Quotes:Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse

Zirkoff, Boris

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse (1805-85). French artisan of no formal education; occupied himself by making chairs. Remarkable man endowed with a great gift of developing lucidity in somnambulic subjects, and a close student of animal magnetism. Greatly interested in mystical thought and the latent powers of man, long before the inception of the Theosophical Movement. Never claimed to be anything more than a mere student. Considering his general background, and his poor circumstances, his literary output was 500 prodigious. He was the author of the foDowing works: Guide du magnétiseur, ou procédés magnétiques, etc., Paris, 1849, pp. 63.— Magnétisme. Arcanes de la vie future dévoilée, etc., Paris: Germer- Baillière, 1848-54, 3 vols.; 3rd ed., 1896.—Sanctuaire du spiritualisme, etc., Paris, 1850, pp. 382.— Lumière des morts, Paris, 1851, pp. 322.—Du Traitement des maladies, etc., Paris: G. Baillière, 1851, pp. 212.—Magie magnétique, etc., Paris: Germer-Baillière, 1854, pp. 528; 2nd ed., 1858; 3rd ed., 1895.—*Révélations d'outretombe, etc., Paris, 1856, pp. 383.—Études sur l'homme, Argenteuil, 1858, pp. 80.—Méditations d’un penseur, etc., Paris, 1860, 2 vols.— Encyclopédie magnétique spiritualiste, etc., Paris, 1854-62, 7 vols.—Thérapeutique du magnétisme, etc., Paris, 1883, pp. 439.—A number of smaller tracts. In all of the works mentioned above, Cahagnet treats at great length on magnetic conditions of the human body, methods of magnetizing it, results obtained with sen· sitives and somnambules, and also on medicinal herbs and their relation to various diseases. It is obvious from these facts that Cahagnet drew most likely upon a source of inner knowledge he was able to tap.

One of the works mentioned by H. P. B., namely, *The Celestial Telegraphy with the sub-title of “The Secrets of the Life to Come revealed through Magnetism,” exists in Engl, transi. (London, George Peirce, 1850).

Further data concerning this very remarkable student may be had by consulting the work entitled: La Vie et les oeuvres philosophiques d’Alphonse Cahagnet, produced by his disciples and friends, the “Étudiants Swedenborgiens libres,” Paris, 1898, pp. 59, 8vo.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, pp. 499-500

Cahagnet, Louis-Alphonse (1805-1885). See Vol. HI, pp. 499-500, for biographical data.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 4, p. 637