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of parapsychology, some may see
little value in monitoring publi-
cations and research in these countries, perhaps because they doubt
that the material produced by such researchers would be of suffi-
cient quality to make an important contribution to the field (Alva-
rado, 1989a).
V
^
This
lack
of attention to^mformation
about I^ro-American
parapsychology
presents
a series problem
for
rfnglish-speaking
parapsychologists, who often recwe invitations ^attend parapsy-
chological conferences in some of\iese countries where there are
groups whose commitment to academe parapachology
is doubtful
and whose only purpose in extending\ieir
inotations is to legitim-
ize local efforts, which are sometimes a Bpbidns mix of parapsychol-
ogy, spiritism, ufology, and so on. A betjudyknowledge of parapsy-
chology in these communities could facilitWe evaluation of the goals
of
specific groups who
identify themMraes
as
parapsychologists.
David Hess (1990) has pointed out the JollAving concerning Brazil-
ian parapsychology:
m
[Since] anything “international” or ‘Mrst worll” in Brazil means addi-
tional status, the participation of PJ^arapsychljlpgists at Brazilian con-
ferences that represent one grounJtould mean llkitimating either Cath-
olic or Spiritist parapsycholog^f the expense c^he other group,
(p.
Although it is true that sum groups exist, it is important to men-
tion
that there are
also smous groups and resellers who
for
many years have carriedmit important work—woAthat deserves
recognition even thougwthe language barrier has hindered
its re-
ception in the international parapsychological arena.
Efforts to
bridge this lack of attmtion and to increase cooperation with Ibero-
American researcher will not only help those in the English-speak-
ing countries to beJer understand cultural differences and national
styles in researchpractice, but also help the researchers in the Ibero-
American worlMb improve the quality of their work. Therefore,
I
have selected tjm following countries for a general survey of the re-
search that hybeen conducted in parts of Ibero-America: Argen-
tina, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Spain.
There has never been a serious attempt to organize the history
of psychical research in Spain, and information
is scarce on early
attempts to study psychic phenomena seriously.
It was not until the
1920s that the Sociedad Espanola de Estudios Metapslquicos was
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Ibero-American World
177
created under the presidency of the Count of Gimeno, member of
the Royal Academy of Sciences and Medicine. The
Society pub-
lished a journal called Revista de Estudios Metapslquicos (Fernandez
Briones,
1981b). The
research
orientation of the
Society was
to
study spontaneous cases and psychics, such as the famous Joaquin
Argamasilla
(expert
in
dermo-optical
perception) whose
abilities
Houdini attempted to expose (Houdini, 1924).
Most of the work of this
society, however, was
lost after the
Spanish Civil War during a period of isolation in which only a few
researchers kept the torch burning. Familiar names from this period
are S&nchez Herrero, the Marquiz of Santa Clara, J. Palmas, and M.
Otero y Acevedo, researchers whose independent efforts contrib-
uted to e new generation of investigators such as Ramos Perera Mo-
lina, Francisco Gavil&n Fontanet, and Luis Fernandez Briones. This
latter group, at the beginning of the 1970s, founded the
first well-
organized society to investigate psychic phenomena in Spain. It was
called the Sociedad Espanola de Parapsicologla (Fernandez Briones,
1981b). From
its inception, this Society, under the direction of Ra-
mos Perera Molina, had as
its main goal to promote the scientific
study of parapsychology. To achieve this goal, the Society combined
the efforts of experts in experimental design, illusionism, psychol-
ogy, medicine, and other fields of science and in 1976 established a
research center (De Vicente, 1983).
To carry out its research projects, the Society has been divided
into several research committees that specialize in different areas
embracing
field
studies
as
well
as experimental
projects. Among
these committees are those concerned with the development of the-
oretical models to enhance ESP, Kirlian photography, experimental
research, OBEs, and the medical aspects of psi. More
recently, a
new committee was established
2 to investigate anomalous phenom-
ena along the lines of the Society for Scientific Exploration.
Members of the Society have carried out original research pro-
jects in experimental parapsychology as well as research on sponta-
neous cases. They have also critically evaluated miracle claims made
by the Catholic church
in Spain, such as the liquefaction of the
blood of Saint Pantaledn (Jordan Pena, 1983).
