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186 The Journal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 187
a high concentration of Spiritists whose beliefs threaten the estab-	Thus, he rejects the usual attributions of RSPK outbreaks to a living
lished Catholic dogmas. However, when he uses parapsychological	agency. In defense of his position he points to the fact that a psycho-
evidence of certain phenomena as a scientific backup to establish	logical examination of No@mia [a participant in the case], the most prob-
facts, when this same evidence is still very controversial for many	able RSPK agent, was conducted by two psychologists belonging to the
parapsychologists, his position is untenable. Nonetheless, his work	IBPP team. He states, "Mrs. Noemia didn't di lay any form of psychi-
'

has to be seen in the cultural and ideological ackgTound from	caI abnormali viewing hei s belonging to the
psy-
d ustify
ty Vt c@' '
'
I

1991).
which he has worked (Alvarado	on
f6rmity with the theo-
chokinetic%g(
mt a Itergeist
category i
"
,
Another dimen f B azilian psychical res rch 'is the work by
@n r	. . . He adds that
retical patterns su sted by the current othesis.
his macro-PK tests . . of her capacities e also negative. (p. 199)
researchers with t orientation. One e ple is that con-
S	
ducted by the engm8q d psychical researc Hernani Guimar-	It is important, how er, to poin ut that to some extent the
des Andrade, who in 1`9 founded the Br an Institute of Psy-	cases investigated by And e and associates seem to reflect the
). The name S" chosen to make it
chobiophysical Research . PP	B
influence of the beliefs and Itur razilian society (Hess, 1990).
clear that the Institute in ed to explore iological and physical	Andrade has also published e the first systematic treatises of
as well as purely psychical omena. 0 of the most significant
?men	parapsyrhology in Portugues titled Parapsicologia Experimental
from within the Spiritist
things about this Institute is t (emerge	
(1967). A basic introductoZry mial of the quantitative method

movement (Playfa de, a ritist himself, has con-
ir, 1975). An	c
used in parapsychology, it mc: a detailed description of the sta-

ducted well-planned and detai mv igations of reincarnation	@ril
tistical model used in experi nits ith ESP cards.
cases along the lines of Ian Steven n' work. His poltergeist cases	
r
There are other groups Bra who are interested in a more

are particularly interesting-for e'x_ _le, the one published in a	s(
scientific approach to psyc I re e h. One of these groups is the
lhos (1984). These cases in-
monograph entitled 0 Poltergeist de G	recen d ECL Y-I
tly establishe S de Investiga@6es Cientificas
volve very dramatic phenomena' a s, damage to furniture and	em Parapsicologia. This ,up aims o rsue a different approach,
persons, apparitions of strange cre r and spontaneous fires. In	one separate from the ore traddition proaches associated with
evaluating and interpreting the ca A rade leans toward the dis-	Spiritist or Catholic entations typical most Brazilian research
carnate agencies hypothesis, soin es wi possible witchcraft com-	
centers. It received s 'port from the Uni sity of Sao Francisco to
An de, 19 Also, as Michel-Ange
ponents (Alvarado, 1984b; A	
h
organize its first co erence in parapsyc o held in 1990, which
Amorim (1990) has remarked ut Andra 's interpretation of the	included particip s from the University well as researchers
cases:	from Argentina, razil, and Mexico. The g p plans to conduct
Andrade interprets the diff ent types of occ ences present in this	experimental r arch that will be reported in newjournal, called
*
=
@
:
case [the Guarulhos's case] supportive of a Sp *tist world view in the	s president, Wel-
Revis
taBj rasil
e
h. de Parapsicologia. According t
'

Umbanda tradition. The banda tradition has veral million adher-

0	
sh as well as in

in En
linvtorn I I it will include abstracts in En
n
g Zar
A
ents especially in the big cities. It combines Afri Catholic, Indian,	
Spanish. T journal will also include translatio from major ex-
7 relatively extra-

c'
and Spiritist elements may be characterized	d e English-lan-
perimenta nd theoretical articles publishe_
t
t
ecclesiastic of popular thoIicism with ancient Aft razilian sects. (p.	
guage jo,,2 als.

