Atlantic University's Scholar in Residence

Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D., Atlantic University

“Marley was dead: to begin with . . . Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” Sorry, I could not resist citing this. Instead of reviewing my life a la Ebenezer Scrooge and focusing on mistakes and negative actions, I am inspired at the end of this year to review my intellectual work as an exercise in self-reflection and positive thinking.

In addition to having moved to new offices for Atlantic University, I am happy to say that 2012 has been a productive year for me. While my position as Scholar in Residence in Atlantic University is not funded to be full-time, I tend to work as if it was for the simple reason that I enjoy what I do. It is great to have the opportunity to devote myself to my work. Atlantic University is supportive of these endeavors mainly by the title of Scholar in Residence, an office with a peaceful environment, a printer, and a nice sense of belonging.

Consequently I have time to devote to writing. I use that time  to focus on articles that I send to many publications, but mainly to refereed journals. Among the latter are the Journal of Scientific Exploration and History of Psychiatry. It is my hope that this work, abstracted in many databases, will help me publicize Atlantic University and to associate the institution with the standard peer-review tradition of academic work.

Let me give you a summary of my work during the last year.

Articles

Most of my working time has been spent writing papers. Among those published during 2012 in refereed journals are:

(First author, with N.L. Zingrone). Classic Text No. 90: ‘The Pathology and Treatment of Mediomania’, by Frederic Rowland Marvin (1874). History of Psychiatry, 23, 229-244.

Distortions of the past. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 26, 147-168.

Explorations of the features of out-of-body experiences: An overview and critique of the work of Robert Crookall. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 76, 65-82.

(First author, with R. Evrard). The psychic sciences in France: Historial notes on the Annales des Sciences Psychiques. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 26, 117-140.

(First author, with M. Nahm and A. Sommers). Notes on early interpretations of mediumship. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 26, 855-865.

As you can see the majority of my work these days is focused on aspects of the history of psychical research. Other than increasing my own knowledge and understanding of the past–which by itself is a powerful motivator–my purpose is to rescue from oblivion the work of our predecessors. For example, the paper entitled “The Psychic Sciences in France,” written with clinical psychologist Renaud Evrard, fulfils this function because it serves as a reminder of the existence and content of the journal Annales des Sciences Psychiques, first published in 1891 (http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/03/20/an-old-psychical-research-journal-the-annales-des-sciences-psychiques/). The article is also an attempt to combat the language barrier, because the French literature is neglected by many current English-language students of psychical research.

During the current year I published in the Paranormal Review, the magazine of the London-based Society for Psychical Research, the last two papers of a twelve paper series on subtle bodies and out-of-body experiences in which I presented reprints of texts from the old spiritualist and psychical research literatures. These were: “Historical Notes on Doubles and Travelling Spirits: XI. Hector Durville” (http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/07/04/historical-perspectives-on-out-of-body-experiences-and-related-phenomena-ii-hector-durville-and-phantoms-of-the-living/) and “Historical Notes on Doubles and Travelling Spirits: XII. Ernesto Bozzano.” In addition two other papers of mine appeared in the Paranormal Review. These were entitled “Introducing and Situating Psychical Research: Eleanor M. Sidgwick’s Perspective” and “Mediumship and Dreams.”

I have written other papers about mediumship during the current year that should appear in books published in 2013. “Mediumship and Psychical Research” is an entry for a reference work compiled by Christopher Moreman that will come out next year published by Praeger. The work is entitled: The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World. Another paper, “A Review of Qualitative Mediumship Research,” on which I am second author with Kylie Harris, is destined for another anthology about mediumship scheduled to appear next year.

I was also happy to contribute a paper to a special issue of the Italian journal Luce e Ombra prepared to commemorate the 150^th birth anniversary of Ernesto Bozzano, well-known for his bibliographic studies of psychic phenomena (http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/11/14/celebrating-ernesto-bozzanos-150th-birth-anniversary/). The paper’s title is “Studiare Ernesto Bozzano: Suggerimenti per Futuri Studi Storici” (Studying Ernesto Bozzano: Suggestions for Future Historical Studies). I recently completed preparing an English-language version of this paper that I plan to submit for publication soon.

