186 TheJournal of Par4W"d For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792RO00700MDfi@Alogy in the Ibero-American World 187 a high concentration of Spiritists whose beliefs threaten the estab- lished Catholic dogmas. However, when he uses parapsychological evidence of certain phenomena as a scientific backup to establish facts, when this same evidence is still very controversial for many parapsychologists, his position is untenable. Nonetheless, his work has to be seen in the cultural and ideological background from which he has w ked (Alvarado, 1991). Another dim ion of Brazilian psychical rese is the work by researchers with 'ritist orientation. One ex le is that con- ducted by the engi and psychical research ernani Guimar- 4 des Andrade, who in 3 founded the Br " n,lnstitute of Psy- chobiophysical Researc PP). The name s chosen to make it clear that the Institute in ed to explor and physical as well as purely psychical nomena. 0 of the most significant things about this Institute is t it emerge in within the Spiritist movement (Playfair, 1975). A ade, a iritist himself, has con- A ducted well-planned and dctail inv igations of reincarnation cases along the lines of Ian Steve nA work. His poltergeist cases are particularly interesting-for e e, the one published in a monograph entitled 0 Poltergeist de G os (1984). These cases in- volve very dramatic phenomena: a damage to furniture and persons, apparitions of strange cre r nd spontaneous fires. In evaluating and interpreting the ca An de leans toward the dis- W, carnate agencies hypothesis, sol es i ossible witchcraft com- ponents (Alvarado, 1984b; A e, 19 Also, as Michel-Ange Amorim (1990) has remarked ut And ad interpretation of the cases: r Andrade interprets the difffent types of o4 1% Zz ces resent in this o@ - p- , case [the Guarulhos ,s case] #'supportive of a w rd view in the Umbanda tradition. The PInbanda tradition has se al million adher- a' m' ents especially in the b e'. It combines Africa g@ atholic, Indian, ath 's and Spiritist elements Id may be characterized as latively extra- I e a \ o-B ftholicism with ancient Afro-IB ilian sects. (p. ecclesiastic of popul 199) a I I According t Am not only does Andrade inter, t s fcases 0 , fim p along the Spiridis bu he also accepts the central - e% @s0 this religion, such as t ex!stence of all sorts of spirits, like nd WF _Xus a b 7e to ract Umulums. He a eliev s that the sorcerer is able ice magic ithin th." erreiros (a place specialized in these pro ures) to bar ss victim ccording to Quimbanda laws (the black magic side of the b. .d[religion). Conce ng Andrade's interpretation of the aforementioned case of Guarulhos, Amorim (1990) also states: Thus, he rejects the usual attributions of RSPK outbreaks to a living agency. In defense of his position he points to the fact that a psycho- logical examination of No@mia [a participant in the case], the most prob- able RSPK agent, was conducted by two psychologists belonging to the IBPP team. He states, "Mrs. No@mia didn't display any form of psychi- cal abnormality that could justify viewing her as belonging to the 'psy- 'or I' chokinetic agent of a poltergeist' category in co f rIT it with the theo- ret al %atterns suggested by the current hypoZois.Ji He adds that , P his"mac i, K tests ... of her capacities were also@;ative. (p. 199) 'ut t Int out It: is imp03Vt, however, to point o t to some extent the his /as cases investigateN Andrade an his as,, ates seem to reflect the of z-li influence of the , e @s an cultur@e of zilian society (Hess, 1990). ffirsi Andrade has also pN ished one of first systematic treatises of in Y parapsyrhology 0' rt (1967). A basic introdu u it used in parapsychology, it tistical model used in exper There are other groups scientific approach to psych' E@L' recently established ECLI This 0 em Parapsicologia. This o the or one separate from the or tic enta Spiritist or Catholic enta dPai dParapsicologia Experimental al of tb of the quantitative method a detailed description of the sta- with ESP cards. zil who are interested in a more @arch. One of these groups is the ituto de Investig-4-6es Cientificas s to pursue a different approach, 0 a h onal approaches associated with 0 a I a r c p p ical of most Brazilian research c 0 f 0 s t alm of Francisco @bh Sao to n v s i t 0 centers. It received pport from thl , University U e d pport y h h I organize its first c ference in para chology, held in 1990, which fer nce c 0 0 y g i a s w included partici @ nts from the Uni sity as well as researchers n s t y r' c 0 e 5 from Argenti , Brazil, and Mexico e gr6up plans to conduct up g r i n its experimental search that will be re@or , in its newjournal, called e 0 p tts Accr 0 Revista B ra de Parapsicologia. Accor ident, Wel gtoi lington Z gari, it will include abstracts English as well as in )sa ts Eng utrct ran tion Spanish. he journal will also include tran tions from major ex- de lisi n perime al and theoretical articles publish in the English-lan- spu guage urnals. olved in Para T re are also other groups involved in para ychology in Brazil that are beyond the scope of this paper because of limitations of space and because of our initial goal of evaluating Brazilian para- psychology 'from the perspective of its impact on the lbero-Ameri- can countries. Argentina For many years Argentina has been the top-ranking country in Ibero-America in terms of experimental parapsychological research. Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6 Approved For Release 2003/09/10 188 The journal of Parapsychology 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 by a young engineer by the name of Josd 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 ho@ed to be able to apply statistical principles to the responses given by the mediums. Ferndndez presented the results of these experiments in 1941 to a meeting of the Sociedad Cientifica. Argentina. Fernindez'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 gifted4ubiects. This K9c1eV hL pproved For e e s8112603/09/1 0 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6 Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 189 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 evil. 