199)
The re also other groups involved in parapsyc gy in Brazil
According to Am in, not only does Andrade in pret his cases that eyond the scope -of this paper because of limitations of
along the Spiritist li but he also accepts the centra ' liefs of this spac because of our initial goal of evaluating Brazilian para-
9
ch
religion, such as t existence of all sorts of spirits, I Exus and psy logy from the perspective of its impact on the Ibero-Ameri-
Umulums. He a believes that the sorcerer is able practice ca countries.
magic within th erreiros (a place specialized in these procedures)
to harass victim ccording to Quimbanda laws (the black magic side Argentina
of the Umban religion).
Concerning Andrade's interpretation of the aforementioned case For many years Argentina has been the top-ranking country in
of Guarulhos, Amorim (1990) also states: Ibero-America in terms of experimental parapsychological research.
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188
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TheJournal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 189
However, research has diminished in the last few years, partly be-
cause of the recent deaths of two of the leading contributors, J. Ri-
cardo Musso and Enrique Novillo Pauli.
Early research began in Argentina about the same time the Duke
University Laboratory was established in the United States. The
1930s witnessed one of the most important events in the history of
Argentine parapsychology. In 1931, the first institute of psychology
was established at the University of Buenos Aires. The institute in-
cluded paranormal psychology as one of the areas to be investigated
by the department. Parapsychology appeared to be joined to psy-
chology from the beginning. The chairman of the psychology de-
partment, Enrique Mouchet, was interested in clairvoyance research
and had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to include
paranormal psychology in the syllabus of courses offered by the de-
partment (Musso, 1973).
However, Argentinian researchers have had to struggle with the
traditional spiritualistic methodology that characterized the study of
psychical research in this country in the past. The research being
conducted in the young Duke Parapsychology Laboratory had a ma-
jor impact on the new generation of Argentinian researchers. The
move toward a more quantitative approach to the study of scientific
parapsychology was pioneered bya young engineer by the name of
Jos6 Ferndndez, who was teaching physics at the University of Bue-
nos Aires. Although Ferndndez belonged to a Spiritualist group
called ATMAN, he had been in search of an adequate methodology
to investigate the psychic phenomena manifested by mediums and
clairvoyants. He hooed to be able to apply statistical principles to the
responses given by the mediums. Fermindez presented the results
of these experiments in 1941 to a meeting of the Sociedad Cientifica
Argentina. Fermindez's efforts to introduce quantitative methodol-
ogy in Argentina had a major impact on the approaches that other
young researchers were to follow in establishing scientific parapsy-
chology there.
Another development during this period was the creation of the
Asociaci6n Argentina M6dica de Metapsfquica in 1946 by a group
of physicians headed by Orlando Canavesio. The aim of this society
was to evaluate the medical and legal status of parapsychology sci-
entifically and to promote its development in scientific circles as well
as to determine its proper classification, that is, to decide whether
the discipline belonged to psychology or physiology, or whether it
could be considered to be a new branch of science.
Canavesio himself wrote his doctoral thesis on a study of elec-
troencephalographic records of gifted Ap0jtWWdI#* 1WkWS94803/09/1 0
lished a journal called Revista Midica, de Metapsiquica summarizing
the research of the society. Included among the articles published
in the journal was a study of the use of dowsers by the government
to find water in towns where the lack of water had become a hard-
ship for its inhabitants. During this period, the work of Canavesio
was important because of his connection to the government, a con-
nection that helped to legitimize parapsychological studies in Argen-
tina (Musso, 1973).
The creation of the Instituto de Psicopatologia. Aplicada in 1948
by the Secretary of Public Health was another important develop-
ment. The aim of the government was to establish tight control over
the Spiritist activities in Argentina, which were considered to be a
social evii. More specifically, the aim was to control the exploitation
of people engaged in nonscientific practices such as healing, and so
on.
