Parapsychology in Brazil: A science entering young adulthood

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Dec, 2001 by Wellington Zangari, Fatima Regina Marchdo

Some of you must be wondering: "What has happened in Brazil?" "Why is there so much work in a short period of time?" "Why are there so many new projects?" We have some possible answers. Brazil has changed a lot in the last years. After 20 years of military regime that brought economic, artistic, and scientific stagnation in the country, nowadays we live in a society more open to a variety of cultural influences. Since the late 1980s, we have had greater freedom of expression, and a development of the press and of social institutions, especially the universities. The new generations of psi researchers or those psi researchers who were connected to universities have found more welcoming institutions to develop their studies. Relatedly, political and cultural openness influenced exchanges between Brazilian and foreign researchers. Every year, foreign parapsychologists go to Brazil and Brazilians attend the Summer Study Program of the Rhine Research Center. We had never had so much contact and possibilities to s tudy and learn as we have had in the last 10 years. The fruits of this are the creation of societies and associations, such as the Asociacion Iberoamericana de Parapsicologia, that has about 50 members.

The creation of university centers for the study of psi is the most important development in recent times. In 1999, Inter Psi, our research group, was incorporated into the Center for Peircean Studies of the Communication and Semiotics Post-Graduate Program of the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo. Its name now is Inter Psi -- Study Group of Semiotics, Interconnectivity and Consciousness. The importance of this group can be understood when you see that five of its participants are preparing their master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral research. In addition, Inter Psi is responsible for several projects that aim at the development of parapsychology in Brazil. In Portal Psi (www.portalpsi.cjb.net), the Web site of Inter Psi, people can participate on the Virtual Forum, a discussion list of nearly 50 participants that includes the main psi researchers in the country. Inter Psi also publishes a virtual journal of psi research, Revista Virtual de Pesquisa Psi, in which people can find articles, informatio n on recent publications, recommended and specialized bibliography, and news. In addition, we have organized the Grupos de Estudo de Pesquisa Psi. They are groups composed of those seriously interested in the study and/or in the development of psi research in Brazil and in Ibero American countries. These are distant groups connected to us through the Internet. Two new groups have already been created: one in Fortaleza, in the northeast of Brazil, and another group in Lima, Peru. Four other new groups are being formed as we speak. And last, but not least, we have maintained a 2,000-volume library, named Eileen Coly Library, in honor of the work Ms. Coly has helped to develop in parapsychology.

There are other important factors that have contributed to the development of psi research in our country. In Curitiba, there is the recently founded Center for the Study of Dreams, where Vera Barrionuevo and Tarcisio Pallu work. They attended the Summer Study Program in 1993. Also in Curitiba, at the Faculty of Biological and Health Sciences, Dr. Bezerra de Menezes offers a nonaccredited parapsychology program, with progressively more interest in conducting research. Currently, for example, Fabio Silva, who has also attended the Summer Study Program of the Rhine Research Center, is conducting ganzfeld research with a grant received from the Fundacao Bial, Portugal. The Institute of Psychobiophysical Research of Pernambuco, one of the oldest groups in Brazil, is working to increase its members' contact with the international parapsychological community. In 1998, in Recife, they organized the First Brazilian and International Congress of Parapsychology, with the presence of important representatives of intern ational parapsychology such as Drs. John Palmer, Ed May, and Stanley Krippner.