The return of Dr Fritz: Spiritist healing and patronage networks in urban, industrial Brazil

SK SC;..Med.Vol. 21. No. I?, pp. 1095-1108.1987 Printed in Great

Britain.

All rights resened

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0237.95KS7 % 1987 Pergamon

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THE RETURN OF DR FRITZ: SPIRITIST HEALING AND PATRONAGE NETWORKS IN URBAN, INDUSTRIAL BRAZIL SIDNEY M. GREENFIELD

Department of Anthropology,

The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413. Milwaukee, WI 53201, U.S.A.

Abstract-This

paper describes surgeries and other healings performed without antiseptics and anesthesia by two Brazilian spiritist healers. The beliefs of spiritism and its treatment modalities are outlined. The role of hypnosis in healing is discussed. Finally the socio-cultural context within which the healing takes place is examined to show that spiritist healers are reconstructing networks of patronage and dependency similar to those of traditional Brazilian society that provide meaning and security for the ill in the midst of disruptive urbanization and modernization. Ke): words-alternative

healing, Brazil, patronage, spiritism

From the middle of the present century, if not earlier, when the now legendary Jose Pedro de Freitas, more commonly known as Ze Arigo, was removing tumors and performing delicate eye operations with a paring knife and without the use of antiseptics and anesthesia, Brazil has been the home of healers performing at times spectacular, as well as more mundane acts of curing, thus far not adequately understood by western science and medicine. During this period Brazilian society has undergone rapid urbanization, industrialization, and modemization. Its once sparse rural population has increased to more than 130 million, two-thirds of whom live in metropolitan centers such as Rio de Janeiro and SHo Paulo, or in smaller cities of more than a million inhabitants such as Recife and Fortaleza where the research to be reported on took place. Its economy. which ranks eighth in the free world, now produces steel, automobiles and airplanes for a domestic market and for export, not to speak of tanks, guns and other weapons in place of the sugar, coffee and other agricultural staples produced primarily for export in the past. The two healers to be discussed in this paper, and most other spiritist healers and their patients, are found almost exclusively in the urbanizing, industrializing and modernizing sectors of the society. They are not ‘traditional healers,’ as that term is commonly used. Instead they are products of the modernization and development of Brazilian society. Since the summer of 1982 I have been engaged in a study of spiritist healing in Brazil. This paper is a preliminary report on this ongoing research. I will begin by describing some of the more spectacular acts performed by two healers, Jose Carlos Ribeiro and Edson Queiroz. Then I will outline relevant aspects of the belief system that informs Brazilian spiritism and the healing practices described. After a brief discussion of some possible scientific explanations of the events described, I will turn to those aspects of Brazilian social structure that I believe provide a context for analyzing and understanding spiritism and its healing practices. Specifically, I will explore

the networks of patronage and clientage that are being developed by the healers, their spirit guides, their patients, and the affluent sponsors who invite them to travel to diverse parts of the country for the purpose of healing. I will begin by explaining how I came to be involved in this fascinating subject. ;MY ENTRY INTO THE

WORLD OF SPIRITIS> AND SPIRITIST HEALING

Although I had acquired some familiarity with spiritist healing in Brazil during the past quarter of a century, I had never systematically examined it. That is, until the summer of 1982. And then I became involved as the result of a coincidence. One day an article in the local newspaper caught my attention. I was living temporarily in the city of Fortaleza, capital of the northeastern Brazilian State of Ceara. The article was about a spiritist healer. I read it, I must admit, not because of the subject matter but because the healer’s name, Jose Carlos Ribeiro, was my Brazilian godson’s name. I soon realized that it was about a different man, but I began to think about spiritist healing. I remembered, from my general readings in the Brazilian press and from discussions with friends, reports of spectacular acts of healing performed by individuals who were believed to have extraordinary powers. According to spiritists the person performing the cure was a medium whose body was being used by the spirit of a deceased doctor or other healer returning from the spirit plane to effect the cure. This for them explained the reports of tumors being removed without blood or pain, the lame walking, the blind seeing, cancers being cured, and other acts of healing that defied the imagination. My curiosity had been aroused. I wanted to see for myself what I had heard about so often but had not witnessed during the many years I had spent in Brazil. The next morning I went to the address given in the newspaper and found a long line of people outside the house, waiting patiently. As my wife Eleanor, my daughter Suzanne, and I entered asking to speak with

