PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN BRAZIL: COLLABORATION AND EXCHANGE IN THE CONTEXT OF BRAZILIAN CULTURE (DAVID J. HESS)

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David J. Hess
Sci. and Tech. Studies Dept.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180-3590
Parapsychology in Brazil:
Collaboration and Exchange in the Context of Brazilian Culture
In Brazil, there is no community of secular, academic parapsychologists. Instead,
what is called parapsychology is largely the product of allegiances to Catholicism or
Spiritism. The essay surveys Catholic and Spiritist parapsychology, then it discusses the
relations between PA and Brazilian parapsychologists. These relations may be viewed as
exchanges in which the legitimacy of first-world science (here represented as
parapsychology) is exchanged for access to Brazilian psychics or paid trips to Brazilian
conferences., Alternative arrangements are considered.
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 I have already published extensively on the historical, social, and cultural aspects of
parapsychology and Spiritism in Brazil (1987a, 1987b, 1987c, 1990); this essay will
review some of my findings and present some suggestions for researchers associated with
the Parapsychological Association who wish to do work in Brazil. The paper is divided
into three sessions: an overview of Brazilian parapsychology, and the relations between
Brazilian parapsychologists and those from other countries.
An Overview of Parapsychology in Brazil
Brazil does not have a coherent community of academic parapsychologists, and
there are few if any people in Brazil who research and publish 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.
Foremost among the Catholics are the conservative Franciscan Boaventura
Kloppenburg, currently a bishop in Bahia, and a group of Jesuits who are located primarily
in Sao Paulo and southern Brazil. Kloppenburg has written numerous tracts against
Kardecian Spiritism, Umbanda, and various other religious or philosophical movements
that practice spirit mediumship. Most of his work was published before Vatican II, but an
examination of his work since Vatican 11 shows that his rhetoric may be somewhat more
restrained but his essential position has not changed (Hess, 1990). His book Spiritism in
Brazil (1960) included a discussion of parapsychology, used mainly to disprove Spiritism.
When I spoke with him in 1986, he said he was preparing a new edition of the book, but
he was considering dropping out the section on parapsychology, probably because he had
grown more critical and skeptical of parapsychology.
There is also a group of Jesuits associated with the publisher Loyola and the former
Latin American Center for Parapsychology (CLAP) of the Anchieta College of Sao Paulo.
When I visited this in 1983, everything but the Center was closed down, and its leader,
Padre Oscar Gonzalez Quevedo, was under a prohibition to give interviews or speak in
public. The Center had a large library, and it formerly published the Revista da
Parapsicologia. As far as I was able to ascertain, the Center and College were closed for
economic reasons. Gonzalez Quevedo (or, as he is known in Brazil, Padre Quevedo) was
under prohibition because he had published a book that used parapsychology and
psychology to criticize the demonic interpretation of possession. This violated Church
doctrine, and most copies of the book were collected and burned. When I returned in
1985, Gonzalez Quevedo was at a Catholic high school in Sao Paulo, and he was unable to
grant me an interview. On my return trip in 1988, I learned that he had since been released
from his prohibition to speak.
Gonzalez Quevedo has written a number of books, some of which are extremely
polemical attacks on Spiritism, Umbanda, and the Afro-Brazilian religions (e.g., 1978).
Others are more didactic: they are expository accounts of what parapsychology is, of
course, with a careful sifting through the sieve of Catholic doctrine (1964, 1968, 1974).
Survival research and reincarnation--two areas which would support the Spiritist
viewpoint--do not fare very well, and non-spiritic inttrrpetations of mediumistic phenomena
are favored. His parapsychology books emphasize studies of mediums and spontaneous
case research rather than experimental parapsychology, and he generally rehearses the old
literature. Where he does discuss Brazilian mediums (e.g., 1978), it is generally to debunk
the claims of Spiritists: a Brazilianized Randi.
Another important Jesuit is Padre Edvino Friderichs, who lives on the campus of a
Jesuit high school in Porto Alegre. He has published-may expository accounts of
parapsychology and psychology directed toward lay readers (e.g., 1979), and he has
earned a reputation for as a therapist who sometimes treats poltergeist cases. One of his
many books includes some case histories, most of which are culled from newspaper
clippings, some of which reflect first-hand interviews, but none of which goes into detailed
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psychological analysis of family dynamics (1980). Friderichs is considerably more
ecumenical than Quevedo and Kloppenburg, and he is more concerned with using
parapscyhology to teach Brazilian laypeople the error of their "superstitions" than to attack
Umbandists and Spiritists.
A review of the back issues of the Catholic Revista da Parapsicologia revealed little
careful empirical research. I found only one publication of an experiment, and this appeared
to suffer from serious design flaws; instead, the case studies of poltergeists and other
popular psychic experiences were more interesting, and in some cases the accounts gave
some information on family dynamics.