Blogs

Including this one, during 2012 I have posted 61 blogs on various topics. The blogs are centered on parapsychology, with emphasis on historical aspects and on specific research projects appearing mainly in scientific and scholarly journals. Some of this has been my own work, but I have also tried to feature the work of others. On occasion I have also covered some conferences, and my own conference presentations.

I am aware that many will see the blogs as too dry and even boring, but my purpose is not to entertain but to spread around information about serious academic developments that sometimes do not get much publicity. The following are examples of blogs about scientific research:

Psychological Study of Mediums http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/03/15/psychological-study-of-mediums/

Poltergeist Article by William G. Roll and Colleagues http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/04/24/poltergeist-article-by-william-roll-and-colleagues/

Study of Spiritual and Paranormal Experiences http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/05/01/study-of-spiritual-and-paranormal-experiences/

New Experiments by Dean Radin and Colleagues http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/09/11/new-experiments-by-dean-radin-and-colleagues/

Pranic Healing Study http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/11/20/pranic-healing-study/

As I said before, I particularly enjoy presenting information about various aspects of the history of psychic phenomena. This includes the work of past students of the topic, as well as discussions of books, and the listing of resources through bibliographies, and the presentation of some of the holdings of relevant virtual libraries. Some examples posted during 2012 are:

Digital Libraries with Holdings of the Old Literature-V. http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/03/18/digital-libraries-with-holdings-of-the-old-literature%e2%80%94v/

Recent Articles About the History of Mesmerism: 1 http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/05/13/recent-articles-about-the-history-of-mesmerism-1-2/

Charles Richet and Unconscious Mental Activity http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/05/26/charles-richet-and-unconscious-mental-activity/

Books From the Past: I. William H. Harrison’s Spirits Before Our Eyes (1879) http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/06/25/books-from-the-past-i-william-a-harrisons-spirits-before-our-eyes-1879/

Studying the Life and Work of Frederic W.H. Myers http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/07/11/studying-the-life-and-work-of-frederic-w-h-myers/

Conventions

2012 also presented me with the opportunity to participate in three interesting conventions. The first one was the 9th Bial Foundation Symposium on “Sleep and Dreams,” held in Porto, Portugal, in March 28-31. I was invited to participate in a session of papers about “Dreams and Anomalous Cognition.” I presented on “Dream ESP Studies Before Maimonides: An Overview, 1880s-1950s,” in which I reviewed some conceptual discussions and research on the subject published before 1960. I was also an author in a research paper presented at the convention, “Absorption Experiences and their Relationships to Dreams, Imaginary Companions and Parapsychological Experiences,” by Nancy L. Zingrone, myself, and Natasha Agee.

The second convention was held by the Parapsychological Association, in Durham, North Carolina, from August 9th to 12th. I was in charge of the convention program, that is, receiving submissions, selecting referees to evaluate them, and getting back to the submitters either rejecting the paper, or accepting it, usually with requested changes. This means I spent some months working on this before the convention, and then put together the abstracts of the papers accepted for presentation for a booklet and for a Web document (http://www.parapsych.org/uploaded_files/pdfs/00/00/00/00/30/2012_abstracts_of_the_parapsychological_association_convention.pdf).

For the same convention I had both the pleasure and the sadness to organize a panel in honor of Dr. William G. Roll, who died recently (http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/07/24/honoring-william-g-roll-at-the-parapsychological-association-convention/). Furthermore I prepared a poster paper about Dr. Roll in which I reviewed some aspects of his use of the old psychical research literature (“Attending to the Past: William G. Roll and the Old Psychical Research Literature”).

