PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN THE IBERO-AMERICAN WORLD, PUERTO RICO

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Body:  The Journal of ParapPPC6yed For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00792R00070p7,  Rjjl;,y in the Ibero-American World        195
 minished by increasing communication and .collaboration with for-
 eign parapsychologists.
 Puerto Rico1 ?
 Early psychical research in Puerto Rico was strongly influenced
 by the nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement that had also
 spread to other countries. Mediumistic seances 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 seances in Italy with famous mediums such as Lucia
 Sordi and Eusapia Palladino. During these seances 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 seances 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 seance phenomena (Alvarado, 1979a).
 "This section on Puerto Rican parapsychology partly summarizes information
 contained in an article by Alvarado (1979a).
 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 1914, Nestor A. Rodriguez Escudero, a lawyer, published a
 series of essays about parapsychology and Spiritualism in his book
 Los Carninos 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-
 aguez 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 Psi Comunicacion; 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 physiological 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
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 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 published
 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 has been kn
 mushroom or peyotl, a p
 an altered state of conscio
 ifestation of psychic power
 source for many parapsychd
 thodox psychic healing practic
 as Maria Sabina and Dona Pa
 gated by Stanley Krippner an
 (Krippner & Villoldo, 1986).
 Although Mexico has been a m
 parapsychologists from foreign coun
 flourished there as it has in other co
 Spain. Moreover, even though the
 ern border of the United States
 American cultural influence in
 inance of the United States
 ment of parapsychology. E
 more parapsychological
 world, very little is kn
 is known about serf
 countries such as
 well known in
 comes from
 Early of
 work in
 searcher,
 the fir
 Page
 for a long time as the land of the sacred
 t used by the Indian shaman to
 ess, which allegedly facilitate
 This country has also.
 cal researchers inte
 Famous curande
 to have been
 uce
 a major
 ed in unor-
 (healers) such
 ensively investi-
 parapsychologists
 has b
 ost every
 not been a
 though in the Un
 arch centers than an
 in Mexico of their resea
 parapsychology comes from
 zil. For example, the writings o
 co, and also most of what is knd
 lar magazines.
 to study psychical research within a scien
 o began in 1919 with the isolated efforts o
 the German-born medical doctor Gustav Page
 esearcher to conduct serious psychical research in
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 rce of study for many
 sychical research has not
 es such as Argentina and
 is located on the south-
 subject to very strong
 ect of life, the dom-
 for in the develop-
 d States there are
 here else in the
 Most of what
 tin American
 uevedo are
 generally
 Mexican me
 course of his
 Mexico, Diaz a
 A respected
 said he had been
 encounter with the
 of one of his patien
 markable psychical gif
 gan a series of psycho
 sults were so striking th
 Mexican medical society,
 them. Pagenstecher also
 some of,.the results he ha
 Franklin Prince, Research
 investigate the case. After
 old, Prince was so impres
 lish them in the journal
 Prince later published
 periments in which h
 ASPR published a m
 Seership: A Study of P
 According to W
 two major areas in
 Pagens
 iments. H
 ical prac
 abilities
 was sk
 Com
 Perim
 1990):
 Parapsychology in the Ibero-American World
 ical community as well as in political circles. In the
 s before two presidents of
 1 profession, Pagenstecher
 years when he had his first
 during a hypnosis treatment
 is that he discovered the re-
 de Zierold. Pagenstecher be-
 ents with her in 1919. The re-
 'ght them to the attention of the
 ppointed a commission to verify
 d to write to the ASPR and send
 tained. The results induced Walter
 cer of the ASPR, to go to Mexico to
 s of experimental sittings with Zier-
 the results that he decided to pub-
 R in 1920 (Pagenstecher, 1920).
 in which he discussed the ex-
 (Prince, 1921b). Moreover, the
 enstecher entitled Past Events
 echer, 1922).
 agenstecher contributed to
 veer he delivered speec
 Obreg6n (Allison, 19
 ember of the medi
 aterialist for for
 ranormal. It w
 ho had inso
 f Maria
 ric exp
 he br,
 hic
 her
 articipate
 ograph by
 hometry (Page
 lam Roll (1967);
 arapsychology:
 [He was], as f  as I know the first inve
 means to culti f'e ESP in a gifted subject...
 also, I believ  the first to indicate that the
 tion of obje  ' may be governed by the same
 chological) . sociation of ideas. (p. 238)
 er showed great courage in and
 eopardized his professional standin
 by trying to substantiate the claims f
 he Medical Commission appointed to i
 tical of the reported phenomena. Fortunat
 sion's leading experts obtained successful r
 is in which they participated (Gomezharp
 gator to use hypnosis as a
 agenstecher's studies were
 arapsychological) associa-
 ws that govern the (psy-
 taking these exper-
 s well as his med-
 Zierold's psychic
 stigate the case
 however, the
 Its in the ex-
 de Trevino,
 It Obreg6n was a revolutionary military leader, later President of Mexico. Waiter
 Franklin Prince (1921 a) relates an interesting psychic experience witnessed by Ob-
 region, about a precognitive dream Obreg6n's brother had about the death of their
 ether was a very well-known and respected physician in the                                    mother.
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