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these have not been successful as yet. Since
its inception, however,
members of the Society have been very active in organizing numer-
ous educational activities and seminars at different universities. The
seminar offered by the president of the Society, Ramos Perera Mo-
lina, at the Universidad Autdnoma de Madrid in 1975 drew distin-
guished and prominent figures such as Prince Juan Carlos of Spain
and his wife and the minister of education.
Since
1975, the Society has
also published a biannual journal,
entitled
Psi
Comunicacidn,
which
includes
English
abstracts. The
journal covers both the activities of the Society and a wide range of
topics in parapsychology, some of which have been mentioned. In
addition, their journal includes a section for national and interna-
tional news on parapsychological activities around the world. Mem-
bers of the Society have published several books summarizing its re-
search activities.
I have already mentioned the books by Fernandez
Briones (1983). Other books include an anthology, entitled La Nueva
Parapsicologia:
Introducci&n
a
la
Parapsicologia
Cientifica
[The New
Parapsychology: An Introduction to Scientific Parapsychology] ed-
ited by Fernandez. Briones (1981a), a valuable introduction
to the
field, and Mario Capel’s La Supervivencia Despuis de la Muerte: Evi-
dencia Espontdnea y Experimental [Survival after Death: Spontaneous
and Experimental Evidence] (1981) reviewing some of the research
and phenomena related to the issue of survival after death.
Although parapsychology has been negligible in Spain until re-
cent times,
it is important to point out that we are now witnessing a
boom in parapsychological activities in that country. Unfortunately,
even though the Society seems to be the best organized, and to have
the most resources in the Ibero-American world,
its members have
not participated in the broader international parapsychological con-
ferences, such as that of the Parapsychological Association, possibly
because of the language barrier. In addition,
it
is unfortunate and
disheartening to find that such a large, productive, and well-orga-
nized society has no member in the PA.
Brazil
At
the
1990
Parapsychological
Association
convention,
David
Hess, who has made several field trips to study Brazilian parapsy-
chology, presented a paper in which he described Brazilian para-
I
psychology in the following terms:
j
Brazil does not have a coherent community of academic parapsycholo-
!
gists, and there are few if any people in Brazil who research and publish
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at the standards of the Parapsychological Association. Instead, what
is
called “parapsychology” in Brazil
is largely defined by rival groups of
Catholic and Spiritist (Kardecist) intellectuals. (Hess, 1990)
To understand parapsychology in Brazil, we need to be familiar
with the cultural milieu from which
it has evolved, one that is dom-
inated by Afro-Brazilian
cults and Catholicism. On the one hand,
we have the Spiritist tradition that came from France through the
teachings of Allan Kardec; Spiritists believe that spiritual progress is
effected by a series of compulsory reincarnations. They believe that
mediumship provides opportunities to communicate with deceased
individuals. Moreover, Spiritism
is strongly influenced in Brazil by
the Afro-Brazilian cults such as Umbanda and Candomble derived
from the- African religions brought to Brazil through the slave trade
(Bastide, 1971; Giesler, 1985).
This spectrum of Spiritist
beliefs and Afro-Brazilian
religions
has crept in and mixed in Brazilian society (Hess, 1987), creating a
variety of belief systems from which Brazilian brands of parapsy-
chology have evolved. There are many interesting combinations of
the Kardecist type of Spiritism and
all sorts of Brazilian religious
movements that essentially accept possession, the influence of spirits
of deceased individuals, as well as the belief that divinities can pos-
sess individuals and can effect healing (Parra Alvarez, 1981).
On the other hand, there
is the Catholic tradition that has de-
veloped a system that uses parapsychology as an ideology with which
to fight and eventually destroy all the movements the church sees as
superstition and threats to the established Catholic dogmas (Hess,
1990). This system has been developed mainly through the work of
one of the most influential and respected “parapsychologists” in
Ibero-America, Father Oscar Gonzalez Quevedo, a Spanish-born
Jesuit priest living in Brazil. Padre Quevedo (as he
is known) and
Luis
Ferreira da
Silva cofounded the Latin American Center of
Parapsychology, CLAP, of the Anchieta College of Sao Paulo
in
1970.
The Center, which was closed down in 1982 and reopened in
1989 under reduced circumstances, used to offer clinical counseling
for people suffering from
psychological problems related
to
reli-
gious
experiences and
practices
(e.g., demonic
possession). The
Center
still has an impressive library® of books on parapsychology,
which used to be housed in huge facilities that also accommodated
an experimental and
clinical laboratory and a museum of objects
* One of the biggest parapsychology libraries in Latin America with approximately
4,000 volumes.