The Institute created a subsidiary, the Comit6 de Investigaciones
Metapsfquicas, which was assigned to conduct experimental research
with gifted subjects, specifically during mediumistic sessions. The
Committee intended to explore the medical and legal implications
of Spiritist practices, as well as to determine whether genuine para-
psychological phenomena were exhibited during these sessions by
the gifted subjects. The Committee was also interested in uncover-
ing negative factors that might induce mental illness, such as neu-
rosis, in the participants. More specifically, it seems that the real ob-
jective of the Committee was to determine whether the promoters
of these mediumistic sessions were practicing medicine illegally
(Parra, 1989).
In 1949 Jos6 Ferndndez founded the Sociedad Argentina de
Parapsicologia. Fernindez, who was already known for his quanti-
tative approach to psychic phenomena, continued to promote the
statistical approach used by the Duke researchers. This approach
was reflected in the Society's main objective, which was to study and
investigate parapsychological phenomena with emphasis on the de-
velopment of statistical methods. By then Ferndndez had received
from Rhine a copy of Extra-Senso?y Perception After Sixty Years (Pratt,
Rhine, Smith, Stuart, & Greenwood, 1940), The book had a major
impact on Fermindez, who applied Rhine's mathematical models to
his own research. Ferndndez also circulated the book among his
friends (Musso, 1973).
The Society conducted the first serious experiments on clairvoy-
ance in Argentina using ESP cards and statistical procedures. The
study, with gifted subjects, obtained significant results. Ferndndez
C.lA-RDP96-0P"M0001AW2900.@2)8 these experiments in a pamphlet entitled
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190 TheJournal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 191
Psicologia Experimental. The Society also conducted other experi-
ments such as the one with the well-known clairvoyant Conrado Cas-
tiglione. The study used the empty-chair technique similar to that
used with Ludwig Khan and with Gerard Croiset (Musso, 1973).
The first Instituto Argentino de Parapsicologia was established
in 1953. It brought together several men who represented the most
critical approach of the time, men such as Jos6 Fernindez, Orlando
Canavesio, J. Ricardo Musso, and Naum Kreiman. The Institute was
organized to include a main scientific research department, along
with several sections, such as the medical-biological section and a
physics and mathematics section. The principles of the Institute re-
flected the critical approach their members followed in conducting
their research. One of these was to subject every hypothesis to sci-
entific examination, so that only those that would withstand the
most stringent tests would remain. In addition to the creation of the
Institute, this period of the 1950s was also characterized by a grow-
ing interest in publishing books on parapsychology. One of the first
systematic treatises on parapsychology in Spanish written by J. Ri-
cardo Musso (1954) was called En los Limites de la Psic-ologia: Desde el
Espiritismo hasta la Parapsicologia [On the Limits of Psychology. From
Spiritualism to Parapsychology]. Other developments included a pa-
per by Musso in 1957, which was published in a journal put out by
the ministry of education of the province of Buenos Aires. It was
the first time a paper on parapsychology had been published in a
government review. In addition, parapsychology was incorporated
as a course in five different universities. In 1960, Ricardo Musso was
awarded a professorship at Rosario University to teach parapsychol-
ogy, and, for the first time in any country, a course in parapsycho-
logy was made a requirement for a doctoral degree in psychology
(Rueda, 1989).
In 1962 the Institute conducted studies confirming the sheep-
goat effect, using primary-school children as subjects. The results
were published in the Journal of Parapsychology (Musso, 1965). Other
important experiments included "An ESP Drawing Experiment with
a High Scoring Subject," also published in the journal of Parapsychol-
ogy (Musso & Granero, 1973). Moreover, Musso and his wife and
colleague, Mirta Granero, conducted an international experiment
on long-distance ESP called the "Antarctic Experiment." Although
the results were not statistically significant they were important be-
cause the experiment involved subjects from twenty different coun-
tries (Musso, 1973, p. 168).
The expansion period of parapsychology was interrupted in
1966 when the then current Arge
nAWPoQYF8PK%l8Ae16bF3/09/10
thrown by a military coup; most state universities were forced to
eliminate the study from their curricula. In spite of the prevailing
negative conditions standing in the way of university status for the
subject, a new quarterly publication was founded. The Cuadernos de
Parapsicologia, perhaps the most important publication in the history
of Argentinian experimental parapsychology, took the responsibility
of disseminating a high level of academic parapsychology. Headed
by Naurn Kreiman, it has been the most professional organ of sci-
entific parapsychology in Argentina to the present time.