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the healer, John Fuller’s [I] vivid description of the first encounter between two earlier North American researchers and Ze Arigo came to my mind. “There is nothing to hide here,” he is reported to have said as he ordered the two scientists to stand near the table at which he worked. “I am happy to have you watch.” Then without warning he took the first person in line-an elderly, well-dressed gentleman in an impeccable gray sharkskin suit-and silently “picked up a four-inch stainless steel paring knife with a cocobolo wood handle, and literally plunged it into the man’s eye, under the lid and deep into the eye socket” [2]. “In spite of his years of medical practice and experience,” Fuller continues. the physician Puharich was shocked and stunned. He was even more so when Arigo began violently scraping the knife between the ocular globe and the inside of the lid, pressing up into the sinus area with uninhibited force. The man was wide awake, fully conscious. and showed no fear whatever. He did not move or flinch. A woman in the background screamed. Another fainted. Then Arigo levered the eye so that it extruded from the socket. The patient, still utterly calm. seemed bothered by only one thing: a fly that had landed on his cheek. At the moment his eye was literally tilted out of its socket, he calmly brushed the fly away from his cheek (I. p. 251.

The healer then removed the knife and, while wiping it on his sport shirt, told the patient that he would be well. After that he called the next patient. The procedure had taken less than a minute. JOSE CARLOS RIBEIRO

I was now being escorted through the mass of humanity that filled the house up a Right of stairs to a small bedroom that was being used for both examinations and surgery. There I introduced my wife, my daughter and myself to a smiling, attractive, slender young man in his late twenties who was of mixed African and European descent. Dressed in an open sport shirt and a pair of dark trousers, he looked more like an entertainer than a religious healer. I presented myself as a scholar and researcher interested in seeing his work. After a few questions he welcomed me saying that it would be his pleasure to have me observe him. In words that echoed those from Fuller’s account, he added: “We have nothing to hide.” I learned later, however. that he had much to hide, not from me as a foreign scholar, but from anyone who might report what he was doing to the authorities Although spiritist healing functions in complementarity with modern medicine and other health care systems in Brazil today [3], the leadership of the formal organizations of the medical profession do all they can to eliminate these alternatives. As we shall see, local medical societies continue to turn to the judicial system to stop the Jose Carlos Ribeiros, Edson Queirozes and other popular healers with large followings from practicing. In the days to follow others seeking to observe Jose Carlos were turned away without explanation, or given just a brief interview. By contrast, for reasons I never understood, not only was I made welcome, I ‘was told that I would assist him. Then, before I could

react. a tray was placed in my hands on which there were a few ordinary scalpels, several pairs of surgical scissors. a few pairs of tweezers of assorted sizes. a syringe, some cotton, some gauze, adhesive tape and a glass of water. With this Jose Carlos turned to the next patient, a poorly dressed, dark skinned man who was accompanied by his wife. The woman started to tell the healer about her spouse’s problem with his vision. As she did so Jose Carlos directed his eyes away from her towards the ceiling. He then mumbled some words I was not able to understand and began to shake. An instant later Jose Carlos interrupted her impatiently to ask a question and to issue a command. He did this with an authority not previously demonstrated and he spoke in a sharp accent that contrasted with the soft tone he usually used. It sounded as if he were a native speaker of Spanish trying to communicate in Portuguese. He asked the couple if they believed in God. Before they could answer. he picked up a scalpel from the tray in my hand and, while ordering them both to think of God, plunged it into the man’s left eye with his right hand, under the lid. With a series of jabbing and twisting motions he slid the instrument down under the eye. As he did this he substituted the back of a pair of tweezers taken from the tray with his left hand for the scalpel. While doing this he eased the eye forward, tilting it out of its socket. He then scraped the lens of the protruding eye using a side to side motion with the scalpel still held in his right hand. More than 20 people-mostly friends, former patients, and patients to be seen later-had crowded into the small, hot, poorly ventilated room to watch the healer. Several of them gasped as the scalpel was thrust into the eye, and one woman was unable to stifle a scream. My wife, who had been placed directly behind him, felt faint. As the blood left her face, Jose Carlos, though unable to see her, moved his left hand quickly in her direction, leaving the tweezers dangling momentarily from its place under the protruding eye. As he did so he mumbled something I could not understand. As the blood returned to her cheeks, the healer secured his grip on the dangling tweezers. After a few more scraping motions with the scalpel still held in his right hand he returned the eye to its socket and slid the tweezers, held securely again in his left hand, back to the top of the eye under the lid where he had first introduced the scalpel. He removed the tweezers, replacing it on the tray in my hand along with the scalpel. As he covered the eye with gauze held down by several strips of adhesive tape, he asked the man if he had felt any pain. To his negative reply the patient added that he had been aware of all that had happened. The procedure I estimated had lasted a little more than a minute. Jose Carlos wrote a prescription that seemingly flowed from the pen itself. He looked at neither the pen nor the pad but instead off into space as he wrote. As he handed it to the somewhat startled woman, he quickly listed things the patient was to do and not do, and foods he was to eat or avoid. He then dismissed the patient telling him that he would be well. The man descended the stairs with complete faith in the healer. Jose Carlos then turned to the next patient on whom he also performed eye surgery using the very