The Spiritist intellectual and former engineer Hernani Guimaraes Andrade is
probably the only Brazilian to have produced and published a well-researched body of case
studies. His theoretical research (1983, 1984a, 1986) is probably too influenced by
Spiritist assumptions to attract the average member of the Parapscyhological Association,
but he has written Brazil's only textbook on experimental parapsychology (1984b) and he
has produced some very well-researched studies of poltergeists (1988a) and reincarnation
cases (1988b) along Stevensonian lines, all of which conclude that alternative explanations
(such as super-psi or dissociation) are less convincing than the Spiritist explanation. In
another paper, I have discussed how the spirit interpretation of events such as poltergeists
is related to Brazilian cultural values of hierarchy and personalism, just as the RSPK
interpretation is congruent with the modern Western values related to individualism (Hess,
1989).
One also finds some interest in psychical research among the members of AMESP,
the Spiritist Medical Association of Sto Paulo; in the Spiritist college in Curitiba, where
there is an institute of psychobiophysics (Andrade's term for parapsychology); and in
isolated groups across the country (see Sobral, 1984; Souza, 1985; Souza and Deitos
1980). In 1985, AMESP co-sponsored the First International Congress of Alternative
Therapies, and it has also published the Medico-Spiritist Bulletin. The articles in the issues
I have seen are generally rehearsals of Spiritist doctrine, but occasionally there is some
empirical research, such as some case histories by a Spiritist psychiatrist (Lyra, 1984).
This is the extent of parapsychological research in Brazil. The medical profession
and the universities have shown little formal interest in parapsychology, and they have
generated little empirical research. Exceptions include some experimental research on
precognition (Lessa, 1975) and a psychoanalytic study of telepathy (Levy-Junior, 1970).
In general, doctors or scientists who are interested in parapsychology tend to have an
allegiance either to the Catholic or Spiritist position. There is a nominally neutral
parapsychology organization, and from what I saw of the Rio-based Brazilian Association
of Parapsychology (ABRAP), its members were not all Spiritists, but many of the ones I
spoke with believed in spirits and extra-terrestrials. In any case, the orgnaization held
classes and meetings but did little research. Andrd Percia de Carvalho, a psychology
student in Rio de Janeiro who has also studied at FRNM? is one of the few parapsychology
researchers I met in Brazil who is interested in a more non-aligned, empirical research.
Relations between Brazilian and PA Parapsychology
The polarization of Brazilian parapsychology into rival camps is an expression of a
deeper division in Brazilian society between the Catholic Church and the Afro-Brazilian
religions (see Hess, 1987a). Spiritists, who are generally whiter and more middle class,
have sometimes participated in the oppression of Afro-Brazilian religions, and at other
times they have been victims of the same forces of oppression (see Hess, 1987b). For
example, Spiritists suffered during the 1930's and most of the 1940's, when Brazil was
controlled by Getdlio Vargas, who after 1936 assumed dictatorial powers. Vargas worked
closely with Cardinal Leme, and this partnership was at least partially responsible for the
closing of many Spiritist centers and Afro-Brazilian temples and the jailing of their leaders.
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Current debates on parapsychology therefore must be situated in this broader
historical and cultural context. As I have discussed in my book Spirits and Scientists, there
have been three attempts to get a law passed that would require parapsychology education
in the nation's medical schools. At least two of these proposals bore a Spiritist imprint,
and the Jesuits have actively attempted to block these proposals. There is also a
controversy over the faith healing (curandeirismo) law, with Spiritists in favor of a more
leniant law and Jesuits opposed to it.
To label any one type of Brazilian parapsychology "unscientific" or "less scientific"
than the other could therefore mean playing into the hands of the other party. Likewise,
developing a working relationship with, or participating in the institutions and conferences
of, one type of parapsychology in Brazil could mean legitimating one group at the expense
of the other. For example, since anything "international" or "first world" in Brazil means
additional status, the participation of PA parapsychologists at Brazilian conferences that
represent one group could mean legitimating either Catholic or Spiritist parapsychology at
the expense of the other group (see Hess, 1987c).
I have had more dealings with Spiritists than Jesuits, so my observations will be
restricted to Spiritists, but I think the same could apply to the Jesuits. Alvarado (1989) has
discussed the meaning of language barriers in parapsychology in the context of written
communication, but in the context of face-to-face and oral exchanges, the language barrier
may involve some complicated maneuverings. For example, when Spiritists speak to each
other in Portuguese, they think of their own parascience as "true parapsychology," whereas
the narrower, experimental type of the PA conferences is to them part of the "materialist"
scientific! orthodoxies which they oppose. However, both Spiritists and Catholics will still
appropriate PA parapsychology and the older studies of psychical research for their own
purposes, 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 frameworks. Old
attitudes of the plantation owner's noblesse oblige spirit therefore enter into their way of
"doing science" (see Hess, 1990, ch. 2).
