Development of Spiritism

transcultural psychiatry December 2005 ARTICLE Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders in Brazil ALEXANDER MOREIRA-ALMEIDA & FRANCISCO LOTUFO NETO University of São Paulo Abstract The Spiritist perspective on mental disorders exerts a great influence in Brazil. Spiritist theory supports the survival of the spirit after death with an exchange of knowledge between the incarnated and disincarnated spirits. This article reviews the texts on mental disorders and Spiritism written by four leading Spiritist authors: Allan Kardec, Bezerra de Menezes, Inácio Ferreira and Joanna de Ângelis. These authors advocated a model of spiritual etiology without rejecting the biological, psychological, and social causes of mental disorders. The Spiritist etiologic model for mental disorders includes the negative influences of discarnated spirits (termed ‘obsession’) or trauma experienced in previous lives. In addition to conventional medical and psychological therapeutics, spiritist séances for disobsession are recommended, as well as ‘passes’, prayers and efforts to live according to ethical principles. The importance of Spiritist views in Brazil indicates the need for more academic research on this tradition. Key words channeling • etiology • medium/mediumship • mental disorders • Spiritism • spiritualism • treatment Introduction Spiritism originated in the mid-19th century in France when an intellectual, Hippolyte-Léon Denizard Rivail, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec, proposed scientific investigations into alleged manifestations of the spirits. Convincing himself of the authenticity of spirit-related Vol 42(4): 570–595 DOI: 10.1177/1363461505058916 www.sagepublications.com Copyright © 2005 McGill University 570 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders phenomena, he developed a method to collect information based on the communication of spirits. In 1857, after comparing and analyzing the answers obtained through mediums in several different countries, Kardec compiled the resulting information in a theoretical framework. He named the resulting theory ‘Spiritism’ or ‘Spiritist Doctrine’ (Kardec, 1996), which was defined as ‘a science that deals with the nature, origin and destiny of the spirits, as well as its manifestations with the corporeal world’ (Kardec, 1995, p. 50). Reincarnation distinguishes Spiritism from its Anglo-Saxon sibling, Spiritualism, for which reincarnation is a controversial tenet (Hess, 1991). Kardec believed that Spiritism was essentially a science as well as a philosophy rich with moral concerns, and not a religion, according to the literal meaning of the word.1 According to Hess (1991, pp. 45–46), Spiritism implies a ‘reification’ of the spiritual world in the sense that spirits are scientifically real and this reification in turn comprises two consequences: it desacralizes the spirit world into an object of scientific analysis and presents an alternative interpretation of orthodox scientific thinking. However, traditional scientists usually view the spiritist thesis as ‘pseudoscientific’. In the history of dynamic psychiatry and psychology, Spiritism was ‘an event of major importance as a source of unexplainable phenomena’ (Janet, 1889, pp. 357–8; Ellenberger, 1970, p. 115). Spiritism produced psychological phenomena to be investigated by the medical sciences. In the late 19th century, dynamic theories of the unconscious were in part a result of the translation of the doctrine of communication of the spirit into orthodox medical rhetoric (Ellenberger, 1970). Hess (1991) identifies more objective signs of this translation in Myers’ ‘subliminal self ’ and in the writings of Pierre Janet, William James and Jung. Koss-Chioino (2003) recently showed several parallels between Jungian and Spiritist views in the structure and content of human consciousness. Investigations dealing with mediumship and telepathy were frequent during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, involving several renowned authors in the international scientific milieu (Murphy & Ballou, 1960; Stevenson, 1977; Ross & Joshi, 1992; Myers, 2001). Spiritism was introduced in Brazil in the late 19th century. It soon gained prominence, essentially in its religious domain. Nowadays, the Brazilian Spiritist followers belong mainly to the urban middle class. The numbers as well the social class of newcomers are increasing, and there is a clear trend for a higher educational background among Brazilian Spiritism followers. On the other hand, the influence of Spiritism goes far beyond the reported number of followers. Spiritism has more followers in Brazil than anywhere else in the world, despite the fact that the country presently has the world’s largest Roman Catholic population (Aubrée & Laplantine, 571 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) 1990; Machado, 1993; Damazio, 1994; Santos, 1997). The main type of Spiritist practice in Brazil nowadays is a charitable enterprise, which is in keeping with the principle of justification by good will rather than by faith alone. Spiritist charities include a wide array of social services that are offered to the impoverished (Hess, 1991).2 Spiritist organizations always provide their treatments and mediumistic activities free of charge. In respect to mental health in contemporary Brazil, Spiritism plays an important and yet largely under-recognized role. In addition to providing a rational spiritual etiology for several mental disturbances, nearly 50 psychiatric Spiritist hospitals were built throughout the country from the early 1930s until the late 1970s (Souza & Deitos, 1980). The majority of the philanthropic mental health institutions located in the state of São Paulo (the most populous state in Brazil) complied with Spiritist principles as documented in a study performed by Figueiredo and Ferraz in 1998. A large section of the general Brazilian population embraces the views and practices of Spiritism, including health-care professionals who endorse these practices openly. Currently, institutions that study and endorse Spiritist professional practice principles include ABRAPE (Associação Brasileira de Psicólogos Espíritas/Brazilian Association of Spiritist Psychologists) and AME (Associação Médico Espírita/Medical Spiritist Association). Given the importance that the Spiritist view of mental disorders has attained in Brazil, the authors have undertaken a review of the main Spiritist authors in this subject.3 Despite the fact that the Afro-Brazilian traditions and their strong syncretism with Catholic institutions and Spiritism (namely, Umbanda and Camdomble) hold an important role in Brazilian society, they are not the main objectives of this article. Instead, this text presents the Spiritist theory for mental disorders originally introduced by Allan Kardec and its subsequent elaboration in Brazil. Allan Kardec During the formulation of his Spiritist philosophy, Allan Kardec dealt several times with behavioural disorders, suicide attempts and changes of sensorial perception. The 15-year-long experience Kardec accumulated with Spiritism led him to found the Spiritist Journal – Journal of Psychological Studies; he was editor-in-chief of this journal for 12 years. The objectives of the Spiritist Journal were to find facts and test hypotheses about different spiritual phenomena. Kardec attempted to give rise to a new science and to avoid ‘the exaggerations of credulity and skepticism’. Kardec used the subtitle ‘Journal of Psychological Studies’ as he believed that ‘to study the nature of the spirits is to study mankind’ (Kardec, 1858, p. 6). 572 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders Figure 1 Allan Kardec – a pseudonym of Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail (3 October 1804–31 March 1869), founder of Spiritism (courtesy of France-Spiritualités). Causes Allan Kardec discussed the causes for mental disorders in his first publication. He stated that the basic etiology is essentially organic and that a mental illness might be triggered by excessive worries: Intense mental application of any kind may induce a cerebral disorder; sciences, arts, even religion have all supplied their quota of madness. The predisposing cause for madness resides within a brain predisposition. A tendency that renders the brain more vulnerable to certain impressions; and, where the predisposition to insanity exists, its manifestation takes on the character of the pursuit to which the mind is most addicted, and it then assumes the form of a fixed idea. (Kardec, 1996, p. 41) 573 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) Mediumship itself might be a triggering factor in individuals predisposed to madness. Therefore, people ‘who show the slightest symptoms of mental eccentricity or weakness should be dissuaded from its exercise by every possible means; for there is, in such persons, an evident predisposition to insanity, which any and every species of excitement would tend to develop’ (Kardec, 1986, item 221–222). Kardec’s assertion differs from the practice that was subsequently adopted in most of the Spiritist centres in Brazil to develop the mediumship for the relief of various physical and mental imbalances because these symptoms could be the signs of a dormant mediumship potential. As far as the relationship between body and mind is concerned, Spiritism operates on a dualist interactionist model. Namely, the origin of the mind is spiritually independent of the body, but in order to manifest itself, while incarnated, the spirit needs to make use of the body. The body and the soul exercise a mutual influence on each other. Likewise, the corporeal humors are altered according to the tendencies of the spirit: a man is not choleric because he is bilious, but the man is bilious because he is choleric. Similarly, with all the instinctive dispositions . . . if he is active and energetic, his blood, his nerves will have very different qualities. . . . What triggering factor could alter the blood other than the moral dispositions of the Spirit? (Kardec, 1869, p. 66) It is recognized, however, that someone’s temperament may in part derive from organic imbalances. These imbalances might affect the spirit itself. As the incarnated spirit uses the body to manifest itself, the spirit might have difficulties if the body is disordered. This is the case in mental illness due to an organic origin. A spirit . . . when incarnated . . . is . . . compelled to act only through the instrumentality of special organs. If some or all of those organs are injured, his actions or his impressions, as far as those organs are concerned, are interrupted. . . . Suppose that the organ which presides over the manifestations of intelligence and of will is partially or entirely weakened or modified in its action, and you will easily understand that the spirit, having at his service only organs that are incomplete or diverted from their proper action, must experience a functional perturbation of which he is perfectly conscious, but is not able to arrest the course. (Kardec, 1996, p. 375) Spiritism does not disavow the social and biological causes of mental disturbances, but it adds one more origin: the obsessions, that is, ‘the persistent action that an evil spirit exerts over an individual’ (Kardec, 1992, p. 45): One day the obsession is going to be recognized as one of the main causes of mental disorders, as is today the action of microscopic living creatures 574 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders whose existence nobody even suspected . . . before the invention of the light microscope. (Kardec, 1863b, p. 34) In analyzing the types of obsession, Kardec distinguished three levels of severity: 1. 2. 3. Simple obsession: the influence via thoughts and pernicious intuitions but without altering the individual’s judgment or free will. Fascination: ‘an illusion which is produced by the direct action of a spirit on the medium’s thought, and which paralyzes his judgement . . . to make him regard with admiration the most ridiculous nonsense.’ Subjugation or Possession: a constraint which paralyzes the will of its victim and makes him act in spite of himself. . . . Subjugation may be moral or corporeal in nature. In the first case, the subjugated victim is often drawn on to do things that are foolish or reprehensible. . . . In the second case, the spirit acts on the material organs of the victim, provoking involuntary movements . . . (Kardec, 1986, item 237–240). Obsession is caused by the moral imperfections believed to exist in all individuals. The moral imperfections render them susceptible to receiving and accepting the obsessing spirit’s harmful influences, progressively aggravating the patient’s condition. The obsessing spirit is motivated most of the time by a vengeful feeling against the victim. Kardec characterized the difference between madness of organic origin from madness resulting from an obsession: Let us not confuse pathological madness with obsession. The latter does not derive from any brain damage but it derives from the subjugation that malevolent spirits exert over certain individuals and the obsession often has the appearance of madness itself. This change is very frequently independent of any belief in Spiritism and it has always existed. (Kardec, 1995, p. 113; emphasis in original) However, the difference between these two types of conditions may be complex. Obsessions may aggravate pre-existing organic affections or even cause them (Kardec, 1992, chp. 15, p. 32). Organic phenomena may be mistaken for obsessions: ‘Men have often mistaken for cases of possession what were really cases of epilepsy or madness, demanding the help of the physician rather than of the exorciser’ (Kardec, 1996, Q. 474, p. 250). Finally, obsession might have a role in hysterical phenomena (Kardec, 1863b). When several evil spirits cast themselves upon a community, possession epidemics will ensue (Kardec, 1992, chp. 14, item 49). Kardec gave special attention to a well-known event that took place during his lifetime. This event concerned the possession epidemics that took place in the village of Morzine located in the French Alps over several years. In 1861, the French 575 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) government assigned a physician named Constans (1991 [1862]) to pursue an epidemiological investigation on local epidemics. Dr Constans concluded that there was a contagious ‘hysteric-demonopathy’ triggered by the region’s unhealthy conditions and the villagers’ malnutrition, lack of culture and superstitions. All the exorcisms and medical treatments had failed to eliminate the epidemics except for the reduction of new cases when the possessed villagers were relocated to neighboring towns (Kardec, 1863b). For an entire year after the Morzine epidemics, Kardec developed a detailed argument about the ‘Morzine’s possessed individuals’, often quoting and critiquing Dr Constans’ medical records (Kardec, 1862a, 1862b, 1863a, 1863b, 1863c, 1863d) for attributing the Morzine epidemic’s etiology to physical causes alone. Based on his personal observations as well as other physicians’ records, Kardec challenged the alleged existence of malnutrition and poor health among the villagers. Kardec argued that if these physical factors were the cause for the epidemics in question, similar epidemics would have occurred in surrounding regions under identical conditions of poverty and the problems would have been endemic (Kardec, 1863b). Kardec collected evidence indicating a spiritual cause for the Morzine possessions: the expression of previously non-acquired skills (speaking fluent French and answering questions in different languages, such as German and Latin), the knowledge of distant events (clairvoyance), reading other people’s thoughts (telepathy), transfiguration, referring to oneself in the third person (‘she’, ‘the daughter’, etc.), a current manifesting personality claiming to be the Devil, the patient mentioning an external power controlling him, normal behaviour during the intervals between episodes, normal heart rate despite the intense agitation, intense dislike of religion and amnesia about the episodes (Kardec, 1863c, 1863d). Manifestations Between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Spiritism was considered by a large part of the Brazilian and European psychiatric community to be a major cause of madness. These critics presented the mystic and spiritual content of many psychoses as evidence that Spiritism caused madness (Moreira-Almeida et al., 2005). To defend Spiritism, Kardec emphasized the cultural pathoplasty of obsessions in several different psychiatric conditions. In cases of possession, the obsessing spirit ultimately determines the type of behavior the patient will display. The obsessing spirit momentarily takes over the incarnated body, acting as if it is also incarnated. Whoever had known him in life, would have recognized his language, his voice, his gestures and even his features . . . blasphemes, insults as the 576 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders obsessing spirit harms those around him; the obsessing spirit surrenders to eccentricities and characteristically acts with furious madness. (Kardec, 1992, chp. 14, item 47–48) As for the content of delusions, his hypothesis was that the delusions might be due in part to vague recollections from past lives. In the specific case of mental disorders, these recollections might not be so clearly due to an ongoing organic derangement. Recollections from past lives become mixed up with recollections of the present life (Kardec, 1861b, 1866a). Kardec (1861a) designed a detailed study of changes of perception and identified three types: (1) imagination: this is now called illusion, involving distortions of a real external stimulus, often caused by fatigue or by a low illumination level and suggestion; (2) hallucination: a sensorial perception of internal origin – ‘it is the retrospective vision, by the soul, of an image that has been recorded in the brain, often created during an illness’; (3) apparitions or true visions: these result from a real spiritual perception. Apparitions occur in two ways: ‘it is either the spirit coming upon the person who sees him, or it is the person’s spirit that is transported and goes to meet the other incarnated spirit.’ The main difference between an apparition and perceptions produced by the imagination or a hallucination is that apparitions convey unknown information to the individual, information that is later confirmed. Kardec presented numerous examples of apparitions. Apparitions are far more frequent near the time of death. For instance, a situation involving someone who was previously healthy is witnessed, stating he or she has died in an accident with a detailed description of the event, and the accident was subsequently confirmed. In the differentiation between hallucinations and apparitions, Kardec (1861a, p. 212) gives the benefit of the doubt to the hallucination: ‘Every apparition that does not give any intelligent warning signal may definitely be listed as an illusion.’ Treatment In Kardec’s work, the commitment to consider the spiritual etiology of mental disorders is emphasized without rejecting all possible organic causes. However, the recognition of spiritual causes is fundamental given that it is not ‘with cold shower baths, cauteries or bleedings that the cases of spiritual causes may be treated’ (Kardec, 1861b, p. 242). The essential element for the treatment of the obsessions is a change in the patient’s behavior, essentially aiming at moral growth. This attitude is meant to prevent the patient from becoming attuned to the evil thoughts of the obsessing spirit. Additionally, ‘passes’ (laying-on of hands) and prayers would be quite beneficial because passes aim to balance the spirit of the obsessed subject. 