I was also an author in a research paper presented as a poster. This was part of Dr. Christine-Simmonds Moore’s research program on the relationship between synesthesia and ESP and other experiences (C. Simmonds-Moore, C.S. Alvarado, and N.L. Zingrone, “The Relationship Between the Synesthesias and Anomalous Experiences”).

The third convention took place at Chesham, Buckinghamshire (near London) between August 24-26. It was organized by the Scientific and Medical Network and was entitled “Scientific and Spiritual Perspectives on the Subtle Body” (https://www.scimednet.org/subtle-body-conference/). I presented “The Double: Concepts of Subtle Bodies in the Spiritualist and Psychical Research Literatures” (see the abstract in the link above).

***

I must close hoping that you will forgive my self indulgent inventory of my 2012 work. Perhaps you will accept the excuse that this exercise serves both as a reorganization of old and new goals, and as a reminder of the importance of doing what fulfills you.

My best wishes to those of you who celebrate Christmas, and, with apologies to Dickens and Tiny Tim, good New Year wishes to us, every one!

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Filed under: Biography, Conventions, Lectures, Recent Publications

Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D., Atlantic University

The current issue of the Italian journal Luce e Ombra, entitled “Ernesto Bozzano a 150 Anni dalla Nascita” (Ernesto Bozzano at 150 Years from Birth), commemorates the 150th birth anniversary of Italian writer and psychical researcher Ernesto Bozzano (1862-1943). Bozzano, who I have discussed in several papers and in blogs (http://carlossalvarado.edublogs.org/2012/08/14/books-from-the-past-ii-ernesto-bozzanos-musica-trascendentale/; http://www.parapsych.org/blogs/carlos/entry/35/2012/2/new_article_about_ernesto_bozzano.aspx) was known for his strong defence of survival interpretations of psychic phenomena and for his writings presenting many cases from the spiritualist and psychical research literatures.

According to Luca Gasperini’s (2012) article about Bozzano published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration: “Ernesto Bozzano . . . was probably the most important Italian representative of psychical and spiritualistic studies before the 1940s, as well as one of the few to emerge on the international scene . . . He was at the center of an intense network of correspondence with Italian, European, and American intellectuals, receiving an average of 200 letters a month, and was furthermore one of the few Italian scholars to have been named an honorary member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), and the Institut Metapsychique International . . . ”

The issue opens with an unsigned editorial actually written by Cecilia Magnanensi, a member of the journal’s editorial board who I had the pleasure of meeting some years back when I visited Bologna. She states: “At one hundred and fifty years from birth, taking place exactly on January 9 1862 at Genoa, we need to remember Ernesto Bozzano, not only because we have inherited his bibliographic heritage, but it is also a figure to be rediscovered. The new generation, either of scholars or of persons interested in paranormal phenomena, do not know well his role in the history of psychical research and much less his work.” At the end of the editorial there is a useful chronology of selected events in Bozzano’s life ranging from his birth to his death prepared by historian of Italian psychical research Massimo Biondi.

The titles of the twelve papers appearing in the issue are:

*Studiare Ernesto Bozzano: Suggerimenti per Futuri Studi Storici [Studying Ernesto Bozzano] by Carlos S. Alvarado

*L’Importanza di Bozzano nella Storia della Parapsicologia [The Importance of Bozzano in the History of Parapsychology] by Giovanni Iannuzzo

*Nota su Bozzano Lettore di Spencer [Note on Bozzano as Reader of Spencer] by Luca Gasperini

*Dal Materialismo allo Spiritualismo [From Materialism to Spiritualism] by Giuseppe Vatinno

*Bibliografia Aggiornata su Ernesto Bozzano [An Up to Date Bibliography about Ernesto Bozzano] by Luca Gasperini

*Poltergeist e Infestazione: I Criteri Fondamentali di Bozzano [Poltergeists and Hauntings: Bozzano's Fundamental criteria] by Giulio Caratelli