From my observations, it appears that parapsychologists from the "exterior" who
come to Brazil tend to work more closely with Spiritist parapsychologists, dr those who
maintain friendly relations to the Spiritist movement, rather than Jesuit parapsychologists.
This is probably because Spiritists offer somewhat better access to mediums or others who
are making claims of paranormality. Other factors, however, may be involved. For
example, generally Spiritists (or those friendly to Spiritism) have been the ones willing to
pay for invited lectures at conferences, and in addition those members of the PA who do
research or give lectures in Brazil--and this is only a small number of the PA membership--
may come from non-Catholic backgrounds or share survivalist assumptions with the
Spiritists.
In any case, as I have pointed out before (1987c), there may be an exchange of
access to third-world mediums for access to first-world status and legitimacy. Both parties
may benefit, and while PA parapsychologists privately lament to themselves how
unscientific the Spiritist parapsychologists are, Spiritists will privately lament among
themselves how materialistic or positivistic the PA parapsychologists are. The language
harrier may actually contribute to the exchange by allowing each side to pretend to ignore
its differences from the other side.
If one has the misfortune to speak Portuguese fluently, then as a researcher one is
likely to get long lectures which Spiritists called "indoctri nation." Their theory is that if one
listens to only ten percent of what they say, then theyl have made some inroads. This
practice is not so widespread among Spiritist intellectuals, who are more cosmopolitan, but
it is fairly common among the leaders of the local centers, who often control access to
mediums who claim to have psychic abilities.
Leaders of local centers are often very happy to be visited by foreign researchers,
since these visits legitimate their mediums and their centers. As in the case of conferences,
any international participation makes it seem more serious and legitimate. However, once
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this purpose has been served, there is little interest in or cooperation with the idea of testing
the claims of paranormality made by mediums affiliated. with the center. For example, in
the case of Dr. Edson Queiroz, whose impresario introduced me to hundreds of waiting
lay-people as a "great scientist from New York," I found there was no cooperation for or
interest in doing follow-up interviews. Instead of controlled experiments, he was more
interested in controlling experimenters. This is probably true of other well-known psychics
or mediums in Brazil.
I am therefore rather skeptical of the prospects of "collaboration" between PA and
Brazilian "parapsychologists." Perhaps it is best not to collaborate with Brazilian
"parapsychologists" and that the prospect of flying down to Rio to investigate a psychic or
to give a talk at a "parapsychology" conference is not the best use of scarce resources.
Instead, I might suggest two strategies: one, support for training of a younger generation of
Brazilian students who express an interest in parapsychology, as has occurred with Andre
Percia de Carvalho at FRNM; and two, field studies that involve learning the language and
staying at least one year in Brazil (the proverbial Malinowskian formula for fieldwork),
studies which can situate claims of paranormality in their cultural context.
As a research strategy, it may be better to by-pass the well-known psychics and
healers, who in turn are aligned with different religious groups and may have their
appointed parapsychology patrons, and instead to go directly to families who believe they
are experiencing or even suffering from various kinds of supernatural phenomena. Of
course, this strategy depends on developing networks and personal connections, and this in
turn requires fluency in the language and a long exposure to the culture. Without fluency,
one will probably rely on local Spiritists or Catholics as translators, and they will inevitably
try to control the kinds of questions one asks. For example, as I found during an interview
with a poltergeist family in Puerto Rico during a field trip last summer (I am not very fluent
in Spanish), the Spiritist translator interrupted my line of questioning about family
dynamics to explain to me that the cause was due to a spirit. However, if one can achieve
fluency in the local language, research on claims of sorcery, possession, poltergeists,
reincarnation, and so on reveals a great deal about folk illnesses and popular culture in
general, and its results will be of interest to anthropologists, clinicians, and others (e.g.,
Hess, in press).
This last point raises a final issue, what one might call the "paradox of Brazilian
parapsychology": the fact that, despite the almost complete absence of empirical research,
my impression is that most of the people in the country regard "parapsychology" with a
high degree of respect, much more so than the more "scientific" parapsychology of North
America and Western Europe holds among its populations. This may be simply because
Brazilians are a less skeptical people than most North Americans and Western Europeans,
but it is also true that in Brazil parapsychology often involves counseling and clinical work,
and Brazilians therefore know that parapsychology has some useful role to play in their
lives. This possibility raises the interesting question for the social studies of science,
where the some sociologists (e.g., Pinch 1979) have questioned whether or not the
replicability issue is really what stands between parapsychology's status as a heterodox or
orthodox science. Brazilian parapsychology's therapeutic orientation suggests that the
legitimacy issue may stand or fall more on "applicability" than "replicability," and this
might be something that Brazilians have to teach the "orthodox" parapsychology of the
Parapsychological Association.
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