In northern Paris, the Père Lachaise Cemetery is a beautiful place for a stroll. It’s also stuffed 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 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, lively between 1844 and 1849. Greater than only a social gathering, what made this Membership actually distinctive was its members’ shared fascination with a then-misunderstood substance: cannabis.
Membership des Haschischins’ Fantasies
Pushed by a need to problem societal taboos and broaden their information, the Membership’s members indulged in common cannabis periods, conducting experiments and recording their findings. These gatherings had been additionally accompanied by vigorous discussions and debates on numerous subjects, making it not only a scientific inquiry but in addition a social occasion.
The month-to-month periods occurred on the Resort Pimodan on the Ile de Saint-Louis in Paris. Nicknamed fantasies, the periods befell in a dimly lit room adorned with Persian carpets and elaborate oriental furnishing. Right here’s an outline of this room:
“The room wherein the Membership convened had a door hung with a velvet curtain, the partitions paneled and lined 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 lined with pale tapestries.”
Dressed up in Arabic clothes, the members began with a cup of sturdy espresso and dawamesk (a cannabis cake fabricated from honey, pistachio, butter, and hashish resin). A spoonful of this scrumptious cake was the prelude to feast, celebrating, enlightening, and provoking.
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 raised perceive the substance.
The physician, who didn’t eat the cake, ensured that the periods and consumption went easily. Sometimes, periods went via three phases: amplification of sensations, distortion of time, and visible hallucinations. At that time, he normally remained near the window in case anyone was tempted to take a nasty journey via the window!
Who Have been Le Membership des Haschischins?
The Membership des Haschichins boasted a powerful listing of company. A few of these company produced necessary creative works, revealed cannabis-related research, impressed the British “Decadents” writers, and popularized drug imagery in arts and literature:
Victor Hugo: One in all France’s most necessary writers, he’s the creator of bestsellers like Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo usually spoke extremely of the substance’s skill to reinforce creativity and broaden one’s notion.
Alexandre Dumas: One other prolific French author, he’s the creator of classics like The Rely 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 resort 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 creator of the world-famous novel Madame Bovary, his experiences with cannabis had 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 founders and a detailed good friend of Baudelaire. His novel Cannabis, Wine, Opium was one among his most notable works on the topic, documenting his private experiences with cannabis.
The Membership des Haschischins’s Influence
The Membership des Hashischins broke up in 1849 as Moreau’s scientific objectives had been met and his ebook revealed. Regardless of its brief existence, the Membership is acknowledged as one of many first formal teams to intentionally examine and chronicle the impacts of hashish, and their work tremendously enhanced the comprehension and broader acceptance of its use.
These gatherings additionally showcased using hashish as a facilitator for mental and creative expression, remodeling its picture from a feared substance to a software for enlightenment and creativity.
The Resort Pimodan nonetheless exists beneath the identify of Resort 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 example led to a ban on using cannabis by French troops in October 1800. Based on the decree, the substance causes its customers to “lose purpose and fall right into a violent delirium, which regularly 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 to make use of the cannabis expertise as a mannequin of psychosis.