*Oggetti con Anima: L’Enigma della Psicometria [Objects with Soul: The Enigma of Psychometry] by Silvio Ravaldini

*La Monografia La Crisi della Morte di Ernesto Bozzano [The Monograph The Crisis of Death by Ernesto Bozzano] by Luca Gasperini

*Le “Esperienze di Bilocazione” e le OBE di Oggi [The "Experience of Bilocation" and Today's OBE] by Paola Giovetti

*Le Visioni dei Morenti [Visions of the Dying] by Cecilia Magnanesi

*Visione Panoramica: Breve Storia di una Breve Ricerca [Panoramic Vision: A Brief History of a Brief Research] by Fulvia Cariglia

*Dei Fenomeni di Psicocinesi in Relazione a Eventi di Morte [The Phenomena of Psychokinesis in Relation to Death Events] by Massimo Biondi]

While all papers touch on Bozzano, a few of them are not studies about him but are discussions of issues in which Bozzano is mentioned (papers by Cariglia, Giovetti, Magnanensi). The rest are general (Alvarado and Iannuzzo) or discussions of specific issues and phenomena (Biondi, Caratelli, Gasperini [two papers], Ravaldini, and Vatinno).

Studying Bozzano is not easy for we have to deal with what Gasperini has referred to in this issue as his “large bulk of publications.” I would recommend readers new to Bozzano, and to psychical research in general, to start reading the editorial and then move to Iannuzzo’s paper about Bozzano and the history of parapsychology because he discusses general aspects of Bozzano’s work and ideas. For example, he says that Bozzano had a fair scientific education but one based on the 1800s “based on the texts of Darwin and Heckel or, in any case, on scientific works of fin de siecle.” He further states that Bozzano had an important drawback, while psychical research continued to change “influenced by the progress in other fields or research and kept always affirming an ‘interdisciplinary’ vision of parapsychology, Bozzano continued to work and study in a completely autonomous way in terms of other scholars and other directions of psychical research.”

According to Iannuzzo: “Bozzano considered paranormal phenomena as natural objects to be classified. . . . For Bozzano the reality of a paranormal phenomenon came above all from the number of observations independent of the phenomenon itself. Already the fact of finding a psychic phenomenon in someone independent from another-also in a historical and cultural sense-demonstrated implicitly the existence of such phenomenon.”

While Iannuzzo criticizes Bozzano for uncritical acceptance of cases in his analyses disregarding quality of evidence, he praises him for presenting massive bibliographical overviews of many topics. In Iannuzzo’s view no one else has presented such a synthesis of the psychical research literature, “in practice the most gigantic review ever done.”

Readers will find Gasperini’s short updated bibliography of works about Bozzano useful. He presents two lists of secondary references consisting of studies and comments about Bozzano. I was glad to see that he listed eight of my papers in the first list and 12 in the second one (it is always nice to see that someone is following your work that closely, particularly in this highly specialized literature).

I was pleased, and honored, to have been invited to contribute to the issue. This was particularly the case because I was the only non-Italian author in the issue. In my paper I offered suggestions for the historical study of Bozzano. Regardless of the valuable work of such authors as Gasperini, Iannuzzo, and Ravaldini there is more research to do about personal and intellectual aspects of Bozzano, Bozzano’s studies of specific phenomena and topics, the guiding conceptual principles of his work, his use of rhetoric, his analytic method, and the reception of his work. I wrote: “This will not only increase our knowledge of Bozzano’s work and of Italian psychic studies, but would also contribute to a more complete perspective of the history of psychical research.”

Some of the things I suggested in my paper are discussed in some of the articles. An example is the article of Dr. Massimo Biondi (pictured at the right), with whom I correspond frequently and write papers. He focused on Bozzano’s writings about psychokinetic phenomena around the moment of death). Other authors were Giulio Caratelli (hauntings and poltergeists), Luca Gasperini (mediumistic communications about the experience of death), and Silvio Ravaldini (psychometry).

