The First Psychonaut?

Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Narcotics

Authors

  • Wouter J. Hanegraaff University of Amsterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v7i2.31939

Keywords:

Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet, entheogenic esotericism

Abstract

This article calls attention to the important but neglected French Mesmerist, Spiritualist, Swedenborgian, and occultist Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet (1809-1885), while concentrating on his significance as a forgotten pioneer of modern entheogenic esotericism. Like other occultist practitioners during the period prior to modern Theosophy (notably Emma Hardinge Britten and Paschal Beverley Randolph), Cahagnet was convinced about the spiritual potential of narcotics as a powerful tool for inducing transcendental vision. The article describes and contextualizes his systematic experiments with narcotic suffumigations made from plants traditionally associated with necromancy and witchcraft, as well as his spiritual visions induced by the eating of Hashisch dissolved in coffee. Cahagnet appears to stand at the origin of an underground tradition of visionary practice that would be continued and further developed by Britten, Randolph, and other esoteric practitioners since the 1860s. While most scholars have tended to play down the role of narcotics in these contexts, they may well have been crucial to how spiritual vision came to be understood in the occultist movement.

Author Biography

  • Wouter J. Hanegraaff, University of Amsterdam

    Wouter J. Hanegraaff is Professor of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam.

References

Agrippa, Cornelius. 1992. De occulta philosophia Libri tres. Edited by V. Perrone Compagni. Leiden: Brill.

Anonymus. 1859. “Hashish visions.” The Spiritual Telegraph and Fireside Preacher 8(36), 31 December, 1859, 424–425.

Anonymus. 1860a. “Boston Spiritual Conference, Wednesday Evening, October 31,” Banner of Light 8(7), November 10, 5.

Anonymus. 1860b. “Boston Spiritual Conference, Wednesday Evening, December 12,” Banner of Light 8(13), December 22, 8.

Anonymus. 1860c. “A Word on Stimulants.” Banner of Light 8(14), 29 December 1860, 4.

Anonymus. 1876a. Art Magic; Mundane, Sub-Mundane and Super-Mundane Spiritism. A Treatise inThree Parts and Twenty-Three Sections: Descriptive of Art Magic, Spiritism, the Different Orders of Spirits in the Universe known to be related to, or in Communication with Man; together with Directions for Invoking, Controlling, and Discharging Spirits, and the Uses and Abuses, Dangers and Possibilities of Magical Art. New York: Published by the Author.

Anonymus. 1876b. Ghost Land; or Researches into the Mysteries of Occultism. Illustrated in a Series of Autobiographical Sketches. Boston, MA: Published for the Author.

Anonymus. 1885. “Occult psychological phenomena, or strange facts in nature, Part I.” The Occult Magazine 1(1): 6–7.

Anonymus. 1842. [= Edward Bulwer Lytton]. Zanoni. 3 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers.

Baier, Karl. 2009. Meditation und Moderne: Zur Genese eines Kernbereichs moderner Spiritualität in der Wechselwirkung zwischen Westeuropa, Nordamerika und Asien, vol. 1. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann.

Brach, Jean-Pierre. 2011. “Conférences de M. Jean-Pierre Brach, Directeur d’études.” Annuaire de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Section des sciences religieuses 118: 283–290.

