Allan Kardec

Referenced in 1 episode

Definition

Pen name of French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (1804-1869), who systematized Spiritism in the 1850s-60s by gathering and comparing communications received through mediums around the world.

Related episodes

The Spiritist View of Mental Disorders with Alexander Moreira-Almeida

New Thinking AllowedAug 23, 2026

Brazilian psychiatry professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida explains how Allan Kardec's 19th-century Spiritism holds that some mental disorders may stem from past-life memories or 'obsessing' discarnate spirits. In Brazil, dozens of psychiatric hospitals offer Spiritist therapies such as disobsession sessions with mediums and laying on of hands alongside conventional care. He also describes the first randomized controlled trial of these therapies and the criteria psychiatrists use to tell genuine mediumship apart from mental illness.

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