577 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) As for the obsessing spirit, one should try to dissuade the spirit of his evil purpose by means of dialogue in meetings with mediums when the obsessing spirit is evoked (Kardec, 1992, chp. 14, item 46). Kardec wrote several case studies describing cures that were achieved by means of these evocations (Kardec, 1864, 1865a). He denied that they were spontaneous cures, because there were numerous similar cases. These cures were the evidence of the existence of ‘obsessional insanity’ (Kardec, 1866b). The proof of the participation of a concealed intelligence, in those cases, derives from chief facts: the multiple and radical cures that were obtained, in some Spiritist centres, induced only by the evocation and indoctrination of the obsessing spirits, without magnetization or medications, and often, in the absence of the patient and at a great physical distance from the patient. (Kardec, 1992, chp. 15, item 33) Prophylaxis Kardec contended that the Spiritist point of view helps people cope with adversities of life as Spiritism acts as a buffer against life’s stressful events: Spiritism . . . when correctly understood, is a preservative against insanity. Among the most common causes of cerebral disturbance must be reckoned the disappointments, misfortunes, blighted affections, and other troubles of human life, which are also the most frequent causes of suicide. But the enlightened Spiritist looks upon the things of this life from so elevated a point of view, they seem to him so petty, so worthless, in comparison with the future he sees before him. Life appears so short, so fleeting, that its tribulations are, in his eyes, merely the disagreeable incidents of a journey. . . . His convictions, therefore, give him a resignation that preserves him from despair, and consequently from a frequent cause of madness and suicide. (Kardec, 1996, pp. 52–53) By clearly demonstrating the objectives of the subject’s life and motivating the human being to improve himself further and further, Spiritism prevents the ‘tedium vitae’, that is, the negative aversion to life’s misfortunes, and thus melancholy, despite thoroughly recognizing an organic predisposition to melancholy as a real disorder (Kardec, 1862c). Spiritism also decreases the number of cases of insanity by preventing the abusive use of alcohol (Kardec, 1865b). The spiritist philosophy could be an effective prophylaxis method against suicide. In addition to the point of view that Spiritism would give greater ‘moral courage’, the spiritist has several other reasons to refrain from suicide: the certainty of a future life . . . the certainty that the abbreviation of life results in something completely opposite to what is originally expected; that 578 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders he is freed from one evil to endure something that is much more severe, . . . that in the other world he will not be able to see the objects of his preference that he wished to become united with. Thus, suicide is totally against his own interests. (Kardec, 1862c, p. 201, emphasis in original) Kardec emphasized several times that the admission of a ‘spiritual reality’ would be a great advance to the sciences, especially medicine: Opening new horizons to every science, Spiritism also clarifies the very obscure question of mental disorders signaling a cause that has not yet been fully considered: real cause, evident, established by experience whose veracity will be subsequently recognized . . . the part of action of the invisible world over the natural phenomena. Once we get on this road, science will possess the key to the mysteries and shall overcome the most formidable hindrances detaining progress: materialism, that restrains the circle of observation, rather than amplifying it. (Kardec, 1862a, p. 110) Bezerra de Menezes Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes Cavalcanti is considered one of the most important personalities in the history of Spiritism in Brazil. He was born in the state of Ceará and became a physician in 1856. He was elected four times as a member of the City Council in Rio de Janeiro (the country’s capital at that time). He was also elected three times as a Rio de Janeiro State Legislative Assembly deputy. Bezerra was an abolitionist and a member of the local Liberal Party. He publicly admitted in 1886 his unrestricted adherence to Spiritism, devoting himself to it intensively until his death in 1900. He presided over the Brazilian Spiritist Federation for six years (two terms) from 1894 to 1900 and wrote for ten years, under the pseudonym of Max, a weekly column about Spiritism for the main newspapers of Rio de Janeiro (O Paiz and Jornal do Brasil) (Nobre, 1986; Wantuil, 1990; Abreu, 1991). Bezerra also published a book that has greatly influenced the Spiritist view of mental disturbances in Brazil. The book was titled Insanity through a New Prism (1988 [1897]). Despite basically reaffirming Kardec’s positions, Bezerra’s work is generally considered a major landmark in the ‘Spiritist view of madness’, being far more renowned and quoted than Kardec’s texts on this matter. The book can be divided into three parts: first, a philosophical and scientific criticism of materialism; secondly, a discussion of some Spiritist principles; and lastly, an attempt to demonstrate that obsessions can be a cause of madness. We will discuss only the last topic, that is, obsessions and madness. Bezerra’s book was well-timed with the emergence of categorical organicism in psychiatry. Medical psychiatric publications from the last quarter of the 19th century largely dealt with general paresis of the insane, tumors 579 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) and traumatic injuries of the central nervous system, in addition to the assorted clinical syndromes deriving from nutritional deficiencies. Citing Esquirol, Bezerra was concerned with the fact that several cases of madness became clinically manifested without a clearly identifiable brain injury. Psychiatry was only able to account for madness due to a brain injury. Bezerra defines thus the objectives of his propositions: . . . I will try to solve . . . the problem of madness with its most recent features, that is, madness free from a brain injury. It is well understood how important it is in clinical practice to differentiate these two classes of madness. In order to avoid grouping them together under the same treatment modality, being as they are of different etiologic natures. My plan is to determine the special nature of madness without a brain injury to establish the basis for a differential diagnosis for both causes and to offer the healing means for this unknown kind of madness. (1988 [1897], p. 13) The physical body being just a tool of the soul, madness could be caused by problems in the body (madness with injury) or outside the body (madness without injury). The final part of Bezerra’s book is entirely dedicated to obsessions. He acknowledges ‘the persecution exerted by discarnated spirits upon the incarnate spirits is one of the most difficult points to accept in the new [Spiritist] cosmogony.’ Nevertheless, he asserts the possibility of irrefutable evidence of their existence through ‘strictly scientific’ methods. Bezerra mentions several cases treated by him with a fairly positive outcome that might enable one to affirm ‘a sure conviction in spirits free of systematic prejudice and fanaticism’ (p. 141). One of his patients was a medical student who had dropped out of medical school for two years because ‘he was suddenly assaulted by madness, with a fixed idea of suicide, and therefore his family kept him in a safely locked room taking every precaution’. Several weeks after séances were introduced as part of his treatment, Bezerra persuaded the obsessing spirit to quit persecuting the student’s body. He reports this: On Friday, about the time the enemy spirit unequivocally gave up the persecution, Raul, at his home at a distance . . . of perhaps about some 10 miles from the Spiritist center, woke up as if it was from a long nightmare; he called his mother and other relatives to whom he had become indifferent; he left his isolation, and he found himself so well that in the following week he resumed attending medical school. . . . The coincidence of the renunciation of the persecutor spirit with the timely resumption of the mental faculties is a remarkable fact worthy of due attention, and we assert that, sooner or later, quicker or slower, we have always observed this phenomena, given that the persecutor is converted. (1988 [1897], pp. 141–143) Bezerra followed the patient for three years after the cure. The patient was free of any relapses and graduated from medical school some time later. 580 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders The author mentions several witnesses who followed the progress of this particular case as well as other victims of obsessing spirits. As mentioned previously, Bezerra reiterates, to a great extent, the ideas discussed by Alan Kardec. However, Bezerra advances the theory that the obsessing spirit is able to subjugate the patient’s will and harm the transmission of thoughts from the patient’s soul to the body. It is as if there were ‘interfering noises’ in the message transmitted to the body, and thus the symptoms manifested by the victims, making it difficult to differentiate the obsessive madness symptoms from those caused by organic madness. Severe obsessions are a type of madness: It is madness because there is definitely a disturbance of the mental senses, but it is not madness as it is currently known, because the madness depends on an organic brain injury and presently, this is not the case. It is the madness that for instance Esquirol has not been able to record a cause related to a brain injury, it is the psychic madness. The double cause of the illness presents the same symptoms, although it has very distinct origins. (1988 [1897], p. 162) Bezerra asserts that brain injuries may prompt the onset of the obsessive process (pp. 173, 178–9), and that long-lasting obsessions may lead to brain injuries and, therefore, the need for a combined treatment modality, that is, physical and spiritual treatments. The descriptions of what might be the residual changes resulting from brain injury secondary to the obsessions are very similar to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia: ‘. . . instead of the excitement, the subdued obsession leaves the brain in a state of depression’ (p. 182) ‘that leads the individual to a despairing indifference’ (p. 184). The differential diagnosis of the two classes of madness is very difficult to establish. This is especially true because the clinical symptoms are quite similar (pp. 162, 171–172). One has to resort to Spiritist resources to achieve a correct diagnosis. There are three possibilities: 1. 2. 3. Hypnotize the patient so that his spirit can manifest itself more freely. Bezerra reports several experiments where the patient can lucidly express himself and the patient is also able to describe the cause for his insanity. This method, however, carries two clear uncertainties: not everyone can become hypnotized, and the spirit of the sick person may not know the origin of his illness. Evoke the obsessing spirit in a mediumistic séance. If it is an obsession, the obsessor spirit will manifest itself in a medium, otherwise nothing will take place. Consult a spirit-protector via a medium about the nature of the mental alienation. As soon as it has been defined as an obsession, the obsessing spirit is evoked in order to be dealt with morally. This was the author’s preferred method (pp. 176–178). 581 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) In the case of a diagnosis of obsession, the best evidence of an accurate diagnosis was prompted by ‘the cure by moral means’. As there is a twofold cause for insanity, the treatment modalities should also be differentiated. However, quite frequently, combined treatment was advised, since organic injuries may prompt the obsessions, and these may trigger further physical damage: ‘it is imperative to eliminate the injury in any diseased organ of the victims taken by obsessing spirits. Simultaneously with this effort, all the means to moralize the spirit of the obsessed must be employed’ (p. 179). Despite pioneering in the Spiritist view on madness in Brazil, Bezerra was neither an alienist nor did he claim this title for himself. Bezerra was not a practitioner of Spiritist psychiatry, a method employed to evaluate and treat physical and spiritual aspects of the mental disorders, but was concerned primarily with curing obsessions (Menezes, 1988 [1897], pp. 9, 178). Inácio Ferreira Although Ferreira is not as well known as Bezerra, he was probably the first physician to take into account Bezerra’s ideas about carrying out Spiritist treatments (Hess, 1991, pp. 187–188). Inácio Ferreira was appointed as the director of the Sanatório Espírita de Uberaba in southeastern Brazil in 1934. From 1934 to 1988 he headed that institution, where he applied conventional psychiatric treatments combined with the Spiritist therapy of passes, prayers and disobsession séances. During his time working at the sanatorium in Uberaba, Ferreira (1996) stated that the spirit of Pierre Janet communicated with him in French through a medium named Maria Modesto Cravo. Ferreira endorsed the view that conventional medicine substantially limited the possibilities of novel investigations about the origin of mental disorders and consequently limited therapeutic interventions. The refusal to investigate spiritual factors playing a role in the determination of mental disorders was due to materialistic dogmatism and the authoritarian features of the academic milieu restricted to the magister dixit. Despite the fact that Ferreira praised psychiatrists’ efforts in the development of psychiatry, he emphasized his personal frustration in the search for the etiology of mental disorders and the lack of treatment efficacy (Ferreira, 1993, 1995). Ferreira developed a series of epistemological criticisms of psychiatry. He pointedly remarked that psychiatric classifications were essentially catalogues or lists of descriptive diagnostic entries with fairly limited use for prognosis and therapeutics. At that time, psychiatric theory was periodically plagued by fragile, inconsistent and unverified evidence (Ferreira, 582 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders 1993, pp. 22–44, 126). Suppositions based on a restricted number of observations, exclusion of evidence, contradiction of the main hypothesis and a non-critical acceptance of the ‘masters of psychiatry’ accounted for the unreliability of the mainstream psychiatric theory in Ferreira’s time. These limitations led to ineffective therapeutic interventions. Ferreira compared Spiritism to microbiology. Microorganisms, although invisible to the naked eye and unknown to the scientific world, had afflicted humanity for thousands of years. Yet it was only with the advent of the light microscope that it became possible to identify and treat disorders of previously unknown causes. Spiritism, let it be known to canonical science, shall be the powerful lens of this new microscope, through which it will be possible to unveil this invisible world to our materialized eyes. (Ferreira, 1993, p. 105) Ferreira’s main theory was based on Bezerra’s hypothesis, but Ferreira reported on several cases of patients treated by means of Spiritist treatment alone. Ferreira’s books were not written in technical language but seemed to be directed to the lay public. Ferreira’s writing style is often emotional and grandiloquent, announcing the advent of a new era for medicine. His books carried plentiful case reports and, notwithstanding the fact that psychopathological features were not described in minute detail, provide a good representation of the way Ferreira attempted to apply Spiritist theory to mental disorders. The case reports contain descriptions of several types of delusions, hallucinations, psychomotor disturbance, stupor, nonepileptic seizures, suicide attempts and pathological gambling, all of which showed improvement after the Spiritist therapeutics. The high cure rate obtained with very scarce resources is presented in his books as strong evidence in favor of Spiritist therapy. Ferreira’s statistics from his sanitorium (1934 to 1944) give an account of 1352 admitted patients: 554 (41%) were cured, 210 (16%) improved, 163 (12%) were referred to another facility, 241 (25%) were removed and 51 (4%) died. In this same time period, the 423 cases that were classified as obsession had a nearly 100% rate of cure. There were several kinds of psychosis (infectious, auto-toxic, hetero-toxic, manic-depressive, degenerative and brain affections), schizophrenias, paraphrenias, paranoias, neurosyphilis, general paralysis, epilepsies, psychoneuroses, oligophrenic and psychopathic personality disorders (Ferreira, 1993, pp. 200–208). He did not absolutely discard physical causes of mental disorders. To the contrary, he wrote that ‘more than half of the patients referred to the sanitorium as victims of obsessing spirits were not anything other than carriers of organic or functional diseases of the medical domain’ (Ferreira, 1996, pp. 8–9). Although Ferreira directed the sanitorium until 1988, his case 583 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) reports date from the early 1940s, before modern psychopharmacology had been developed. An important theoretical change concerning the different Spiritist authors relates to the role of mediumship in triggering obsessive conditions. Whereas Kardec advised individuals with signs of a mental disorder to withdraw from mediumistic activity, Ferreira recommended that his patients should participate in séances as mediums during the convalescent period. Ferreira asserted that mediums would act as a magnet attracting the influences of the spirits. If the person’s mediumistic abilities were not adequately developed and put to use in a proper fashion, the person would be very vulnerable to additional noxious influences of the spirits, and therefore vulnerable to the recurrence of the original symptoms. The regular practice with mediums in an adequate Spiritist center could promote education about mediums and reconciliation with superior spirits, ‘the only resource that will prevent the patient being subject to these obnoxious disturbances that will take him to the insane asylum’ (Ferreira, 1993, pp. 189–190). This continues to be the prevailing belief in the current Brazilian Spiritist milieu. Interestingly, a book psychographed by Inácio Ferreira’s spirit (Baccelli, 2001) reports on several other cases he treated while incarnated. Joanna de Ângelis Divaldo Pereira Franco is a male medium born in Bahia (northeastern Brazil) with more than 150 published psychographed books (6 million copies translated into 15 languages). He has also been a Spiritist public speaker, with numerous talks given in Brazil and in 56 foreign countries. He proclaimed that his spiritual mentor was a female spirit named Joanna de Ângelis. She wrote, with his help, 55 books by means of automatic writing. Joanna de Ângelis has also written several papers on mental health since 1990. These papers became acclaimed as the ‘psychological series’ (Franco, 2002). Joanna’s writings are a fairly good model of the current Brazilian psychological Spiritist mainstream. The books were printed in large numbers, with considerable repercussion in the Brazilian Spiritist milieu. A complementary approach to Kardec, Bezerra and Ferreira’s theories is described in these books, dealing mainly with ‘neurotic’ imbalances and links with transpersonal and Jungian psychology. The introduction to the first work in the Joanna series reads: Spiritism, amalgamating several streams of the psychological thought and studying humankind under the unique circumstance of an eternal spirit, proposes an idealistic, immortal