Brach, Jean-Pierre. 2012. “Conférences de M. Jean-Pierre Brach, Directeur d’études.” Annuaire de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Section des sciences religieuses 119: 245–252.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1848. Arcanes de la vie future dévoilés, où l’existence, la forme, les occupations de l’âme après sa séparation du corps sont prouvées par plusieurs années d’expériences au moyen de huit somnambules extatiques qui ont eu quatre-vingt perceptions de trente-six personnes de diverses conditions décédées à différentes époques; leurs signalements, conversations, renseignements, preuves irrécusables de leur existence au monde spirituel, vol. 1. Paris: Germer Baillière.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1849. Arcanes de la vie future dévoilés, où l’existence, la forme et les occupations de l’âme séparée du corps sont prouvés par plusieurs années d’expériences au moyen de somnambules extatiques qui ont eu les perceptions de cinquante nouvelles personnes de diverses conditions décédées à différentes époques; leur signalement, conversations, renseignements, procès-verbaux de leur identité; suivis 1. d’une foule de faits surnaturels communiqués par des magnétiseurs; 2. la réfutation des objections faites sur le contenu du premier volume des Arcanes; 3. citations de philosophes spiritualistes sur l’immortalité de l’âme, vol. 2. Paris: Germer Baillière.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1850. Sanctuaire du spiritualisme: Étude de l’âme humaine, et de ses rapports avec l’univers, d’après le somnambulisme et l’extase. Paris: Chez l’auteur.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1851a. Arcanes de la vie future dévoilés où l’existence, la forme, les occupations de l’âme après sa séparation du corps sont prouvées par plusieurs années d’expériences au moyen de somnambules extatiques qui ont eu quatre-vingt perceptions de trente-six personnes de diverses conditions décédées à différentes époques, leur signalement, conversations, renseignements, preuves irrécusables de leur existence au monde spirituel! vol. 3. Paris: Germer Baillière.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1851b. Du traitement des maladies, ou étude sur les propriétés médicinales de 150 plantes les plus connues et les plus usuelles, par l’extatique Adèle Maginot, avec une exposition des diverses méthodes de magnétisation, Paris: Germer Baillière.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1850. The Celestial Telegraph; or, Secrets of the Life to come revealed through Magnetism: wherein the Existence, the Form, the Occupations, of the Soul after its Separation from the Body are proved by Many Years’ Experiments, by the Means of Eight Ecstatic Somnambulists, who had Eighty Perceptions of Thirty-Six Deceased Persons of Various Conditions. A Description of them, their Conversations, etc., with Proofs of their Existence in the Spiritual World. New York: Partridge and Brittan.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1856. “Introduction.” In Révélations d’outre-tombe par les esprits Galilée, Hypocrate, Franklin, etc., sur Dieu, la préexistence des âmes, la création de la terre, l’astronomie, la météorologie, la physique, la métaphysique, la botanique, l’hermétisme, l’anatomie vivante du corps humain, la médecine, l’existence du Christ et du monde spirituel, les apparitions et les manifestations spirituelles du XIXe siècle, 11–31. Paris: Chez l’auteur.

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse. 1858. Magie magnétique ou traité historique et pratique de fascinations, miroirs cabalistiques, apports, suspensions, pactes, talismans, charme des vents, convulsions, possessions, envoûtements, sortilèges, magie de la parole, correspondance sympathique, nécromancie, etc. Paris: Germer Baillière.

Chambers, Robert. 1848. “The hashish.” Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal 9(256), 25 November, 341–344; repr. Littell’s Living Age 20(246), 3 February 1849; repr. [Anonymous] Vermont Watcher and State Journal 43(29), 31 May 1849.

Child, A. B. 1859. “Hashish.” Banner of Light 4(17), 22 January, 3.

Demarest, Marc. 2009. “Pierre Erard.” < -- > Thomas Welsh,” ehbritten.blogspot.nl, 20 February.

Deveney, John Patrick. 1997a. Paschal Beverley Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Deveney, John Patrick. 1997b. Astral Projection or Liberation of the Double and the Work of the Early Theosophical Society. Theosophical History Occasional Papers VI. Fullerton, CA: Theosophical History.

Deveney, John Patrick. 2011. “Paschal Beverley Randolph and sexual magic.” In Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey J. Kripal, 355–367. New York: Fordham University Press

Eckartshausen, Karl von. 1788. Aufschlüsse zur Magie, aus geprüften Erfahrungen über verborgene philosophische Wissenschaften und verdeckte Geheimnisse der Natur. Brünn: Joh. Sylv. Siebler.

Faivre, Antoine. 1969. Eckartshausen et la théosophie chrétienne. Paris: C. Klincksieck.

