GHOST PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION AT BUENOS AIRES 1. by Alejandro Parra

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1 GHOST PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION AT BUENOS AIRES 1 by Alejandro Parra rapp@fibertel.com.ar Since the invention of the camera, people have been attempting to take photographs of ghosts. What could be better proof of their existence than the ability to capture a spirit s image on film? Unfortunately, many spirited efforts have led to failure and, even worse, outright fraud. Trickery was introduced in the early days of the photographic process, which coincided with the heyday of the Spiritualist movement. Many photographers started shooting photographs that included faint images that were alleged to be his customer s deceased loved ones. The Roca Museum National Institute for History Research, located in Recoleta district, Buenos Aires, Argentina, was the stage of the Images of the Occult: Spiritism and Paranormal Photographic Exhibition organized by the Paranormal Psychology Institute (IPP) at Buenos Aires. The event joined together professionals spiritists and open-minded skeptics two of them outside of Argentina, PA members Dr. Bruno Fantoni from Brazil and psychologist Luis Espinoza Paul from Peru. All of them have attended to the panels and the presented papers during those two weeks. These exhibition was also supported by Ministry of Culture of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, The Latinoamerican Psi Information Agency ALIPsi a virtual area of the IPP ( The Biodynamic Research Association, Inc. a technology and research centre, and the oldest Kardecian spiritist society named La Fraternidad, established in According the history researcher and exhibition curator Fabiana Savall approximatly 2,600 visitors attended along two weeks, some of them also filled a Book Visitor, where many people were invited to write down their opinions about the exhibition. As the Museum is an institution supported by the Argentine Government, the entry was free of charge and open to all. Just as organizers had expected, many Argentine and international press agencies, TV and radio programs, and three newspapers announced the exhibition. The case of the most impressive Argentine medium Osvaldo Fidanza, in whose séances stones and other objects had appeared, and other internationally well known mediums (i.e. D.D. Home, Eusapia Palladino, Eileen Garrett, and others), and press articles of haunted places taken from newspapers and popular magazine were also showed. Two IPP members, Fabiana Savall and Sergio Matteucci, were the art designers of images exhibition and posters. Their hard work was impressive. The greatest interest was contributed by the photographs. Some of the main thematic areas included engravings, classic illustrations, photos from the end of the 19 th and 20 th century showing typical physical phenomena (i.e. tables and mediums levitations, Katie King apparitions, physical effect mediums and ectoplasmies), curious spontaneous photographs from all over the world that present spectral extras in front of the camera, photographic images of ball of lights, orbs and other anomalies detected after the pictures were developed. Thirty old and rare psychical research books and magazines and a number of ancient instruments collection used to contact with spirits, besides other curiosities provided by the IPP archives and by two spiritualist societies La Fraternidad and Confederación Espiritista Argentina, which joined together all Argentine spiritist societies, and a number of ghost hunting equipments (i.e. TriField EM Meter, Ionizer Meter, video and audio-recordings) provided by The Biodynamic Research Association were also be part of the exhibition. The most controversial proofs of materialization are the series of photographs taken by Spiritists societies at Buenos Aires, showing the successive phases of the phenomenon; and the hollow moulds of hands and feet, taken in paraffin wax. A reproduction of these phenomena was also be shown. One could observe curious objects, such as three-legged tables utilized when one could still find physicaleffect mediums capable of moving them or a ouija-boards collection. The same for the slates used to produce the so called direct writing. Surely some of the shown may have been the one utilized by American medium Henry Slade when he visited Buenos Aires (circa 1887). A room s corner could be visited dedicated to the Intrumental Transcommunication (ITC) voices-focused, which included auriculars to listen voices taperecording from Spanish and Argentine ITC amateurs. 1 Proceedings of the conference series and panels was not published, however, they are avalaible on eleven DVDs. 1

2 The PA member Bruno Fantoni, a psi reseacher who lives in São Paulo, Brazil, gave us the opening conference remarks Is possible the scientific research of the apparitions and ghosts?, which focused on the Census of Hallucinations carried out by the SPR s members Gurney, Myers and Podmore and its influence on the scientific approach of the apparitional experience. The exhibition included a number of conferences and panels. Many of the apparition-related topics, such as psychic/spiritist photography, psychomanteum, ITC, mediumship, survival and super-psi discussion, sense of presence, and hallucination vs. ghostly experience were discussed by history and cultural researchers, anthropologists, physicians, psychologists, and other paranormalists and open-minded skeptics who were invited as speakers. The exhibition was complemented by an agenda of conferences and panels, which were followed by attentive groups, ready to ask questions and even offer personal testimonies. A phenomenological approach of the apparitional experiences (PA member Luis Espinoza), paranormal and anomalous visions before and after the death (PA member Alejandro Parra), ghosthunter s tools in which psychologist Oscar Barros mentioned how to measuring and detecting ghostly presences, the Philip s case and ghost research in Argentina (parapsychologist Juan Gimeno), a neurophysiological and psychological approach of the mediumship and apparitional experience (PA member Daniel Gómez Montanelli), Western and Eastern perspectives of the apparitional experience and religion (Dr. Bernardo Nante), aliens and abduction experience (PA member Gustavo Cia) and lights and UFOs sightings as an apparitional-related phenomena (anthropologist Patricio Parente), a cultural and psycho-social approach of the folk ghosts at Buenos Aires (history researcher Fernanda Gil Lozano), the controversies among scientists and Kardecian spiritists in the nineteenth century (history researcher Juan Pablo Bubello), Instrumental Transcommunication as a modern table tiping (parapsychologist Raúl Drubich), and the Moody s psychomanteum experience as an unusual sensory experience (psychologist Ana Inés Avruj) were the topics which took also part in the conferences. Apart of this, there was a book presentation: Psicología de las Experiencias Paranormales (Psychology of the Paranormal Experiences) edited and authored by PA member Alejandro Parra, which was introduced by psychiatrists Dr. Vicente Rubino and Dr. Sabino Luna, and four panels, such as Is the apparitional experience evidence of survival after death? (speakers were Juan Gimeno, psychologist Juan Carlos Argibay, Luis Espinoza Paul, and Juan Manuel Corbetta), Apparitional experiences and hallucinatory experiences: Where do we draw the borderline? (speakers were Dr. Antonio Luna, Alejandro Parra, and medium Juan Antonio Durante), The ouija board, mediumship and home circles: Danger or innocuous illusion? (speakers were Raul Drubich, Juan Antonio Durante and Daniel Gomez Montanelli), and a closing panel Ghosts in all times and places where Gustavo Cía, Fernanda Gil Lozano, Bruno Fantoni, and anthropologist Pablo Wright were the speakers chaired by Corbetta. Photos 4_OSVALDO_FIDANZA\0395_11.jpg= Argentine physical effects medium Osvaldo Fidanza (circa 1919) detalle_salon5.tif= Spiritists moulds of hands and feets taken in paraffin wax. parra_fantoni_corbetta.tif= Three PA members Alejandro Parra, Bruno Fantoni and Juan Manuel Corbetta before the Opening remarks. detalle_salon1.tif= Exhibition of old and rare books and magazines detalle_salon7.tif= Table tiping used in home circles (circa 1880) catalogo_imagenes_oculto.jpg= Catalogue of photos of the IPP s event. 2

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