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The history of
the
rediscovering of
the soul |
Work in
analysis:
Evidence of
Survival
Author:Carlos
Antônio Fragoso
Guimarães
Publisher: USE/MADRAS
1st
edition: 2004
I never make use
of the word
“believe”. The
reason being
that if someone
comes to the
point of
believing, it is
to do
with an
emotional state.
We say we come
to evidences.
(J. B. Rhine)
What was
the
path of the
studies
of the soul’s
properties
and
immortality?
This
is
the
question that
drove the
pencil of Carlos
Fragoso
Guimarães,
a
psychologist
and
teacher
in Psychology
from
Paraiba,
a student
of
religious
phenomena,
Jungian thought,
philosophy,
mythology, and
PSI
phenomena.
He has rightly
won
the
Literary Contest
"José
Herculano
Pires”,
the
work
of young
Carlos
is
one of the
pleasant
surprises
among the
books
published in
the last
ten years.
Written
in a clear
and
understandable
way,
he
introduces
his
readers
on
a
timeline
from the
birth
of spiritist
works up to
laboratory and
field
experiments
made
by
contemporary
parapsychologists.
It is
an
informative book,
introduction
to
all those
who want to know
about the
universe of
spiritist
research,
metaphysics
and
parapsychology.
Guimarães
has
in
his text
a
"shadow" side,
but
not
dark and
which
appears
throughout the
book.
It is to do with
Padre
Oscar
Quevedo,
with his
anti-spiritist
theories
(perhaps
more
anti-spiritist
than
parapsychological,
as shown by
the
author).
Sometimes
Guimarães
treats
him
with
irony,
sometimes
with
incisiveness.
Quevedo’s main
weapon
against the
phenomena
considered
spiritual
is an
unconsciousness
developed
by itself,
capable of
producing
phenomena
worthy of
sentient beings
whom
Prof.
Carlos
firstly
criticises with
logic
and then
with
irony:
unconscious
"wonder"
and
unconscious
" super
powerful"
are some
of the
nicknames for
the
psychological
concept
unduly
used
abundantly by
the
Jesuit Father.
Quevedo
aside,
Carlos
Guimarães
begins his
work
with
an
obvious posture:
we would not
have
Meta-psychics or
Parapsychology
without
spiritist
research which
was very much
criticised at
its time.
Complexity
is the
word that
characterizes
the development
of the
author's thought
It presents
the
leading
researchers
and
mediums
of the London
Dialectical
Society
and
explains
the foundation
and
works
of the
Society
for
Psychical
Research
in
London.
Crossing
the
Channel,
the
author presents
Charles
Richet,
and
following
his
famous
periods
of psychic
research,
comes
to
Mesmer,
of the
phenomena
of
dissociation
explained
by the
suggestion
and
the
cortical
inhibition,
he mentions
the
clarity
and the dual-sight.
Guimarães
goes through
Myers’
explanation
for
mediumship,
enters the
spiritist
period
building
a
panel of
comparison
between
the
Kardecian
thought
and the
theories
of
authors
subsequent to
him.
On page
46
I find a
mistake,
the author
attributes
the belief in
the
connection
between body and
soul
through
the
hypophysis, or
pituitary
gland to
Descartes.
In
the book
"The
Passions
of the
Soul",
pages
88
and
89
of my
edition,
the
French
philosopher
treats
the subject
with ambiguity,
but the
organizer
portrays
a correspondence
in
which
it is clear
that
Descartes
refers to
the
pineal gland
and not to
the
pituitary,
due to
the
property of
mobility
relative,
which the
latter does not
have due to its
anatomical
position.
The
scientific
period of
Richet
is
filled with
researches,
results
and
notable authors.
Guimarães
mentions them
but he
cannot resist
making
a
parallel
between
the
Quevedians
theories
and
some of the
experiments
of the authors
mentioned (Crookes,
Barrett,
Lodge,
Geley,
Wallace,
Myers,
Hodgson,
Bozzano,
etc.).
Chapter 2
is
a
collection
of
psychic
researches.
Ectoplasmy,
partial and
complete
materialisations
are
presented,
accompanied by
photographs
that
became
famous.
Guimarães
also presents
some phenomena
that are
explainable
by animistic
forces,
without
abiding
exclusively by
the
spiritist
theories.
Complexity
is
a
word
that
characterizes
the development
of his
thought
in the book.
The
ambivalent
relationship
that the
father
of
psychoanalysis
had
with
psi phenomena
A
section
is
devoted
to
researches
by William
Crookes,
and
all the
controversy
surrounding this
famous
British
scientist
is presented,
documented and
discussed.Chapter
3
is
devoted
to
points
of contact
between psychic
research
and
psychoanalysis.