The return of Dr Fritz

same scalpel and tweezers that had been returned to the tray in my hand without being cleaned. Diagnosis, surgery, bandaging, writing of a prescription for post-operative medication, and the dictation of a list of behavioral restrictions and a special diet took only a few minutes. As the morning progressed, Jose Carlos alternated between the performance of other surgery-the removal of several cysts and tumors-and the writing of prescriptions that were to cure patients or prepare them for return visits and possible surgery at a later date. The prescriptions varied greatly. All were written while he looked off into space as if his hand were working independently of the rest of him. Some were for medications available in the pharmacy and some of these were quite expensive. Others could be obtained at an ‘Umbanda shop’ that sold teas, baths, candles, incense, and so on, or in the market place. Of the drugs to be obtained at the pharmacy, it turned out that not all were available in Fortaleza. Some were obscure, or discontinued, or so new that they were available only, if at all, in the metropolitan centers of the south where the large, multinational drug companies had their laboratories. EDSON

QUEIROZ

After ten days in Fortaleza, Jose Carlos Ribeiro was forced to leave town by the police under threat of being prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. I have been unable to learn of him since. While with him, however, I learned about another healer from Recifice, the capital of the neighboring state of Pernambuco, who had healed in Fortaleza about six weeks before Jose Carlos came on the scene. Edson Cavalcante de Queiroz (in contrast to Ze Arigo, who was minimally educated, and Jose Carlo% who did not complete his studies at the university) is a trained and licensed physician, a graduate of the medical school of the Federal University of Pemambuco. He is married and the father of three children. He earns his livelihood by providing medical services for a fee at a private medical clinic specializing in gynecology and general medicine. Away from the clinic, he performs spiritist healing. I first met Edson in December of 1982, but was unable to observe him heal until the summer of 1983. When I arrived early one morning at the headquarters of the Spiritist Federation building where his healing sessions were held, there were long lines of people waiting [4]. The first patient to be seen that day was a soldier with the rank of captain. He complained of severe back problems that gave him constant pain. His wife had brought the X-rays ordered by his personal physician to show the healer. Without looking at them Edson asked the nurse, a volunteer, for a scalpel and ordered the patient to remove his jacket and think of God. Edson, without warning, forcefully thrust the scalpel through the man’s shirt into an upper vertebra and began to scrape vigorously at the bone. A trickle of blood stained the shirt. I anticipated the next step because I had seen the procedure on a videotape taken some months previously when Edson visited the city of Guaratingati in the state of SIo Paula. The healer asked for needles and was given a closed

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package by the nurse. After several more scrapes with the scalpel he jabbed two needles, approximately two inches in length, about one inch apart just below the incision made by the scalpel, which was left in the patient’s back. Small amounts of blood seeped through staining the patient’s shirt. Edson slapped the patient vigorously on the left and right sides of the upper back. Two more needles then were jabbed into the base of the patient’s spine. In the filmed procedure a line of needles had been inserted along the center the length of the patient’s back. The healer then put on a show for the camera. He asked the filming technician about the sensitivity of the microphone on the video camera and ordered it brought close to the patient’s back. After scraping the scalpel vigorously against the bone so that the sound could be heard cleariy, he removed the needles and the protruding scalpel from the patient’s spine. Edson then dismissed the patient saying that he would be well. (He used the same words to dismiss the army officer and called for the next patient.) A woman in her fifties entered carrying X-rays. As the assisting doctors examined them, Edson ordered the patient to lower the top of her dress, exposing her left breast in front of some 18 onlookers. The healer’s fingers then began to move along the surface of the breast. A few seconds later he called his assistants to examine the tumor he had located. He then ordered the woman to return to the waiting room. He would remove the tumor shortly, he said, and she would be fine. I had seen Edson remove a breast tumor on videotape, an operation that was similar to what he would do on the waiting woman. From among the crowd of more than two thousand people who had come to see him at a spiritist center in the state of SIo Paula, the healer had invited a surgeon and a gynecologist to assist him. After recording their names and professional addresses, he asked them to examine the patient and describe what they found. As they did so, making the same diagnosis he had, he told the patient to think of God as he made an incision with a scalpel in the breast about an inch in length. Although he had not washed after treating the previous patient. he placed his fingers inside the wound. He moved them rapidly under the skin, manipulating the tumor in the direction of the opening. There was a trickle of blood. He removed his fingers to increase the size of the opening with the scalpel. Reinserting his fingers he quickly shpped out the tumor and handed it to the surgeon ordering a laboratory to contirm that it was benign. The surgeon took it from the healer’s ungloved, unwashed hand with a pair of tweezers and placed it in what appeared to be a sterile jar. Edson ordered the surgeon to come close to the patient who was still lying quietly on the table. “Take your dirty hands,” he commanded, “and put them inside the wound so that you may examine it. This is to show you,” he added, “that nothing will happen.” He issued the same command to the gynecologist who also complied. After both doctors confirmed that the tumor had been completely removed, the healer covered the opening with gauze and then adhesive tape. “In a few days you will not even have a scar.” The third patient seen that morning was a diplomat

