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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 worked (Alvarado, 1991).
Another dimension of Brazilian psychical research is the work by
researchers with iritist orientation. One example is that con-
ducted by the engineer and psychical researcher Hernani Guimar-
ães Andrade, who in . 63 founded the Brazilian Institute of Psy-
chobiophysical Research BPP). The name was chosen to make it
clear that the Institute int ded to explore biological and physical
as well as purely psychical phenomena. Orty of the most significant
things about this Institute is theit emerges from within the Spiritist
movement (Playfair, 1975). Andrade, a spiritist himself, has con-
ducted well-planned and detaile investigations of reincarnation
cases along the lines of Ian Stevenson' work. His poltergeist cases
are particularly interesting-for example, the one published in a
monograph entitled O Poltergeist de G. rulhos (1984). These cases in-
volve very dramatic phenomena: aplo s, damage to furniture and
persons, apparitions of strange crea pure and spontaneous fires. In
evaluating and interpreting the cases, And ade leans toward the dis-
carnate agencies hypothesis, some mes wit possible witchcraft com-
ponents (Alvarado, 1984b; And ade, 1984 Also, as Michel-Ange
Amorim (1990) has remarked about Andrade interpretation of the
cases:
Andrade interprets the different types of occurrences present in this
case [the Guarulhos's case] s supportive of a Spirit world view in the
Umbanda tradition. The Umbanda tradition has several million adher-
ents especially in the bigger cities. It combines African Catholic, Indian,
and Spiritist elements and may be characterized as a relatively extra-
ecclesiastic of popular catholicism with ancient Afro-Brasilian sects. (p.
199)
According to Amorim, not only does Andrade interpet his cases
along the Spiritist liges but he also accepts the central beaufs of this
religion, such as the existence of all sorts of spirits, like xus and
Umulums. He alo believes that the sorcerer is able to practice
magic within the ferreiros (a place specialized in these procedures)
to harass victims according to Quimbanda laws (the black magic side
of the Umbanda religion).
Concerning 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 Noêmia [a participant in the case], the most prob-
able RSPK agent, was conducted by two psychologists belonging to the
IBPP team. He states, "Mrs. Noêmia didn't display any form of psychi-
cal abnormality that could justify viewing her as belonging to the 'psy-
chokinetic agent of a poltergeist' category in conformity with the theo-
retical patterns suggested by the current hypothesis" .. He adds that
his maci PK tests ... of her capacities were also negative. (p. 199)
It is important, however, to point out that to some extent the
cases investigated by Andrade and his associates seem to reflect the
influence of the behafs and culture of Barzilian society (Hess, 1990).
Andrade has also published one of the first systematic treatises of
parapsychology in Portuguese entiled Parapsicologia Experimental
(1967). A basic introductory mar aal of the quantitative method
used in parapsychology, it Includes a detailed description of the sta-
tistical model used in experiments with ESP cards.
There are other groups i Brazil who are interested in a more
scientific approach to psychical research. One of these groups is the
recently established ECLISY-Istituto de Investigações Científicas
em Parapsicologia. This group aims to pursue a different approach,
one separate from the more traditional approaches associated with
Spiritist or Catholic orientations typical of most Brazilian research
centers. It received support from theUniversity of São Francisco to
organize its first conference in parapsychology, held in 1990, which
included participants from the University as well as researchers
from Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, the group plans to conduct
experimental research that will be reported in its new journal, called
Revista Brasileira de Parapsicologia. According to its president, Wel-
lington Zagari, it will include abstracts English as well as in
Spanish. The journal will also include trans ations from major ex-
perimer al 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-
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 parapsychological research.
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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 Paulí.
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
José Fernández, who was teaching physics at the University of Bue-
nos Aires. Although Fernández 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 hoped to be able to apply statistical principles to the
responses given by the mediums. Fernández presented the results
of these experiments in 1941 to a meeting of the Sociedad Científica
Argentina. Fernández'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
Asociación Argentina Médica de Metapsíquica 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 gifted subjects. This society puh.
.
-
.
-
lished a journal called Revista Médica de Metapsíquica 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 Psicopatología 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 Comité de Investigaciones
Metapsíquicas, which was assigned to conduct experimental research
with gifted subjects, specifically during mediumistic sessions. The
Committee intended to explore the medical and legal implications
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 uncover-
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 José Fernández founded the Sociedad Argentina de
Parapsicología. Fernández, 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 Fernández 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 Fernández, who applied Rhine's mathematical models to
his own research. Fernandez 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. Fernández
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Psicología 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 Parapsicología was established
in 1953. It brought together several men who represented the most
critical approach of the time, men such as José Fernández, 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 Límites de la Psicología: Desde el
Espiritismo hasta la Parapsicología [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 (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-
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
Parapsicología, 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 Parapsicología in 1970. It is headed by
Naum Kreiman, a bio-statistician and a co-founder of the Instituto
Argentino de Parapsicología 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 Márquez, 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-
ation of an Institute of Parapsychology at the Catholic University of
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Córdoba 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. Novillo
Paulí 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 Fenómenos Parapsicológicos: 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 Parapsicología (1974) and Psi Comunica-
ción (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 Parapsicología.
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 Parapsicología (which he di-
rected until his death in 1989) and, in the same year, Enrique Novi-
llo Paulí. Consequently, the activities of Musso's institute declined,
and the institute at the University of El Salvador headed by Enrique
Novillo Paulí 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.
Recently, a new parapsychology journal, the Revista Argentina de
Psicología 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-
psychologists may obtain information about a bibliography on para-
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 Márquez, has created an Argentinian version called
Centro Argentino Para la Investigación y Refutación 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 Márquez, 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 called John 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-
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minished by increasing communication and collaboration with for-
eign parapsychologists.
Puerto Rico10
Early psychical research in Puerto Rico was strongly influenced
by the nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement that had also
spread to other countries. Mediumistic séances 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 séances in Italy with famous mediums such as Lucia
Sordi and Eusapia Palladino. During these séances 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 séances 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 séance phenomena (Alvarado, 1979a).
The theoretical ideas of Ralph U. Sierra are also interesting.
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 1974, Nestor A. Rodríguez 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-
nomena. His main objective was to show that parapsychology dem-
onstrates the spiritual aspect of man (Rodríguez Escudero, 1974).
Another development in 1977 was the creation of the Instituto
de Investigaciones Psicofísicas at the University of Puerto Rico, May-
agüez 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 Martínez Taboas began
to publish a newsletter Explorando lo Paranormal, a semipopular mag-
azine later edited by Carlos Alvarado starting in 1976.
Martínez Taboas and Carlos Alvarado wrote articles on parapsy-
chology in Spanish for the Spanish journal Psi Comunicación; 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 (1979b), and on J. B. Rhine (1980). Martínez Taboas published
a review of the problem of repeatability in parapsychology (1979),
critiques of psychological and physiological concepts of poltergeist
research (1977, 1980, 1984; Martínez Taboas & Alvarado, 1981),
and a discussion of the concept of parsimony applied to parapsy-
chology (1983).
The work of Martínez 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
10 This section on Puerto Rican parapsychology partly summarizes information
contained in an article by Alvarado (1979a).
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