Owing to the military takeover of the government that elimi-
nated most of the parapsychology courses offered at the state uni-
versities, parapsychology did not enjoy the same status at the begin-
ning of the 1970s as it had during the period of university
expansion of the 1960s. Some new developments during this period
kept the torch lit, however. Among the most important ones was the
creation of the Instituto de Parapsicologia in 1970. It is headed by
Naum Kreiman, a bio-statistician and a co-founder of the Instituto
Argentino de Parapsicologfa in the 1950s. Kreiman has played a key
role in the development of the quantitative approach to the study
of parapsychology for the last 30 years. From 1964 to the present
he has conducted numerous original experiments as well as repli-
cations of some of the most important experiments conducted in
foreign countries. With the help of his wife and collaborator, Dora
Ivnisky, and Ladislao Mdrquez, he has conducted numerous exper-
iments that have been published in the Cuadernos. Among them are
exploratory testing with ESP cards (Kreiman & Ivnisky, 1964); ESP
using photographs as targets (Kreiman, 1965); the sheep-goat effect
in ESP (Kreiman, 1972); the effect of feedback on ESP (Kreiman &
Ivnisky, 1973); ESP and memory (Kreiman, 1975); memory and
precognition (Kreiman, 1978); psi and volition (Kreiman & Ivnisky,
1980); brain laterality and ESP (Kreiman, 1981); precognition of
human actions (Ivnisky & Kreirnan, 1981); and remote viewing
(Kreiman, 1983).
Institute members such as Dora Ivnisky have done extensive
work in keeping the Argentinian parapsychological community in-
formed of activities around the world by translating numerous ex-
periments and theoretical papers from languages other than Span-
ish from the Journal of Parapsychology and elsewhere. The diligent
experimental work done by Kreiman since the 1950s and continuing
to the present time makes him one of the most important laboratory
researchers in Argentinian and Ibero-American parapsychology.
Another important development during this period was the cre-
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192 The journal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 193
C6rdoba by the Catholic priest Enrique Novillo Pauli. One of the
principal activities of the Institute was to teach courses on parapsy-
chology in the school of psychology at the University. The staff of
the Institute also provided consultation and orientation to bishops,
priests, and families about phenomena such as poltergeists and
bleeding religious images. Unfortunately this institute recently
closed down after the death of Father Novillo.
Prior to the creation of the Institute, Novillo Pauli had been at
the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man in North Car-
olina where he conducted some PK research with seeds as targets
under the auspices of the Organization of American States. Novfllo
Pauli presented the results of his experiments at the annual conven-
tion of the Parapsychological Association in 1972 (Novillo Pauli,
1973), During the period of his stay at the FRNM, he also prepared
a book on parapsychology entitled Los Fen6menos Parapsicol6gicos: Psi
en el Laboratorio (1975), which included reports of his PK studies.
The studies were also reported in the Spanish-language parapsycho-
logical journals Cuadernos de Parapsicologia (1974) and Psi Comunica-
ci6n (1976).
In spite of the marked decline since the 1970s, an important re-
cent development is the organization of a parapsychology confer-
ence in Argentina in 1987, the Primer Encuentro de Parapsicologia.
It was sponsored by the University of Salvador of Buenos Aires and
held under the direction of Enrique Novillo Pauli. Some of the top-
ics discussed at the conference were mental healing studies, altered
states of consciousness in relation to psi performance, and quantum
mechanics (Alvarado, 1989b). Soon afterward, Argentina suffered
the loss of two of its most important pioneers, J. Ricardo Musso,
president of the Instituto Argentino de Parapsicologia (which he di-
rected until his death in 1989) and, in the same year, Enrique Novi-
Ho Pauli. Consequently, the activities of Musso's institute declined,
and the institute at the University of El Salvador headed by Enrique
Novillo Pauli closed down. Since then, the Institute of Parapsychol-
ogy headed by Kreiman has remained as the most important source
of professional parapsychology in Argentina.
