186 r% The Jou"WTWPr9aY~g1oFosr Release 2000/08/11 CIA-RDP96-00792ROOOft7(PMAQpn7the 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 unlonabl4 Nonetheless, his work has to be seen in the cultural and ideo .cal background from 91 which he has worked (Alvarado, 1991) A th dimension of Brazilian psyc al research is the work by no e researcher-4 lith Spiritist orientation. ne example is that con ducted by thNngineer and ps hical searcher Hernani Guimar 'k 5es Andrade, v 3 founded e Brazilian Institute of Psy- 0 in 196 chobiophysical earch (IBPP). Th name was chosen to make it I clear that the Ins ute intended to xplore biological and physical h: as well as purely ' things about this Ins u movement Playfair' ducted wel ~p lanned) cases along the lines 0' are particularly interes monograph entitled 0 A volve very dramatic ph!no persons, apparitions of evaluating and interpre carnate agencies hypotl ponents (Alvarado, 19~ Amorim (1990) has ren cases: Andrade interprets case [the Guarulhos Umbanda tradition, ents especially in tj and Spiritist e,,Ie ecclesiastic of o/ 199) --al pheno na. One of the most significant "e is that 1 merged from within the Spiritist 75). An ade, a Spiritist himself, has con- d deta' d investigations of reincarnation n St enson's work. His poltergeist cases i r example, the one published in a lo h __ _t de Guaruthos (1984). These cases in- a: apports, damage to furniture and reatures, and spontaneous fires. In stra in e ses, Andrade leans toward the dis es* , som "mes with possible witchcraft com Andr e, 1984). Also, as Michel-Ange ked abou ndrade's interpretation of the Jre different type! Fcasel as supportiv '17he Umbanda trai bigger cities. It cor nd ay be ch~ Ls a m; r Catholicism with occurrences present in this a Spiritist world view in the -i has several million adher- ps African, Catholic, Indian, zed as a relatively extra- ~ t Afro-Brazilian sects. (p. Nccording to morim, not only does AnAdenitnter -et his cases 'g ~0 alo' Nines but he also accepts 1: ral beliefs of this r't ng the Spirid religion, such the existence of all sorts its, ike Exus and of A n UZ~Olums:uc~He also believes that the sorcerer Vable to practice e a a~ ri e terreiros (a place specialized in lkpse procedures) m ,1c w, ,t~,n to harass vict' s according to Quimbanda laws (theMack magic side of the Umb da religion). Concerning Andrade's interpretation of the aforementioned case of Guarulhos, Amorim (1990) also states: Approved For Release 2000/08/11 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 c1pant in t logical examination of No8mia [a participant in t case], the most prob ablpe] PK agent, was conducted by two psyc gists belonging to the PK agent, 0 psyc m He sl dn' -la IB P m. He states, "Mrs. Noi~mia didn't ' lay any form of psychi- y t] 11g t Cal abno ality that could justify viewing as belonging to the 'psy- bno a it 'in as ,\neen ctnf , t' "e/ chokinetic ont of a poltergeist' ccategoo conformity with the theo- c t ory 0 retical patte suggested by the curre ypothesis.". . . He adds that I patte sl ypo he a K ere also his macro-PK ts ... of her capacitie ere also negative. (p. 199) I cro_p I It is important,%owev cases investigated by%ndi 'Nn( influence of the beliefs_ Andrade has also publi N, parapsythology in Port (1967). A basic introduct used in parapsychology, it tistical model used in ex There are other gro scientific approach to c recently established I Parapsicologia. , tc out that to some extent the i e z: nPd Ofst sociates seem to reflect the ass -ultu of Brazilian society (Hess, 1990). 0 of the first systematic treatises of e entitled Parapsicologia Experimental manual of the quantitative method udes a detailed description of the sta nts with ESP cards. in razil who are interested in a more cal r earch. One of these groups is the X-Ifis uto de Investiga~6es Cientificas different approach, aims pursue a em s group one separate from e more traditio I approaches associated with Spiritist or Catho orientations typic of most Brazilian research centers. It receiv support from the U ersity of Sdo Francisco to organize its firs onference in parapsych gy, held in 1990, which included pard pants from the Universit as well as researchers from Argen ' a, Brazil, and Mexico. The UP Plans to conduct experiment research that will be reported in new journal, called Revista Br leira de Parapsicologia. According t .ts president, Wel- lington ngari, it will include abstracts in En 'sh as well as in Spanis The journal will also include translation from major ex- peri tal and theoretical articles published in the English-lan- guage journals. There are also other groups involved in parapsychology 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- r psychology from the perspective of its impact on the Ibero-Ameri- can countries. Argentina For many years Argentina has been the top-ranking country in Ibero-America in terms of experimental parapsychologic;il research. CIA-RDP96-00792ROO0700290003-7 188 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 A cardo Musso and Enrique Novillo Paulf. Q Early research began in Argentina about the same time the Duke Q Q University Laboratory was established in the United States. The 0) 1930s witnessed one of the most important events in the history of C*4 Q Argentine parapsychology. In 1931, the first institute of psychology C1 was established at the University of Buenos Aires. The institute in cluded paranormal psychology as one of the areas to be investigated Q Q by the department. Parapsychology appeared to be joined to psy- W chology from the beginning. The chairman of the psychology de- 04 a) partment, Enrique Mouchet, was interested in clairvoyance research r- Q and. had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to include Q paranormal psychology in the syllabus of courses offered by the de- partment (Musso, 1973). 