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187
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 cAtroversial for many
parapsychologists,
his position
is untenable.^onetheless,
his work
has
to be seen
in
the
cultural and
ideolojpcal background from
which he has worked (Alvarado, 1991).
Another dimension of Brazilian psychiJll research is the work by
researchers
pfih
Spiritist
orientation. Gpe example
is
that
con-
ducted by the\rgineer and psychical ripearcher Hernani Guimar-
aes Andrade, uro in 1963 founded the Brazilian Institute of Psy-
chobiophysical R^arch (IBPP). The/ame was chosen to make
it
clear that the Instate intended to explore biological and physical
as well as purely ps^hical phenomena. One of the most significant
things about this Insti*e is that it ejpierged from within the Spiritist
movement
(Playfair,
1^5). Andrafie, a
Spiritist himself, has con-
ducted
well-planned anakdetailel
investigations
of reincarnation
cases along the lines of IamStevftrson’s work. His poltergeist cases
are
particularly interesting3jybif example, the one published in a
'
~
fide Guaruihos (1984). These cases in-
apports, damage to furniture and
features, and spontaneous fires. In
jes, Andrade leans toward the dis-
res with possible witchcraft corn-
monograph entitled 0 Polterg
volve very dramatic phenome?
persons, apparitions of strang
evaluating and interpreting
i
carnate agencies hypothesis,
ponents (Alvarado,
1984b; JAndral
Amorim (1990) has remarked aboul
1984).
Also,
as Michel-Ange
Andrade’s interpretation of the
cases:
Andrade interprets th^different typekof occurrences present in
this
case [the Guarulhos’s Ase] as supporti\l|of a Spiritist world view in the
Umbanda tradition. The Umbanda traotton has several million adher-
ents especially in theroigger cities. It comBgpes African, Catholic, Indian,
and
Spiritist elements and may be charallerized
as a reladvely extra-
ecclesiastic of ponplar Catholicism with an^nt Afro-Brazilian sects,
(p.
199)
According toAmorim, not only does An«j|*ade interpret his cases
along the Spiritjft lines but he also accepts t* central beliefs of this
religion, such m the existence of all sorts ospirits, like Exus and
Umulums. Ha also
believes
that
the
sorcereSkis
able
to
practice
magic withinJhe terreiros
(a place specialized i&these procedures)
to harass vic*ns according to Quimbanda laws (tmNblack magic side
of the Umbanda religion).
Concerning Andrade’s interpretation of the aforementioned case
of Guaruihos, Amorim (1990) also states:
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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 Noemia [a participant in the case], the most prob-
able RSI1I agent, was conducted by two psychologists belonging to the
IBPP tea^L He states, “Mrs. Noemia didn’t display any form of psychi-
cal abnormwity that could justify viewing her as belonrfng to the ‘psy-
chokinetic a*nt of a poltergeist’ category in confon*y with the theo-
retical patterm suggested by the current hypoth^K” ... He adds that
his macro-PK nj^ts ... of her capacities were abfrnegative.
(p.
199)
It
is importantWiowever,
to point out^hat to some extent the
cases investigated bwkndrade and his j^sociates seem to reflect the
influence of the belief* and culture ofiprazilian society (Hess, 1990).
Andrade has also pulmshed one ojAhe
first systematic treatises of
parapsychology
in Pomiguese
emitled
Parapsicologia
Experimental
(1967). A
basic
introductory manual of the
quantitative method
used in parapsychology, iWnchpaes a detailed description of the sta-
tistical model used in expmjrirents with ESP cards.
There are other groupalQ Brazil who are interested in a more
scientific approach to ps)jftid|j research. One of these groups is the
recently established ECMPS\%nstituto de Investigates Cientlficas
em Parapsicologia. Thip group Sms to pursue a different approach,
one separate from
tkfe more traditional approaches associated with
Spiritist or Catholi^orientations %pical of most Brazilian research
centers.
It receiv^u support from 3|| University of Sao Francisco to
organize its
conference in parapsychology, held in 1990, which
included
pajpcipants from
the
Unwersity
as
well
as
researchers
from Argj^ina,
Brazil, and Mexico. wChe group plans to conduct
experimjjlftal research that will be repoMed in its new journal, called
Revista^rasileira de Parapsicologia. According to
its president, Wel-
Zangari,
it
will include abstractswi English
as
well
as
in
The journal will also include tralMations from major ex-
Fimental and
theoretical
articles
publish®!
in
the
English-lan-
guage journals.
There are also other groups involved in pa^bsychology in Brazil
that are beyond the scope of this paper becatro 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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The Journal of Parapsychology
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 Pauli.
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
Jos£ Fernandez, who was teaching physics at the University of Bue-
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 Cientffica
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
Asociacidn Argentina M^dica 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-
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
:
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Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World
189
fished a journal called Revista Medica 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 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 Psicopatologfa 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 Comitd de Investigaciones
Metapslquicas, 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 Jos6 Fernandez founded the Sociedad Argentina de
Parapsicologfa. Fernandez, 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 Fernandez 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 Fernandez, 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. Fernandez
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Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World
191
190
The Journal of Parapsychology
Psicologia
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 Institute Argentino de Parapsicologia was established
in 1953. It brought together several men who represented the most
critical approach of the time, men such as Jos£ Fernandez, 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 Limitcs de la Psicologia: Dcsde el
Espiritismo hasta la Parapsicologia [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).
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 Cuademos de
Parapsicologia, 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 Institute de Parapsicologia in 1970.
It
is headed by
Naum Kreiman, a bio-statistician and a co-founder of the Institute
Argentino de Parapsicologia 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
tmiriro
onri
I Qrlicl^r. M^rrmpy hp has conducted numerous exDer-
j. T mur\ j
y
utiv*
*js*v*»lj*i*%/
-j
''— J
—
I
iments that have been published in the Cuademos. 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-
The
expansion
period
of parapsychology was
interrupted
in
IQfifi when
the then current Argentinian government was
over-
ation or an In
tyoo wnen
tne tnen
currei
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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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Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World
193
Cbrdoba 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 creadon 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
Pauli 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 Fendmenos Parapsicoldgicos: Psi
en
el Laboratorio (1975), which included reports of his PK studies.
The studies were also reported in the Spanish-language parapsycho-
logical journals Cuademos de Parapsicologia (1974) and Psi Comunica-
ci&n (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 Parapsicologia
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 Parapsicologia (which he di-
rected until his death in 1989) and, in the same year, Enrique Novi-
llo Pauli. Consequently, the
activities of Musso’s institute declined,
and the institute at the University of El Salvador headed by Enrique
Novillo Pauli 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, mam-
tained a constant interest in reporting original experiments, inclu
-
ing replications of foreign experimental works. They also continued
to publish regularly their quarterly journal, which contained trans-
lations of some of the most
riA_RnPQfi_nn7Q9Rnnn7nnnAnnn9
Recently, a new parapsychology journal, the Revista Argentina de
Psicologia 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 Marquez, has created an Argentinian version called
Centro Argentino Para la Investigacibn y Refutacibn 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 Marquez, also includes foreign members, Martin Gardner,
frvr instance.
~ The
prospects
for
Argentinian
parapsychology
in
the
199Us
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 ml 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, an
lack of proper technology and other means to conduct sophisticated
research. Some of these problems, Villanueva suggests, may be di-