One of the most interesting investigations has been conducted by
members of the research committee headed by Francisco Gavil&n
Fontanet (1976). In this study, the committee investigated identical
2 The goal of the committee
is to investigate UFOs, cryptozoology, religious ap-
paritions, and other phenomena scientifically.
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twin girls presumed to have been born with
psi
abilities. The case
had received extensive coverage by the media in Spain. According
to the reports of the case, one of the twin girls had suffered a burn
on her hand while ironing. Her
sister, separated from her at the
time the burning occurred (16 kms away), developed a similar burn
on the same hand. The Society sent a team of researchers to carry
out a careful investigation of the case. They conducted a series of
experiments to determine the possible existence of psi communica-
tion between the sisters. One of the experiments consisted of sepa-
rating the two girls into two different buildings and stimulating one
of them (the sender) with different sensorial inputs (like perfume)
while observing physiological reactions, such as pupillary and patel-
lar reflexes, in the other twin (the receiver). Psychological profiles
of the twins were also obtained from projective
tests. The sessions
with the two girls were simultaneously filmed to document the stim-
uli as well as the perceptual pattern of the reactions. The results
showed simultaneous reactions of the twins’ reaction time and visual
and olfactory responses.
In 1978 the members of the Society conducted another impor-
tant study, an international survey of the motivational
factors of
parapsychological researchers. Headed by Gavilin Fontanet (1978),
the main objective of the study was to find out what motivates para-
psychologists to investigate psychic phenomena.
They surveyed 201 parapsychologists from 18 countries around
the world. Among the parapsychologists were J. B. Rhine, S. Krippner,
and C. Tart. Three hundred questionnaires, each having 23 questions,
were prepared in five different languages
3 and were mailed to re-
searchers throughout the world. Among the
interesting
findings
were that 61% of the respondents were psychologists, psychiatrists,
and medical doctors, 45% considered themselves agnostics, 24% got
involved in parapsychology while looking for a philosophical answer
to the question of the nature of man, 31% got involved for scientific
reasons, 51% believed in a transcendent intelligence, 50% believed
in some type of survival after death (of these 10% believed in rein-
carnation), and 71% rejected astrology.
Another research objective of the Society was the search for a
theoretical model to enhance psi abilities. For this purpose the So-
ciety created the Committee for the Development of ESP
4 headed
by Luis Fernandez Briones. The Committee’s purpose was to outline
5 The languages were English, French, Spanish,
Italian, and Portuguese.
4 A group that conducts experimental and theoretical research about ESP.
a methodological model for the practical development of ESP. Once
the model and the techniques were developed, the Society hoped
it
would be possible to train subjects to obtain positive results over an
extended period of time (Fernandez Briones, 1976), thus confront-
ing the
replicability problem that characterizes most
psi research.
Although the Committee has not been successful as yet, the results
obtained
so
far are encouraging. Fernandez Briones summarized
the findings in his book entitled Desarrollo de la Percepcidn Extrasen-
sorial [The Development of Extrasensory Perception] (1983). Among
the techniques used by the Committee to attain
this goal are the
inducement of altered states of consciousness and the application of
learning theory principles to ESP performance, such as those pro-
posed b^ Charles Tart (1966). Although the results have only been
suggestive, Fernandez Briones was hopeful enough
to emphasize
the need for more research to test the proposed models sufficiendy.
Other research conducted by members of the Society includes
investigations of poltergeist cases (Jordan Pena, 1980)
; conceptual
papers related to the ability of some fish, such as the electric eel and
the sturgeon of the
Nile,
to obtain information about their
sur-
roundings
through
electrical
communication,
which
the
authors
speculated might be a primitive language of telepathy (Bardasano
Rubio & Arano Bermejo,
1980a); examination of the migration of
carrier pigeons and other animals to develop a model for ESP (Bar-
dasano Rubio & Arano Bermejo, 1980b); and studies of the socio-
logical and anthropological aspects of psychic surgery (Jimenez Vi-
sedo,
1984). Moreover, other members of the Society have:
speculated on the pineal gland as a possible somatic organ for ESP
reception (Bardasano Rubio et
al.,
1981); examined neurophysiol-
ogy and
its importance for parapsychological research (Jimenez Vi-
sedo,
1985); considered the psychophysiological correlates of hyp-
nosis and its implications for parapsychology (Gonzalez Ordi, 1985);
investigated perception of the laying-on of hands by a sensorially
isolated subject (Prat et
al.,
1988); proposed three-dimensional
models of RSPK studies, that is, the cases are studied within a para-
psychological, psychological, and psychosociological context (De Cas-
tro, Gonzalez Ordi, & Berrocal Muela, 1984); and offered theoreti-
cal models to explain firewalking (Perera, 1989).
