense of the word, and today I am glad that it is like this. By means of an effective mediumship, I would have written only under one influence; I would be led to only accept the truth of what was given to me, and this perhaps would be wrong; whereas, in my position, it was convenient that I should have absolute freedom to take good wherever it was, and wherever it came from; therefore, I was able to make a choice of various teachings, without prejudice, and with complete impartiality. I have seen a lot, studied a lot, observed a lot, but always with a cool look, and I want nothing else but to see the experience that I acquired be used by others, and thus I am glad to be able to help all beginners avoid the natural pitfalls. (KARDEC, 1993b, 340, emphasis added).

Here Kardec confesses that he does not have mediumship in the narrow sense, i.e., he had "no great mediumistic power... to transmit the Spirits’ thought through writing or word" (Kardec, 1993a, 29, emphasis added); however, he was somehow a medium, what we will prove next.

On September 14, 1863, in Paris, a message is addressed to Kardec, of which we highlight the following passage:

I want to talk to you about Paris, although this does not seem to me to be of any use, since my inner voices are heard around you and your brain perceives our inspirations with an ease that you do not even suspect. Our action especially that of the Spirit of Truth, is constant around you and such that you cannot deny it. So I will not enter into idle details about the plan of your work, which, according to my hidden counsels, you have modified so broadly and completely. You now understand why we needed to have you under our hands, free of any other concern than that of the Doctrine. A work like the one that we elaborate by mutual consent needs contemplation and sacred seclusion. [...]. (Kardec, 2006b, 341, emphasis added).

The statement that "my intimate voices are heard around you and that your brain perceives our inspirations, with an ease that you do not even suspect" is the confirmation of what we are saying, about Kardec being a medium of intuition.

We can also confirm this fact taking the very words of Kardec, recorded in the Spiritist Magazine, year of 1867; if not, let us see:

Although we do not have the outer qualities of an effective mediumship, we do not doubt that we are assisted in our work by the Spirits; we have very reliable evidence of this to doubt it. We undoubtedly owe it to our goodwill, and to what is given to each one according to his works. In addition to the ideas that come to us and that we know that are suggested, it is noteworthy that the subjects of study and observation - all that can be useful to elaborate the work - always come to us on purpose, - in other times I would have said: such as a spell – in such a manner that the materials and documents of the work are never lacking. If we have to deal with a subject, we are certain that without having to ask for them, the elements necessary for its elaboration are supplied to us, and this is done naturally, but undoubtedly caused by invisible collaborators, in the same manner as so many things that we attribute to chance. (KARDEC, 1999, 274, emphasis added).

Now, to say that "without having any of the outer qualities of an effective mediumship" and "in addition to the ideas that come to us and that we know that are suggested”, it is to say the same about the intuition mediumship, for through thought they transmitted to Kardec their ideas, and based on them he made decisions, as was told to him.

Therefore, we believe we have reached our goal, which was to show that Kardec was, rather, a medium of intuition.

This also overthrows the opinion of the anti-Spiritist Rene Guenon, who, in his already mentioned work, says the following:

[...] In any case, there is an opinion that is quite known, even among the Spiritists, and is entirely wrong: that Allan Kardec would have written his books under a kind of inspiration; the truth is that he himself was never a medium; hewas on the contrary a magnetizer (and we say on the contrary because both qualities seem to be inconsistent), and that it was through his "subjects" how he got the "communications". [...]. (Guenon, 2010, page 37, emphasis added).

As we said earlier, Guenon does nothing but take Home's ideas for himself. However, he uses the term "inspiration"; we use "intuition"; what is the difference between the two? Let's turn to the confrere Francisco Aranda Gabilan (?-), who thus defines these words:

Inspiration is the transmission of thoughts and messages from one mind to another, "a breath" from the disincarnate to the incarnate so that he can freely make use of a certain figure, an idea, a mental picture.

Intuition is the set of own knowledge acquired through the multiple experiences of the Being, which comes to the mind spontaneously, without the need of anyone to transmit it, since such knowledge belongs to its peculiar and subjective universe of knowledge.

(GABILAN, 2000, in the newspaper O Semeador)

Thus, the correct term to be used to define Kardec's mediumship is inspiration and not intuition, as used by Rene Guenon, and perhaps others understand it as well.

References:

AUBREE, M and LAPLANTINE, F. The table, the book and the Spirits: genesis, evolution and the present of the Spiritist social movement between France and Brazil.Maceio: EDUFAL, 2009.

GUENON, R. The Spiritist Error (L'erreur Spirite). Paris: Ed. Traditionnelles, 1984.

GUENON, R. The Spiritist Error (L'erreur Spirite). Sao Paulo: Rene Guenon Institute, 2010.

HOME, D. D. Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism. London: Virtue, 1878.

KARDEC, A. The Book of Mediums. Sao Paulo: Lake, 2006a.

KARDEC, A. Posthumous Works. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2006b.

KARDEC, A. Spiritist Magazine 1858. Araras, SP: IDE, 2001a.

KARDEC, A. Spiritist Magazine 1859. Araras, SP: IDE, 1993a.

KARDEC, A. Spiritist Magazine 1861. Araras, SP: IDE, 1993b.

KARDEC, A. Spiritist Magazine 1867. Araras, SP: IDE, 1999.

PALHANO JR. L. Dictionary of Spiritist Philosophy. Rio de Janeiro: CELD, 2004.

PIRES, J. H. Mediumship: life and communication. Conceptualization of mediumship and general analysis of its current problems. Sao Paulo: EDICEL, 1987.

DONHA, J. A. V. An anthropological X-ray of Spiritism. In the newspaper Abertura no. 149. Santos, SP: Espirit Net, June / 2000, obtained in the site: Abertura 2000, access on 03.17.2011, at 08: 08hs.

GABILAN, F. A. Intuition or Inspiration? In O Semeador no. 760, May / 2000. Sao Paulo: FEESP, obtained by Feesp website, access on 03.17.2011, at 06:15 hs.

MIRANDA, H. Allan Kardec and the mystery of a secular fidelity. Available at: community, access on 03.14.2011, at 22: 06hs.

  
Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br