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182
related
to parapsychological phenomena,
Spiritism,
miracles, and
psychic healing. In addition, the Center offers seminars and short
courses in parapsychology during the year.
.
The stated goal of the Center listed in a publicity leaflet
is to
disseminate scientific parapsychology in order to clarify the miscon-
ceptions and superstitions produced by the lack of understanding of
psychic phenomena. The content of their
publications, however,
seems to indicate that the real objective of the Center has been to
destroy
Spiritism and
its belief system because
it contradicts the
church’s teachings. Consequently, the Center has been ruled by a
religious ideology.
...
Discussion of Brazilian parapsychology must focus essentially on
the work of Quevedo, because his work and publications have been
the major source of scientific parapsychology not only for Brazil but
also for other Ibero-American countries since the 1960s.
It
is nec-
essary also to emphasize his publications because they are well re-
spected and are considered by many
to be representative of the
Catholic school in Brazilian parapsychology.
Father Quevedo has published several books on parapsychology,
some of which have become best sellers in the Spanish language as
well as in Portuguese, reaching a surprising number of editions.
Among
his books
are
a
general
introduction
to parapsychology
(1969/1973),
a
discussion of ESP and
other mental phenomena
(1964/1974), and another about physical mediumship (1969/1971).
He has also authored other polemical books on healing (1976/1977)
and possession (1989).
According to a well-known Spanish parapsychology journal,
Quevedo has offered numerous seminars and courses throughout
Ibero-America, often drawing audiences of more than 200,000 peo-
ple. He has also appeared in over 200 hours of television. Quevedo’s
impact, spreading what
is his version of parapsychology, has been
astonishing in
its education of the lay person (Fernandez Briones,
Jimenez Visedo, & Capel, 1975).
Unfortunately, however, what could have been one of the most
important contributions to scientific parapsychology in Ibero-Amer-
ica is overshadowed by Quevedo’s zealous campaign against Spmt-
7 A promotional leaflet published by CLAP entitled “O porque do CLAP/’
8 For further discussions of Brazilian parapsychology, see Hess (1990) and Flay-
^ hi Portuguese alone, 90 editions of 30,000 copies each, and more than 20 edi-
tions in Spanish and Italian (Parra 8c Pedroza, 1991).
ism, in which he explains Spiritist findings as fraud or psi by living
organisms, and his equally strong defense of Catholic beliefs. Not
only has Quevedo separated himself from the real goals and objec-
tives of the CLAP, but he has also used parapsychology as an ideo-
logical weapon in a fight to further his particular conceptual per-
spective. As Hess (1987) pointed out:
Oscar Gonzllez Quevedo reinterpreted the parapsychology of the
United
States and Europe
in
light of Catholic Church doctrine ... to
challenge the scientific basis of claims of Spiritism, Umbanda, and the
Afro-Brazilian religions, (p. 26)
In
fact,
to accomplish his goals, Father Quevedo has distorted
parapsychology in
his books, seeking most of the time
to accom-
modate church dogmas. He sometimes goes to the extreme of mak-
ing subtle, changes in the content of classical writings on parapsy-
chology so as to support his own views (Martinez Taboas, 1978) and
to deny any possible explanation that may be close to the Spiritist
point of view. In doing this, Quevedo has used investigations con-
ducted for many years by centers around the world, together with
numerous
references
from
classical
works,
including
those
con-
ducted by the Rhines and others at the Duke Parapsychology Lab-
oratory. As David Hess (1990) has further pointed out:
Both
Spiritists and Catholics
will
still appropriate PA parapsychology
and the older studies of psychical research for their own purpose. They
like to have the foreigners do the empirical research (the “dirty work”),
while they sit back and put it into their own philosophical or theological
framework, (p. 110)
The system of parapsychology Quevedo developed has an en-
tirely different conceptualization of the field and completely differ-
ent
goals from
those of the
parapsychological research done
in
other parts of the world. For Quevedo, parapsychology helps to es-
tablish a dichotomy between what he considers natural phenomena
and the supernatural, or phenomena that cannot be explained by
any paranormal mechanisms
(e.g., the miracles of Lourdes and of
various
saints). Quevedo
divides
the
causes of parapsychological
phenomena into three types. The natural ESP abilities, classified as
paranormal, are manifestations of the soul, which was created peij
feet and
possessed
unlimited
psychic
abilities
but was
restricted
when the
first man sinned. Such abilities, Quevedo says, are occa-
sionally manifested by people during mental disturbances such as a
trance. Another category
is those phenomena that are beyond such
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human abilities, that is, the phenomena are supernatural. According
to Quevedo, when a parapsychological explanation cannot account
for the manifestation of certain psychic phenomena, the explanation
should be left to the theologian. Quevedo also includes another in-
teresting category that for many would not be considered parapsy-
chology—what he
calls “extraordinary normal phenomena,” phe-
nomena that can be explained by normal or unusual psychological
and physiological processes. For example, Quevedo uses the term
pantomnesia (unlimited unconscious memory)
as a mechanism that
can explain some types of xenoglossy phenomena. When someone
manifests this phenomenon, Quevedo believes it means that the per-
son once heard the language and
is merely repeating previously
learned
phrases. Another phenomenon
classified under
this
cate-
gory
is indirect hyperesthesia. According to Quevedo,
all our
thoughts have an equivalent physiological reaction and are reflected
in our bodies. For example,
if
I am thinking about something,
I
produce very subtle physical movements or signals that other per-
sons near me can decode unconsciously. The information obtained
unconsciously can then be transformed into actual knowledge.