0- 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 :5 conducted in the young Duke Parapsychology Laboratory had a ma Ojor 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 00 Jos6 Fernindez, who was teaching physics at the University of Bue- Q nos Aires. Although Ferndndez belonged to a Spiritualist group Q a called ATMAN, he had been in search of an adequate methodology Q 04 to investigate the psychic phenomena manifested by mediums and a) clairvoyants. He holed to be able to apply statistical principles to the responses given by the mediums. FernAndez presented the results of these experiments in 1941 to a meeting of the Sociedad Cientifica Argentina. FernAndez's efforts to introduce quantitative methodol ogy in Argentina had a major impact on the approaches that other 0 young researchers were to follow in establishing scientific parapsy- LL chology there. 'a a) Another development during this period was the creation of the ~' Asociad6n Argentina M6dica de Metapsiquica. in 1946 by a group 0 " of physicians headed by Orlando Canavesio. The aim of this society CL awas 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 subjects. This society pub- Parapsychology in the lbero-American World 189 lished a journal called Revista Midica, de Metapsfquica summarizing the research of the society. Included among the articles published in the journal was a study of the use of dowsers by the governfilent to find water in towns where the lack of water had become a 18rd- ship for its inhabitants. During this period, the work of Canaersio was important because of his connection to the government, awpn- nection that helped to legitimize parapsychological studies in A1011-n- W tina (Musso, 1973). Q The creation of the Instituto de Psicopatologla Aplicada in rt~M CP by the Secretary of Public Health was another important dev&p- ment. The aim of the government was to establish tight control(Ever the Spiritist activities in Argentina, which were considered to a social evil. More specifically, the aim was to control the exploimuon of people engaged in nonscientific practices such as healing, a so on. C6 The Institute created a subsidiary, the Comit6 de Investigacg!nes Metapsiquicas, which was assigned to conduct experimental restych with gifted subjects, specifically during mediumistic sessions.cThe Committee intended to explore the medical and legal implicat'pns of Spiritist practices, as well as to determine whether genuine Fjra- psychological phenomena were exhibited during these sessions, by er- the gifted subjects. The Committee was also interested in uncP ing negative factors that might induce mental illness, such as;Beu- rosis, in the participants. More specifically, it seems that the reQob- Jective of the Committee was to determine whether the pron-~ers of these mediumistic sessions were practicing medicine illemlly (Parra, 1989). In 1949 Jos6 Ferndndez founded the Sociedad Argenting) de Parapsicologfa. FernAndez, who was already known for his oi& - tative approach to psychic phenomena, continued to promotqjthe statistical approach used by the Duke researchers. This appiXach was reflected in the Society's main objective, which was to stud)8tnd investigate parapsychological phenomena with emphasis on tl*Lde- velopment of statistical methods. By then Fern;indez had reel6ved from Rhine a copy of Extra-Senso?y Perception After Sixty Years (*att, Rhine, Smith, Stuart, & Greenwood, 1940). The book had a r&or impact on Fermindez, who applied Rhine's mathematical modd% to his own research. Ferndndez also circulated the book amonkhis 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 s ,ubjects, obtained significant results. Fern;indez presented the results of these experiments in a pamphlet entitled r-~ 6 Q Q Q 64 CD Q I*- Q a Q C*4 Q Q (6 a) W v-- 00 Q Q Q Q 04 (D U) co 7~ 0 LL > 0 CL CL 190 The Journal of Parapsychology 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 Parapsicologfa 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 Nauni 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 Limitesde 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 sub ects. The results j 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 Argentinian government was over- Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World . 