In the educational area, even though efforts have been made to
include parapsychology in the curriculum of universities in Spain,
5 Jordan Pena
published
a book
called
Casas Encaniadas,
Poltergeists [Haunted
Houses, Poltergeists] (1982), in which he presented an overview of cases and theories
of hauntings. For a review of this book, see Alvarado (1985).
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The Journal of Parapsychology
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,
entided
Psi
Comunicaci&n, 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:
Introduccidn
a
la
Parapsicologla
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: Exri-
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.
At
the
1990 ParapsychologicM^^^fction
convention, David
Hess, who has made severalMI^P^^o study Brazilian parapsy-
chology, presented a pm^J^^iwhich n^j^^ribed Brazilian para-
psychology in the
terms:
Brazil does f^ffave a coherent community of academic parapsycholo-
gists, and there are few if any people in Brazil who research and publish
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Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World
181
at the standards of the Parapsychological Association. Instead, what
is
called “parapsychology” in Brazil
is largest defined by rival groups of
Catholic and Spiritist (Kardecist) intellectual (Hess, 1990)
To uWlerstand parapsychology in Bra*, we need to be familiar
with the iLltural milieu from which it h^^volved, one that is dom-
inated bylfcfro-Brazilian cults and Catiplicism. On the one hand,
we have thXspiritist tradition that c^fe from France through the
teachings of\llan Kardec; Spiritists jilieve that spiritual progress is
effected by aVries of compulsory ^hcamations. They believe that
mediumship ^fcvides opportuniti®’ to communicate with deceased
individuals. Mo\over, Spiritism j/strongly influenced in Brazil by
the Afro-BraziliaTk cults such asJTmbanda and Candomble derived
from the*African \igions brouffit to Brazil through the slave trade
(Bastide, 1971; Gieaer, 1985)./
This spectrum o\Spiritis#beliefs and Afro-Brazilian
religions
has crept in and mix^L in luazilian society (Hess, 1987), creating a
variety of belief systeA frMn which Brazilian brands of parapsy-
i
chology have evolved. '\i«e are many interesting combinations of
the Kardecist type of S^Ktism and
all sorts of Brazilian religious
movements that essentia/\ccept possession, the influence of spirits
i
of deceased individuals/* All as the belief that divinities can pos-
!
sess individuals and c/ effe\ healing (Parra Alvarez, 1981).
On the other har/, therels the Catholic tradition that has de-
veloped a system tha/ises paraVsychology as an ideology with which
to fight and eventu/y destroy dU the movements the church sees as
superstition and
tiffeats to the fctablished Catholic dogmas (Hess,
1990). This systeiffhas been devdpped mainly through the work of
one of the mos/nfluential and Vspected “parapsychologists” in
Ibero-America/ather Oscar Gorasilez Quevedo, a Spanish-born
Jesuit priest lijhg in Brazil. Padre^Quevedo (as he
is known) and
Luis Ferreira/a
Silva cofounded fce Latin American Center of
Parapsycholoff', CLAP, of the AncMeta College of Sao Paulo
in
1970.
f
\
,
.
The C«ter, which was closed do\* in 1982 and reopened in
\
1989 un« reduced circumstances, useVto offer clinical counseling
for peo/e suffering from psychologicakproblems related to
reli-
i
gious fftperiences and
practices
(e.g.,
qfemonic
possession). The
!
Centfffstill has an impressive library® of fkoks on parapsychology,
I
whiji used to be housed in huge facilities wat also accommodated
!
anJncperimental and
clinical laboratory anl a museum of objects
j
M
1 One of the biggest parapsychology libraries in Latin America with approximately
^000 volumes.
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