In northern Paris, the Père Lachaise Cemetery is a stunning place for a stroll. Additionally it is filled with legends and secret tales, jealously guarded by the graves of nameless and well-known individuals.
Within the third Division of the Cemetery, curious wanderers will discover an previous tomb which is often adorned with joints. This tomb belongs to Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Excursions (1804-1884), a well-known psychiatrist of his time. Right here’s the story.
Membership des Haschischins Historical past
Paris within the nineteenth century was a spot of enlightenment and exploration, a metropolis alive with mental curiosity and cultural revolution. Amidst this backdrop, a novel society emerged – Le Membership des Haschischins (the Cannabis Eaters Membership in English), based by Dr Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Excursions.
Les Membership des Haschischins (also called Membership des Hashischins) was an meeting of a few of the most influential literary and creative minds of the period. Greater than only a social gathering, what made this Membership really distinctive was its members’ shared fascination with a then-misunderstood substance: cannabis.
The Membership des Haschischins in Paris was energetic between 1844 and 1849.
Membership des Haschischins’ Fantasies
Pushed by a need to problem societal taboos and broaden their data, the Membership’s members indulged in common cannabis classes, conducting experiments and documenting their findings. These gatherings have been additionally accompanied by vigorous discussions and debates on varied subjects, making it not only a scientific inquiry but additionally a social occasion for intellectuals.
The Membership’s month-to-month classes occurred on the Lodge Pimodan on Ile de Saint-Louis in Paris. Nicknamed fantasies, the classes came about in a dimly lit room adorned with Persian carpets and elaborate oriental furnishing. Right here’s an outline of this room by one of many Membership members:
“The room wherein the Membership convened had a door hung with a velvet curtain, the partitions paneled and coated in discolored gold leaf, the adorned ceilings domed, whereas the Pyrenean, red-and-white-flecked marble mantelpiece bore a clock within the form of an elephant with a castellated howdah on its again. The furnishings was dated and coated with light tapestries.”
Dressed up in Arabic clothes, the members began with a cup of sturdy espresso and dawamesk (a cannabis cake made from honey, pistachio, butter, and hashish resin). A spoonful of this scrumptious cake was the prelude to a really particular feast.
As the consequences of the dawamesk set in, members launched into a journey of exploration and experimentation. On the similar time, Dr Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Excursions documented their experiences and observations in an effort to higher perceive the substance.
Moreau de Excursions, who didn’t eat the cake, ensured that the classes and consumption went easily. Sometimes, classes went via three phases: amplification of sensations, distortion of time, and visible hallucinations. At that time, he often remained near the window in case anyone was tempted to take a foul journey via the window!
Who Have been Le Membership des Haschischins?
The Membership des Haschichins boasted a powerful checklist of company. A few of these company produced vital creative works, printed hashish-related research, and impressed the British “Decadents” writers.
Victor Hugo: Certainly one of France’s most vital writers, he’s the writer of bestsellers like Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo usually spoke extremely of the substance’s potential to reinforce creativity and broaden one’s notion.
Alexandre Dumas: One other prolific French author and dramatist, he’s the writer of classics like The Depend of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. In his novels, he usually featured themes associated to cannabis and drug use, proof of his curiosity within the topic.
Charles Baudelaire: One of many co-founders of the Membership des Haschischins (additionally, he was residing within the lodge the place the Membership met), the author was a number one determine within the French symbolist motion. His assortment of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal, featured a bit devoted to cannabis.
Gustave Flaubert: The writer of the world-famous novels Madame Bovary and Salammbô, his experiences with cannabis have been usually featured in his novels, which comprise themes of escapism and hedonism.
Théophile Gautier: A well-known poet, journalist, and literary critic, Gautier was additionally one of many Membership’s co-founders and an in depth pal of Baudelaire. His novel Cannabis, Wine, Opium was one in all his most notable works on the topic, documenting his private experiences with cannabis.
The Membership des Haschischins’s Impression
The Membership des Hashischins broke up in 1849 as Moreau’s scientific targets had been met and his ebook printed. Regardless of its quick existence, the Membership is acknowledged as one of many first formal teams to intentionally examine and doc the impacts of cannabis, and their work enormously enhanced the comprehension and broader acceptance of its use.
The Membership’s gatherings additionally popularized drug imagery in arts and literature, reworking its picture from a feared or harmful substance to facilitator for enlightenment and creativity.
The Lodge Pimodan nonetheless exists underneath the title of Lodge de Lausun (17 Quai d’Anjou), which is a couple of meters away from Notre Dame Cathedral.
Origin of Cannabis in France
The primary sustained interplay between the French and the cannabis eaters of the Arab world occurred throughout Napoléon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. Cannabis consumption was extensively unfold in Egypt, and it appears the French troopers appreciated it, too.
This case led to a ban on using cannabis by French troops in October 1800. In line with the decree, the substance causes its customers to “lose motive and fall right into a violent delirium, which frequently leads them to commit excesses of every kind.”
Nonetheless, this prohibition elevated using cannabis amongst Napoléon’s troopers! They imported it to France on the finish of the marketing campaign.
Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau’s curiosity within the drug was prompted by his travels in Egypt, Turkey, and Syria from 1837 to 1840, the place he started intensive research on cannabis. Again in Paris, he co-founded the Membership des Haschischins to make use of the cannabis expertise as a mannequin of psychosis.