philosophical behaviour, helping 584 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders humankind to equate uncertainties free from violence and based on the principles of reincarnation, pointing to humankind the fortunate paths to be followed. (Franco, 1990, p. 9) The spirit of each person is the totality of the conscience, the Self. The Self is composed of a conscious part and by an extended unconsciousness, and it includes the experiences of current and past lives. The Self is not just a mere standard-archetype, but the Spirit with his initial and deep experiences of previous processes. . . . It is therefore predicted that the spirit possesses heritages, atavistic elements, reminiscences, a personal and collective unconsciousness, in the context of his evolutionary process throughout the millenniums. An heir of himself, the Self is more than an archetype, being the spiritual being that predates the cradle and survives the sepulcher. (Franco, 2002, p. 70) This unconsciousness carries a deep influence in our thoughts, acts and conscious behavior. The unconsciousness contents might be partly approached in dreams, during meditation, prayers and trances. These phenomena were often taken in error as mediumistic. The trance state where the individual’s unconsciousness, not another spirit, becomes manifested is called ‘animism’ (Franco, 1997, p. 86). In theory, the spirit regulates the functioning of the neuro-endocrine and immune systems and the central nervous system. This regulation is presumably the tool used by the spirit to act upon the body. An imbalance in these systems is clearly present in several mental disorders. The imbalance of the spirit is the germane cause for these specific body disharmonies (Franco, 1997, p. 24; 1999, pp. 35, 42; 2000b, p. 101). The intense relationship of body and mind is emphasized by Joanna de Angelis; the influences of the spirit over the body generate either a harmonious or unhealthy functioning of the body, leading to mutations and physiologic changes. Apart from organic and social factors, experiences from previous lives play an important role in the determination of psychic maladjustments. Phobias may result from traumatic events, as well as depression resulting from a guilty conscience over unfortunate past actions (Franco, 1997, p. 32). The guilt sentiments derived from acts of either this or past lives, often acting unconsciously, could be significant factors in psychic maladjustment (Franco, 2000c, p. 31). That is why ethical behaviour is highly regarded, and instead of continuously disturbing guilt feelings the concept of responsibility is emphasized as ‘the crop derives from ploughing without any fatalistic expression of suffering’ (2000b, p. 43). Obsessions are also included among the etiologies as well as the results of mental disorders. the depressive condition that brings about pessimistic and nefarious thoughts . . . opens breaches for the settlement of harmful obsessions, or any 585 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) other phenomena that deteriorate the cell machinery, favoring the settling of different disorders. (Franco, 1999, p. 59) In search of an effective rebalancing endeavor, a great deal of emphasis is given to ethical behaviour and introspection as generators of a healthy strength of the spirit over the body (Franco, 1999, pp. 57–62). However, this search for virtue could be brought about by a real desire for growth or development and not by the repression mechanisms that could be driven into ‘dissimulation and indignity disguised as virtue’ (Franco, 2000d, p. 7). The real and ultimate healing could come about by the intellectual and moral improvement of the spirit during several incarnations (Franco, 1999, pp. 65–69). Mental health is only possible with the Self well thought-out on noble and ethical values. The Self ultimately recognizes the manifest goal of human existence, directing its feelings and knowledge in favor of order, progress and the well-being of the entire society. (Franco, 2002, p. 113) The development of existential and transcendental values and a life free of anxiety is the most valued pursuit. ‘Life itself would remain meaningless without a spiritual view of the physical existence’ (Franco, 1995, p. 9). Religion liberates one from fear and anxiety and ‘generates natural courage for facing oneself, thus becoming therapeutic and health generating’. On the other hand, religion should not serve as a ‘psychological departure for the individual to spare oneself from confronting life’s conflicts, the processes of liberation from the suffering’ (Franco, 2002, p. 178). The foremost model of the ‘integral man’ is Jesus Christ, who is an ‘example of the perfect identification of the anima and animus, having developed all the skilfulness inherited from the Almighty God’ (Franco, 1990, p. 8; 2000a, pp. 9–10). Despite the fact that there are paradigmatic models, every human being should engage in the quest for the inner self in a process of individuation. This is the pilgrimage to become a ‘total, individual and unique being, disengaging the consciousness from the strongest constrictions of the dominating unconsciousness . . . integrating the unconscious into the current consciousness’ (Franco, 1997, pp. 92–94). No one would be found reincarnated on Earth had not their physical existence possessed a superior purpose. . . . Step by step, progress is contrived and it grows permanent through the habits that are incorporated in the individuality. . . . Mistakes and rightful achievements are resources to the unfolding of consciousness to greater achievements. (Franco, 1997, p. 27) The healthy man is not the overjoyed one, apparently triumphing over situations he daily faces, but nonetheless, he is the one who perseveres struggling, always willing to advance with his perceptions that are ultimately set on the future to where he advances. (Franco, 1999, p. 38) 586 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders The search for self-knowledge is the fundamental step for the total unfolding of the spirit. In order for the self-discovery process to be accomplished, illuminating the shadows, some qualifying contingencies are absolutely necessary: Dissatisfaction with oneself, a sincere will for change, persistence in the endeavor; a disposition to accept oneself and triumph; strength to grow emotionally. (Franco, 1995, pp. 9–13) The conquest of oneself is possible only following several consecutive incarnations and it could allow the overcoming of the breakout mechanisms, the transfer of responsibilities, the rejection and facing oneself free of accusations. (Franco, 1993, pp. 151–152) A psychologically mature man lives in the greatness of the aspirations of the good, the beautiful and the true, and, freed from the ego, reaches the self, becoming an integral, ideal man, on the way to infinity. (Franco, 1993, p. 28) Discussion The four authors and their respective theories described above yield a reasonably comprehensive overview of a Spiritist perspective on mental disorders. There are various other theories by other authors dealing with the same subject (Mundin, 1984; Santos, 1991; Balduíno, 1994; Facure, 1996; Oliveira, 1996; Diversos, 1997; Palhano Jr & Oliveira, 1997; Claro, 2000). However, these authors are far less well accepted, and their contributions do not add any further understanding to the field of mental disorders and Spiritism. There are only a few studies on Brazilian Spiritist physicians. The most investigated author is Bezerra de Menezes, whose work was analyzed by two different American researchers who have reached quite different conclusions. The historian Donald Warren (1984) produced a rather negative view about Bezerra’s book Insanity through a New Prism. Warren considered the book a ‘mediocre record of what a physician thinks that he is doing’ and believed that Bezerra was unconsciously influenced by his northeastern origin (the poorest region in Brazil): ‘Bezerra has given a poor scientific rationale for indigenous and African rituals of the “traditional Brazilian art of healing”’ (1984, pp. 62–3). On the other hand, anthropologist David Hess (1991, pp. 94–98) compares Bezerra’s theory for the understanding of mental disorders without brain damage to the ideas brought forward by Freud and Janet in the early 20th century. Bezerra, Freud and Janet attempted to fill the current medical knowledge gap. They earnestly believed that they had discovered a new type of mental illness. Nevertheless, Bezerra was not well 587 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) accepted among his peers in his attempt to bring scientific legitimacy to what was seen and understood then as popular religion and sorcery. David Hess asserts that, as with dynamic psychiatry, Spiritism tried to connect exorcism and neurology. Like Freud’s psychoanalytic method, which borrowed the therapeutical method from the Catholic confessional chamber and even used a biomedical idiom, Menezes’ disobsession therapy borrowed from Catholic exorcism but on the contrary used the spirit idiom. Like Freud, Menezes challenged the accepted dogmas of both the Catholic church and biomedicine. Yet, instead of mapping out an unconscious, Menezes mapped out a spirit world – one that was as real to most Brazilians as the world of repressions, automatisms, and psychic energies was to the psychological reformers of Europe. Menezes’ disobsession therapy was similar to the new dynamic psychiatry in a second way: the triad of spirit of light/client/errant spirit is in many ways similar to that of superego/ego/id . . . the passive figure of medium plays a role similar to that of the silence of the analyst: both are empty stages on which the drama of unconscious conflict plays itself out. (1991, pp. 97–98) The similarities between the rhetoric of spiritist therapy and psychoanalysis have also been noted by Bastide (1967) and Garrison (1977) and led Hess to call Bezerra the ‘Brazilian Freud’. A key difference in regard to psychoanalysis was that the patient did not have to be present in person at the séance. That is one of the Spiritist arguments to deny that the therapeutic effect takes place just by means of catharsis or suggestion. Independent of the issue of dualism versus monism in analyzing Bezerra’s work, in the view of a 21st-century psychiatrist, the most fragile point in Bezerra’s theory seems to be his concept of ‘insanity without brain damage’. Despite not having affirmed this idea explicitly, Bezerra apparently assumed that if there was no evident macroscopic brain damage, this condition would be consistent with a brain ‘free of minimal damage’ or a brain in the ‘most perfect physiologic condition’ (Menezes, 1988, pp. 11–12). Ferreira tried to integrate Bezerra’s theory into the conventional psychiatric practice. The major importance of Ferreira’s ideas resides in his pioneering attempt to unite the two different approaches more than half a century ago. It is important to emphasize that Kardec, Bezerra and Ferreira developed their theories in a period when there were no antipsychotic or antidepressant agents, and psychiatry basically dealt with severe mental disorders, its clinical practice being mainly confined to the sanatoriums for the mad. The mental illnesses that currently are the focus of everyday psychiatric practice (anxiety and mood disorders) were often under the care of general physicians and neurologists, or they were not even considered mental disorders (Marx, 1992). Anxiety and mood 588 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders disorders have become the central focus of attention in the Spiritist literature and in society as a whole only over the past few decades. The failure of alienists to obtain major positive outcomes in the treatment of the majority of cases combined with the fact that none of the current psychiatric medications were available then seemed an important factor allowing for the development of the Spiritist treatment approach. An investigation into the impact of modern psychopharmacology on the therapeutic practices performed at the Uberaba Mental Hospital/Sanatorium would be very valuable to clarify these issues. The authors mentioned have discussed several cases of ‘spectacular cures’ obtained by means of Spiritist therapy. Unfortunately, the methodological rigor of contemporary clinical trials was not available at that time. The major limitations regarding the methodology of the Spiritist investigations include: lack of randomization, lack of a treatment control group, and lack of objective outcome measures (Guyatt, Sackett, Taylor, Chong, Roberts, & Pugsley, 1986; Sackett, Haynes, & Tugwell, 1985). Despite the methodological limitations of published cases, they are nonetheless useful for the formulation of a hypothesis to be tested in studies with more elaborate designs. The Center for the Study of Religious and Spiritual Problems (NEPER; Núcleo de Estudos de Problemas Espirituais e Religiosos) is developing different research lines. Historical (Moreira-Almeida, Almeida, & Lotufo Neto, 2005) and anthropological (Puttini, 2004) studies have been conducted on the relationship of Spiritism and the psychiatric community, as well as a clinical trial investigating the efficacy of ‘Spiritist therapies’ (Leão, 2004). Despite the fact that ‘spiritual therapies’ such as laying-on of hands and prayers are ubiquitous worldwide, the treatment by means of sessions with mediums for disobsession performed by medical doctors seems unique to Brazil in the last 100 years. Puttini (2004) recently reported the results of his investigation with 26 Spiritist psychiatric hospitals in São Paulo state, the wealthiest and most populous state in Brazil. There were 4300 health-related professionals in his data base working within these institutions, and many of these workers were not Spiritists. All 26 institutions employed traditional medical and psychological care, and Spiritist therapies were also employed. Puttini’s investigation also demonstrated that there was a significant difference in the importance attributed by the mental institutions regarding the role and the importance of the Spiritist therapies. The setting ranged from a Spiritist activity separated from and almost undesired by the local clinical staff to a thorough integration where the spiritual evaluations and interventions were recorded in the subject’s charts. Leão’s (2004) double-blind investigation recorded the impact of mediumistic therapies in the clinical and behavioral progress of subjects admitted with mental retardation to a Spiritist hospital. All subjects were 589 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) submitted to conventional psychiatric therapeutic approaches, and the experimental group was also given simultaneous mediumistic sessions for six months as a complement. The experimental group showed statistically significant clinical and behavioral improvement. This investigation needs to be replicated in other patient populations and with more rigorous methods. A more recent Spiritist view on mental disorders has been supplied by Joanna de Ângelis, who adopts the assumptions of the previous authors and complements them with a more psychological approach, mostly directed to ‘neurotic’ disorders and existential problems. Despite some focal resistance, her work has received greater acceptance in the Spiritist milieu among laymen and mental health professionals. It is worth stressing that the psychological themes are also a growing topic in the recent North American medium literature (Hastings, 1991, p. 196; Klimo, 1998). Several books with significant impact became available in the 1970s, namely, A Course in Miracles (Schuman, 1975) and the essays of an entity called ‘Seth’ (Roberts, 1970, 1972, 1974) that sold millions of copies (Hastings, 1991; Klimo, 1998). There are several similarities between the contents of these North American publications and the Brazilian publications. All of them have generated local and non-local study groups, seminars and conferences, besides being a self-help source for millions worldwide. These books also deserve a share of academic study so that an interested party may better understand the content and impact of these psychological theories on the general population (A Course in Miracles has received some academic attention; Hastings, 1991, pp. 111–113). The religious and spiritual dimensions of culture are among the most important factors that structure beliefs, values, behaviors and patterns of human ailments, that is, the human experience (Lukoff, Lu, & Turner, 1992). Kardec’s theory of how Spiritism could play a role in preventing mental disorders (helping people deal with life’s difficulties and acting as a buffer against stressful life events) is in line with the cognitive-behavioral approach used by Koenig, Larson, and Larson (2001) to explain how religion helps patients to cope. The majority of psychiatrists and psychologists in clinical practice have met some resistance from religious groups (including Spiritist ones). It is important to consider that the Spiritists themselves recognize fairly well that this specific issue is frequently abused. A prominent Brazilian medium called Teixeira (1990, pp. 86–87) has stated that psychiatric conditions are commonly misinterpreted as mediumship. Ferreira (1996, pp. 8–9) and Kardec (1996, question 474) shared the same opinion. While some Spiritists consider that all mental disorders result from mediumship or obsessions, thus dismissing the conventional psychiatric or psychological treatment modalities, this is not the opinion of the main Spiritist authors. The fact that they have often acknowledged the concomitant use of the two 590 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders treatment approaches may be an important argument in helping patients and families accept psychiatric treatment. The recommendation found in the Brazilian Spiritist milieu to ‘develop the mediumship’ as a therapy for psychiatric problems does not find any basis in the writings of the two most significant Spiritist authors, Kardec and Bezerra. Conclusions Spiritism has developed a complex theory about mental disorders that has influenced patients and health-care professionals, most notably in Latin America, and particularly in Brazil. A complementary etiology to the social, biological and psychological factor is proposed, the spiritual cause. This spiritual cause has its origins in previous incarnations and spiritual influences, the so-called obsessions. The Spiritists argue that acceptance of this complementary factor could have an enormous heuristic power, tremendously facilitating the development of medicine and psychology, but they maintain that materialistic dogmatism and academic authoritarianism prevent the acceptance of their beliefs. It is important to stress, however, that the Spiritist milieu itself has little awareness of this theory and has developed practices that conflict with the practices suggested by their own authors. Academic study of this subject is of great importance due to the significance it has attained in Brazilian culture and its practical implications. Two fields open up for this investigation: the examination of the objective reality and efficacy of Spiritist practices, and the cultural impact of such views on the population. This essay sets out several possible lines of investigation, some of them already in progress. Hopefully, this article will help to attract the attention of the scientific community to the significance of this theme. Notes 1. 2. 