Laboratories of Faith: Mesmerism, Spiritism, and Occultism in Modern France (review)

In this erudite and engaging work, John Warne Monroe examines the emergence and development of three esoteric movements in France in the second half of the nineteenth century. The book opens with the familiar story of the Fox sisters and the appearance of spiritualism in 1848 New York, then transitions to the sudden explosion of this movement onto the French scene in 1853, where the physical manifestations of spirit phenomena led to a rage for so-called tables tournantes. French observers embraced American spiritualism for a variety of reasons—for some, it was simply an amusing fad or parlor game, while for others, communication with the spirits of the dead offered consolation for grieving relatives and the promise of definitive answers for long-debated metaphysical questions. Both the Catholic Church and the scientific establishment were initially taken aback by spiritualism, and were uncertain how best to respond to this new vogue. After initial ambivalence, church leaders condemned spiritualism as an impious challenge to the uniqueness of the Christian revelation and a snare to lure disaffected believers away from the true path to Christ.

Of course, the French cultural and intellectual milieu that received spiritualism was not a blank slate, and American spiritualism was received so warmly because it dovetailed nicely with existing intellectual traditions, such as Mesmerism, somnambulism, and some variants of romantic socialism, particularly among the followers of Charles Fourier. Monroe observes that the suppression of the Second Republic by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in 1851 left many French republicans and socialists disillusioned and disoriented. Esoteric movements like Mesmerism and spiritualism provided an ark of protection to these erstwhile quarante-huitards, promising a vision of future harmony and happiness. For a few, such as Victor Hennequin, whose strange tale Monroe recounts, the path from disillusionment to esotericism led ultimately to madness, but for most, the esoteric movements of the 1850s offered a new source of hope and a new outlet for their frustrated energies.

Out of this fertile milieu, an unlikely prophet emerged. A onetime schoolteacher, Hippolyte-Léon-Dénizard Rivail, who assumed the pseudonym Allan Kardec, elaborated a set of doctrines to govern what now became known as spiritisme. Monroe attributes Kardec’s success in assuming leadership of the growing spiritist movement to a combination of organizational savvy and doctrinal synthesis. Kardec’s theories, which held that souls progressed through a series of incarnations in this and other worlds, in order to perfect themselves through a series of trials and advance toward divine perfection, offered an explanation for earthly suffering and a more optimistic worldview than traditional Christian notions of heaven and hell. These theories drew upon beliefs already widespread in French society, and imposed a unity on what had previously been isolated and discordant spirit messages. At the same time, Kardec’s organizational skills, creating a popular journal to publicize his doctrines and a system of affiliation between previously isolated spiritist circles, allowed him to become the public spokesman for the movement and created the impression, among insiders and the general public alike, that all those who called themselves spiritists adhered to Kardec’s doctrines, which Monroe demonstrates was far from the case. Monroe traces the expansion of spiritisme during the Second Empire and Kardec’s success in marginalizing rival views.

If the Second Empire had been a period of expansion and official tolerance for French spiritisme (Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie hosted a number of spiritist exhibitions and welcomed foreign mediums, such as Daniel Dunglass Home, who visited France), the early years of the Third Republic would prove a difficult period. Kardec’s death left the movement without a leader, and the conservatives who governed France following the suppression of the Paris Commune were less tolerant of what many saw as a subversive, heretical sect than the emperor had been. Neither the Right nor the Left had much use for spiritisme in this new climate, for while conservative Catholics saw spiritisme as...