Articles & Thesis

ALLAN KARDEC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH PROGRAM IN PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES

Alexander Moreira de Almeida, MD, PhD *

Abstract
Allan Kardec was one of the first scholars to propose a scientific investigation of psychic phenomena but details of his life and his research work are not well known and have been misrepresented. This paper is a descriptive essay briefly presenting Kardec's biography, the first steps in his seminal research, and several epistemological/methodological guidelines he proposed to develop a comprehensive scientific research program to deal with psychic phenomena. Kardec raised and tested several hypotheses to explain mediumistic phenomena: fraud, hallucination, a new physical force, somnambulism (including unconscious cerebration and clairvoyance), thought reflection (including telepathy and super-psi), discarnate spirits and several other theories. He accepted that fraud, hallucination, unconscious cerebration and thought reflection could explain many phenomena regarded as mediumistic. However, when mediumistic phenomena were studied as a whole, the best explanation would be the spiritist hypothesis, a spiritual origin for the phenomena. He named this hypothesis “Spiritism”. Some guidelines he proposed to advance scientific research in psychical phenomena were: to use methods appropriate to the subject of investigation, to avoid both sterile skepticism and credulity, to be open to the novel, and to heed the need for a comprehensive and diversified empirical basis. He stressed the importance of theory for a scientific research program, and that facts are not enough to create certainty. Parapsychology/psychical research has much to gain in better knowing Kardec's and other pioneer's works, not just for a better understanding of the field's history, but also for potential scientific/philosophical tools that may be useful to move the field forward. Deeper studies on aspects of Kardec's work and life are warranted.

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