Faivre, Antoine. 2008. “‘Eloquence magique,’ ou descriptions des mondes de l’au-delà explorés par le magnétisme animal: Au carrefour de la Naturphilosophie romantique et de la théosophie chrétienne (première moitié du XIXe siècle).” Aries 8(2): 191–228. https://doi.org/10.1163/156798908X327339

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 2009. “Will-Erich Peuckert and the Light of Nature.” In Esotericism, Religion, and Nature, edited by Arthur Versluis, Claire Fanger, Lee Irwin and Melinda Phillips, 281–305. Michigan: North American Academic Press.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 2012. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 2013a. “The notion of ‘occult sciences’ in the wake of the Enlightenment.” In Aufklärung und Esoterik: Wege in die Moderne, edited by Monika Neugebauer-Wölk, Renko Geffarth and Markus Meumann, 73–95. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110297836.73

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. 2013b. “Entheogenic Esotericism.” In Contemporary Esotericism, edited by Egil Asprem and Kennet Granholm, 392–409. Sheffield: Equinox.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. forthcoming. “Western esotericism and the orient in the first theosophical society.” In Theosophy Across Boundaries, edited by Hans-Martin Krämer and Julian Strube.

Kiesewetter, Karl. 1886. “Magische räucherungen.” Der Sphinx 1: 220–221.

Lévi, Éliphas. 2000. Secrets de la magie. Paris: Robert Laffont.

Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. 1857. The Hasheesh Eater: Being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean. New York: Harper and Brothers.

Moreau de Tours, Jacques-Joseph. 1845. Du Hachisch et de l’aliénation mentale: Études psychologiques, Paris: Fortin, Masson and Cie.

Partridge, Christopher. 2005. The Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture. 2 vols. London: T & T Clark.

Partridge, Christopher. Forthcoming. Technologies of Transcendence: Psychedelic Esotericism in the Modern World. New York: Oxford University Press.

Peuckert, Will-Erich. 1960. “Hexensalben.” Medizinischer Monatsspiegel 8: 169–174.

Pierssens, Michel. 1993. “Le merveilleux psychique au XIXe siècle.” Ethnologie française, nouvelle série 23(3): 351–366.

Podmore, Frank. 1902. Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism. 2 vols. London: Methuen.

Podmore, Frank. 1909. Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing. Philadelphia, PA: George W. Jacobs.

Podmore, Frank. 1963a. Mediums of the 19th Century. 2 vols. New York: University Books.

Podmore, Frank. 1963b. From Mesmer to Christian Science. New York: University Books.

Rätsch, Christian.

Podmore, Frank. 1998. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and its Applications. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

Siegel, Ronald K. and Ada E. Hirschman. 1984. “Hashish Near-Death Experiences.” Anabiosis: The Journal for Near-Death Studies 4(1): 69–86.

Strube, Julian. 2016. Sozialismus, Katholizismus und Okkultismus im Frankreich des 19. Jahrhunderts: Die Genealogie der Schriften von Eliphas Lévi. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110478105

Tilton, Hereward. 2012. “Alchymia archetypica: Theurgy, inner transformation and the historiography of alchemy.” In Transmutatio: La via ermetica alla felicità / The Hermetic Way to Happiness, edited by Daniela Boccassini and Carlo Testa, 179–215. Special issue of Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei 5.

Tuttle, Hudson. 1862. “Hashish.” Banner of Light 10(19), 1862, 3.

Vadé, Yves. 1990. L’enchantement littéraire: Écriture et magie de Chateaubriand à Rimbaud. Paris: Gallimard.

Villars, Henry Mountfaucon de. 2010. Comte de Gabalis, ou entretiens sur les sciences secrètes (1670), modern edition: Henri de Montfaucon de Villars, Le Comte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les sciences secrètes, avec l’adaptation du Liber de Nymphis de Paracelse par Blaise de Vigenère (1583), Paris: Honoré Champion.

Wolff, Hanna M. 1891. “Madame Blavatsky.” The Two Worlds 4(213), 11 December, 671–672.

Wolff, Hanna M. 1892. “Madame Blavatsky.” The Religio-Philosophical Journal (New Series), 2(32): 501–502.

Published

2017-02-20

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Hanegraaff, W. (2017). The First Psychonaut? Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Narcotics. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 7(2), 105-123. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v7i2.31939