J minished by increasing communication and collaboration with for- eign parapsychologists. Puerto Rico’® 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). © This section on Puerto Rican parapsychology partly summarizes information contained in an article by Alvarado (19792). 194° The Journal of Paraphpptayed For Release 2003/09/10 : GIA-RDP96-00792R00070PZ 600 Asibgy in the Ibero-American World 195 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. Rodriguez 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 (Rodriguez Escudero, 1974). Another development in 1977 was the creation of the Instituto de Investigaciones Psicofisicas at the University of Puerto Rico, May- agiiez 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 Martinez Taboas began to publish a newsletter Explorando lo Paranormal, a semipopular mag- azine later edited by Carlos Alvarado starting in 1976. Martinez Taboas and Carlos Alvarado wrote articles on parapsy- chology in Spanish for the Spanish journal Pst Comunicacién; 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). Martinez Taboas published a review of the problem of repeatability in parapsychology (1979), critiques of psychological and physiclogical concepts of poltergeist research (1977, 1980, 1984; Martinez Taboas & Alvarado, 1981), and a discussion of the concept of parsimony applied to parapsy- chology (1983). The work of Martinez 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 Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000700760001-7
% 196 The Journal of Parapsychology is particularly true of Alvarado’s book reviews (1984a, 1985) and his discussion of language-barrier problems in parapsychology (1989a). Moreover, Alvarado, a former research assistant at the Division of Parapsychology (now the Division of Personality Studies) at the Uni- versity of Virginia, has maintained a constant flow of information on parapsychological activities in Latin America to research centers in the United States for the last eight years. In addition, among the Ibero-American parapsychologists, he is the one who has publishe most extensively in the English-language journals and the only one ever to be elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Para- psychological Association. Mexico Mexico has been kno@ for a long time as the land of the sacred mushroom or peyotl, a p ‘ nt used by the Indian shaman tog#duce ~ an altered state of conscioufgess, which allegedly facilitatesgre man- ifestation of psychic power@{This country has also bgt a major source for many parapsychol@gical researchers inteygted in unor- thodox psychic healing practic mas (healers) such as Maria Sabina and Dofia Pacly g@xtensively investi- gated by Stanley Krippner and % parapsychologists (Krippner & Villoldo, 1986). Although Mexico has been a mé =. parapsychologists from foreign countri? flourished there as it has in other coy@piges such as Argentina and Spain. Moreover, even though the # ; ern border of the United States ag American cultural influence in gn x inance of the United States 4S not been a fMtor in the develop- ment of parapsychology. Ey though in the Unijed States there are more parapsychological earch centers than anfghere else in the world, very little is kng@f in Mexico of their reseatWp. Most of what is known about seriggf parapsychology comes from Kgtin American countries such as #@zil. For example, the writings oMQuevedo are well known in }Mfxico, and also most of what is knop generally @Pilar magazines. ' BS to study psychical research within a scien co began in 1919 with the isolated efforts oMjguch re- mrecher, Wesearcher to conduct serious psychical research in Ngxico. Wecher was a very well-known and respected physician in the a _ Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000700760001-7 Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World 197 Mexican medical community as well as in political circles. In the course of his Wgreer he delivered speechps before two presidents of Mexico, Diaz aM] Obregén (Allison, 194B)."' A respected Wember of the medig{l profession, Pagenstecher said he had been Amaterialist for for#f years when he had his first encounter with the Mranormal. It wg during a hypnosis treatment of one of his patients\vho had insogfnia that he discovered the re- markable psychical gift¥of Marfa Rffes de Zierold. Pagenstecher be- gan a series of psychonigric expeffments with her in 1919. The re- sults were so striking tha he brgfight them to the attention of the Mexican medical society, QhicfPappointed a commission to verify them. Pagenstecher also d iged to write to the ASPR and send some of,the results he had@@btained. The results induced Walter Franklin Prince, Research G@mcer of the ASPR, to go to Mexico to investigate the case. After psc! es of experimental sittings with Zier- old, Prince was so impressgfi wily the results that he decided to pub- lish them in the Journal JF the AMPR in 1920 (Pagenstecher, 1920). Prince later published-gfother pager in which he discussed the ex- periments in which hefParticipated (Prince, 1921b). Moreover, the ASPR published a mgpograph by Pagenstecher entitled Past Events Seership: A Study of Péichometry (Pagerecher, 1922). According to Wéfliam Roll (1967), Pagenstecher contributed to two major areas ingparapsychology: (He was], as fafffas 1 know the first inve§igator to use hypnosis as a means to cultiyfte ESP in a gifted subject. ..¥Pagenstecher’s studies were also, I believ Pthe first to indicate that the Warapsychological) associa- tion of objeg may be governed by the same gws that govern the (psy- chological) @Bsociation of ideas. (p. 238) Hf Pagenstg ther showed great courage in undégtaking these exper- iments. Hgfeopardized his professional standing\gs well as his med- ical practfe by trying to substantiate the claims fa Zierold’s psychic abilities fhe Medical Commission appointed to irestigate the case was skd@ftical of the reported phenomena. Fortunatqy, however, the Commffsion’s leading experts obtained successful re{ults in the ex- perimffits in which they participated (Gomezharpe@ de Trevifio, 1990). '! Obregén was a revolutionary military leader, later President of Mexico. Walter Franklin Prince (1921a) relates an interesting psychic experience witnessed by Ob- reg6n, about a precognitive dream Obregén’s brother had about the death of their i ther. Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000700760001-7