Other authors have interesting contributions such as Bozzano as a reader of Herbert Spencer (Luca Gasperini). They present general discussions about specific phenomena that are not strictly studies of Bozzano, but that are also valuable because they put Bozzano in context and help us remember the richness of the psychical research literature. These are discussions of out-of-body experiences (Paola Giovetti), deathbed visions (Cecilia Magnanensi), and panoramic visions when close to death (Fulvia Cariglia).

The articles in this issue of Luce e Ombra will help readers learn more about Italian psychical research in general, and about Ernesto Bozzano in particular. Bozzano was described by Giuseppe Vatinno as “an organizer, a naturalist classifier, sort of a Carl Linneus” of a new science. My congratulations to the Director of Luce e Ombra, Silvio Ravaldini, as well as to others who contributed to the crafting of this issue (mainly Cecilia Magnanensi, Massimo Biondi).

 

Some Writings About Ernesto Bozzano (for a bibliography of Bozzano’s writings see http://www.bibliotecabozzanodeboni.it/bibliografie/bibliografia_bozzano.htm)

Alvarado, C.S. (1987). The life and work of an Italian Psychical Researcher: A review of Ernesto Bozzano: La Vita e L’Opera by Giovanni Iannuzzo. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 81, 37-47.

Alvarado, C. S. (2005). Ernesto Bozzano on the phenomena of bilocation. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 23, 207-238. http://atlanticuniv.academia.edu/CarlosSAlvarado/Papers/318846/_2005_._Ernesto_Bozzano_and_the_phenomena_of_bilocation._Journal_of_Near-Death_Studies_23_207-238

Alvarado, C. S. (2007). Remarks on Ernesto Bozzano’s La Psiche Domina la Materia. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 25, 189-195. www.medicine.virginia.edu/…/Alvarado-Bozzano-La-Psiche-Domina-2007-JNDS-Bozzano.pdf

Biondi, M. (1984). Pagine di appunti di Ernesto Bozzano [A page of notes about Ernesto Bozzano]. Luce e Ombra, 84, 156-164.

Bozzano, E. (1924). Autobiographical sketch. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 18, 153-155.

Di Porto, B. (no year). Ernesto Bozzano. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Vol. 13, pp. 578-580). Rome: Treccani.http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ernesto-bozzano_(Dizionario-Biografico)/

Gasperini, L. (2009-2010). Ernesto Bozzano: Tra Spiritismo Scientifico e la Ricerca Psichica [Ernesto Bozzano" Between Scientific Spiritism and Psychical Research]. Laurea thesis, University of Bologna.

Gasperini, L. (2010). L’annosa disputa Bozzano-Morselli [The age-old dispute Bozzano-Morselli]. Luce e Ombra, 110, 290-306.

Gasperini, L. (2011). Ernesto Bozzano, i “popoli primitivi” ed Ernesto de Martino (Ernesto Bozzani, “primitive people,” and Ernesto de Martino]. Luce e Ombra, 111, 17-25.

Gasperini, L. (2011). Criptestesia o ipotesi spiritica? Ch. Richet ed E. Bozzano a confronto [Cryptesthesia or spiritistic hypothesis? The confrontation of Ch. Richet and E. Bozzano]. Luce e Ombra, 111, 113-126.

Gasperini, L. (2012). Ernesto Bozzano: An Italian spiritualist and psychical researcher. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 25, 755-773.

Iannuzzo, G. (1983). Ernesto Bozzano: La Vita e l’Opera [Ernesto Bozzano: Life and Work]. Verona: Luce e Ombra.

Ravaldini, S. (1993). Ernesto Bozzano e la Ricerca Psichica: Vita e Opere di un Pioniere della Parapsicologia [Ernesto Bozzano: Life and Work of a Pioneer of Parapsychology]. Rome: Mediterranee. (For a review see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_n4_v59/ai_18445604/)

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Filed under: Biography, History, Recent Publications