During the 1980s, parapsychology in Argentina was character-
ized by a marked decline in experimental activities. Most of the
work during this period was conducted by members of the Institute
of Parapsychology under Kreiman, who, as in previous years, main-
tained a constant interest in reporting original experiments, includ-
ing replications of foreign experimental works. They also continued
to publish regularly their quarterly journal, which contained trans-
lations of some of the most important rch gab@,shqa ip EnzI
E
r4o ro V or e ease M03/09/110
Recently, a new parapsychology journal, the Revista Argentina de
Psicologia Paranormal, has appeared. It is published by an indepen-
dent group of parapsychologists called LAPAS (Laboratory of Para-
psychology) and edited mainly by Alejandro Parra. judged by its
content, the journal seems to be a worthwhile addition to the cur-
rent efforts to keep the Argentinian audience well informed on
professional parapsychology. However, some of the experiments of
the researchers in this group have not been well received by other
Argentinian researchers, who consider the experiments to be flawed
(Kreiman, 1990; see also Alvarado, 1990). LAPAS has also started a
Spanish-language parapsychology information center. The Center is
building a computer data bank from which Spanish-speaking para-
psychologists may obtain information about a bibliography on para-
psychology similar to the Parapsychology International Abstracts pub-
lished by Rhea White (Villanueva, 1990).
In addition to these recent developments, CSICOP has made its
way to Argentina. A former member of Naum Kreiman's research
group, Ladislao Mdrquez, has created an Argentinian version called
Centro Argentino Para la Investig-ad6n y Refutaci6n de la Pseudo-
ciencia (CAIRP). The most important aims of CAIRP are to de-
nounce fraud and to promote a critical scientific assessment of the
claims made by pseudoscientists. The board of directors, headed by
Ladislao Mdrquez, also includes foreign members, Martin Gardner,
for instance.
The prospects for Argentinian parapsychology in the 1990s
seem less favorable than those of the booming period of previous
years. The present difficulties in the Argentinian economy have in-
creased for researchers, making it difficult for them to obtain funds
to support their research and publications.
In a recent survey conducted on the present status of parapsy-
chology in Argentina, Naum Kreiman reported that research has
decreased substantially over the last five years. Most of the recent
research reports have come from Kreiman's Institute of Parapsy-
chology. Educational activities in the field are almost nil except for
a course being offered at a small university called John F. Kennedy
University (Kreiman & Ivnisky, 1989).
In a letter published in the journal of Parapsychology, Jorge Villa-
nueva (1990) pointed out some of the major problems that Argen-
tinian researchers face at the present time. Among them are lack of
support from public and private institutions, lack of serious books
in Spanish to provide responsible information on the subject, and
lack of proper technology and other means to conduct sophisticated
h So of these problems, Villanueva suggests, may be di-
ear me
C' -OnWA
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194 TheJournal of Parapsychology Para chology in the lbero-American World 195
psy
minished by increasing communication and collaboration with for-
eign parapsychologists.
Early psychical research in Nerto Rico was strongly influenced
I
by the nineteenth-cenqturyZ/ritu .alist movement that had also
spread to other countries. 4 1 nces in which raps and
i@iumistic sea
communication, with the spir were common drew attention mostly
from people wit@ a religiouV
It was perhap@,this
it'
in 1904 a more c ca
A
booklet Breve Tra
r
T
le
s
c
0
toterapia, Morales co
@n
place without assurnin
u
m
1
n
s
s
n
i
a
possession as being a
e
g
nomena. to our own
w
r
0
n
experiments made til
iade
force in our being hat
eingh
rIt
lifting a table, or h .ng
0
Ing
.0
rol-
is under our co rol.
cation could be explained
eexplained
dium and the tter.
tter.