Quevedo (1964/1974) uses this concept to explain most of the phe-
nomena exhibited by mental mediums.
Moreover, according to his system, Quevedo (1969/1973) views
the excessive manifestation of psychic phenomena in individuals as
a pathological problem that should be treated with psychotherapy.
Although he considers such manifestations to be natural, an excess
of them denotes pathology. Consequently, the manifestation of ESP
abilities should never be encouraged or developed. That sets his tra-
dition completely apart from the one that seeks to develop psi and
to understand conditions that enhance its manifestation.
Quevedo’s conclusions, however interesting, are not derived
from empirical research. Rather, his procedure is to review the writ-
ings of different authors, especially those from the classical works,
and use the material to develop his own conclusions. In a thorough
review of three of Quevedo’s books, the Puerto Rican psychologist
Alfonso Martinez Taboas (1978) identified numerous contradictions,
omissions, distortions of the evidence, and dogmatic statements by
Quevedo. Quevedo’s book Las Fuerzas Ftsicas de la Mente alone had
70 problems of this sort. One example of his exaggerated statements
appears on page 289 of his book El Rostro Oculto de la Mente. In this
passage Quevedo concludes the following about precognition:
Very
few
established
facts
about Chemistry and
Physics and
other
branches of science have been
so well established
as precognition
in
parapsychology
And the most important thing
is that thousands of
laboratory experiments have scientifically proved without any doubt that
man posseses this ability. (1964/1974, p. 289)
Without any empirical evidence to support his theory, Quevedo
limits the operative range of precognition to two centuries. He does
this to prove that man possesses limited temporal abilities, a conclu-
sion supporting the Church dogma that only biblical prophecy is un-
limited by time, for
it is divine in nature and
is the result of God’s
intervention; that
is,
it
is a miracle.
The CLAP
also used
to publish a magazine
called Revista de
Parapsicologia, which summarized the
activities of the Center and
contained mostly
theoretical
articles. More recently, however, the
Center closed down, apparently because of a prohibition imposed
by the Church as a result of a polemical book published by Quevedo
(1989) entitled Antes Que Os Demonios Voltem [Before the Demons Re-
turn].
In
this book Quevedo,
ironically,
uses
parapsychology
to
make skeptical commentaries on Catholic dogmas concerning de-
monic possession; he also
tries
to explain demonic possession
through parapsychological mechanisms. He criticizes the traditional
Church use of the Rituale Romarnm. in determining the causes of
demonic possession. Essentially, Quevedo points out the shortcom-
ings of the Rituale Romanum, which does not include psychic phe-
nomena as an alternative explanation that might account for most
of the cases of demonic possession.
There
is no doubt that in developing his system Quevedo has
extensively surveyed the whole field of parapsychology. In a review
of some of his books, George Zorab (1971) states:
These three volumes, comprising nearly 1000 pages,
fully inform the
reader about all the various aspects of modern parapsychology.
It is at
the same time a
fair and reliable guide. In a sense
it
is unique in the
present day literature of the subject, for since Richet’s Traite de Mitapsy-
chique (1922) and F. Moser’s Okkultismus (1935) no such comprehensive
work covering the whole extensive field of modern parapsychology has
been put on the market, (p. 142)
I certainly would agree with Zorab’s opinion on the astonishing
amount of work carried out by Quevedo, work that certainly de-
serves recognition.
I would not, however, characterize his work as
fair and reliable as far as the handling of the evidence is concerned.
To a certain extent, Quevedo’s position
is justified when, he tries to
fight superstition such as that spread by the psychic healers, who are
very popular in Brazil. In a sense he
is a minority in a society with
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