Bénédict Chastanier (1739 – c. 1816) was a French surgeon. [1] In 1767 he founded a lodge of Illuminés Theosophes, based on the anonymous writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. In 1774 he migrated to England. In 1775 Chastanier and the Marquis de Thorn joined the Philaléthes, a Masonic society founded by Savalette de Langes in Paris. In 1776 he founded Universal Society in London to disseminate Swedenborg's writing. In 1782 Chastanier and Charles Rainsford reached out to kindred Illuminist groups in Berlin and Paris by publishing a brochure in French about degrees of the Universal Society. Chastanier was in contact with the Illuminés of Avignon.
Emanuel Swedenborg (, Swedish:[ˈsvêːdɛnˌbɔrj] ; born Emanuel Swedberg; was a Swedish Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell.
The French Second Republic, officially the French Republic, was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852.
Jean Joseph Mounier was a French politician and judge.
Correspondence is a relationship between two levels of existence. The term was coined by the 18th-century theologian Emanuel Swedenborg in his Arcana Cœlestia (1749–1756), Heaven and Hell (1758) and other works.
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin was a French philosopher, known as le philosophe inconnu, the name under which his works were published. He was an influential Christian mystic whose legacy, together with that of his mentor Martinez de Pasqually, inspired the founding of the Martinist Order.
Henry Corbin was a French philosopher, theologian, and Iranologist, professor of Islamic studies at the École pratique des hautes études. He was influential in extending the modern study of traditional Islamic philosophy from early falsafa to later and "mystical" figures such as Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, and Mulla Sadra Shirazi. With works such as Histoire de la philosophie islamique (1964), he challenged the common European view that philosophy in the Islamic world declined after Averroes and Avicenna.
Pierre-André Taguieff is a French philosopher who has specialised in the study of racism and antisemitism. He is the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in an Institut d'études politiques de Paris laboratory, the Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF). He is also a member of the Cercle de l'Oratoire think tank.

Ivan Aguéli, also named Shaykh ʿAbd al-Hādī al-ʿAqīlī upon his conversion to Islam, was a Swedish wandering Sufi, painter and author. As a devotee of Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics applied to the study of Islamic esotericism and its similarities with other esoteric traditions of the world. He was one of the initiators of René Guénon into Sufism and founder of the Parisian Al Akbariyya society. His art was a unique form of miniature Post-Impressionism where he used the blend of colours to create a sense of depth and distance. His unique style of art made him one of the founders of the Swedish contemporary art movement.
The New Church can refer to any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to be a part of Restorationist Christianity.
Jean-Pierre-André Amar or Jean-Baptiste-André Amar was a French political figure of the Revolution and Freemason.

The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776 in Bavaria, today part of Germany. The society's stated goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." The Illuminati—along with Freemasonry and other secret societies—were outlawed through edict by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787 and 1790. During subsequent years, the group was generally vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that the Illuminati continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.
Chastanier is a village and commune in the Lozère department in southern France.
Antoine-Joseph Pernety, known as Dom Pernety, was a French writer. At various times he was a Benedictine and librarian of Frederic the Great of Prussia. Together with the Polish Count Tadeusz Grabianka, also influenced by the Christian mysticism of Swedenborg he founded in 1760 the secret society of "Rite hermétique" or Illuminati of Avignon.
Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).
Léon Ménard was a French lawyer and historian.
General Charles Rainsford was a British Army officer.
The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma, usually referred to as the Lord's New Church, is an international, Christian church based on the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which its members view as the Third Testament.
Théophile François Marcel Bra was a French Romantic sculptor and exact contemporary of Eugène Delacroix. He was deeply involved in the Romantic era through his uncompromising personality and complex spirituality. His fantastical inspiration evokes the universes inhabited by Goya, William Blake or Victor Hugo - he was at one and the same time a Bonapartist and an anglophile, a passionate Christian disciple of Swedenborg and an admirer of Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
William Bousie, was an Anglo-French merchant. In 1776 Bousie met Count Cagliostro in London. In 1783-1787 Bousie was involved with the Universal and Theosophical Societies, served as a liaison between the Swedenborgians in London, Paris and Avignon. Bousie was in contact with the Illuminés of Avignon.
Alfred Émile Reinaud was a French lawyer, politician and essayist who served as mayor of Nîmes from 1892 to 1900. Reinaud was also a prominent member of the Académie de Nîmes.