Carmine Mirabelli
Carmine Mirabelli also known as Carlo Mirabelli or Carlos Mirabelli (born January 2, 1889 in Botucatu , Brazil , † April 30, 1951 in São Paulo ) was a spiritualist medium .
There is still public controversy about him to this day. Critics consider the reports of the Academia Cesar Lombroso to be unscientific, their opponents disagree and refer to reports of alleged paranormal phenomena, based on allegedly almost 400 experiments, recorded by witnesses. They should confirm Johannes Greber's theses of a "biophysical energy".
Life
Mirabelli's father was Luigi Mirabelli, a Protestant Italian pastor, and his mother Christina Scaccioto Mirabelli. The couple had another child, Tereza Mirabelli Eugenio, born in 1891. The mother died a few years later.
Carmine attended the Grupo Escolar Cardoso de Almeida school in Botucatu, the Colégio São Luiz in Itu and the Colégio Cristóvão Colombo in São Paulo. There he is said to have given a presentation in perfect Latin to teachers and classmates without knowledge of the language.
On February 22, 1914, Mirabelli claimed to see the ghosts of deceased relatives. In the same year, when he was an employee in a shoe shop of the Companhia de Calçados Villança , shoes are said to have moved paranormally in the shop in his presence only, there are no witnesses. Carmine was accused of demonic possession by the population and was a victim of public aggression.
Mirabelli was ordered to be admitted to a psychiatric institution, where he was observed for 18 days. Only here did Mirabelli want to become aware of his special abilities and offered himself for future spiritualistic experiments. It was known that Mirabelli mastered a few simple tricks of the art of sleight of hand.
Mirabelli founded the Centro Espírita São Luiz on August 25, 1917 .
Mirabelli was married four times and had several children. He has been detained several times for robbery and illegal medical practice as a spiritual healer. He was considered eloquent and communicative and valued nature. He also reported sleep-depriving anxiety. Mirabelli pursued a commercial profession and did not earn any money with his media skills. As he got older, his media skills partially decreased. Mirabelli died in a traffic accident and was buried in São Paulo.
Experiments, pros and cons
The "court of arbitration"
The Mirabelli reports sparked lively discussions in South America. A 20-member committee was formed to review his alleged paranormal abilities. Some members held chairs at universities or belonged to religious orders. Participants included a. the President of the Republic, Exz. Sousa, President, State Secretary Reynaldo Porchat, Senator Muniz Sodre and Professor of Medicine Olegario de Moura from the University of Sao Paulo. As a result of the detailed examination and hearing of witnesses, the arbitral tribunal identified the following points as speaking for the authenticity of the phenomena:
- the fact that the majority of the phenomena occurred in broad daylight
- the fact that the phenomena appeared to be seemingly uncoordinated and spontaneous on streets, squares, during the trip, in private homes and other places
- the intellectual diversity of Mirabelli's achievements as a medium
- the immediate "verification of authenticity" in each individual case
- the reports of persons whose honesty is beyond any doubt
The Academy for Mental Studies
In 1919 the industrialist Jose de Freitas Tinoco founded the Academia de Estudos psychicos "Cesar Lombroso" for Mirabelli's scientific research. He appointed a 15-member committee made up of professors, doctors, soldiers, lawyers and the like. a. and set up a laboratory with complete technical equipment. The investigator was the clinician Dr. de Castro. One of the conditions of the investigation was to take photographs of all the sessions. Mirabelli submitted to all other conditions, let himself be tied, sewn in, tied, sat half undressed and complied with every arrangement.
The investigation committee divides the findings into three main groups:
- A. medial speaking,
- B. automatic writing ,
- C. physical phenomena.
Out of a total of 392 experiments, there were 337 positive and 55 negative; H. no paranormal phenomenon was observed. Group A 189 positive, Group B 85 positive and 8 negative, Group C 3 positive and 47 negative. Of the 63 physical experiments, 23 were carried out in bright artificial light, 40 in daylight. All 392 attempts were made in 22 different locations. Of the 47 negative sessions, 35 were held outside the Cesar Lombroso Academy laboratory. 555 witnesses observed the medium, 450 of them Brazilians and 105 foreigners. In terms of occupation, there were 2 professors, 72 doctors, 18 pharmacists, 12 engineers, 36 lawyers, 8 translators, 3 farmers, 22 dentists, 5 chemists, 26 literati, 89 statesmen, 25 officers. 141 belonged to other professions.
A. Medial speaking
Mirabelli spoke in a state of media ecstasy ( trance ) in the following languages: native dialects, German, French, Dutch, English, 4 Italian dialects, Czech, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Hebrew, Albanian, African dialects, Latin, Chinese, Modern Greek, Polish, Syrian-Egyptian dialects, Ancient Greek. He dealt with topics that were far beyond his knowledge and his bourgeois life. It was about medicine, law, sociology, economics, politics, theology, psychology, history, natural sciences, astronomy, philosophy, logic, musicology, occultism and literature.