3. Information on Spiritism and Kardec’s works may be found at: www.spiritist. org and http://spiritsonline.net Spiritism also plays an important social role related to mental health in both Puerto Rico and in the Puerto Rican community in the United States (Harwood, 1977; Hohmann et al., 1990). However, compared to Brazil, Spiritism among Puerto Ricans has shown a greater degree of syncretism with Afro-American traditions. It is important to point out that we have attempted to present the ideas in a descriptive way, without any judgement as to their ontological or therapeutic validity. To avoid the excessive and tiresome use of the conditional tense and expressions such as ‘supposedly’, ‘hypothetical’ and ‘assumed’ when describing the Spiritist theories, the present tense was mostly used, but this does not imply the acceptance of those hypothesis by the authors of this article. 591 Transcultural Psychiatry 42(4) References Abreu, C. (1991). Bezerra de Menezes. São Paulo: Edições FEESP. 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History of spiritist madness in Brazil. History of Psychiatry, 16(1): 5–25. Mundin, P. O. (1984). A posição doutrinária espírita na psiquiatria. In Associação Médico-Espírita de São Paulo, Boletim Médico Espírita, 1, 57–71. Murphy, G., & Ballou, R. O. (1960). William James on psychical research. New York: Viking Press. Myers, F. W. H. (2001 [1903]). Human personality and its survival of bodily death. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company Inc. Nobre, F. (1986). Introdução. In B. Menezes, Perfis Parlamentares 33 / Bezerra de Menezes. Brasília: Câmara dos Deputados. Oliveira, S. F. (1996). As funções verticais do cérebro. In Associação MédicoEspírita de São Paulo, Boletim Médico Espírita, 10, 187–95. Palhano Jr, L., & Oliveira, J. A. S. (1997). Laudos espíritas da loucura. Niterói, Brazil: Lachatre. Puttini, R. F. (2004). Medicina e religião num espaço hospitalar espírita. Tese de Doutorado. Departamento de Saúde Coletiva da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). Roberts, J. (1970). The Seth material. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Roberts, J. (1972). Seth speaks: The eternal validity of the soul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Roberts, J. (1974). The nature of personal reality: A Seth book. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 594 Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto: Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders Ross, C. A., & Joshi, S. (1992). Paranormal experiences in the general population. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 357–361. Sackett, D., Haynes, R. B., & Tugwell, P. (1985). Clinical epidemiology: A basic science for clinical medicine. Boston: Little, Brown. Santos, J. A. (1991). Visão espírita das distonias mentais (2nd edn). Rio de Janeiro: FEB. Santos, J. L. (1997). Espiritismo. Uma religião brasileira. São Paulo: Moderna. Schuman, H. (1975). A course in miracles (3 vols: text, workbook for students and manual for teachers). Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace. Souza, D. S., & Deitos, T. F. H. (1980). Terapia espírita em hospitais psiquiátricos (Brasil). Revista Asociación Brasilera de Psiquiatría, 2, 190–194. Stevenson, I. (1977). The explanatory value of the idea of reincarnation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 164, 305–326. Teixeira, J. R. (1990). Diretrizes de segurança. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fráter. Vandermeersch, P. (1991). The victory of psychiatry over demonology: The origin of the nineteenth-century myth. History of Psychiatry, 2, 251–263. Wantuil, Z. (1990 [1969]). Grandes espíritas do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: FEB. Warren, D. (1984). A terapia espírita no Rio de Janeiro por volta de 1900. Religião e Sociedade, Dec., 56–83. Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Psychiatrist, Founder and Director of NEPER (Center for the Study of Religious and Spiritual Problems) at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and Clinical Director of a psychiatric hospital (HOJE – Hospital João Evangelista). His research interests include mediumistic trances and the relation of religiosity/spirituality and health. Address: Rua Caetés 737/205 Perdizes 05016–081 São Paulo – SP, Brazil. [E-mail: alexma@usp.br] Francisco Lotufo Neto, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Psychiatrist, Co-Founder of NEPER (Center for the Study of Religious and Spiritual Problems) at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo and his research interests include mental health of immigrants and the relation of religiosity/spirituality and health. 595 

History of Psychiatry, 16(1): 005–025 Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) www.sagepublications.com [200503] DOI: 10.1177/0957154X05044602 History of ‘Spiritist madness’ in Brazil ALEXANDER MOREIRA-ALMEIDA * University of São Paulo ANGÉLICA A. SILVA DE ALMEIDA University of Campinas FRANCISCO LOTUFO NETO University of São Paulo Edited by Dr TOM DENING Spiritism is widely accepted in Brazil and influences psychiatric practice, especially through religious-oriented hospitals. However, during the first half of the twentieth century it was considered an important cause of mental illness. This paper first reviews opinions on ‘Spiritist madness’, written by the most eminent psychiatrists of the time, and then discusses the epistemological factors that have contributed to the conflict between medicine and Spiritism. We critically examine the appropriateness of the methods used in the debates, and how this has led to inferences about associations and causal relationships. Keywords: dissociation; history; mediumship; mental hygiene; possession; prejudice; spiritism; spiritualism; trance Introduction Throughout the last century, the psychiatric community has had a range of different attitudes to so-called mediumistic experiences. Although such experiences are ancient and exist in every culture, well-controlled studies of the subject are scarce. Nowadays, psychiatry considers that spiritualist experiences are culturally related, and are non-pathological in most cases, * Address for correspondence: Rua Caetés 737/205, Perdizes 0516-081, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Email: alexma@usp.br 6 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) even contributing to psychological development and well-being (Cardeña, Lyinn and Krippmer, 2000; Grof and Grof, 1989; Lukoff, Lu and Tuner, 1992). However, the standpoint assumed by most of the international psychiatric community in the first half of the twentieth century was quite different. Mediumistic practices were taken as serious threats to the population’s mental health and were to be opposed, if necessary by using arrests and hospitalizations. The historical study of the ‘Spiritist madness’ in Brazil is a special opportunity to analyse the relation between psychiatry and spiritualism, because it fuses two essential elements of the conflict: a flourishing psychiatric society under strong European influence, and dissemination of religions based on mediumistic practices (Spiritism and Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Umbanda and Candomblé). This study describes and analyses Brazilian psychiatry with regard to Spiritism in the first half of the twentieth century, at the time when debates on the subject were most intense. Spiritism In the second half of the nineteenth century a general interest in spirituality, especially mediumistic phenomena, spread through Western countries. It became a heterogeneous social movement that shared a belief in the existence and survival of spirits after death, and in their communication with the living, known as ‘modern spiritualism’ (Braude, 1989; Doyle, 1926/1975; Trimble, 1995). In 1855 in France, Hippolyte-Léon Denizard Rivail, an intellectual pseudonymously called Allan Kardec, planned to perform a scientific investigation on the supposed manifestations of spirits. Once convinced of the veracity of the phenomena, he aimed to develop a method to obtain valid knowledge from communication with spirits. After comparing and analysing the answers obtained through mediums from different countries, Kardec organized the information into a single theory in 1857. The resulting philosophy he called ‘Spiritism,’ or ‘Spiritist Doctrine’ (Kardec, 1857/1994), defined as ‘a science which deals with the nature, origin and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationship with the corporeal world’ (Kardec, 1859/1995). Kardec regarded Spiritism as a science and philosophy with essentially moral implications, and not as a religion – as it is more usually regarded.1 Spiritism adopts a dualistic concept of the human being. It postulates that we are, essentially, immortal spirits that temporarily inhabit physical bodies for several necessary incarnations to attain moral and intellectual improvement. It also implies a possible beneficent or maleficent influence of the spirits over the incarnate human. In the case of maleficent influence, it is called ‘obsession’ and it could be the cause of mental imbalance or cases of ‘madness’ (Kardec, 1859/1995). A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 7 At the end of the nineteenth century, Spiritism was introduced in Brazil and became prominent, mainly from its religious aspect. It spread especially among the urban middle class, but its practice and world views reached far more than the officially declared believers. Today, although the Brazilian population is mostly Catholic, Spiritism has had more influence than in any other country in the world (Aubrée and Laplantine, 1990; Damazio, 1994; Machado, 1993; Santos, 1997). Historical context In the first half of the twentieth century, Brazil underwent major changes and faced serious social challenges. Slavery had been abolished in 1888, and the Republic had been declared in 1889, replacing the monarchy. There was a significant flow of immigrants to the country, especially Europeans, to replace the slave work force and to enhance ‘whitening’ of the population. Accelerated and uncontrolled urbanization intensified, causing serious social and sanitary problems (Fausto, 1999). The prevailing ideology was Positivism, of French origin, characterized by ideals of modernity, order, progress and rationality. The Brazilian psychiatric community began to develop, keeping close contact with French and German psychiatry. The principles of eugenics and mental hygiene encouraged psychiatrists who intended to collaborate to create a prosperous, modern and healthy nation. We want physically and mentally strong people [. . .]. We must eugenize the Brazilian, select the Aryan type who seeks us, escape infiltration of new doses of Mongolic blood [. . .] [. . .] Restraining perpetuation of deteriorating strains, and avoiding the procreation of individuals in poor health, whose offspring are presumably inferior, is undeniably a significant step towards solving social problems. (Pacheco e Silva, 1934) The influence of mental hygiene was especially important, because it added the possibility of the social origin of madness to the existing idea that all mental illness has a hereditary basis. Alcoholism, extreme poverty and ignorance started to be regarded as possible triggers of madness. From this followed a desire and a sense of duty to normalize social factors. The ‘normal’ person, the ‘healthy’ individual became the principal object of the physicians, in their attempts to inhibit madness. The practice of their [physicians’] profession allows them to penetrate all levels of society, [. . .] and only they can observe, which gives them a position of extreme privilege in regard to unfolding social problems. That is the reason why physicians who study social factors and their relation to medicine and hygiene must be taken in consideration, because it is their duty to establish essential postulates to improve the conditions 8 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) of physiological misery, and, why not say moral misery, in which less skilled levels of the country population live. (Pacheco e Silva, 1934) The physician holds the main role in employing such a programme, and he should count on every main organization to help, on the support of professors, clergy, military and all those who hold deep roots in society. (Pacheco e Silva, 1934). In 1923 psychiatrists founded the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene. Two years later, they founded the Brazilian Archives of Mental Hygiene, a publication to widen and spread the ideals of mental health (Costa, 1976; Liga Brasileira . . ., 1925). Spiritism as cause of madness Impact of Spiritist practices From the outset, opponents of Spiritism attacked psychic practice as a major cause of psychopathology. In 1858, within a year of the rise of Spiritism and the publication of ‘The Spirits’ Book’, stories of ‘alienated’ people who lost their reason during spiritualistic practice were reported in Europe (Kardec, 1858). In 1859 Dr Décambre, a member of the Academy of Medicine of Paris, published a critique of Spiritism, and by 1863 reports were circulating about cases of insanity caused by Spiritism (Hess, 1991). Several cases were reported at the Société de Psychiatrie de Paris (Dupouy and La Savoureux, 1913; Janet, 1909; Leroy and Pottier, 1931; Lévy-Valensi and Boudon, 1908; Lévy-Valensi and Genil-Perrin, 1913; Lévy-Valensi, Picard and Sonn, 1928) and at the Société Médico-Psychologique de Paris (Ballet and Dheur, 1903; Claude and Cantacuzène, 1936; Lévy-Valensi and Ey, 1931; Schiff, 1926). Also articles (Lévy-Valensi, 1910; Wimmer, 1923), books (Vigouroux and Juquelier, 1905) and theses (Duhem, 1904) were written about the harmful effects of Spiritism. Such ideas strongly influenced Brazilian psychiatrists, as shown in revisions made by Leonídio Ribeiro2 (Ribeiro and Campos, 1931), Henrique Roxo3 (1938) and Pacheco e Silva4 (1950a), in which several European authors and publications are cited. As early as 1896 two important physicians, Franco da Rocha5 and Nina Rodrigues6 (1896/1935), had published important works on the issues related to spiritist practice in Brazil. Rocha (1896) in his yearly report of 1895 to the Hospício de Alienados de São Paulo declared that Spiritism was an increasing cause of madness. In the twentieth century, conferences, publications and theses on the harmful nature of Spiritism boomed in the schools of medicine (Cavalcanti, 1934; Guimarães Filho, 1926; Marques, 1929; Pimentel, 1919). The discourse became progressively radical (Giumbelli, 1997). Afrânio Peixoto7 (1931) explained that ‘from my observation I have concluded that spiritist A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 9 groups are laboratories of collective hysteria’ that could lead the believer to ‘crime and hospitalization’. In 1909 a conference was held at the Medical Society of Rio de Janeiro on the ‘Dangers of Spiritism’, and a physician who declared himself ‘Roman Catholic’ said that ‘hospitals of the insane’ were ‘always populated by victims of Spiritism’. However, after the discussion the group decided that there was no need to take measures against Spiritism (Lemos, 1939). The same Society retrieved the subject in 1927, calling it the ‘Spiritism problem’. Leonídio Ribeiro (Ribeiro and Campos, 1931) was the main leader of the movement. In his speech on anti-Spiritism, he declared that 50% of the mentally ill patients he assessed in the Police Legal Medicine Department had the initial onset of symptoms ‘of madness when they were practicing Spiritism’. After discussion, the Society approved the suggestion of creating a committee to analyse the subject and draft ‘laws that interdict such destructive practice’. However, instead of pursuing scientific investigation of the facts, an ‘inquiry among Brazilian specialists’ was conducted. None of those ‘specialists’ had done scientific research on the subject, so they simply reiterated opinions. A questionnaire was sent to twelve authorities (eleven physicians and one engineer)8 in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, consisting of four questions: 1. Do you think that the so-called Spiritist phenomena have a scientific basis? 2. Are you aware of facts or experiences that support Spiritism scientifically? 3. Does the practice of Spiritism cause impairment to the person’s mental health? 4. Does the abusive practice of healing through Spiritism compromise public health? The consensual answer to the inquiry was basically that Spiritism was harmful, especially triggering psychopathology in those with a predisposition to it. Incidentally, this was probably the first survey of an ‘expert consensus’ in Brazil. Xavier de Oliveira9 (1931) stated that in a period of 12 years, 9.4% out of a total of 18,281 patients hospitalized in the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Rio de Janeiro ‘suffered psychosis caused only and exclusively by Spiritism’. This made it the third main cause of ‘mental estrangement’ after alcohol and syphilis. Besides the risk of ‘manufacture of insane individuals’, Spiritism was also dangerous because it induced crime and was a major cause of charlatanry. Spiritists, the practitioners of Spiritism, offered unpaid treatment which was based on ‘passes’ (laying-on of hands), prayers and ‘disobsession’.10 Prescriptions of homeopathy11 were also commonly distributed. Such practices 10 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) were severely criticized by physicians, who considered them charlatanry and an illegal practice of medicine (Pimentel, 1919; Ribeiro, 1942, 1967; Ribeiro and Campos, 1931). However, the population generally sought the so-called Spiritist treatment. Several physicians and shamans called themselves Spiritist in order to attract clients and often advertised miraculous treatments. Spiritist followers criticized these pseudo-Spiritist clinicians who misused the term Spiritism commercially (Ferreira, 1946). Spiritist practices were also criticized for inducing suicide (Caldas, 1929), sexual abuse (Peixoto, 1909), homicide and family disunion (Oliveira, 1931; Ribeiro and Campos, 1931). Professor Pacheco e Silva (1936) warned that: ‘Blood crimes occur astoundingly often in São Paulo. Looking for the reason, one notices that there are three main causes: alcoholism, Spiritism and low charlatanry.’ There are few scientific publications by physicians writing against the predominant conception on ‘Spiritist madness’; for the present review only three dissonant articles were found (Cesar, 1941, 1942; Pernambuco, 1927). However, such opinions were more common in lay publications, especially newspapers, as described below in the section on inductivism and ‘verificationism’. Clinical types: spiritopathy, mediumnopathy, episodic spiritist delusion, ... Despite the consensus on the harmful aspects of Spiritism, there were differences of view on the clinical manifestations. Most psychiatrists believed that it would trigger already known and scientifically described mental diseases, but presenting with Spiritist nuances. According to Xavier de Oliveira (1931), spiritopathy is a delusional mental syndrome with Spiritist causes. It is frequently identified in individuals victimized by the nervous system, namely hysteroid, schizoid, or, before that, hystero-schizoid – who devote themselves to the study, the belief or the practice of Spiritism. The disorder resulted from the effects of suggestion, but did not include episodes of true hallucinations. On the other hand, Roxo (1938) created a new diagnostic entity called ‘Episodic Spiritist Delusion’. At a conference in Paris, he described it as an aspect of ‘typical states of degeneration’, characterized by auditory and synesthetic hallucinations with secondary delusions that appeared after participating in Spiritist seances. The typical sign was inversion of the oculocardiac reflex, which should characterize ‘sympathicotonia’. The author argued the need for a new diagnostic category, distinct from schizophrenia, paraphrenia and manic-depressive psychosis. Supposedly it was a common disease, causing 5–10% of psychiatric hospitalizations. He also emphasized that the individuals did not exhibit mental disorder before attending Spiritist ceremonies: ‘Infrequently the person was ill before Spiritism.’ Roxo even developed a ‘100% efficient treatment’: intravenous atropine valerianate 0.25mg/cm3. He A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 11 suggested this would have a sedative effect on hysteria and ‘stimulate constriction of brain blood vessels causing ischaemia in the temporo-sphenoidal and occipital lobes, resulting in the disappearance of visual and auditory hallucinations’ (Roxo, 1928). In most cases, it was sufficient for almost any patient presenting with some kind of psychosis, who mentioned spirits or expressed interest or participation in mediumistic religions, to be diagnosed as having a kind of Spiritist madness (Guimarães Filho, 1926; Marques, 1929; Ribeiro and Campos, 1931; Rocha, 1896). Aetiology and pathogenesis of ‘Spiritist madness’ Despite some controversy, hysteria was thought to be essentially involved in explaining the pathogenic mechanism of Spiritism, because through the power of suggestion it caused a split in psychogenic processes, resulting in mental automatism. Such a split could become permanent, growing into hallucinations and delusions. Most victims of Spiritism did have some kind of psychopathologic predisposition. However, many of these individuals could be kept on the edge of normality as long as they were not repeatedly exposed to emotional distress (such as the Spiritist seance). In fact, the recurrent impact caused by attending several Spiritist sessions could induce anyone to madness. Mediums were seen as ignorant, ‘individuals of neuropathic constitution and vulnerable, simple-minded mentally impaired [. . .] of hyperemotive, schizoid, hysterical or mythomaniac constitution’ (Pacheco e Silva, 1950b). Rocha (1896) wrote: As regards neuropaths, with predisposition, together in a poorly lighted room, everybody in silence and an intense emotional state, no wonder the consequences. The emotional state, the collective excitement, and surrounding modifications evoke, especially in women, hysterical outbreaks, and the abnormalities go even further – to complete loss of reason. And also, Between unfortunates who have been victims of Spiritism, I have noticed that the most common sort of perturbation is usually mania, in transitory outbursts. Some individuals show partial systematized delusion (typical of degenerated ones). Nina Rodrigues (1935) conducted extensive research on the types of AfroBrazilian mediumistic trance. Entangling them in Spiritism, he considered them all (following Pierre Janet) the outcome of hysterical phenomena, allowed by the ‘extreme neuropathic or hysterical’ and ‘profoundly superstitious’ personality of the Negro. Professor Roxo argued that Spiritism could induce madness in any participating individual, with or without a predisposition (Roxo, 1938). 12 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) Pacheco e Silva (1950a) maintained that ‘Spiritism acts predominantly from proneness, aggravating an already existing psychosis or stimulating latent mental disturbances in an individual of psychopathic constitution.’ He continued: There are also those cases of individuals of hyperemotive, schizoid, hysterical or mythomaniac constitution, who showed themselves compatible with the social environment despite some previous abnormal behaviour, but became completely disturbed after dedicating themselves to Spiritism. They needed immediate hospitalization, for sensory disturbances would emerge, followed by extremely perilous morbid behaviour. Prophylaxis of ‘Spiritist madness’ The ‘inquiry among Brazilian specialists’ was followed by a campaign against Spiritism. The movement involved attempts to close Spiritist groups and destruction of Spiritist publications, together with a campaign to ‘explain the dangers of Spiritism’, and to apply the articles of the 1890 Penal Code that condemned Spiritist practice: Article 157. Practice of Spiritism, sorcery and derivative practices, the use of talismans and divination through reading of cards, to evoke feelings of love or hatred, to assure healing of curable or incurable illnesses, in all, to fascinate and subjugate public credulity [. . .] 1st para. If, by influence or consequence of any of those means the patient becomes deprived of or altered in, temporary or permanently, psychic or mental faculties [. . .] Several distinguished psychiatrists discussed the subject and suggested harsh measures. For example, Oliveira (1931) wrote: ‘The Mediums’ Book’ by Allan Kardec is the cocaine of nervous enfeebled individuals [. . .] and with one aggravation: it is cheaper, reachable and for those reasons results in the hospitalization of a lot more people than ‘devil’s powder’ [. . .] The hygiene and prophylaxis rely exclusively on burning all Spiritist books and shutdown of candomblés, high, medium and low, that, for now, infest Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the entire western part of the world. Leonídio Ribeiro and Murilo de Campos (1931) advocated forming an alliance with public authorities severely to inhibit those practices that ‘have devastated humankind in an epidemic of madness’. Afranio Peixoto warned, in the foreword of this book: ‘Public authorities cannot be insensible to a nervous downfall, to alienation of those whom they should protect or defend’. Roxo (1938) stated that ‘as a measure of mental prophylaxis, sessions of non-scientific Spiritism must be prohibited’. Incidentally, in 1936, Spiritist centres in France were also forbidden to function, as a prophylactic measure against Spiritist delusions (Claude and Cantacuzène, 1936). A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 13 Spiritists’ reaction The Spiritists themselves responded to this criticism by questioning the evidence on which the psychiatrists had based their conclusions. Carlos Imbassahy (1949) in his book Espiritismo e Loucura (Spiritism and Madness) was one of the Spiritists who presented fairly reasonable arguments. He questioned the psychiatrists’ lack of knowledge about Spiritism, the unscrupulous data collection, arbitrary conclusions and dogmatism: what is most astonishing is to see those who have less knowledge about the subject discussing it. And they disclose their ideas as if they were dogmas [. . .]. There is no process of verification. [. . .] They talk a lot about the assistants’ sanity. [. . .] They escape the arguments, because that’s about a professional case and thus, their word is sufficient evidence. [. . .] some statistics, no one knows how they were collected, and they present them to us, victoriously, a big array of mad people due to Spiritism. [. . .] Well, what happens is: almost every disturbed individual seeks Spiritism after having been to medical consultations and health institutions. [. . .] That is recognized. There is someone who has ‘hallucinations’ and sees spirits, not even knowing Spiritist doctrine [. . .] The doctor writes it down, [. . .] that’s attributed to Spiritism [. . .]. Without the studies, theory and practice of the Spiritist sessions, experts of psychiatry would never be able to indicate a probable disturbing cause of the environment and ways to extinguish it. [. . .] And if they can’t tell, there is only one choice – to extinguish it all. Inácio Ferreira (1946), a psychiatrist who ran a Spiritist psychiatric hospital, published a book that confronted the criticism from the psychiatric community. He pointed out that several physicians were against Spiritism for personal reasons (religious or financial). Even Kardec, in the 1850s, remarked on the relation with madness: The primary cause of madness is organic brain predisposition, and it makes the brain more or less susceptible to certain impressions. Predisposition to madness, once existing, will assume the main focus, [...] and it could be the preoccupation with Spirits, such as of God, angels, evil, fortune, power, a science [...]. (Kardec, 1857/1994) Kardec (1863) commented on a series of six cases of madness due to Spiritist practice, described by a physician from Lyon, France: It goes against the most basic principles of reasoning to take a general conclusion of the matter from a few isolated cases which can be disclosed by other cases. [. . .] You say you have followed six cases. [. . .] But what can it prove? Had you followed two or three times more than that, still nothing could be proven, as long as the total amount of mad people does not reach an average. Let’s take an average of 1,000, which is a round number. [. . .] Had the average grown to 1,200 since the beginning of 14 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) propagation of Spiritist ideas, for instance, and the difference were precisely the cases of Spiritist madness, that would be another situation. However, as long as one cannot prove that the average of disturbed people has increased due to the influence of Spiritism, the description of a few isolated cases proves nothing besides an intention to disbelieve Spiritist ideas and disturb the general opinion. Epistemological factors that may have contributed to the conflict between medicine and Spiritism Cultural insensibility These discussions reached their peak in Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. Psychiatry was arduously becoming a science. Following the Positivist stream of the time, its principles supported the impartiality of the scientific task. The assertions of psychiatry supposedly came from careful and impartial analysis of facts, so it was felt that this would clearly elicit the evil consequences of Spiritism. Authors emphasized that they were not driven by any sort of prejudice but that they based their arguments solely on scientifically proven cases (Ribeiro and Campos, 1931). However, psychiatrists often tended to present statements from psychiatric authorities, or statistics on the frequency of Spiritist madness, as ‘proofs’ of their concepts. Those statistics rarely included any precise definition of what ‘Spiritist madness’ was, and did not specify the methods employed to collect data. Usually, the statistics presented global statements, such as: according to the irrefutable testimony of so many personalities of science, both national and foreign, indicating the dangers of Spiritism, faced with numerous cases registered daily, [. . .] it is fair to adopt measures of mental hygiene that hinder those practices. (Pacheco e Silva, 1950a) Psychiatrists had difficulty in accepting that no conclusion can be truly atheoretical, and that ‘all observation implies interpretation based upon theoretical knowledge’. They could not recognize the contaminating influence of their own beliefs and personal desires in their investigation, in contrast to the advice of Popper (1995): ‘In searching for the truth, it may be our best plan to start by criticizing our most cherished beliefs’. Two elements must have played a role in the psychiatrists’ viewpoint. First, the intellectual group of Brazil attempted to create a ‘modern nation’ on a Eurocentric basis. So it was necessary to fight all barbarous, primitive creeds and practices (Bosh, 1931; Pacheco e Silva, 1960). The beginning and broad expansion of Spiritist practice were seen as a great menace to this country-to-be. The second factor was the religious principles of psychiatrists; they were mostly Catholic or materialist and, for both groups, Spiritism was an enemy to be overcome. Some psychiatrists postulated that Catholicism worked preventively against A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 15 suicide and madness, in contrast to other religions. According to Oliveira (1931), at church ‘where one believes in everything and with no hesitation’, there was no margin for the ‘questioning and interpretation that, in other religions and particularly in Spiritism, lead to doubt, fixed ideas, obsessions, anguish and madness’. When Carlos Seidl, a sanitarist, responded to the ‘inquiry among Brazilian specialists’, he stated that Spiritist practice should be condemned ‘because my Catholic principle does not admit it’ (Ribeiro and Campos, 1931). In a conference on suicide, Mirandolino Caldas (1929), general secretary of the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene, explained the destructive influence of Spiritism ‘while Judaism and Catholicism, on the contrary, act first and foremost by neutralizing self-destructive tendencies.’ Roxo (1938) affirmed that Spiritism was for uneducated people who in suffering ‘seek Spiritist ceremony instead of going to a doctor or a preacher’. Even as late as 1957, Pacheco e Silva supported the Church’s fight against the proliferation of Spiritist groups in Brazil. Manifest truth, authoritarianism and paradigm adherence Thomas Kuhn (1970) emphasized that once a successful paradigm has been established, scientists adhere to it and may become resistant, sometimes indefinitely, to accepting changes. This enables work towards improvement of that paradigm, but it may then obstruct progress towards scientific revolution. Karl Popper, the philosopher, was a significant opponent of authoritarianism, which often holds to the doctrine that truth is manifest. The theory originated in Ancient Greece, but Descartes and Francis Bacon developed the modern concept of it: that impersonal and cautious analysis of a fact naturally leads to the truth. Mistakes derive from prejudice, from incapability to analyse, or from social pressure to keep one in a state of ignorance. That perspective would finally lead to authoritarianism and intolerance, because if manifest truth does not prevail, this means it was maliciously suppressed. Popper (1995) stated: This false epistemology, however, has also led to disastrous consequences. The theory that truth is manifest – that it is there for everyone to see, if only he wants to see it – this theory is the basis of almost every kind of fanaticism. For only the most depraved wickedness can refuse to see the manifest truth, only those who have reason to fear truth conspire to suppress it. Authoritarianism, then, has an almost daily need to determine what the manifest truth should be at any moment. If, in contrast, truth is not manifest, then alternative explanations and paradigms are possible. To us, this seemed to be the case in the period we studied. The psychiatrists had two main explanations as to why Spiritists could be so fundamentally mistaken – either financial interests, or mental and intellectual deficiency. In his doctoral dissertation with honorable mention at 16 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) the School of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, Pimentel (1919) wrote about Spiritism and concluded that the Spiritist medium is a bluffer or ‘a negligent, a deviant, an ill person who must be taken to a hospital of the insane and start medical treatment with specialists.’ Leonídio Ribeiro (1967) used to say that Spiritist centres were ‘pretty well-organized commercial businesses under rigorous administration, which enables good profit.’ Professor Franco da Rocha (1896) stated: ‘The majority of Spiritist believers, if not every one of them, who follow phenomena as sectarians of that religion, don’t even think of finding a scientific explanation to the facts’. In another part of this text, he added: ‘The degenerated ones are always those who allow themselves to proceed enthusiastically into those practices; their tendency to what is wonderful, and their inability to perform examination and reflection that characterize them’. And he concluded: ‘This new religion is regretfully imprudent and completely pointless, contributing to nothing else but increasing the number of mad people.’ Inductivism and ‘verificationism’ Although psychiatrists did not specify the ‘method’ they used to reach the conclusion that Spiritist practice is the ‘antechamber to madness’, it was most probably inductivism. Many patients declared they heard voices of spirits and an increasing number of patients revealed having previously attended Spiritist sessions. The psychiatrists found it ‘evident’ that they faced a cause and effect relationship, namely that mediumistic practice was a growing cause of madness. Álvaro Guimarães Filho estimated the impact of Spiritism on hospitalized patients of Juquery Hospital in his doctoral dissertation (1926): S.V., uneducated, attended Spiritist sessions regularly and went to Juquery A.F., uneducated, no pathological family history, but used to drink. His family credits his madness to simple-mindedness and to having attended Spiritist sessions. Diagnosis: alcoholic psychosis Another four patients had their life histories told by their families who reported Spiritism as an important factor in the disease manifestation The above mentioned cases evince that Spiritism obviously operates as a predisposing factor to mental diseases [original emphasis]. The number of ‘supporting’ examples increased once the theory, which was already defended by European alienists, was constructed. As Popper (1995) stated: Examples of confirmatory evidence could be seen everywhere. The world was replete with verifications of the theory. [. . .] The nonbelievers were undisguisedly those who did not want to see it: they refused it so that they did not conflict with their own interests [. . .]. Most typical seemed to be the continuous stream of confirmation, of observation that verified the A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 17 theories under consideration, a continuously emphasized issue. [. . .] Analysts gave assurances that their theories were constantly validated by clinical observation. [. . .] It is easy to come across confirmation or verification to almost every theory – as long as one seeks it. Psychiatrists often emphasized the vast numbers of insane people generated by Spiritism. Oliveira (1931) reported: ‘we conducted a study of statistics for a period of 12 years, from 1917 to 1928, in the Observation Pavilion. We registered 18,281 insane people admitted, of whom 1,723 were induced to psychopathy exclusively by the practice of Spiritism’. Guimarães Filho’s dissertation (1926) comments: ‘this is the Spiritism that must be stopped, so that mankind is sheltered from its evil effects. The number of people persuaded by those ideas is unimaginable’. Popper (1995) wrote that our tendency to seek regularities in nature instigates dogmatic thinking or dogmatic behaviour. We have difficulty in accepting observations that contradict our expectations, which are considered ‘background noise’. We are loyal to our expectations even when they are inadequate and we should accept having been defeated. Likewise, Kuhn (1970) said that a paradigm defined much of what we ‘saw’ in the world. He questioned: ‘will it be possible to accept as accidental the fact that astronomers only began seeing changes in the sky – which was previously immutable – during the half century that followed the presentation of Copernicus’ new paradigm?’ These factors may account for the difficulty that psychiatrists had in searching for other explanations, and for their disregard of any opposing opinions. Authors who wrote against Spiritism did not quote any sources of contrary views. Debates between physicians from both sides were available only in lay publications. Most explanations found for the wrongly deduced conclusions about Spiritist madness were published in the contemporary literature, but were ignored. An interesting example is the work of Osório César. A physician of the Juquery Hospital, he published the book Misticismo e Loucura (Mysticism and Madness) in 1939, in which mediums were described as neuropathic and hysteric. Authors who supported ‘Spiritist madness’ referred to this book quite commonly, but they did not mention his subsequent works (César, 1941, 1942) at all. In these publications, César declared that most mediums did not present any kind of mental pathology and that in his previous work he had made a ‘serious mistake [. . .] due to hasty psychological analysis of the patients and of phenomena’. He continued: ‘Psychiatrists are mistrustful people and they have the bad habit of frequently classifying ideas, facts that conflict with common sense of the time with a hint of madness.’ Odilon Galloti (1935), Professor of Psychiatry in Rio de Janeiro, said: In my opinion, Spiritism is scarcely ever a straight cause of psychopathy [. . .]. In general, it works as a pathoplastic factor, it conditions the shape of mental disorders. [. . .] In 10 years of my practice, I had 6,400 patients 18 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) and in only one case could I make a diagnosis of Spiritist-related delusion. I confess I don’t know whether the evolution of the case confirmed my hypothesis or not. Aníbal da Silveira (1944), psychiatrist at the Juquery Hospital, said in an interview: With regard to Spiritism, in no way can it be considered a cause of mental diseases. [. . .] It’s time to be reasonable and make such scientific prejudice vanish. [. . .] Of course mediumism [. . .] consists of the release of mental automatism. [. . .] Pathologic mental automatism represents the main source of hallucinations or delusions, which characterize most mental diseases. However, the difference between the types of automatism is like that between deep sleep and coma, or the muscular flexibility of a contortionist and that resulting from central nervous system injury. Pinto de Carvalho (1939), psychiatrist at the School of Medicine of Bahia, stated: ‘I am being openly untruthful if I say that I have seen many mental victims of Spiritism.’ He also gave an assurance that he had never seen a case of ‘Episodic Spiritist Delusion’, as Professor Roxo called it. In addition, he criticized the lack of explicit criteria when collecting data for statistics on Spiritist madness. Finally, Hélio Gomes (1946), Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Brazil, declared: The fact that a person presents mental disturbances after having attended one or more Spiritist sessions does not prove that this is the cause of alienation. It is possible that the person was already ill, but in the prodromic or initial phase of the mental disease. Methodological problems in the history of ‘Spiritist madness’ Precise definition of ‘Spiritist madness’ No study or research is valid without a precise definition of the madness supposedly caused by Spiritism. While many psychiatrists saw a myriad of examples, other psychiatrists said they had never seen one in decades of clinical practice. Frequently it was sufficient if a family member said that the patient had attended Spiritist centres, or that he was interested in Spiritism, or that the family said that his disease was due to Spiritism, and it was then already considered the cause of that mental disease (Guimarães Filho, 1926; Marques, 1929; Ribeiro and Campos, 1931; Rocha, 1896). It is well known that the cultural context of patients influences the content of hallucinations and delusions. Thus, the content of psychotic symptoms could simply be related to the fact that Spiritism was popular at that time in history, in the same way that many patients today have symptoms related to the internet, or cloning, and so on. A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 19 Precise definition of Spiritism The word Spiritism was created by Kardec (1857/1994) to specify a doctrine he conceived in the middle of the nineteenth century, distinguishing it from other spiritualist beliefs. However, authors of the time used the term Spiritism to refer to an array of religious expressions: candomblé, voodoo, clairvoyant, popular shamans, Christian Rationalism, etc., as well as Spiritism itself. At times, psychiatrists made a distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ Spiritism, but there was no precise definition to either version. ‘High Spiritism,’ frequently exempted from criticism and even acclaimed, generally applies to Charles Richet’s metapsychics, and to the studies of William Crooks, Cesare Lombroso, Oliver Lodge and Alfred Russell Wallace (Pacheco e Silva, 1950b; Rocha, 1896). One of the Spiritism centres most commonly mentioned by critical psychiatrists was the Redentor Center in Rio de Janeiro, although it clearly stated that Kardec’s principles were not accepted there: ‘that messy, unfortunate and perverse thing, under this name, has been practised until now in every corner of the world, called Kardecist Spiritism’. The centre was presumed to be the main focus of spiritist activity because its members declared themselves supporters of ‘Rational and Scientific (Christian) Spiritism’. The group was often mentioned because it was fairly influential and, moreover, it fitted the issue in question. It considered that all cases of madness derived from ‘spiritual obsession’ and offered quite violent ‘treatment’ consisting of restraining the ‘obsessed individuals’ and, not infrequently, ‘punishing them severely’ (Centro Espírito Redemptor, 1927). In Taubaté in 1885 there were reports of disturbed and agitated behaviour among a group that practised strange religious rituals, different from any practice of Spiritism. Nevertheless, the participants said they were in communication with spirits and the incident was notoriously known in the country as a ‘epidemic insanity induced by Spiritism’ (Rocha, 1896). Despite the repeated attempts of Spiritists to distinguish between these varied practices, misinterpretation of concepts persisted. Systematic investigation of the consequences of any of these practices was hindered by considering all people who observed such heterogeneous religious expression as a single group. Precise definition of activities to be investigated Even if Spiritism had been defined precisely, it would still be necessary to consider the range of activities involved in Spiritistic observation. For instance, Spiritist practice could comprise attending lectures, reading books, receiving passes, prayers, being a medium, attending mediumistic gatherings, voluntary work, and so on. Only by considering individual activities would it be possible to determine whether any of them was liable to disturb the sanity of participants. 20 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) Prevalence comparison of spiritist and other religious practices among ‘mad people’ and the population The reality that the number of Spiritist ‘mad people’ was increasing could be related to the simple fact that the number of Spiritists was also increasing (as was indeed the case at the time). If the prevalence of Spiritists among the ‘mad people’ were similar to the prevalence of Spiritists in the population, no relationship between Spiritism and madness could be established. Risk of spreading clinical observation to non-clinical population Psychiatrists in their clinical practice have contact with individuals with various forms of mental disorder, perhaps especially at the beginning of the twentieth century when the focus of attention of psychiatry was severe cases of hysteria and psychosis. If a psychiatrist’s patients are his sole contact with Spiritists, his sample of that religious group is biased. It would be more meaningful to consider the social-demographic and psychiatric profiles of Spiritists in the social group and to compare them with the remaining group. Although Spiritism was mainly a religion of the middle class, psychiatrists contended that it spread most among the ‘uneducated and unfortunate’ class. Association is not causation Even if all steps were followed, finding greater prevalence of Spiritists among ‘psychopaths’ would not necessarily demonstrate a causal relationship. In a cross-sectional survey, it is very difficult to establish time relationships to association (Hennekens and Buring, 1987). In other words, did the person ‘become mad’ after converting to Spiritism, or did he seek ‘treatment’ in Spiritist centres because he felt somehow disturbed? In considering these questions, three points should be borne in mind: (1) there was great lack of psychiatric services available to the population; (2) even today, patients frequently look for ‘alternative’ treatment; and (3) many Spiritist centres assured people that they could help in the treatment of mental diseases. Nevertheless, when the first results of a study match one’s interests and prejudices, deeper analysis and other hypotheses are often dismissed, so the results of superficial analysis are declared meaningful (Chalmers, 1994). Solving the conflict Until the mid-twentieth century, the prevailing position in psychiatry was to withstand Spiritist and mediumistic practice in general. The historic outcome of the solution of the conflict is still an open question that our group continues to investigate. Lopes (1979) argued that the change came about because of psychiatrists broadening their anthropological knowledge. This was doubtless influenced by the work of the French ethnologist Roger Bastide in Brazil, in the A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 21 1950s and 1960s. For many years he studied Afro-Brazilian cults (that were based on mediumistic experiences). He demonstrated the biases and ethnocentrism that influenced previous studies on the subject. He concluded that, although mental pathology explains some cases, ‘possession trance is sociological before pathological’ (Bastide, 1978). Henceforth, psychiatric theory and practice started developing cultural sensibility, also influenced by the development of transcultural psychiatry and ethnopsychiatry (Lewis-Fernández and Kleinman, 1995; Martins, 1969; Ribeiro, 1982). This allowed a more careful approach to the issues, being less prescriptive and more respectful towards cultural and human variations. Conclusion Although we have emphasized the importance of epistemological factors in the study of ‘Spiritist madness’ in Brazil, this does not mean that they are the sole nor the main factors. Epistemology is merely one perspective from which the problem can be approached. Our study shows the importance of a critical approach to organized knowledge and to standard practice – even if they seem ‘evident’ and defended by important ‘authorities’. One must realize that the complexity of the real world frequently challenges and overrides the current attempts of scientific explanations derived from controlled environments. The recognition of limitations to scientific knowledge must be balanced against mystification and overenthusiasm. The unfounded idea that science goes far beyond its actual limits is still strong today. For this reason, social and political problems are constructed as if they were scientific, and ‘solutions’ are offered in a simplistic way which ignores the complexities of the real-life social and political issues in question (Chalmers, 1994). Finally, Popper (1995) emphasizes a humble intellectual posture, since from every solution to a problem, new unsolved problems arise. He said: I believe that it would be worth trying to learn something about the world even if in trying to do so we should merely learn that we do not know much. This state of learned ignorance might be a help in many of our troubles. It might be well for all of us to remember that, while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal. Notes 1. Information on Kardec’s works and on the spiritist doctrine can be found on the following home-pages (in several languages): www.spiritist.org and www.geocities.com/Athens/ Cyprus/1579/ 2. Professor of Legal Medicine at the School of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro (the most important in Brazil at the time), honorary member of the Anthropological Society of Paris and Legal Medicine of France. In 1933 he received the Lombroso Award from the Royal 22 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(1) Academy of Medicine in Italy. Curiously, Cesare Lombroso was a mordant critic of Spiritualism, but at the end of his life he investigated it extensively with Eusápia Paladino (a famous medium), and finally accepted the spiritualist theory. Lombroso’s last published book (1909/1983), Ricerche su Fenomeni Ipinotici e Spiritici, summarizes his researches in the field; this was translated into Portuguese, and also English (with the title After Death – What?). University Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, President of the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene, associated member of the Société MédicoPsychologique de Paris and honorary president of the International Committee of Mental Hygiene. University Professor of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine and Surgery of São Paulo (now University of São Paulo (USP), today’s largest university in Brazil). 1864–1933. Founder of the Juquery Hospital, a milestone in public health history of the state of São Paulo. Founder of the first psychoanalysis society in South America. In 1918 he became University Professor at today’s University of São Paulo. 1862–1906. Ethnographer, criminologist, pathologist, sociologist, pioneer in African studies in Brazil. He played a crucial role in the implementation of legal medicine in Brazil. Lombroso considered him ‘apostle of criminal anthropology in America’ (Anonymous, 1906). Professor of Public Medicine at the University of Rio de Janeiro and Director of the Legal-Medical Service of Rio de Janeiro. Four psychiatrists (Henrique Roxo, Franco da Rocha, Pacheco e Silva, Pernambuco Filho), two neurologists (A. Austregésilo and Faustino Esposel), one pathologist (Raul Leitão da Cunha), one lawyer (Tanner de Abreu), three sanitarians (Julio Porto Carrero, João Froes and Carlos Seidl) and one engineer (Everardo Backeuser). Professor of the School of Medicine at the University of Rio de Janeiro and physician at the National Hospital of Psychopaths. Process in which a disincarnate spirit causing harm and symptoms to someone would come forth and receive words of advice, according to Christian principles of conduct, to abandon its evil action on the patient. Spiritism and homeopathy were closely connected in Brazil for a long period of time (Silveira, 1997). References Anonymous (1906) Nina Rodrigues. Archivos Brasileiros de Psychiatria, Neurologia e Sciencias Affins, 2 (4), 283–8. Aubrée, M. and Laplantine, F. (1990) La Table, le livre et les esprits (Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès). Ballet, G. and Dheur [initial not given] (1903) Sur un cas de délire de médiumnité. Archives Générales de Médecine, 191, 1204. Bastide, R. (1978). O Candomblé da Bahia (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional). Bosh, R. (1931) Funcion social de las facultades de medicina contra la supersticion y el curandeirismo. In Actas da Segunda Conferência Latino-Americana de Neurologia, Psychiatria e Medicina Legal (São Paulo: Officinas Graphicas do Hospital de Juquery), Vol. 1: 29–34. Braude, A. (1989) Radical Spirits (Boston: Beacon Press), 10–31. Caldas, M. (1929) As causas e a prophylaxia do suicidio. Archivos Brasileiros de Hygiene Mental, 2 (3), 158–9. Cardeña, E., Lyinn, S. J. and Krippner, S. (2000) Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence (Washington DC: American Psychological Association). A. MOREIRA-ALMEIDA ET AL.: ‘SPIRITIST MADNESS’ IN BRAZIL 23 Carvalho, P. (1939) O dever do médico perante o doente. A Tarde, Salvador, (9 June), 2, 4. Cavalcanti, P. (1934) Estado mental dos médiuns. Doctoral thesis, Faculdade de Medicina, Recife. Centro Espírita Redemptor (1927) Espiritismo Racional e Scientífico (Christão). 5th edn (Rio de Janeiro). César, O. (1929) Misticismo e Loucura (São Paulo: Oficinas Gráficas do Juqueri). César, O. (1941) Fenomenologia supranormal. Revista Paulista de Medicina, 19 (5), 49–73. César, O. (1942) Experiências metapsíquicas, com provas fotográficas, sobre algumas curiosas formações teleplásticas. Revista Paulista de Medicina, 20 (3), 7–28. Chalmers, A. (1994) A Fabricação da Ciência (São Paulo: Editora Unesp). Claude [initial not given] and Cantacuzène, J. (1936) Note sur un essai de prophylaxie des délires sipirites. 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Allan Kardec and His Research Program ALLAN KARDEC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH PROGRAM IN PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES ALEXANDER MOREIRA-ALMEIDA1 1 Federal University of Juiz de Fora School of Medicine Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil alex.ma@ufjf.edu.br ABSTRACT Allan Kardec was one of the first scholars to propose a scientific investigation of psychic phenomena but details of his life and his research work are not well known and have been misrepresented. This paper is a descriptive essay briefly presenting Kardec's biography, the first steps in his seminal research, and several epistemological/methodological guidelines he proposed to develop a comprehensive scientific research program to deal with psychic phenomena. Kardec raised and tested several hypotheses to explain mediumistic phenomena: fraud, hallucination, a new physical force, somnambulism (including unconscious cerebration and clairvoyance), thought reflection (including telepathy and super-psi), discarnate spirits and several other theories. He accepted that fraud, hallucination, unconscious cerebration and thought reflection could explain many phenomena regarded as mediumistic. However, when mediumistic phenomena were studied as a whole, the best explanation would be the spiritist hypothesis, a spiritual origin for the phenomena. He named this hypothesis “Spiritism”. Some guidelines he proposed to advance scientific research in psychical phenomena were: to use methods appropriate to the subject of investigation, to avoid both sterile skepticism and credulity, to be open to the novel, and to heed the need for a comprehensive and diversified empirical basis. He stressed the importance of theory for a scientific research program, and that facts are not enough to create certainty. Parapsychology/psychical research has much to gain in better knowing Kardec's and other pioneer's works, not just for a better understanding of the field's history, but also for potential scientific/philosophical tools that may be useful to move the field forward. Deeper studies on aspects of Kardec's work and life are warranted. INTRODUCTION Allan Kardec was a pioneer in proposing scientific investigation of psychical phenomena1 in the middle of the XIX century. To pursue that investigation he developed a research program, including a comprehensive theory he called “Spiritism”. Currently, the principle ideas of Spiritism have become a social movement spawning healing centers, charity institutions and hospitals involving millions of people in dozens of countries, most of them in Brazil (Aubrée & Laplantine, 1990; CEI, 2008; Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto, 2005). Despite the fact that Kardec’s books continue to be very popular, selling millions of copies, his research work and methods are still poorly known by both spiritists and parapsychologists. In both fields there is imprecise information and misunderstandings concerning his work with psychic experiences (Fodor, 1966; Melton, 1966). One probable major source for such misapprehension is a paper published by Alexander Aksakof (1875) when the first English translation of “The Spirit’s Book” (“Le Livre des Esprits” the first Kardec’s book on Spiritism) was published. Aksakof’s paper was entirely based on an interview with the medium Celina Japhet in 1873. This medium had worked with Kardec but later had 1 Although recognizing the possibility of specificities for each term, in this paper I will use quite liberally and interchangeably the words psychical, parapsychological and mediumistic to refer to the body of phenomena studied by parapsychology, psychical research, and spiritism. 