September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH examined, and defined, but it can be done. However, when someone commits a crime that gets that person in prison, and they are placed in prison with other people who have similar wea sses of personality or-ideology, what r it might be, t s en 1 for the good of all the publi , and should be 04 consider 4 a, ve '~\ ry reasonable approach. N only to maintain Q e on Q peac p s so that we don't have *,,, ts, but to attempt to rebabilit e these people so that w they come back in T- the streets we on't have the high le ,1of recidivism that Q Q we have. I wou like to take three r four prisons and run It re Q these progrmams o a period Of ti - I would verify what CD kind of percentage we are getti,' compared to what they Q W usually get in the' ral pris ' population. I think it C'*4 would be very reveal* and p tive to do this and I am t-- hoping to get a program te soon. My wife (she is part Q Q Iroquois, part Algonqui I are very concerned about cbalcoholism among the Ameri dians on the reservations. 0') 1 think that we can put the subliminal usic over message not to drink so d the Indians. IV: Maybe you are ri alth am still fascinated Gwith Your activities I criminology bit skeptical and --careful regarding y r sublimina, e age program. I ',believe those who a interested in i e or in both, can 00contact you direct - Ron Nolan, P.O. Bo" Clayton, CA 2.94517. Thank you ery much for your time. Q Q Q Note: Ron olan~s attempts at using Psi riminology 04 a dis ssed by Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove i . , I Owere is paper ito U) "Psion e Practical Application of psi,- p M ented at (Dthe Thirty hird Annual International Conferen of the &Parapsycho gy Foundation (New Orleans, Louisiana, gust W1 984). oceedings of the conference, entitled C, rent ~~rends * P ' R arch, are planned to be published f" - si ese e LLfall 0~f I _. -An edited version of Dr. Mishlove's paper 8 'Ca ls o b n published in the Fall 1984 issue of Applied Psi (D 5(2046 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94121). 0 CL VARIETIES OF HEALING EXPERIENCE Since we have received many questions concerning rnative healily psychic (mental) healing and other alte -culture', techniques, we have decided to present a cross e~ review of folk healing around the world. The intervi below answer at least some of these questions. - Ed- Folk Healers in Italy Interview with Dr. Paola Giovetti 0 Modena, Italy cm CY) During my extensive travels in Italy I have met a number of contemporary "psychic" (mental) healers T who often call themselves "prano therapists.' C.0 Their practice usually includes known elements of CP laying-on of hands, "bioenergy influence and 0- 0 color healing. After becoming acquainted with W these practices, I became deeply interested in Italian folk healing traditions and approached the well known Italian researcher Dr. Paola Giovetti U with the following questions. - Ed. 00 Are folk healing traditions still alive in Italy9 0 During the past 3 years I inquired about our so-callai if taly lookil~ country healers" on a journey through rural I for old magic-religious traditions. When I started tft At journey I did not hope to find much material, but in eve,& region I easily encountered several healers, meaning thae these traditions have not disappeared, but are still alis W and active. W In other words, these rituals and faiths do not survia only in the memory of a few people, but on the contrary thIg are still important, even if their present value id different from the past. Formerly these practices weift often the only medicine, because, at least in the countr?b other medicines did not exist. Today the sanitary situatit is very different, but people still go to the count healers, even to an increasing degree. 130 131 Se-p-tember/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH C~ Q Q cD Q Q It ca Q W C*4 Q 9 co 0) IL 00 Q Q Q Q C*4 (D U) cu 2 (D 0 LL ma (D 0 L_ CL CL The reasons for this increase are several: first of all, the dissatisfaction with official medicine, which led people to turn to alternatives; second, a need for the-- sacred and magical which modern society feels more and more and is substantially the necessity to believe in something; and finally, the growing necessity for open, warm, and generous encounters, with human participation and cor- diality. The "magical" country healers satisfy all these necessities with their evocative rituals, which act deeply at a psychosomatic level, so that it is not absurd to think that the study of popular medicine could provide useful stimulations for official treatments. Nhat is popular medicine and who are country healers? The question must be answered at both historical and social levels: popular medicine refers to a stratified society, wherein the country people adopted health defenses different from those used by other social classes. Popalar medicine has nothing, or nearly nothing, to do with official medicine, first of all because its basic principles are magical and ritualistic. Popular medicine locates the causes of illnesses in elements which are external to the sick person (possession, evil eye, witchcraft, even inter- vention by the devil), so that in order to regain harmony one must use adequate, i.e., magic/religious, rituals. Magic is also present in the numerous preventive therapies of popular medicine: amulets, remedies against the evil eye or witchcraft, etc. For both diagnosis and therapy we must consider the intervention of probable para- normal effects produced by the healer, who often, without knowing it, is a psychic and pranotherapist. The use of herbalistic methods, which are again appreciated, must also be mentioned. When I began this research, I thought I would find the phenomenon much more widespread in the South than in the North of Italy, but the situation I found was not like that: healers are numerous in every part of Italy, and they have many "clients." Moreover, the rituals are fundamentally similar throughout Italy, in spite of the great differences between the regions where they are working. 