PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN THE IBERO-AMERICAN WORLD, PUERTO RICO

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• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000700760001-7
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• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2003
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• Content Type: OPEN

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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