136 Proceedings of Presented Papers Proceedings of Presented Papers of the Parapsychological Association Convention Allan Kardec and His Research Program severe conflicts with him. Alvarado has previously called attention to the fact that parapsychologists throughout the 20th century have held imprecise and dismissive views of spiritualists and spiritists. Often they report that spiritists “had simplistic, unitary views about the nature of psychic phenomena” (Alvarado, 2003:76-7). However, as this paper will show, a more in depth analysis of Kardec’s works reveals that this was not the case with him. The purpose of the current paper is to present a brief description of Kardec’s life and his first steps in the development of the research program he called Spiritism. I will also present some methodological/epistemological guidelines that Kardec proposed for a fruitful investigation of psychical phenomena. Intending to grasp more directly Kardec’s ideas and methods, and not what has been written about him, we focused this paper, as much as possible, on primary sources, that is, Kardec’s writings: his books and the twelve volumes of “Revue Spirite”, a monthly journal he edited and published from 1858 until his death in 1869. ALLAN KARDEC – A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Allan Kardec is a pseudonym for Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, a Frenchman who was born on October 3rd, 1804 (Martins & Barros, 1999; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979). From 1815 to 1822, he studied in Switzerland at the world famous Yverdon Institute, directed by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, the well-known Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who proposed the development of a science of education and emphasized that education should foster the individual's faculties to think for himself. Rivail, for several decades, was committed in advancing Pestalozzi’s pedagogy in France (Hess, 1991; Incontri, 1996; 2004; Pestalozzi, 2008; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979). From his return to Paris in 1822 until his first contact with mediumistic phenomena in 1854, Rivail worked mainly as an educator and writer, who published approximately 21 texts about education and schoolbooks on topics such as grammar and arithmetic. Rivail founded schools and worked as both a translator and teacher. He was a member of several scholarly societies such as the Historic Institute of Paris (Institut Historique), Society of Natural Sciences of France (Société des Sciences Naturelles de France), Society for the Encouragement of National Industry (Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale), and THE Royal Academy of Arras (Académie d'Arras, Société Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts). The latter awarded to him a prize of honor for an essay on education (Blackwell, 1996; Hess, 1991; Wantuil & Thiesen, 1979). Rivail always emphasized freethinking, religious tolerance, and the need for using reasoning and scientific knowledge. In a speech in 1834, commenting on the child who receives a good scientific education: “(...) Then, the children will no longer believe in souls from another world, nor in ghosts; they will no longer believe that ignis fatuus are spirits; they will no longer believe in fortune tellers; they will no longer believe in shooting stars as being the sign of the death of a person, (…) they will laugh at the superstitious credulity of the ignorant, their spirits will be widened contemplating the immense and without boundaries space, in which circulates many thousands of worlds (…)” (Rivail, 1998:83). By 1854, Rivail had been involved with studies on “animal magnetism” for more than 30 years (Kardec, 1858; Leymarie, 1875), but there is not much information regarding this involvement. Anna Blackwell, Kardec’s contemporary and translator of his spiritist books to English, stated that he “took an active part in the labours of the Society of Magnetism, giving much time to the practical investigation of somnambulism, trance, clairvoyance, and the various other phenomena connected with the mesmeric action” (Blackwell, 1996:11). In fact, it was among people involved with magnetism that Rivail had his first contacts with mediumistic phenomena in 1854. It was a magnetizer, Mr. Fortier, who first told Rivail, about turning tables. At first, Rivail was not interested in it because he thought that table’s movement could be due to some physical cause, some new physical force such as electricity or magnetism. Some months later, Rivail heard the claiming that tables could not just move but also answer questions. 137 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida Rivail answered: “I will believe it when I see it and when it has been proved to me that a table has a brain to think and nerves to feel and that it can become somnambulist. Until then, allow me to see nothing in this but a fable told to provoke sleep” (Kardec, 1890/1927:206). Figure 1- Allan Kardec’s portrait by Monvoisin (1790-1870) In 1855, another Rivail’s friend persuaded him to attend a mediumistic séance where he observed table turning and mediumistic writing using a basket (mediums lightly touched an overturned small basket with a pencil attached to it to write upon a sheet of paper placed beneath the basket) After this séance, he decided to start an in depth investigation of these phenomena. He attended regularly mediumistic séances with several mediums. “I understood from the beginning the gravity of the exploration I was undertaking. (…) the phenomena posed a complete revolution in ideas and beliefs. It was necessary therefore to act not lightly, but, rather, with circumspection, to be positive rather than idealistic, so as not to be carried away by illusions.”(Kardec 1890/1927:209). In 1857, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec, Rivail published the first report of his studies, “The Spirit’s Book” (“Le Livre des Esprits”). Since then, regarding issues related to Spiritism, Rivail started to be known as Allan Kardec. At the introduction of The Spirit’s Book, Kardec created the word “Spiritism”, that was later defined as: “Spiritism is a science that deals with the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world.”(Kardec, 1859/1999:6). The Parapsychological Association & The Society for Psychical Research Convention 2008 138 Allan Kardec and His Research Program Figure 2 – Fac simile of the first edition of “Le Livre des Esprits” (1857) In 1858, Kardec founded the Société parisienne des Etudes spirites, (Spiritist Society of Paris) and the Revue Spirite - Journal d'Études Psychologiques (Spiritist Journal – Journal of Psychological Studies). Kardec directed the society and the journal until his death in 1869. During Kardec’s last 15 years in which he devoted himself full time to the investigation of mediumship, he also published books on several aspects of Spiritism (Kardec, 1868; 1861/1986; 1864/1987; 1859/1999; 1865/2003), traveled to some French and Belgian cities to visit Spiritist groups (Kardec, 1862; 1864; 1864a) and was intensely involved in correspondence with people around the world interested in mediumistic phenomena (Fernandes, 2004). In the next sections, I will present some of Kardec’s first steps in developing a research program to investigate psychic phenomena. Here, I use “research program” as referred to by the philosopher of science Imre Lakatos (1970), who proposes that a science is characterized by a “scientific research programme” composed of a conceptual framework and guidelines to advance the scientific exploration of the subject investigated. Lakatos’ concept of “scientific research programme” has been one of the most relevant in the contemporary philosophy of science (Chalmers, 1982). SEARCHING FOR A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK TO EXPLAIN MEDIUMISTIC PHENOMENA Kardec did not accept the existence of the supernatural or miracles. He assumed that every phenomenon that happens in nature must have a natural explanation following some kind of natural law suitable to scientific investigation. Something may be unexplained, having its causes unknown at a certain historical period, but it is not unexplainable (Kardec, 1859/1999; 1868). Kardec stressed several times that we should be very careful in attributing to spirits all sorts of phenomena that are unusual or that we do not understand. “I cannot stress this point enough, we need to be aware of the effects of imagination (…). When an extraordinary phenomenon is produced – we insist – the first thought should be about a natural cause, because it is the most frequent and the most probable.” (Kardec, 1860a:77) When facing table turning and other mediumistic phenomena, Kardec proposed to use a scientific approach to understand them: 139 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida “As a means of elaboration, Spiritism proceeds in exactly the same course as the positive sciences2; that is to say, it applies the experimental method. Some facts of a new order present themselves, which cannot be explained by known laws. It teaches us to observe, compare (…), deduces the consequences, and seeks for useful applications; it establishes no preconceived theory. (...) It is rigorously exact to declare that Spiritism is a science of observation, and not the product of imagination. Not until its studies were based on experimental methods did the sciences begin to make serious progress. Although it was believed that this method could only be applied to matter, it is just as well applied to metaphysical things” (Kardec, 1868/2003:18)3. It is worth noting that Kardec’s books on Spiritism contain basically the theories he developed based on his explorations of mediumistic manifestations, as well as the rational foundations for these theories. His books discuss what he called the “philosophy” that emerged from his investigation. They sometimes contain some brief case reports or empirical evidence to support the theory. He presented case reports and other empirical evidence in the Revue Spirite. In that journal he described many cases witnessed by him or by one of his many correspondents around the world. These cases were usually not reported in as detailed a manner as was usual later at the Society for Psychical Research. He used to present reports and to discuss possible explanations of all sorts of physical and mental mediumistic manifestations. He regularly presented hypotheses in the Revue to be tested and analyzed by its readers. Kardec considered this journal as a “trialground”. Many texts and theories first published at the Revue were later published in a developed form in one of his books (Kardec, 1858i; 1868). Below I will present and briefly discuss Kardec’s first approach to mediumistic phenomena and the main hypotheses he explored in searching for an explanation for the whole group of observed psychical phenomena. In opposition to statements from some parapsychologists that spiritists/spiritualists were not able to realize an alternative explanation to mediumistic phenomena beyond survival, Kardec, like several others, considered a diversity of possible hypothesis, including the influence of the minds of both the mediums and sitters (Alvarado, 2003, Ballou, 1853; Barkas, 1876; Harrison, 1873). Fraud: Kardec recognized that many alleged mediumistic manifestations were caused by trickery or charlatanism (Kardec, 1861/1986). He stressed that it is necessary to be always aware of the possibility of fraud and one should denounce it without ceremony. “Spiritism has only to gain in exposing impostors” (Kardec, 1959:96). This having been said, Kardec denied that trickery could explain all kinds of observations. Below I list some of the reasons he provided to support this claim: - Often the accusation of fraud is raised with no evidence, but just because someone had witnessed an order of facts that he/she is not able to explain (Kardec, 1859/1999). - Because many mediumistic manifestations can be imitated, it does not imply that there cannot exist a real manifestation. “Abuses exist everywhere; but the abuse of a thing is no argument against the thing itself” (Kardec, 1861/1986:33). It is hard to think that thousands of people involved with mediumship around the world are involved in the same fraud (Kardec, 1859/1999). - Fraud is much more probable with mediums that make mediumship a source of pecuniary profit, especially when mediums state that they are able to produce mediumistic manifestations at their will. Kardec was always in strong opposition to paid mediums: 2 By “positive science”, Kardec meant empirical sciences (“based on facts”), in opposition to “purely speculative” ones (Kardec, 1864a). 3 Always when available, quotations were extracted from published English versions of Kardec’s works. Otherwise, I translated from French original and Portuguese versions. When necessary to improve fidelity to French originals, I made some changes to passages from published English versions when necessary to improve fidelity to French originals. The Parapsychological Association & The Society for Psychical Research Convention 2008 140 Allan Kardec and His Research Program - - “We are well aware that our severity with regard to mercenary mediumship has gained us the ill-will of those who are tempted to make of spiritism a source of worldly gain, and of their friends (...) we do not see how any one can maintain that there is not a greater risk of fraud and of misuse of the mediumistic faculty, when the latter is made a matter of speculation, than when it is exercised with entire disinterestedness and if our writings have contributed, in France and other countries, to discredit the turning of mediumship into a trade, we believe it will not be the least of the services they will have rendered to the cause of Spiritism” (Kardec, 1861/1986:391). Physical mediumship is more subject to fraud than intellectual mediumship, because in the latter it is possible to judge the content of the mediumistic communication. It is hard to explain as fraud when mediums show knowledge of facts, even private affairs, and personality traces of late people unknown to them and to anyone at the séance (Kardec, 1861/1986). Hallucination Kardec accepted that superstitious or credulous persons often accept as psychic experiences what actually are hallucinations due to a physiological cause. But he stressed that hallucination can not explain all kinds of anomalous perceptions. According to Kardec, the best way to exclude hallucination is when the perception has what he called “intelligent signs”, i.e. when it provides evidence of veridical and verifiable information unknown to the person who has the experience (Kardec, 1860; 1861/1986): “every apparition that does not give any intelligent sign should definitely be listed as an illusion” (Kardec, 1861:196). In addition to these signs, hallucination becomes an unlikely explanation when “several persons are witnesses to the same fact” or when a table is seen to be raised in the air and “is broken in its fall to the floor” (Kardec, 1861/1986:34-5). Between the middle of the XIX century to the beginning of the XX century, it was common to consider mediums and anyone involved with spiritualism as mentally insane. Kardec wrote several papers refuting this claim using several methodological and epidemiological arguments that are discussed elsewhere (Almeida, 2007; Moreira-Almeida & Lotufo Neto, 2005; Moreira-Almeida et al., 2005). Physical Cause As explained in the previous section, physical cause was the first explanation raised by Kardec when he was told about table turning. But the physical manifestations he observed were not merely mechanical; they showed will and intelligence: “when those movements and raps gave proof of intelligence, when it was recognized that they responded to our thoughts with complete freedom, one was impelled to draw the conclusion that, if every effect has a cause, every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause. Is it possible to accept that a fluid produces these phenomena unless one admits that there must be an intelligent fluid? (Kardec, 1859/1999:26). After reaching the conclusion that the phenomena observed were real and caused by an intelligent source, investigating the source of this intelligence became Kardec’s main focus. He discussed in more depth three potential sources of mediumistic manifestations: medium’s mind (somnambulism), sitter’s mind (though-reflection), and discarnate spirits (Kardec, 1861/1986). Kardec considered these as high value hypotheses: “Two objections (to the spiritist theory) still remain to be examined, the only ones really deserving of the name, because they are the only ones founded on a rational basis. Both admit the reality of the material and moral phenomena of Spiritism, but deny the intervention of spirits in their production” (Kardec, 1860/1996:52-3). 141 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida I will now present those Kardec’s comments about the two hypotheses that he regarded as of high value: Somnambulism and Though-reflection. Somnambulism (Unconscious activity, including clairvoyance) According to this theory, while the medium is in an altered state of consciousness (“waking somnambulism”), there is “a momentary superexcitement of his mental faculties, a sort of somnambulic or ecstatic state, which exalts and develops his intelligence” (Kardec, 1861/1986:39). “In this state the intellectual faculties acquire an abnormal development; the circle of our intuitive perceptions is extended beyond its ordinary limits; the medium finds in himself, and with the aid of his lucidity, all that he says, and all the notions transmitted by him, even in regard to subjects with which he is least familiar in his usual state” (Kardec, 1860/1996:53). Kardec recognizes that this explanation is true for many alleged “spiritual communications” and that in all mediumistic communications there is an influence of THE medium’s mind (Kardec, 1861/1986); however he denies that this hypothesis could explain all kinds of observed mediumistic phenomena, among them: - “the way in which the basket moves under the influence of the medium, through the mere laying of his fingers on its edges, and in such a manner that it would be impossible for him to guide it in any direction whatever. This impossibility becomes still more evident when two or three persons place their fingers at the same time on the same basket, for a truly phenomenal concordance of movements and of thoughts would be required between them, in order to produce, on the part of each, the same reply to the question asked. And this difficulty is increased by the fact that the writing often changes completely with each spirit who communicates, and that, whenever a given spirit communicates, the same writing re-appears” (Kardec, 1860/1996:30). - Mediumistic answers to questions posed by sitters. Many times these answers are “notoriously beyond the scope of the knowledge, and even of the intellectual capacity, of the medium, who, moreover, is frequently unaware of what he is made to write, since the reply, like the question asked, may be couched in a language of which he is ignorant, or the question may even be asked mentally” (Kardec, 1860/1996:30). - “we cannot comprehend how trance should make a man write who does not know how to write, or give communications through the tilting and rapping of tables, or the writing of planchettes and pencils. (…) the proofs of the action of an intelligence independent of the medium are so incontestable that they leave us in no doubt in regard to it. The fault of the majority of theories raised in the early times of spiritism is the drawing of general conclusions from isolated facts” (Kardec, 1861/1986:40). Thought Reflection (Telepathy, Super-Psi) Kardec called “thought reflection” what Myers would call “telepathy” some decades later (Gauld, 1968). Bellow we have Kardec’s description of this theory: “The medium is a sort of mirror, reflecting all the thoughts, ideas, and knowledge of those about him; from which it follows that he says nothing which is not known to, at least, some of them” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54). This hypothesis was Kardec’s