132 What methods and rituals do folk healers use? The magic rituals and techniques still surviving in Italy are surely very old: our country healer is not very different from the shaman of the so-called primit* e populations of Asia and Africa, who is both priest ~_ivzlld 96 healer. This is true because nobody thinks that therapeutic function could be separated from the religios, i.e., from the contact with a Supreme Being, who is abieVo free us from illness and possession. Q The therapeutic rituals I have found in our country 4~e very old and probably date back to pagan times, with a latDr superimposition of Christian names and rituals. Coun-Sy healers, in fact, use magic gestures while at the same tJMe C*4 invoking Catholic saints and using the sign of the croop. The cross is a typical, recurrent peculiarity of thtr therapeutic action. All of these healers "sign" the sW part with the cross, repeating it at least 3 times (3 i-40a magic number which appears again and again). Moreover, jEe healers use particular rituals, which are quite varied. Me materials they use are common: flowers, rice, wheat, wa%r and salt, wine, tree branches, bread-leaven, oil, and so5n - normal, every-day ingredients which receive a specUl meaning through the ritual. The intervention is substantially magical. Near Nap;;s the old healer Maria Servita, in order to heal a swoiren spleen, cuts off a piece from the bark of a walnut t~e corresponding to the form of the feet of the sick p( When she then lets it dry up near the fire, without knowag it, she does a typical ritual of magic. She is tri6y convinced that while the rind dries and wrinkles up, *e swollen spleen gets smaller and smaller until it becolfts 77D normal again. Or we can consider the numerous therapies against wAs L_ I have found everywhere: a healer of Sardinia, PalmeCLo Roi, takes a reed, ties the same number of knots as 4he person has warts, makes his crosses, praysp and then burps it. He is convinced, together with his "patient," t3pat while the reed decays, the warts disappear as well. ale CL whole operation takes about 40 days. CL Again in Sardinia I have found the same kind of ma4c ritual against sciatica: the healer Angelina transmits, 133 S- e'0 tember/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH September/December 1984 PSJ k6bbAAUrl p with a special ritual, the sciatica of her patients to a branch of wild fig tree and then she burns it - burning the sciatica together with the branch. She can do her ritual i-_ only during the waning moon, which lets illnesses recede, 4 not with the waxing moon, which causes them to increase. Q Nearly all healers sign the "evil eye," which is C) Q believed to be responsible for many different diseases and It V- misfortunes. The most common ritual is this one: in a dish Q Q with some fresh water, the healer places a few drops of It olive oil. If the drops desintegrate when falling into the Q cD water instead of remaining round, it means that the person C) is a victim of the "evil eye." In this case, after many W C*4 prayers and signs, the ritual must be repeated until the drops remain round. Q Q How does a person becomes a healer? (6 0) Fundamentally in two ways: one can be born a healer, IL or he/she can be given this capacity. In the first case one 0 mu t be born "with the shirt," i.e., having the amniotic sac on. This "being born dressed" is considered a particularly lucky circumstance, which makes the baby able to become a healer. Also the seventh is destined to become a healer: the 7th of seven sisters or the 7th of seven brothers. And in some regions, even a premature child of seven months. Q In most cases the capacity for healing is given by an Q old healer to a person who is considered suitable. The Q C) initiation ritual always happens on Christmas Eve (24 to 25 C*4 December), the magic night, and consists in the transmission (D of rituals, words, and signs. The new healer must have U) W certain peculiarities: he (or she) must believe in this kind of healing, and must be generous and wish to follow the tradition. He (or she) must keep the words which are to be said during the ritual a secret; as a matter of fact, these 0 words must not be revealed to anybody lest they lose their LL power. Not one of these healers asks for money: they may > 0- eventually accept some little gifts, but they are happy with CL nothing. Healing people is not usually their job, and they CL have another vocation. They heal if they are asked to and they cannot refuse to heal. An important aspect is the faith. all healers think it is very important to really believe in what they do. They generally are very religious persons and think it is important that the patient also believes in the possibility of becoming healthy and prays during the treatment. Of course, this faith has great importance. r- C4 Q Q What kind of illness do the folk healers heal? Q They are "specialized" and heal some little b0t annoying diseases: warts, St. Anthony's fire (erysipel a9, sties, sprains, burns, vermination, sciatica, rheumalwc pains. One of the most typical cases is St. Anthony's fiCV, -se a very painful illness which resists medication. In country I have often found medical doctors who send thWr patients to the healers to "sign" the fire, because 9e fire, without this ritual, would go on spreading. I*-. Q It is impossible to discuss all the practicescDf Italian country healers in a brief interview. With t&e M . material from this research, I wrote a book I guaritoriagi cam2aTn (Rome: Edizione Mediterranee, 19E~), where 9ke practices and rituals are described in detail. I'd like to emphasize some general aspects. A typigil feature of all these healers is their optimism, thUr generosity and force. They are certainly individuals wittr a special charisma, who can help people in many ways: w7th their rituals and by encouraging them, cheering them ;BPI infusing them with hope and confidence. I am convinced Qat tn. many of them are psychics possessing psychokinQC5~lc abilities. Q N This sense of life, this human warmth, this capacity.,to reach deep emotional levels, is what today many mediwal doctors are missing. These aspects also recommend the siddy Z of this phenomenon to the experts. The study of popu ar medicine, in addition to its historical, social, CKnd 3- anthropological interest, can be nelpful for the med-a profession and can help medical science to make furtker 'a qualitative leaps. a) > 0 Via Archirola 33 Modena 41100, Italy CL CL 134 135 -7r7"W-VW- "..%YAW