Another
and critical
Ponte, a deqtist
ation of Spfitists.
self with t e
cal re 11h
Sordi
interest.
influ@ncie that led Agapitc, Morales to publish
I ____ nation of these phenomena. In his
de
n
de ipnotismo, Magnetismo, Espiritismo y Suges-
e ded that all those occurrences could take
e
d
e
d
th
the action of spirit agencies. He interpreted
e
a
c
uggestion and attributed paranormal phe-
e
ug
g
s if,
syc ic faculties. He considered that all of the
c c,
t ay demonstrate that there is an invisible
t ay
t. c
is c pable, for instance, of playing a guitar,
s p@
ourv
our wn bodies. According to him this force
He als - believed that mediumistic communi-
He als
by 141eans of telepathy between the me-
by
influence in the formation of a more empirical
ch to parapsychb@ogy was the work of Francisco
presid8r@t
who became
of the Puerto Rican Feder-
Ponte visited Europe, in 1912 to familiarize him-
work of several Spiritualisti \ centers, as well as psychi-
centers. He had had the opp unity to participate in
- s6ances in Italy with famous ediums such as Lucia
Eusapia Palladino. During these 6ances he witnessed
telekinesis and terializations (Alva-
of
manite tations
apparent
rado, 487; Ponte, 1914).
Later Ponte returned to Puerto Rico and trie to reproduce the
same phenomena with local mediums. He reporte some of his find-
ings on materializations of body parts during s6ances to Walter
Franklin Prince, then Research Officer of the ASPR. Ponte's work
was important because of the critical and empirical approach he
brought to his research on s6ance phenomena (Alvarado, 1979a).
"This section on Puerto Rican parapsychology partly summarizes information
contained in an article by Alvarado (1979a).
Approved For Release 2003/09/10
The theoretical ideas of Ralph U. Sierra are also interesting.
Sierra, who was interested in the psychology of ESP, believed that
to develop telepathy it was necessary to develop first an internal
state of tranquility so that the electrical activity of the brain did not
interfere with the telepathic process (Sierra, 1966).
Some of the most important developments, however, took place
during the last two centuries. At the educational level, it is impor-
tant to note the work of Celinda Madera who, during the 1970s,
offered @ series of courses and lectures at different campuses of the
Universitv of Puerto Rico. Madera's courses focused on the human-
istic and t anspersonal aspects of psi.hShe-@erself had received train-
o
'psycho'o
apsyc o, y Laboratory (Alvarado,
ing at Du e University's Parapsyc o
1979a).
'.uez E cude
In 104, estor A. Rodriguez E udero, a lawyer, published a
'a es
0' ess
series of essa about parapsychol gy and Spiritualism in his book
es
chol gy anc
Cam e/dea
Los iminos 105. He discussed great variety of paranormal phe-
gr t v
no is m in objective w to show that parapsychology dem-
mena to show I
ons tes the spi *tu aspect/,,6f man (Rodriguez Escudero, 1974).
tra
rne
Another deve. __nt i- 977 was the creation of the Instituto
de Investigaciones sicofi cas at the University of Puerto Rico, May-
agiiez campus. Fou e to conduct investigations in parapsychology
and related areas, th nstitute carried out studies of various param-
eters of Kirlian pho aphy and of the effects of hypnosis on ESP.
However, these r ear investigations were never made available
for publication. uring is period Alfonso Martinez Taboas began
to publish a ne sletter Ex rando lo Paranormal, a sernipopular mag-
azine later e ted by Carlos lvarado starting in 1976.
Martine Taboas and Carl Alvarado wrote articles on parapsy-
chology i Spanish for the pa ish journal Psi Comunicaci6n; they
also pub shed in otherjour als. eir articles covered a wide range
of topi s. Among these, Alvarado ote on experimental studies of
OBEs (1976), historical precedents f the so-called psychic discov-
erie behind the Iron Curtain (1978 the use of historical knowl-
ed (1979b), and onj. B. Rhine (198 Martinez Taboas published
a review of the problem of repeatability in parapsychology (1979),
critiques of psychological and physiological concepts of poltergeist
I research (1977, 1980, 1984; Martinez Taboas & Alvarado, 1981),
and a discussion of the concept of parsimony applied to parapsy-
chology (1983).
The work of Martinez Taboas and Alvarado has been very im-
portant in the effort to bridge the language barrier between the
Spanish researcher and the non-Spanish-speaking researcher. This
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