John Chambers - Victor Hugos Conversations with the Spirit World: A Literary Geniuss Hidden Life

VICTOR HUGOS

Conversations with

THE SPIRIT WORLD

A LITERARY GENIUSS

HIDDEN LIFE

JOHN CHAMBERS

Introduction by Martin Ebon

Illustrations by Peri Poloni-Gabriel

Destiny Books

Rochester, Vermont

TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER AND TO JUDY

Excerpts from The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill. 1980, 1982 by James Merrill. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Excerpts from Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum. 2006 by Deborah Blum. Used by permission of The Penguin Press, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Excerpts from Selected Poems of Victor Hugo: A Bilingual Edition, translated by E. H. Blackmore and A. M. Blackmore. 2001 by The University of Chicago Press. Used by permission of The University of Chicago Press.

Excerpts from The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christs Sacred Bloodline by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. 2006 by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc. and Little, Brown Publishers, U.K.

Excerpts from The Temptation of the Impossible by Mario Vargas Llosa. 2007 by Mario Vargas Llosa. Published by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

Excerpts from Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine by Bart D. Ehrman. 2004 by Bart D. Ehrman. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Excerpts from Victor Hugo: A Biography by Graham Robb. 1997 by Graham Robb. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton.

Excerpt from Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom by Roger Pearson. 2005 by Roger Pearson. Reprinted by permission of Bloomsbury U.S.A.

The illustrations in this book, by Peri Poloni-Gabriel (www.knockoutbooks.com), are based upon originals in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and are reprinted by kind permission of New Paradigm Books.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like, once again, to express my profound gratitude to Martin Ebon (19172006), who wrote the introduction to this book, and without whose generous help, as mentor, as benefactor, and especially as friend, there would be no book. Ive seen peoples eyes fill with tears when they tried to tell me of the wonderful things Martin Ebon did for them; I am one of those people.

I am also indebted to Diana Neutze, Julia Jones, Marilyn Raphael, Patricia Pereira, Doug Kenyon (editor of Atlantis Rising), Patrick Huyghe (editor of The Anomalist), Guyon Neutze (Professor of Philosophy, Wellington Polytechnic, Wellington, New Zealand), Dr. Istvan Deak (Seth Low Professor Emeritus of Central and East Central European Studies, Columbia University, New York) and, of course, Judy, my wife, who every day made every bit of it possible.

Finally, I would like to bow deeply, respectfully, and gratefully in the direction of the very distinguished British author who, through the years, has given me priceless guidance, though on condition of anonymity.

The Non-living Dramatis Personae (Historical and Abstract) of Victor Hugos Conversations with the Spirit World

These are the names of the spirits who spoke through the turning tables, in alphabetical order and with the number of appearances. Those with asterisks after their name are the spirits who actually make an appearance, however brief, in this book.

Abel (I)

Aeschylus* (4)

Aesop (I)

Alexander (I)

Amelia (a fairy)* (I)

Amuca (Babac) (I)

Anacreon (I)

Andr (Pinsons brother)* (I)

Apuleus (I)

Archangel Love, The (I)

Aristophanes (I)

Aristotle (I)

Balaams Ass* (I)

Batthyny, Louis* (I)

Being Speaking Latin (I)

Being, A (I)

Bonnivard (I)

Byron* (I)

Cagliostro (I)

Cain (I)

Cerpola the Shepherd (I)

Cesarion (I)

Charlet (l)

Chateaubriand (I)

Chnier, Andr* (7)

Cimarosa* (I)

Civilization* (I)

Comedy (I)

Comet, A* (I)

Corday, Charlotte (I)

Criticism* (2)

Damianiels (I)

Dante* (I)

Death* (7)

Delorme, Marion (I)

Diderot (I)

Diogenes (I)

Drama, The* (16)

Finger of Death, The (I)

Flamel, Nicholas* (I)

Galileo* (2)

Glory (I)

Grim Gatekeeper, The* (I)

Hannibal* (I)

Happiness (I)

Haynau* (I)

Idea, The* (6)

India (I)

Inspiration (I)

Iron Mask, The (I)

Isaac Laquedem (I)

Isaiah (I)

Jacob* (I)

Jesus Christ* (6)

Joan of Arc (I)

Joshua* (3)

Judas (I)

Lady in White, The* (3)

Lais (I)

Latude (I)

Leonidas (I)

Lion of Androcles, The* (18)

Lion of Florence, The (I )

Lope de Vega (I)

Louis-Philippe (I)

Luther* (2)

Machiavelli* (I)

Marat (I)

Marie-Blanche (I)

Metempsychosis* (I)

Muhammad (I)

Molire (II)

Moses (I)

Mother, Durrieus (I)

Mozart* (3)

Napoleon I (The Great)* (I)

Napoleon III (The Little)* (I)

Novel, The (3)

Ocean, The* (2)

Plato* (I)

Poetry (I)

Prayer (I)

Racine (I)

Raphael (I)

Reverie (I)

Robespierre (I)

Roothan (I)

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques* (2)

Russia (I)

Sappho (I)

Sesostris (I)

Shadow of the Sepulcher, The* (9)

Shakespeare* (II)

Sister Soul (Ame Soror)* (I)

Socrates (2)

Spirits, Assorted* (7)

Table draws a series of Pictures* (2)

Tragedy (I)

Tyatafia (from Jupiter)* (I)

Tyrtius (I)

Vestra (I)

Vestris (I)

Voltaire (2)

Vulcan (I)

Vux(l)

Walter Scott, Sir* (I)

White Wing, The (I)

Sea Wind, The (l)

Z (2)

Zoile (l)

Introduction

VICTOR THE GRANDIOSE

By Martin Ebon

In the fall of 1950, I was sitting in a half-empty office at the Voice of America in New York surrounded by books, files, and clippings on the subject of Indochina. I had just been appointed to direct the newly established Vietnamese Unit of the United States short-wave and medium-wave broadcasts to Vietnam, having previously served as head of the information agencys broadcasts to Indonesia. (Later, I would take over the Hindi and Urdu units, transmitting to India and Pakistan.) Now, I had to immerse myself in the political-economic and religio-cultural milieu of a new target area: Vietnam. Remember, this was years before the United States became involved in the Vietnam War; at that time, the armed struggle was for the future of Korea.

All went smoothly until I came to the religious orientations of the Vietnamese people and read that the third-largest religious movement, after Roman Catholicism and Buddhism, was a denomination known as the Cao Dai. I read that this was, broadly speaking, an amalgam of Eastern and Western faiths and that one of its three major saints was the French poet-novelist-playwright and politically volatile personage, Victor Hugo (18021885). I had a fairly good idea of Hugo as a commanding literary figure in Europe of the nineteenth century; but, aware of his controversial lifestyle, I had never thought of him as a saint of anything, anywhere, at any time. And what, exactly, was the Cao Dai?