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SIDNEY

bl.

who was accompanied by his brother, a professor at a university in the south of the country. The patient, almost blind in his right eye, had a growth on his left that had blurred his vision. After a cursory examination, Edson sent him into the waiting room to be operated on later in the day. I also had seen the healer performing this procedure on videotape. He had asked an eye surgeon in the audience in Guaratingata to assist him. After recording the doctor’s name and professional address, the healer asked the surgeon if he had ever before removed a growth like the patient’s When he responded in the affirmative, the healer asked how long it usually took. ‘*About 30 minutes,” the surgeon replied. Edson turned to the audience to ask if anyone had a stop watch. He told the man who had one to start timing as he picked up a pair of scissors and, while ordering the patient to think of God and not move his eye, began to cut at the material growing outward from the inner corner of the patient’s eye. Securing the growth with a pair of tweezers held in his left hand, the healer snipped at it a few times before it became free. Handing the removed tissue to the surgeon, he ordered him to send it to the laboratory for analysis. Gauze and bandage were placed over the eye. “How long did it take?” the healer asked the man with the stop watch. Twenty three seconds was the reply. “Try to match that,” he taunted the surgeon. In the taped session Edson then delivered a short sermon to the audience emphasizing how much conventional medicine still had to learn. It is not that he opposes conventional medicine, he insisted, it is just that doctors are generally close-minded. If they would study his work, instead of bringing legal charges against him, they could learn much that would be of benefit to their patients. When he finished his discourse he asked the diplomat how he felt as he dismissed him. While being helped out the door by his brother, the patient said that although he was aware of all that had happened, he had experienced no pain. The next patient was a distinguished looking man in his sixties wearing a well tailored three-piece suit. His card indicated that he was a physician with his own surgical clinic in Copacabana, an elite section of Rio de Janeiro. He had a large bandage on the left side of his neck. Edson removed it, exposing an infected, festering growth about an inch and one half in diameter. One of the assisting physicians could not stifle the question on the mind of all present: “How could he, a trained doctor, permit something like this to go on so long without treating it?” Unmoved by the question Edson ordered the patient to remove his jacket and lie down on the table. As he did, the healer picked up a scalpel and pierced the wound which he secured with a pair of tweezers. He lifted as he cut. When blood started to spurt, he put down the scalpel to place pieces of gauze, handed to him by the nurse, over the wound. He said that he had permitted the bleeding in order to show that this was human blood and not a trick, as had been reported about psychic healers in the Philippines who used the blood of a chicken and did not actually open the skin of their patients. When the bleeding subsided. Edson picked up the