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 impli i ications 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 iiiicover- 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 Parapsicologfa. Ferndndez, 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 Fernindez had received from Rhine a copy of Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years (Pratt, Rhine, Smith, Stuart, & Greenwood, 1940). The book had a major impact on Ferndndez, who applied Rhine's mathematical models to his own research. Fermindez 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. Fernindez ClA-RDP96-0W%2i#6dA%2V0*040-b these experiments in a pamphlet entitled Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6 190 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 Ludwi Khan and with Gerard Croiset (Musso, 1973). 9 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 Ferndndez, 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 Psicologia: 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 (Mumo, 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 Argentinian government was over- Approved For Release 2003/09/10 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 Naum 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 Parapsicologia 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 MArquez, 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 & Kreiman, 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- f arapsychology at the Catholic University of ClA-RDP96-00A,:W0568Y&d6b4W 192 Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6 The journal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the 1bero-Avwrican 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 Parapsicolo& (1974) and Psi Comunica- ewn (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- Ilo 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 research published in English. Approved For Release 2003/09/10 Recently, a new parapsychology journal, the Revista Argentina de Psicologfa 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- gists may obtain information about a bibliography on para- psycholo 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 Investigaci6n 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 MArquez, 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 calledejohn 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 research. Some of these problems, Villanueva suggests, may be di- CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6 194 TheJournal of ParaAmoved For Release 2003109110 9 IA-RDP96-00792RO00709AP@P"gy in the Ibero-American World 195 minished by increasing communication and collaboration with for- The theoretical ideas of Ralph U. Sierra are also interesting. eign parapsychologists. Early psychical research in Pilerto Rico was strongly influenced by the nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement that had also spread to other countries. Mevilumistic s6ances in which raps and communication, with the spiri@ were common drew attention mostly from people wit a religiol It I is nfl, th, L p in 1904 a more c kical booklet Breve Tra de toterapia, Morales con e ed place without assumin the possession as being a uggestion nomena to our own syc ic experiments made til t force in our i at is c. lifting a table, or b ng our is und o r . He als er our Co Jr er ou cation could be x ained dium and the tter. interest. ce that led Agapito Morales to publish amination of these phenomena. In his ipnotismo, Magnetismo, Espiritismo y Suges- that all those occurrences could take action of spirit agencies. He interpreted and attributed paranormal phe- faculties. He considered that all of the ay demonstrate that there is an invisible pable, for instance, of playing a guitar, wn bodies. According to him this force believed that mediumistic communi- by qieans of telepathy between the me- Another or influence in the formation of a more empirical and critical a proach to parapsych\b@ogy was the work of Francisco Ponte, a de tist who became presid6rit of the Puerto Rican Feder- ation of Sp* itists. Ponte visited Europe, -in 1912 to familiarize him- self with t e work of several Spiritualisti'cVenters, as well as psychi- cal resea h centers. He had had the opp6.rtunity to participate in _e@i mediumi tic s6ances in Italy with famous ediums such as Lucia Sordi a d Eusapia Palladino. During these 6ances he witnessed manife tations of apparent telekinesis and terializations (Alva- ,@e rado, 987; Ponte, 1914). Later Ponte returned to Puerto Rico and tr*to reproduce the same phenomena with local mediums. He reported\&ome 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). 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 University of Puerto Rico. Madera's courses focused on the human- -S istic and t anspersonal aspects of psi he @erself had received train- a n e rs 0 sp v ing at Du e University's Parapsychol y Laboratory (Alvarado, U n i e e arapsycholo 1979ai. 4 In 1914, estor A. Rodriguez E udero, a lawyer, published a 7 es or fguezEcude t series of essa about parapsychol. gy and Spiritualism in his book e ss ot aab ychol gy an( as de i0s. J ssed great v Los Camin@asid WS. He discussed great variety of paranormal phe- m H\n toh 1 isc wsow nomeria. in in objective w to show that parapsychology dem ini s onstrates the spi 'tual asp@ct man (Rodriguez Escudero, 1974). th sp man (Rod Another deve ent 1977 was the creation of the Instituto er devep gacjo es n OfL de Investigaciones sic as at the University of Puerto Rico, May- ag-Ciez campus. Four @eftto conduct investigations in parapsychology s i and related areas, t n ltute carried out studies of various param- eters of Kirlian phoi raph ya -id of the effects of hypnosis on ESP. is However, these r ( r n v e, tigations were never made available sr r i@ for publication. uring is period Alfonso Martinez Taboas began is e d A on- ur he /e p P ar to publish a ne sletter Ex rando lo Paranormal, a semipopular mag- r a 0 nd 0 ne slett P va r a d 0 azine later e ted by Carlos lvarado starting in 1976. r' 0 s eted b3 s' v Martine Taboas and Carl Alvarado wrote articles on parapsy- C ar a Taboas ra( A he Spa jsh 01 chology i@ Spanish for the Spa ish journal Psi Comunicaci6n; they usr na el also p@bhsned in other journals. eir articles covered a wide range @o ot( Alvara of topi s. Among these, Alvarado ote on experimental studies of 0 OBEs/0976), historical precedents f the so-called psychic discov- f precedents '@urta8 in7 eries/behind the Iron Curtain (1978 the use of historical knowl- (19 .0 (1979b), and onj. B. Rhine (198 Martinez Taboas published B.Rhine(198 ed 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 Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290004-6