Ir 194' TheJournal of Parap,,@*pbpyecl For Release 2003/09/10 @IA-RDP96-00792ROOOM76fi"414Y 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. Puerto Rico'o Early psychical research in Puerto Rico was strongly influenced by the nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement that had also spread to other countries. Mediumistic s6ances in which raps and communication with the spirits were common drew attention mostly from people with a religious interest. It was perhaps this influence that led Agapito Morales to publish in 1904 a more critical examination of these phenomena. In his booklet Breve Tratado de Hipnotismo, Magnetismo, Espiritismo y Suges- toterapia, Morales contended that all those occurrences could take place without assuming the action of spirit agencies. He interpreted possession as being autosuggestion and attributed paranormal phe- nomena to our own psychic faculties. He considered that all of the experiments made until today demonstrate that there is an invisible force in our being that is capable, for instance, of playing a guitar, lifting a table, or lifting our own bodies. According to him this force is under our control. He also believed that mediumistic communi- cation could be explained by means of telepathy between the me- dium and the sitter. Another major influence in the formation of a more empirical and critical approach to parapsychology was the work of Francisco Ponte, a dentist who became president of the Puerto Rican Feder- ation of Spiritists. Ponte visited Europe in 1912 to familiarize him- self with the work of several Spiritualistic centers, as well as psychi- cal research centers. He had had the opportunity to participate in mediumistic s6ances in Italy with famous mediums such as Lucia Sordi and Eusapia Palladino. During these s6ances he witnessed manifestations of apparent telekinesis and materializations (Alva- rado, 1987; Ponte, 1914). Later Ponte returned to Puerto Rico and tried to reproduce the same phenomena with local mediums. He reported some of his find- ings on materializations of body parts during sdances to Walter Franklin Prince, then Research Officer of the ASPR. Pontc'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 a series of courses and lectures at different campuses of the University of Puerto Rico. Madera's courses focused on the human- istic and transpersonal aspects of psi. She herself had received train- ing at Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory (Alvarado, 1979a). In 104, Nestor A. Rodriguez Escudero, a lawyer, published a series of essays about parapsychology and Spiritualism in his book Los Caminos de Dios. He discussed a great variety of paranormal phe- i nomena. His main objective was to show that parapsychology dem- onstrates the spiritual aspect of man (Rodriguez Escudero, 1974). Another development in 1977 was the creation of the Instituto de Investigaciones Psicofisicas at the University of Puerto Rico, May- aguez campus. Founded to conduct investigations in parapsychology and related areas, the Institute carried out studies of various param- eters of Kirlian photography and of the effects of hypnosis on ESP. However, these research investigations were never made available for publication. During this period Alfonso Martinez Taboas began to publish a newsletter Explorando lo Paranorml, a sernipopular mag- azine later edited by Carlos Alvarado starting in 1976. Martinez Taboas and Carlos Alvarado wrote articles on parapsy- chology in Spanish for the Spanish journal Psi Comunicaci6n; they also published in other journals, Their articles covered a wide range of topics. Among these, Alvarado wrote on experimental studies of OBEs (1976), historical precedents of the so-called psychic discov- eries behind the Iron Curtain (1978), the use of historical knowl- edge (I 979b), and on J. B. Rhine (1980). Martinez Taboas published a review of the problem of repeatability in parapsychology (1979), critiques of psychological and physiological concepts of poltergeist 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-RDP96-00792ROO0700750001-8 Approved For Release 2003/09/10 C'IA-RDP96-00792ROO0700750001-8 196 The journal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 197 is particularly true of Alvarado's book reviews (1984a, 1985) and his Mexican me! ical community as well as in political circles. In the I -barrier problems in parapsychology (1989a). discussion of language course of h,@ @reer he delivered 1peec s before two presidents of Moreover, Alvarado, a former research assistant at the Division of ), 19 ).11 Mexico, Diaz a Obreg6n (Allis( n, Parapsychology (now the Division of Personality Studies) at the Uni- A respected mber of the medi I profession, Pagenstecher versity of Virginia, has maintained a constant flow of information said he had been aterialist for for years when he had his first on parapsychological activities in Latin America to research centers encounter with the ranormal. It w during a hypnosis treatment in the United States for the last eight years. In addition, among the of one of his patient ho had inso ia that he discovered the re- Ibero-American parapsychologists, he is the one who has published markable psychical gi f Maria es de Zierold. Pagenstecher be- most extensively in the English-language journals and the only one gan a series of psycho ric exp ents with her in 1919. The re- ever to be elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Para- sults were so striking th he b ght them to the attention of the psychological Association. Mexican medical society, hic ppointed a commission to verify Mexico them. Pagensteche al to write to the ASPR and send r 'so some ofthe results he 'a tained. The results induced Walter @ Mexico has been kn for a long time as the land of the sacred h cer of the ASPR, to go to Mexico to Franklin Prince, Researc mushroom or peyotl, a p t used by the Indian shaman to @Oduce investigate the case. After e s of experimental sittings with Zier- an altered state of conscio ess, which allegedly facilitate man- old, Prince was so impres wi the results that he decided to pub- This country Etas also a major ifestation of psychic power lish them in theJournal the in 1920 (Pagenstecher, 1920). 7 .. source for many parapsycho ical researchers inte ed in unor- ther r in which he discussed the ex- Prince later pubhshe s (' . . thodox psychic healing practic Famous curande (healers) such periments, in which h articipa e (Prince, 1921b). Moreover, the as Maria Sabina and Dofia Pa 'ta have been ensively investi- ASPR published a in bgraph by enstecher entitled Past Events fam parapsychologists gated by Stanley Krippner an ther Seership: A Study Of omet7y (Page echer, 1922). (Krippner & Villoldo, 1986). According to iam Roll (1967), agenstecher contributed to . Although Mexico has been a in r rce of study for many two major areas in arapsychology: parapsychologists from foreign countr sychical research has not as he first [H f :as I know t inve 'gator to use hypnosis as a e was flourished there as it has in other co es such as Argentina and , means to culti 'e ESP in a gifted subject... agenstecher's studies were Spain. Moreover, even though the nt is located on the south- the first to indicate that the arapsychological) associa- also, I believ ern border of the United States has b subject to very strong , tion of obje , may be governed by the same ws that govern the (psy- American cultural influence in ost every ect of life, the dom- chological) sociation of ideas. (p. 238) inance of the United States not been a tor in the develop- ment of parapsychology. E though in the U d States there are Pagens er showed great courage in und taking these exper- more parapsychological arch centers than an here else in the iments. H .'eopardized his professional standin s well as his med- world, very little is kn in Mexico of their res, Most of what ical prac , e" by trying to substantiate the claims Zierold's psychic is known about seri , parapsychology comes fr tin American te to i abilities he Medical Commission appointed to i stigate the case @ ri itl countries such as zil. For example, the w, il s 0 uevedo are rrtunnat , however, the was sk tical of the reported phenomena. Foo well known in ico, and also most of what is kno generally Com sion's leading experts obtained successful r Its in the ex- comes from lar magazines. perim is in which they participated (Gomezharp de Trevifio, Early e to study psychical research within a scien c frame- 1990). work in co began in 1919 with the isolated efforts 0 uch re- searche the German-born medical doctor Gustav Page echer, Obreg6n was a revolutionary military leader, later President of Mexico. Walter the fir esearcher to conduct serious psychical research in xico. Franklin Prince (1921a) relates an interesting psychic experience witnessed by Ob- reg6n, about a precognitive dream Obreg6n's brother had about the death of their Page echer was a very well-known and respected physician in the mother. Approved For Release 2003/09/10 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700750001-8