GREENFIELD

scalpel and started to cut again. Cutting and stopping to control the bleeding with pieces of gauze, the growth was about half removed when he paused for questions. The observers. totally absorbed in the surgery, at first did not respond. After a moment, however, questions were forthcoming and answered in what turned out to be a series of short lectures on spiritism. Edson then turned back to the patient, cutting away at the growth on his neck with renewed vigor. Within minutes the growth was removed, leaving a raw, slightly concave wound. (More gauze was applied to control the bleeding.) The excised flesh was handed to a surgeon who was told to send it for laboratory analysis. The open wound was covered with an ointment, although according to Edson it really was not necessary. A bandage was applied to the area. Dismissing him, Edson told the patient that within a few days the bandage could be removed. It will heal and there will be no scar, he promised. Before he left the room I asked the man to tell me what he had experienced. In a soft, dignified voice he said that he had felt the cutting, but had had no pain, now felt fine, and was relieved it was over. I asked him why he, a doctor, had come to Edson and not gone to a conventional physician when the growth first developed. With his head erect and a straight look he responded that it was because he wanted to get at the source of the problem. Conventional doctors we know, he said with conviction, only treat symptoms and work at the surface. If you want to get at the cause, you go to a spiritist healer; and since Edson is the best, he had waited until he was able to see him in Recife [5]. It was almost noon. The President of the Federation announced that the healer would be unable to continue. He had to go to court to defend himself against charges brought against him by the medical society. Healers in Brazil are usually stopped by being charged with practicing medicine without a license. But Edson Queiroz is a licensed physician. For him the medical society found an obscure law that requires that some fee, no matter how small, be charged for any surgery performed. Since spiritist surgery, as we shall see. must be done as charity without charge, Edson, in good conscience, was unable to accept even a token and therefore had broken the law [6]. SPIRITISM

AND SPIRITIST

HEALING

Jose Carlos and Edson Queiroz are spiritists, a religious tradition that, although related to the thinking of Swedenborg in the eighteenth century, had its modern origins with the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York in the United States in the nineteenth century [7]. Almost immediately the belief in the existence of and the possibility of communication with the spirits of the dead spread to Europe where by mid-century it was codified into a religious and philosophical system by a French school teacher (Hippolyte Leon Denizart Rivail) who published the results of his efforts under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec [8]. Copies of Kardec’s writings were brought to Brazil, where they quickly became popular among the upper classes. By the end of the century, however, the belief system was modified and adapted to add

The return of Dr Fritz healing by the spirits by a Brazilian doctor, politician and entrepreneur, Adolf0 de Bezerra de Menezes [9]. In the early twentieth century, when the South American republic began to urbanize, the Brazilian variant of spiritism, which also is called Kardecism in honor of its codifier, became popular among the rapidly expanding middle and lower middle classes in the fast growing cities [lo, 111. Thanks to the new emphasis on healing, it was no longer the exclusive property of the rich. It was on its way to becoming one of the several religious alternatives to Catholicism in the growing Brazilian population. Spiritist religious practice has been referred to as the ethic of practical charity [I 1, p. 741. “Without charity,” wrote the codifier, “there is no salvation” [8, Chap. 151. The “driving force behind spiritism in Brazil,” Pedro McGregor tells us, is the practice of charity [12]. ‘Spiritism without charity,” adds David St Clair, quoting an unnamed spiritist author, “is inconceivable: It just is not Spiritism” [13]. Spiritist charity took two main forms in Brazil: (I) the giving of social assistance to the poor; and (2) healing [12, p. 931. The second, including both physical and mental healing, then developed into what Renshaw refers to as spiritisms mission in the universe [l I]. With respect to spiritist healing McGregor adds that a “. . total and genuine lack of cost and treatment by specific.. . spirits rather than generalized healing through their aid are the main differences between Brazilian and other branches of the movement.” This, he concludes, is “why Brazilians adopt the term spiritism to distinguish their practice from the more widely known spiritualism practiced elsewhere” [12, p. 931. Spiritists, or Kardecists, believe that there are two planes of existence, the material one of the visible world familiar to us in our daily lives, and the spiritual one of the invisible world of which we are for the most part ignorant. The invisible world is inhabited by spirits, the vital force in the universe, who are assumed to go through a number of lifetimes, or incarnations, developing progressively. Human beings, in the spiritist world view, are spirits incarnated in a material body. Spirits are believed to return to the material world in order to

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learn lessons required for their moral advancement. Kardec outlined ten categories of spirits ranked according to a set of moral standards derived primarily from his interpretation of Judeo-Christian values. Spirits that conform to these values progress, eventually no longer having to reincarnate, while those that do not must return over and over again to the material plane until they eventually learn the lessons [8, P. 93ffl. When it incarnates the non-material spirit is assumed to attach itself to its somatic body by means of a semi-material covering called the perisptrit. The perispirit, which is believed to be composed of an etherial bioplasmic substance (ectoplasm), is a permanent part of every spirit being. It is said to provide the spirit with its defining characteristics, the equivalent of its personality. It also provides the somatic body with what is referred to as its aura. It is through the attachment of the spirit to a body by means of its perispirit that the otherwise separate orders of reality are brought together (Fig. 1). Once this happens, a symbiotic relationship is believed to be established between the spirit and its somatic body. CONCEPTION