191 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 1~r the subject, a new quarterly publication was founded. The C de Parapsicologia, perhaps the most important publication in the tory of Argentinian experimental parapsychology, took the respon&ility of disseminating a high level of academic parapsychology. Fahdedd %;J, by Nauni Kreiman, it has been the most professional organ of sci- I- entific parapsychology in Argentina to the present time. Q Owing to the military takeover of the government thatskimi- nated most of the parapsychology courses offered at the staW uni- versities, parapsychology did not enjoy the same status at the Win- ning of the 1970s as it had during the period of uniN~T :0 ) sity i expansion of the 1960s. Some new developments during this piriod kept the torch lit, however. Among the most important ones Vi& the creation of the Instituto de Parapsicologia in 1970. It is heaed by Naum Kreiman, a bio-statistician and a co-founder of the InOtuto Argentino de Parapsicologia in the 1950s. Kreiman has playe4 key role in the development of the quantitative approach to the 0 During the 1980s, parapsychology in Argentina was character- C" ized by a marked decline in experimental activities. Most of the L CL 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. Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 193 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 of7Vara- psychology) and edited mainly by Alejandro Parra. judged a its content, the journal seems to be a worthwhile addition to th"_' CXur- rent efforts to keep the Argentinian audience well inform%9 on professional parapsychology. However, some of the experim of the researchers in this group have not been well received by er Argentinian researchers, who consider the experiments to be f6wed (Kreiman, 1990; see also Alvarado, 1990). LAPAS has also sta&d a Spanish-language parapsychology information center. The Ce4mr is building a computer data bank from which Spanish-speaking gara- psycholo _r gists may obtain information about a bibliography onma a- psychology similar to the Parapsychology International Abstri gub- lished by Rhea White (Villanueva, 1990). CL In addition to these recent developments, CSICOP has maEl its way to Argentina. A former member of Naum Kreiman's resarch group, Ladislao Mdrquez, has created an Argentinian version affled Centro Argentino Para la Investigaci6n y Refutaci6n de la Pscido- ciencia (CAIRP). The most important aims of CAIRP are tE)de- nounce fraud and to promote a critical scientific assessment of-the claims made by pseudoscientists. The board of directors, headrd by Ladislao MArquez, also includes foreign members,'Martin Ga'r r&er, for instance. Q The prospects for Argentinian parapsychology in the 890S seem less favorable than those of the booming period of prabous years. The present difficulties in the Argentinian economy haV in- . A) I creased for researchers, making it difficult for them to obtam fWas to support their research and publications. CD In a recent survey conducted on the present status of paf&sy- chology in Argentina, Naum Kreiman reported that researcWhas decreased substantially over the last five years. Most of the rtent research reports have come from Kreiman's Institute of Palupsy- chology. Educational activities in the field are almost nil excep_vfor a course being offered at a small university called ohn F. Ke4edy J University (Kreiman & Ivnisky, 1989). 0 Jorge VUla- In a letter published in the journal of Parapsychology, nueva (1990) pointed out some of the major problems that Agbn- 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- 194 TheJournal of Parapsychology Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 195 minished by increasing communication and 'collaboration with for- eign parapsychologists. 10 A co 0 0 Early psychical research in P erto Rico was strongly influenced 0 43)by the nineteenth-century S 'ritualist movement that had also C*4 Ospread to other countries. M iumistic s6ances in which raps and F-communication with the spiri were common drew attention mostly CDfrom people wi~ a religiou interest. CD It was perhaps this infi nce that led Agapito Morales to publish W C*4 in 1904 a more c *tical amination of these phenomena. In his G)booklet Breve Tra de ipnotismo, Magnetismo, EspirihNmo y Suges- I- Ototera ia; Morales con e ded that all those occurrences could take 0 p I ,6place without assumin the action of spirit agencies. He interpreted dipossession as being a uggestion and attributed paranormal phe- IL r ng yc ic faculties. He considered that all of the a nomena to ou own W experiments made til t ay demonstrate that.there is an invisible .~force in our being hat is c pable, for instance, of playing a guitar, lifting a table, or b . g our wn bodies. According to him this force is under our co 1. He als \believed that mediumistic communi -cation could be ex lained by eans of telepathy between the me- V_ T dium and the tter. 00 -0 Another or influence in k formation of a more empirical Oand critical a proach to parapsychNogy was the work of Francisco oPonte, a de tist who became presid6rit of the Puerto Rican Feder- C*4 ation of SP. itists. Ponte visited Europ~,,,in 1912 to familiarize him- (D 0 u) self with t e work of several Spiritualistic%~enters, as well as psychim Co I h enters. He had had the oppbrtunity to participate in q) ca resear c 6medi=mi tic s6ances in Italy with famous ediums such as Lucia ~ium W Sordi a d Eusapia Palladino. During these 6ances he witnessed ce ,e ~ea n I- terial 0manife tations of apparent telekinesis and terializations (Alva- LLrado, 987; Ponte, 1914). trie to Later Ponte returned to Puerto Rico and trie to reproduce the ~T)orte >same phenomena with local mediums. He reporte me of his findm 0. ings on materializations of body parts during s6ances to Walter r,LFranklin Prince, then Research Officer of the ASPR. Ponte's work CL