Approved For Release 2000/08/11 CIA-RDP96-00792ROO04001 00011 -1 parapsychology Abstracts International of the participants. In this area, many researches flourished in the last century, and Psychical research also performed some studies in connection with mediumship. These researches have considered many points of the matter, but still we are obliged to work longer to complete our knowledge of this subject. - DA VOW,' 8imon'eo-r "dr P squale t~iioand Jeanni gio . a I Qitaderni di Parapsicologia, 1988 (May 9-10), La va 1. 19(1), 804'r 18 refs The author presents a short analysis of the life, per- sonality, and contribution to the history of psychical rcseaLQ.&ade by the Italian medium Pasquale Erto and the h medium Jeanne Laval. The author particularly w antsw%'m~ stress the fact that other than the physical phenomenology mainly expressed by Erto in the first half of the century, they both have represented the means for a direct contact with a higher level of knowledge, opening the way for entering a hypothetical relationship with a new dimension of being. This relationship, mainly in the case of Jeanne Laval, who produced the famous "Symbole case," has provided several indications favoring the exis- tence of a reality entirely free from human impediments. This reality would represent, by supposition, the aim of a sort of humanistic parapsychology parallel with the exact sciences that analyze physical paranormal phenomena. With a multiple approach, we can find the way of our own Selves, which represent the interior locus and the cause of every significant human action. - DA 03083. Ravaidini, Silvio. Daniel Dunglas Home. Quad- erni di Parapsicologia, 1988 (May 9-ft 19(l), 96-106. 68 refs With no doubt, Daniel Dunglas Home has been one of the most important mediums in the course of parapsy- chology thus far. At the age of 13, he had his first vision, the death of a dear friend. We can list furniture changing place with nobody's help, tiptoes on the table while he was having breakfast, and so on. His mediumship grew up, so we then have Home holding burning coals in his hands with no pain at all, Home going out from one window, head first, and coming back from the window in the next room, Home raising in the air with his head circled by a bright halo, waving his hands while little globes of fire appeared standing on them. After having fully described Home's life, the phenomena he produced, and the scholars who studied him thoroughly, the author ends by telling us that spontaneous phenomena are not fit to be studied by traditional scientific methods. - DA 03084. Dettore, Ugo. Parapsychology: A science. But what kind of science? Quaderni di Parapsicologia, 1987 (May 17/18), 18(l), 9-13. While physics, with quantum and relativistic theories, studies single ultramicroscopic elements constituting sub- stances, recognizing in them some autonomy, thus freeing them of the strict mathematical determinism of the Galileo-Newtonian conception, parapsychology, accepting the quantitative methods of physics, ended by imposing on human beings that same determinism. It lost sight of the fact that the paranormal act is peculiar to the single in- dividual (a corpuscle, an atom, or a person) who is always creative and unforeseeable and aims at existentially defin- ing himself or herself in a form by aggregating and struc- turalizing the finalities of other individuals known at the bottom by identification. On the contrary, normality is the always repetitious result of the activity of boundless masses, in which the unforesecability of individuals dis- plays itself framed in a commune order controlled by a Vol. 6. No. 2 December 1988 transcendental mathematism, that ki,:iudes not only quan- tities but also qualities and finalitics and can be partially represented, from the quantitative point of view, by physi- cal laws. So there are two approaches to reality: one, in- tuitive and intersubjective, operates by identification and reaches the transcendent; the other, rational and subjective-objective, catches the mathematism. The various sciences select the first or the second approach, but always, iously, also make use of the other one. more or less unconse A complete science would have to take advantage con- sciously of both approaches. Parapsychology could be this science, but, as long as, being in doubt about itself, it tries to imitate a potentially surpassed physics, it will betray its own duty. - DA 03085. Bononcini, Annamaria, and Rosa, Rodolfo. Manifestations of ESP in emotional states in psychotherapy groups: Research and correlations. Quaderni di Parapsicologia, 1987 (May 17/18), 18(l), 14-26. 2 f igs-, 1 graph; 2 tables Two years ago, during 11 Giornata Parapsicologica Bolognese;' the authors proposed a project of a research with a view not to "demonstrating the existence of some- thing" (in fact the authors believe that mere phenomenological observations are inadequate for acquiring knowledge about data in themselves not framed into theory phenomena) but by means of suitable experiments, they can search out correlations corroborating the following hypothesis: Human beings have at their disposal the poten- tial for being in touch with the world through nonconven- tional channels and, generally, without conscious awareness of the process. Some experiences during psychotherapy groups have led one of the authors (A.B.) to think that such a potentiality would be put in action by a "need situation," and it is supposed that over a certain degree of accumulation, the psychophysical energy invested by an or- ganism is automatically discharged on the subject of the need. The authors emphasize that the adopted concept of energy acts as a hypothesis and is not so far from that the pulsional charge of psychoanalytic theory. They conclude that when such an experience is consciously perceived, it may also be interpreted as paranormal (it depends on the theoretical framework). The authors present results of experiments they have carried out based on the above theory, by utilizing mem- bers of a therapy group as the experimental subjects. The authors expected the above-mentioned process to be favored by strong emotional investments. The experimen- tation was carried out during two different days in a nor- mal psychotherapeutic work environment. The group was formed by 10 patients and 2 psychotherapists acting as ex- perimenters. On four different occasions during the work, the group was divided in two subgroups that remained separated for about one hour in different rooms, with one of the psychotherapists who was acting independently from the other one. After the hour each member of the sub- groups was requested to draw something on a prepared sheet and to give an evaluation about his or her own emo- tional condition by marking a figure on each scale on a prepared card. The three items refer to. (1) separation (pleasure/unpleasure), (2) amount of involved energy, and (3) level of defense. In the present work only the results referring to the first item were taken into account Subsequently, the drawings concerned with the 4 ex- periments were delivered to 5 external judges who were requested to give an evaluation of "resemblance" (in a very broad meaning) about the drawings. That is, for each ex- pcriment the judges had to compare the n-th drawing of subgroup A with the nth drawing of subgroup B and to 20 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0400100011-1