Carlos
describes
the
ambivalent
relationship
that the
father
of
psychoanalysis
had
with
psi phenomena,
refers
to the work
on
telepathy,
censured
by
psychoanalyst
colleagues
and
engages himself
with
the numerous
incursions
that
Jung
did
and
experienced
in relation
to
psychic
phenomena.
The reader
finds
an
interesting
description
of the
construction of
a text entitled
"Seven
Sermons to the
Dead”.
The
section
is
concluded
with
another
researcher
IMI,
Gustave
Geley,
and his
experiments with
Frank
Kluski and
Eva
Carrière.
Again
the
phenomena
of physical
effects are
described,
materializations
of
hands
in
paraffin
and
even
the predictions
of the
accidental
death of
Geley through
mediumship,
which
came
to happen.
The photos
of
Geley’s
postmortem dated
from
1924 appear
at the British
College
of
Psychic
Sciences.
Chapter
4
presents
the
epistemological
break
in
psychical
research
which
led
to
Parapsychology.
Guimarães
shows
the
origins and
ideas
of the Rhine
couple,
the
work of the Duke
and the
employment
of the Rhine’s
results
by the
Stargate program,
of
North
American
espionage
and
counterespionage,
at the height
of the
Cold War.He
mentions
the
case of a
Marine
named
Joseph
McMoneagle
who
succeeded
in
curious results
with
his
bi-corporeity
ability,
which was
renamed as
Out of
Body
Experiences
by
parapsychologists.
Chapter
5
takes up
the
question of
immortality
within
PSI
research.
Carlos
discusses
the
curious
ability
of
scotography,
the ability of
Ted
Serious
to
create images
with his
mind on
photographic
plates.
Of course
he has
limitations
of
scotography and
shows
contemporary
phenomena
photos of
apparitions
(as
the case
of Mrs
Brown
and
the
El-Zeitun
Phenomenon)
which
are
seen
by
a
large number
of witnesses
prior to them
being
photographed,
frustrating
Quevedian’s
attempt
to
reduce
this type
of
phenomenon
to
scotography
and
animistic
abilities.
Hernani
Guimarães
Andrade
and
spontaneous
memories of
past lives
Chapter
6
provides
other
contemporary
phenomena that
suggest
spiritual
action.
The
faces
of
Bélmez
de la Moraleda
(Spontaneous
Teleplasty), for
example,
impresses very
much indeed
due to
its recurrence
and
its association
with
other
spiritual
phenomena,
such as
recording
of
paranormal
voices
on
tape recorders.
In
this
chapter
he also
examines
the
phenomena
of
Poltergeists,
with
examples
from the
70’s and 80’s.
Chapter
7
is dedicated
to
works with
dying patients
and
their
evidences
of the
survival
of
the soul.
Karlis
Osis,
Latvia,
Kübler-Ross
from Switzerland
and
Moody
Jr.
from the United
States
are
some
of
the authors
quickly
introduced,
since his
work
is enormous.
Carlos
Guimarães
quickly mentions
the
positive results
of
Out of
Body
Experiences
obtained
by
Charles
Tart, and
reminds us of
the
ability
which
these people
have of reading,
while
sleeping, five
digit
numbers
written on
cards which are
placed in
places
inaccessible to
vision.
Not satisfied,
Guimarães
recalls
the
research
of Ian
Stevenson
into
spontaneous
memories of
past lives,
reminding us of
the contribution
made
by
Hernani
Guimarães
Andrade
to
these
researches and
reports a
verified
example
of
"birthmarks"
(a
person is
born
with
scars
associated
with violent
events
that occurred
in
the past life).
The chapter
is
concluded
with
a
brief
note
on
"past
life therapy”.
The
last
chapter of the
book
deals with
the
transpersonal
psychology,
its
objects
of study and
development.
Jung,
Maslow,
Rogers
and
other
notable
psychologists
make the
scene.
The
self-imposed
strict
limits by
psychologists
are
extended
and the
peak experiences
and other
phenomena
of consciousness,
previously
hidden
under the
carpet
of
psychological
prejudice,
are
studied
and discussed.
I read the book
in a couple of
days.
I was
pleased
to find
an
author
of
genius,
able
to instruct
those interested
in
Spiritism
and
Parapsychology
in regards to
the
recent
developments
in
psychic
research
without
forgetting the
nexus
of connection
with the
work
of
the pioneers
in this
field.
(1)
Humbert
defines
shadow
as
a
"figure
of the
other",
present
in
dreams
and
fantasies
and which
have
“character
traits
and
manners of doing
things
that
are
the counterpart
of the
conscious
personality”.
I use the
term
with
a
literary license.
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