The commission was of the opinion that the form and content of the foreign language lectures exceeded the natural level of human memory and could not be produced using trickery. There are also other linguistic geniuses, z. B. Cardinal Mezzofanti , however, he was highly educated, on the other hand it is completely unclear from Mirabelli where he could have learned the languages and acquired the knowledge.
B. Automatic writing
“Mirabelli is sitting at a small table with paper and pencils, the table itself has neither drawers nor compartments. After the hand has grabbed a pencil, hurled it repeatedly and grabbed it again, it gradually begins to write feverishly and the pencil hurries across the paper at lightning speed without interruption. While writing, which took several minutes, Mirabelli raised her eyes to one of those present, spoke to him, continued writing, and sighed, without the speed of writing slowing down. The fact of the letter is checked and confirmed by everyone present. Then the secretary takes the written sheets. The documentation contains a list of all the transcripts sorted by language, subject, length of time of writing, number of pages and the name of the inspirer named by Mirabelli. While the medium stated that it was being led by Galileo, Kepler, Leonardo da Vinci, Malebrauche, Voltaire, Lenin and others, the investigative commission only wanted to accept this as a working hypothesis. "
Two short papers with the same content in French and German are shown in Figure 5. Both texts are relatively easy to read and written fluently. The French text contains few mistakes, the German more. The manuscripts are completely different, typically French and typically German. All the writing was done at high speed, about 2-3 minutes for an A4 sheet of paper.
C. Physical phenomena
“In these experiments, u. a. The following rules: Only that which is logically or empirically confirmed is accepted as proof. The results should be independent of belief. Any phenomenon against which well-founded objections were raised by participants is rejected as doubtful. The medium is constantly under observation by two controllers; it is tied up, tied with cords, sealed and remains secured, even when it is in a trance state. The experiments are always carried out, whether in daylight or artificial light, at a level of brightness that excludes deceptions and prevents subsequent doubts and objections. Before each session, the test room, medium and all objects are carefully examined and all trick preparations are prevented. At the end of the meeting, the minutes are drawn up, read out, signed by those present, and reasoned objections are attached. The test management always brings new members of the educated classes to the meetings in order to subject the attempts to serious, clarifying criticism. "
One of the photos shows Mirabelli in a trance on the left, Prof. de Castro on the right and the materialized poet Parini, d. 1799 in the middle. The report says: “The extensive use of the photographic process does not allow the hallucination theory to object, which also, how described in the examples, was checked again and again by the test management during the meetings. "
The article closes with the remark: “In the face of such a comprehensive testimony, such a thoroughly conducted investigation, one does not have the right to simply ignore this enormous document for the authenticity of media appearances, since in these experiments test conditions were sought, perhaps carried out, such as they can demand a skepticism heightened to the extreme. "
Further research
Even Hans Driesch studied 1,928 Mirabelli in Sao Paulo. He saw no materialization and only heard lectures in Italian and Estonian, about which Driesch said that Mirabelli might have been able to speak these languages. He observed telekinetic phenomena at close range and in daylight for which he had no explanation.
In 1930, British psychologist Eric J. Dingwall examined the original Portuguese documents and found he was "wholly incapable of making any decision on this case."
In 1934 Theodore Besterman attended some of Mirabelli's seances in Brazil, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
In 1990, Guy Lyon Playfair published an article in which he indicated that a photo of Mirabelli levitating may have been retouched. Mirabelli's supporters replied that this would be the first evidence of fraud and that there were many other photos that could not possibly have been forged.
In 1927, at the request of the NDE, the Brazilian consul in Munich confirmed the credibility of the people from the best circles in Brazil mentioned in the texts and known to him personally. In 1928 Hans Driesch was not informed of any revocations or complaints by these people after the book was published .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brain research and free will . Suhrkamp, 2004, Monistic Arguments.
- ↑ Do we have a soul? Dualistic arguments.
- ↑ see: "Greber book" chap. 2.0 and 5.0
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Zeitschrift für Parapsychologie (ZfP), 1927, pp. 449–462; freimore.uni-freiburg.de (90 MB).
- ↑ a b c Mirabelli photos accessed November 1, 2011.
- ↑ Companion under “5.0 The media writing”.
- ↑ a b c d Mirabelli, (Carmine) Carlos (1889-1951) . encyclopedia.com, 2001, accessed December 3, 2011.
- ↑ R. Mikulasch (ed.): O Medium Mirabelli . Santos (Brazil) 1926.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mirabelli, Carmine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mirabelli; Mirabelli, Carlo; Mirabelli, Carlos |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | spiritualistic medium |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 2, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Botucatu , Brazil |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 30, 1951 |
| Place of death | São Paulo |