Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400140002-7 September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH 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. What 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. Popular medicine hag 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 September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH 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 pam populations of Asia and Africa, who is poth priest and healer. This is true because nobody thinks that He therapeutic function could be separated from the religiofg, i.e., from the contact with a Supreme Being, who is able “fo free us from illness and possession. oO The therapeutic rituals I have found in our country Ge very old and probably date back to pagan times, with a lator superimposition of Christian names and rituals. Coun Sy healers, in fact, use magic gestures while at the same ti%e invoking Catholic saints and using the sign of the crogp. The cross is a typical, recurrent peculiarity of thétr therapeutic action. All of these healers “sign” the sfk part with the cross, repeating it at least 3 times (3 if9a magic number which appears again and again). Moreover, fhe healers use particular rituals, which are quite varied. Me materials they use are common: flowers, rice, wheat, water and salt, wine, tree branches, bread-leaven, oil, and so $n -~ normal, every-day ingredients which receive a specfd1 meaning through the ritual. = The intervention is substantially magical. Near Neptes the old healer Maria Servita, in order to heal a swolden spleen, cuts off a piece from the bark of a walnut tRe corresponding to the form of the feet of the sick perggn. When she then lets it dry up near the fire, without knowag it, she does a typical ritual of magic. She is traly convinced that while the rind dries and wrinkles up, fhe swollen spleen gets smaller and smaller until it becomes normal again. ® Or we can consider the numerous therapies against vets I have found everywhere: a healer of Sardinia, Palmegio Roi, takes a reed, ties the same number of knots as ne person has warts, makes his crosses, prays, and then bartts it. He is convinced, together with his "patient," tat while the reed decays, the warts disappear as well. Phe whole operation takes about 40 days. 2 Again in Sardinia I have found the same kind of magic ritual against sciatica: the healer Angelina transmits, 133
ee sins ee am ne te mm Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400140002-7 September/December 1984 PSI RESEARCH with a special ritual, the sciatica of her patients to a branch of wild fig tree and then she bums it - burning the sciatica together with the branch. She can do her ritual only during the waning moon, which lets illnesses recede, not with the waxing moon, which causes them to increase. Nearly all healers sign the "evil eye," which is believed to be responsible for many different diseases and misfortunes. The most common ritual is this one: in a dish with some fresh water, the healer places a few drops of olive oil. If the drops desintegrate when falling into the water instead of remaining round, it means that the person is a victim of the “evil eye." In this case, after many prayers and signs, the ritual must be repeated until the drops remain round. How does a person becomes a healer? Fundamentally in two ways: one can be born a healer, or he/she can be given this capacity. In the first case one must 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. In most cases the capacity for healing is given by an old healer to a person who is considered suitable. The initiation ritual always happens on Christmas lve (24 to 25 December), the magic night, and consists in the transmission of rituals, words, and signs. The new healer must have 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 4 matter of fact, these words must not be revealed to anybody lest they lose their power. Not one of these healers asks for money: they may eventually accept some little gifts, but they are happy with nothing. Healing people is not usually their job, and they have another vocation. They heal if they are asked to and they cannot refuse to heal. September/December 1984 Pol RRO SARUN 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. 002- What kind of illness do the folk healers heal? o They are "specialized" and heal some little bat annoying diseases: warts, St. Anthony's fire (erysipelagy, sties, sprains, burns, vermination, sciatica, rheumat@c pains. One of the most typical cases is St. Anthony's fie, a very painful illness which resists medication. In Be country I have often found medical doctors who send théfr patients to the healers to "sign" the fire, because ge fire, without this ritual, would go on spreading. S It is impossible to discuss all the practicesof Italian country healers ina prief interview. With the material from this research, I wrote a book I gua itoripd i campagna (Rome: Edizione Mediterranee, 1984), where fhe practices and rituals are described in detail. a I'd like to emphasize some general aspects. A typidal feature of all these healers is their optimism, their generosity and force. They are certainly individuals with a special charisma, who can help people in many ways: wath their rituals and by encouraging them, cheering them OBP, infusing them with hope and confidence. I am convinced @at many of them are psychics possessing psychokingSic abilities. q This sense of life, this human warmth, this capacity,to reach deep emotional levels, is what today many medi@al doctors are missing. These aspects also recommend the stdy of this phenomenon to the experts. The study of popubar medicine, in addition to its historical, social, Ona anthropological interest, can be helpful for the medypal profession and can help medical science to make further qualitative leaps. Via Archirola 33 Modena 41100, Italy Approved 135