initial supposition for the origin of the intelligent source that produced mediumistic phenomena (Kardec, 1859/1999). Following his investigations, Kardec accepted that this may happen and actually happens (Kardec, 1858d), but it cannot explain the whole body of available empirical evidence: The Parapsychological Association & The Society for Psychical Research Convention 2008 142 Allan Kardec and His Research Program “proved by the evidence of facts that the communications of the medium are often entirely foreign to the thoughts, knowledge, and even the opinions of those who are present, and that they are frequently spontaneous, and contradict all received ideas” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54). “How, again, can reflection of thought explain the production of writing by persons who do not know how to write? replies of the widest philosophical scope obtained through illiterate persons? answers given to questions propounded mentally, or spoken in a language unknown to the medium? and a thousand other facts, leaving no doubt as to the independence of the intelligence which manifests itself? The theory of reflection can only be held by those whose observation is of superficial and limited character” (Kardec, 1861/1986:38). As the source of the communication was not found to be among the sitters, Kardec finally discussed a last hypothesis, one that would currently be called “super-psi” or “super-ESP” (Braude, 1992; Gauld, 1961;1982): “The radiation of thought, they say, extends far beyond the circle immediately around us; the medium is the reflection of the human race in general; so that, if he does not derive his inspirations from those about him, he derives them from those who are further off, in the town or country he inhabits, from the people of the rest of the globe, and even from those of other spheres” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54). In answering to this hypothesis, Kardec uses an epistemological reason, that, when, for a given domain of facts, there are two rival theories with similar explanatory power and other heuristic properties, one usually should choose the simpler of them (Hempel, 1966; Chibeni & Moreira-Almeida, 2007): “We do not think that this theory furnishes a more simple and probable explanation than that given by Spiritism; for it assumes the action of a cause very much more marvelous. The idea that universal space is peopled by beings who are in perpetual contact with us, and who communicate to us their ideas, is certainly not more repugnant to reason than the hypothesis of a universal radiation, coming from every point of the universe, and converging in the brain of a single individual, to the exclusion of all the others” (Kardec, 1860/1996:54-5). Regarding theories of reflection and somnambulism, Kardec presented one final aspect against them: “We repeat (and this is a point of such importance that we cannot insist too strongly upon it), that the somnambulistic theory, and that which may be called the theory of reflection, have been devised by the imagination of men; while, on the contrary, the theory of spirit-agency is not a conception of the human mind, for it was dictated by the manifesting intelligences themselves, at a time when no one thought of spirits, and when the opinion of the generality of men was opposed to such a supposition. We have therefore to inquire, first, from what quarter the mediums can have derived a hypothesis which had no existence in the thought of any one on earth? And, secondly, by what strange coincidence can it have happened that thousands of mediums, scattered over the entire globe, and utterly unknown to one another, all agree in asserting the same thing?” (Kardec, 1860/1996:55). Miscellaneous Theories Kardec also discussed a number of other theories developed to explain mediumistic manifestations: cracking-muscle, collective soul (a kind of collective unconsciousness), pessimist theory (only the devil could communicate), optimist theory (only good spirits), and the unispiritist or monospiritist theory (only the Holy Spirit). We will not discuss them HERE because of space constraints. It is possible to read Kardec’s writings on these topics in some of his books (Kardec, 1861/1986; 1860/1996; 1859/1999). 143 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida Spiritist Theory Kardec accepted that fraud, hallucination, physical causes, unconscious cerebration and ESP were the best explanations for many experiences regarded as mediumistic, however, he argued, they were not able to explain the whole body of observed phenomena. As transcribed above, Kardec describes that the mediumistic manifestations themselves proposed the theory that the source of those phenomena were extracorporeal intelligences, i.e. spirits. However, since the beginning of his investigations, Kardec recognized that one should not accept blindly what is said in mediumistic communications (Kardec, 1860b; 1890/1927). We should always use reason and empirical evidence to judge any theory, proposed by mediums in trance or those in more normal states of consciousness. Following are some phenomena that occurred that encouraged Kardec to accept the survival hypothesis as the best explanation. This list encompasses some important mediumistic experiences not properly explained by other hypotheses: - Mediums producing accurate information previously unknown or in opposition to their previous opinion and that of any sitter (Kardec, 1858c,d,f; 1859a,b) - Basket writing when several mediums at the same time just barely touched the basket with the tip of their fingers - Mediums exhibiting previously unlearned skills such as: o illiterate mediums writing (Kardec, 1861/1986) o writing with calligraphy similar to the alleged communicating personality when that person was alive (Kardec, 1858a,b; 1860a; 1861/1986) o painting, or drawing by mediums who do not have any training or do not show this skill in their regular lives (Kardec, 1858c,g) o poetry (Kardec, 1859c) o xenoglossy or xenography (Kardec, 1860/1996; 1861/1986) - Mediumistic communications showing a wide range of personal psychological characteristics (such as character, humor, conciseness, choosing of words, likes, dislikes, etc) related to the alleged communicating personality (Kardec, 1858e; 1859d,e,g). KARDEC’S GUIDELINES TO DEVELOP A RESEARCH PROGRAM IN PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA Kardec often discussed epistemological and methodological issues relevant to the development of a comprehensive scientific research program to deal with psychical phenomena (Kardec, 1861/1986; 1859/1999; 1868). He proposed several guidelines that may be useful for contemporary researchers. Some examples are: The use of methods appropriate to the subject of investigation Kardec believed it is not appropriate to borrow, with no adaptation, research methods from physical sciences (such as physics and chemistry), because the latter deal with inert matter. In the investigation of mediumship we are dealing with an intelligent phenomenon. The Parapsychological Association & The Society for Psychical Research Convention 2008 144 Allan Kardec and His Research Program “The physical sciences rest upon the properties of matter, which can be manipulated at will; their phenomena use material forces for agents. Spiritist phenomena have, as agents, intelligent beings who have independence and freewill, who are not subject to our caprices, and who, therefore, escape laboratory experimentation and calculations, remaining outside the domain of physical sciences. Scientists deceived themselves when they attempted to experiment with spirits as they experiment with voltaic batteries. They were unsuccessful, as they well should, because they presupposed an analogy that does not hold. Then, without going any further, they concluded, by negation, that spirits do not exist.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:22) The investigation should be strongly based on qualitative studies of spontaneous phenomena: “They want the phenomena to happen at their will. One cannot give orders to spirits; it is necessary to await their will. It is not sufficient to say “Show me such a fact, and I will believe.” It is necessary to persevere and allow time for the phenomena to take place spontaneously. (...) The sought-after phenomenon will happen when one least expects it. To the eyes of the assiduous observer the events will be countless and will corroborate one another, but he who believes that touching the crank is sufficient to make the machine go deceives himself completely. What does a naturalist do when he wishes to study the habits of an animal? Does he command it to do a certain thing, so as to observe it at his will? No, because he knows well that the animal will not obey him. He observes the spontaneous behavior of the animal and records them when they take place. Simple good sense dictates that one must proceed in the same way with the spirits, particularly since they are intelligent beings with more independence than animals.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:27) The unwarranted and positivistic view that to make authentic science it is necessary to measure and to use a laboratory (Chalmers, 1982) has many times been advocated by scientists in psychical research/parapsychology, since the XIX century to the present time (Moreira-Almeida, 2006; Parot, 1993: Rhine, 1937). It is worthwhile to remember that Darwin’s theory on natural selection, one of the most powerful and most widely accepted scientific paradigms of contemporary science, was developed using qualitative methods (Darwin, 1958; Ghiselin, 1969). Avoiding sterile skepticism and credulity; openness to the new Many researchers in psychical research and parapsychology seem to be waiting for “definitive proof”, a kind of perfect evidence that would be convincing to any observer. For instance, J. B. Rhine stated “truth must be established, before we can accept it, upon actual experimentation, critically and deliberately conducted, which yields results that leave only one possible interpretation” (1937:7). This appears to be especially true among skeptics of the paranormal as a whole and in the controversy regarding survival research (Cook, 1986; Ducasse, 1962; Moreira-Almeida, 2006; Richet, 1924; Rhine, 1956). For more than a century, philosophers of science have shown that this goal is unattainable in any scientific enterprise (Chalmers, 1978; Popper, 1963; Kuhn, 1970): “scientific hypothesis or theories cannot be conclusively proved by any set of available data, no matter how accurate and extensive. (…) even the most careful and extensive test can neither disprove one of two hypotheses nor prove the other: thus strictly construed, a crucial experiment is impossible in science” (Hempel, 1966:27-8). (…) “a favorable outcome of even very extensive and exacting tests cannot provide conclusive proof for a hypothesis, but only more or less strong evidential support, or confirmation” (…)(Hempel, 1966:33). 145 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida Several times, Kardec recognized that there is no way to provide definitive proof that would be accepted by everyone: “there are skeptics who deny even the evidence and to whom no phenomenon or argument would be convincing enough (…)Many would be disturbed, if the evidence forced them to believe, for confessing that they had been in error would wound their self-pride” (Kardec, 1859/1999:27). Kardec asserted that a real scientist should be open to accept well-based hypotheses and evidences even when they are in disaccord with one’s previously held beliefs. He said that this was the case when he accepted the theory of reincarnation (Kardec, 1858h; 1862a). Following is one of his writings on the progressive nature of Spiritism: “"[Spiritism] is, and must be, essentially progressive, like all sciences based upon the observation of facts (…) Therefore, it does not regard anything as an established principle unless it has been patently demonstrated, or inferred logically from observation. (…) [It] will always assimilate all progressive doctrines, provided they have attained the condition of practical truths, and left the domain of utopia (…). Going hand in hand with progress, Spiritism will never be superseded, since if new discoveries happen to show that it is in error on any point, it would modify itself on that point" (Kardec, 1868:29). According to Kardec, we should be “on guard against the exaggeration from both credulity and skepticism” (Kardec, 1858i:2). Regarding credulity: “Exaggeration is always hurtful; in Spiritism, it engenders a too blind confidence in everything that proceeds from the invisible world; a confidence which sometimes becomes puerile, causing people to accept, too easily, and unreasoningly, what reflection and examination would have shown them to be absurd or impossible. Unfortunately, enthusiasm finds it hard to reflect, and is apt to get dazed. Such adherents are more hurtful than useful to the cause of spiritism; they are unfit to convince, because their judgment is not trustworthy; they become the easy dupes, either of spirits who play tricks on them, or of men who take advantage of their credulity. (…) such persons unintentionally put arms into the hands of the incredulous” (Kardec, 1861/1986:26). The need for a comprehensive and diversified empirical basis Kardec often stated the need for a wide and diversified empirical base. He stressed that a researcher should try to collect all kinds of phenomena that could be related to one’s subject of study (Kardec, 1858i). According to him, many mistakes and unsatisfactory theories were produced because investigators have based their studies and conclusions in a narrow range of observations covering a poor variety of phenomena (Kardec, 1861/1986). Enlarging the empirical base, making it more comprehensive, was essential to scientific revolutions such AS those produced by Galileo and Darwin (Darwin, 1958; Moreira-Almeida & Koenig, 2008). Kardec requested that reports of mediumistic manifestations from all over the world be sent to him (Kardec, 1858:i). He reported receiving “communications from almost a thousand serious spiritist centers, scattered over highly diversified areas (Kardec, 1864/1987:8). Fernandes, (2004), investigating the amplitude of Kardec’s correspondence, surveyed Kardec’s publications on Spiritism and found published references of contacts related to Spiritism from 268 cities in 37 countries (in Africa, Asia, Europe, and from the three Americas). The Parapsychological Association & The Society for Psychical Research Convention 2008 146 Allan Kardec and His Research Program The importance of a theory to a scientific research program In contradiction with the positivistic thought of his time, Kardec highlighted that just collecting facts is not enough to make science, that a theory is essential to make the observed facts understandable and to guide future research (Kardec, 1859e,f,h): “Every science should be based on facts, but these, by themselves, do not make a science. Science is built from the coordination and logical deduction of facts; it is the collection of laws that govern the facts” (Kardec, 1958i:3). He describes his role in the development of Spiritism as “that of an attentive observer who studies facts to seek their cause and extract their consequences” (Kardec, 1868:23). He also called attention to the fact that proposing complex names to certain phenomena is not the same as explaining them (Kardec, 1859/1999). Another important point is that the theory needs to be comprehensive, explaining a large range of related phenomena and not just a few kinds: “[a physician who had proposed the theory of cracking muscle] has proclaimed a verdict without having examined the matter in dispute, and must be allowed to regret that scientific men should be in a hurry to give, in regard to what they do not understand, explanations disproved by the facts (…) the characteristic of a true theory is its capability of accounting for all the facts to which it refers; if contradicted by a single fact, the theory is seen to be erroneous or incomplete” (Kardec, 1861/1986:36-7) Facts are not enough to promote conviction Also diverging from the positivistic prevailing view, Kardec stated that facts alone many times are not sufficient to persuade even bona fide skeptics. Preconceived objections should be first addressed, after that, one should move gradually from what is well known and accepted to more challenging topics. This strategy was also used some decades later by Frederic Myers (2001; Kelly et al., 2007) to present his studies on psychical research. “It is generally supposed that, in order to convince, it is sufficient to demonstrate facts. Such would indeed appear to be the most logical method; nevertheless, experience shows us that it is not always the best (…) All methodical teaching should proceed from the known to the unknown” (Kardec, 1861/1986:20-1) “It may even be said that, for most of those who are not previously prepared by reasoning, physical phenomena have but little weight. The more extraordinary these phenomena are, and the more they diverge from ordinary experience, the more opposition they encounter; and this, for the very simple reason, that we are naturally prone to doubt whatever has not a rational sanction; each man regarding such a matter from his own point of view, and interpreting it in his own way. (…) a preliminary explanation has the effect of disarming prejudice, and of showing, if not their reality, at least, their possibility. Those, who begin by an explanation, comprehend before they have seen. Since one has acquired the certainty that the phenomena are possible, the conviction of their reality is easily arrived at.” (Kardec, 1861/1986:26-7) “When one sees a fact one does not understand, the more extraordinary it is the more suspicion it arouses and the more our thought tries to attribute an ordinary cause to it. However, if it is understood, it is soon acknowledged as rational, and its marvelous or supernatural character just vanishes.” (Kardec, 1859/1999:44). 147 Proceedings of Presented Papers Moreira-Almeida CONCLUSIONS Few researchers in parapsychology and psychical research know Allan Kardec and his works on psychical phenomena. In addition to this lack of awareness, there are also several misunderstandings and incorrect facts regarding his life and studies. Referring to a related subject, Alvarado wrote that many “important aspects of our history are sometimes forgotten by modern practitioners”, he emphasized the need to remedy the fact that many “scientifically trained parapsychologists suffer from this lack of historical memory” (Alvarado, 2003:87). We are not aware of any academic study focused on Kardec or his works. There is evidence that Kardec deserves to be remembered as a French intellectual who developed pioneering research on mediumistic and other psychic phenomena. He was one of the first to propose and to pursue a scientific approach to a subject that used to be considered metaphysical or unsuitable for an empirical and rational investigation. He advanced the main theories to explain paranormal experiences that are still debated in parapsychology today. He also produced several very informative discussions on epistemological and methodological aspects of scientific exploration of psychical phenomena. It would be worthwhile to know his work better, not just for a better comprehension of the history of parapsychology/psychical research, but also for potential scientific/philosophical tools that may be useful to move the field forward.More and deeper studies on aspects of Kardec's work and life are warranted. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Joan Koss-Chioino, Sílvio S. Chibeni, Emma Bragdon, and Dora Incontri for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. REFERENCES Aksakof, A. (1875, August 13). 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