— 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 untenabl@ Nonetheless, his work has to be seen in the cultural and ideol@gical background from which he has worked (Alvarado, 1991). Anotheg dimension of Brazilian psychfal research is the work by researchersWgyith Spiritist orientation. Jne example is that con- ducted by theQengineer and psychical gesearcher Hernani Guimar- Jes Andrade, Wyo in 1963 founded fe Brazilian Institute of Psy- chobiophysical RY&earch (IBPP). Thg/name was chosen to make it clear that the Inst&ute intended togéxplore biological and physical as well as purely ps§chical phenongena. One of the most significant things about this Insf\ute is that igemerged from within the Spiritist movement (Playfair, ¥075). Andfade, a Spiritist himself, has con- ducted well-planned agd detaifed investigations of reincarnation cases along the lines of Yn St@venson’s work. His poltergeist cases are particularly interesti—{Pr example, the one published in a monograph entitled O PolieRg@si de Guarulhos (1984). ‘These cases in- volve very dramatic phenomfa: apports, damage to furniture and persons, apparitions of stra#fg@creatures, and spontaneous fires. In evaluating and interpretingfthe ses, Andrade leans toward the dis- carnate agencies hypothesff, some§imes with possible witchcraft com- ponents (Alvarado, 1984f; Andrade, 1984). Also, as Michel-Ange Amorim (1990) has rem@fked abou§Andrade’s interpretation of the cases: Andrade interprets tfe different typeof occurrences present in this case [the Guarulhos’gfcase] as supportivegpf a Spiritist world view in the Umbanda tradition. ffhe Umbanda tradilfpn has several million adher- ents especially in th bigger cities. It combMes African, Catholic, Indian, and Spiritist elemgnts and may be charac brized as a relatively extra- ecclesiastic of pogfular Catholicism with anci@get Afro-Brazilian sects. (p. 199) According to Amorim, not only does And ade interpret his cases along the Spiritift lines but he also accepts the Yentral beliefs of this religion, such a the existence of all sorts of spirits, like Exus and Umulums. Hefalso believes that the sorcerer & able to practice magic within ghe terreiros (a place specialized in ese procedures) to harass victiffns according to Quimbanda laws (the black magic side of the Umbaftda religion). Concerning Andrade’s interpretation of the aforementioned case of Guarulhos, Amorim (1990) also states: 1 | os 186 The Journd NP PEAYEa Or Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792RO00Z939NRBSnTihe Ibero-American World 187 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 Noémia [a participant in te case], the most prob- PK agent, was conducted by two psychgfogists belonging to the m. He states, “Mrs. Noémia didn’t djfplay any form of psychi- ality that could justify viewing hgf as belonging to the ‘psy- ent of a poltergeist’ categorygm conformity with the theo- ypothesis.” ... He adds that ere also negative. (p. 199) retical patte cases investigated by Andrade andfhis associates seem to reflect the influence of the beliefs\nd cultugt of Brazilian society (Hess, 1990). Andrade has also publigged orf of the first systematic treatises of parapsythology in Portu\uesg entitled Parapsicologia Experimental (1967). A basic introduct&f manual of the quantitative method used in parapsychology, it iggludes a detailed description of the sta- tistical model used in expgfinkgnts with ESP cards. There are other groyfps in Grazil who are interested in a more #chical r&earch. One of these groups is the recently established E@LIPSY-Instyuto de Investigacdes Cientificas em Parapsicologia. Tjfis group aims%p pursue a different approach, one separate from fie more traditioMl approaches associated with Spiritist or Catho 2. centers. It receiv support from the Uriyersity of Sao Francisco to is new journal, called Revista Brofileira de Parapsicologia. According tdits president, Wel- #ngari, it will include abstracts in Engfish as well as in The journal will also include translation¥ from major ex- 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- 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. Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000700290003-7
oe 188 The Journal of Parapsychology However, research has diminished in the last few years, partly be- n. cause of the recent deaths of two of the leading contributors, J. Ri- ey cardo Musso and Enrique Novillo Pauli. © Early research began in Argentina about the same time the Duke S 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- S cluded paranormal psychology as one of the areas to be investigated © by the department. Parapsychology appeared to be joined to psy- x chology from the beginning. The chairman of the psychology de- © partment, Enrique Mouchet, was interested in clairvoyance research S and had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to include © paranormal psychology in the syllabus of courses offered by the de- 8 partment (Musso, 1973). QO However, Argentinian researchers have had to struggle with the rd traditional spiritualistic methodology that characterized the study of t psychical research in this country in the past. The research being < conducted in the young Duke Parapsychology Laboratory had a ma- O 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 Fernandez, who was teaching physics at the University of Bue- Oo & nos Aires. Although Fernandez 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. 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 © young researchers were to follow in establishing scientific parapsy- chology there. Another development during this period was the creation of the Asociacién Argentina Médica de Metapsiquica 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- <L 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- R proved F Parapsychology in the [bero-American World 189 lished a journal called Revista Médica de Metapsiquica summarizing the research of the society. Included among the articles published in the journal was a study of the use of dowsers by the governfyent to find water in towns where the lack of water had become a ifard- ship for its inhabitants. During this period, the work of Canagasio was important because of his connection to the government, agpn- nection that helped to legitimize parapsychological studies in A@en- tina (Musso, 1973). v=) The creation of the Instituto de Psicopatologia Aplicada in p48 by the Secretary of Public Health was another important dev§iop- ment. The aim of the government was to establish tight controlgver the Spiritist activities in Argentina, which were considered tofMe a social evil. More specifically, the aim was to control the exploitation of people engaged in nonscientific practices such as healing, aise so on. o The Institute created a subsidiary, the Comité de InvestigacfPnes Metapsiquicas, which was assigned to conduct experimental resgarch with gifted subjects, specifically during mediumistic sessions. he Committee intended to explore the medical and legal implicaggons of Spiritist practices, as well as to determine whether genuine p3ra- psychological phenomena were exhibited during these sessions by the gifted subjects. The Committee was also interested in uncByer- ing negative factors that might induce mental illness, such asqgeu- rosis, in the participants. More specifically, it seems that the rePob- jective of the Committee was to determine whether the promfgters of these mediumistic sessions were practicing medicine illegally (Parra, 1989). In 1949 José Fernandez founded the Sociedad Argenting, de Parapsicologia. Fernandez, who was already known for his qugnti- tative approach to psychic phenomena, continued to promot@the statistical approach used by the Duke researchers. This appffach was reflected in the Society’s main objective, which was to studyéand investigate parapsychological phenomena with emphasis on thit.de- velopment of statistical methods. By then Fernandez had rected from Rhine a copy of Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years (att, Rhine, Smith, Stuart, & Greenwood, 1940). The book had a redjor impact on Fernandez, who applied Rhine’s mathematical modg® to his own research. Fernandez also circulated the book amo is 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. Fernandez presented the results of these experiments in a pamphlet entitled