OF ILLNESS

The attachment of a spirit and a body by means of the perispirit is no simple matter. Spirits are assumed to have the equivalent of a non-material body referred to as a spirit body. Disincamate spirits are said to live in the astral plane in these bodies, to which their perispirits are attached. When a spirit incarnates, the corresponding parts on the spirit body must be brought to fit exactly, by means of the perispirit, with the corresponding parts of the somatic body. The points of juncture on the somatic body are called plexus, a network of interjoining nerve and blood vessels of the lymphatic system [3]. The corresponding parts on the perispirit are called chacras. As Mimer has noted, while “the somatic body is made up of hundreds of plexuses, the Spiritists focus on those of the parasympathetic nervous system which regulate the non-volitional functions” [3, p. 191. The joining of the spiritual and the material in a human being is assumed to take place in a restricted

SPIRITUAL ORDER (The Invisible World) SPIRIT

ETERNAL

Fine, or delicate part 1 PERISPIRIT/iEtherial Bioplasmic Substance) \ Dense, or coarse part T

BODY (The Visible World) MATERIAL ORDER

Fig. I. Adapted from Cavalcanti [Id].

MORTAL

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SIDSEY

M.

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segment of space that surrounds the individual. The perispirit (?i in Fig. 2) is located outside the somatic body. Just beyond it is the protecting aura that circulates around both the body and the perispirit in clockwise direction. Beyond that is a second aura that moves rapidly in a counter-clockwise direction. Between the two constantly moving protective auras is a vacuum. The space within which the spiritual and the material bodies join also is believed to lie between a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. When the plexuses of the somatic body and the chacras of the perispirit are properly attached, the individual is said to be in complete balance with the elements. But this is not always the case. Often the fit is not exact. A misfit between the perispirit and the somatic body, according to spiritists, manifests itself in illness. The universe is believed to be filled with cosmic forces that continuously bombard all things, including the space within which thejfuidic bode (the term used to designate the spirit, the perispirit and the protecting auras) and the somatic body are joined. These electromagnetic forces from space (called radialions) can upset the alignment between perispirit and material body at any time. Likewise, forces from the earth (called irradiarions), also electromagnetic in nature, are believed to be able to throw the alignment ‘out of whack.’

The electromagnetic forces that upset the balance of an individual’s fluidic and somatic bodies usually cause physical illnesses. There also are imbalances of other kinds that manifest themselves in mental illnesses. These perturbations, as they are called, are brought about either by low level disincamate spirits trying unsuccessfully to communicate with and/or even control, an already animated body, or by the bad thoughts and feelings, such as jealousy, greed, envy, etc., of incarnate beings. Whether imbalances manifest themselves in physical or mental illnesses. treatment is, at least in part, by spiritual means. But once treated and cured the fit of any incarnate being can be thrown out of alignment again and again by the forces constantly emanating from both the material and the spiritual orders. Sickness and its treatment, then, are a continuing part of the experience of all incarnate beings. In addition to illnesses with a variety of causes that lead to a misfit between the fluidic and somatic bodies, spiritists also recognize illnesses that have their causes in each of the separate orders of reality. On the material side it is accepted that germs, viruses, etc., can and do cause diseases that affect the material body. These are to be treated by modem medicine; and spiritists do turn to the medical profession to cure certain diseases. But just as there are diseases that are part of the natural order of the material or

B Fig. 2. From [13. p. 1931.

G

The return of Dr Fritz spiritists believe that there are other illnesses that are a natural part of the spirit world. In the joining of the two orders, as we have seen, a symbiotic relationship is believed to be established in which each body, the tluidic and the somatic, becomes a counterpart of the other. Consequently, the material illnesses of the body appear in the spirit (or on the spirit body) and the illnesses of the spirit manifest themselves on the somatic body. Spiritists, as noted, accept modem medicine. But in their view it is limited in its ability to cure. Since it is unable to understand, let alone treat the spirit, medicine, despite good intentions, they maintain, is very limited. Doctors, at best, are seen as able to treat symptoms that appear on the somatic body. They are not believed to be able to treat those causes of the symptoms that come from the spirit world or are the result of problems of fit between the fluidic and the somatic bodies. These require treatment by spiritist healers who are assumed to be able to obtain help from the spirit world. Spiritists, as we have seen, believe that communication is possible between the material and the spiritual worlds. One way spirits can communicate with their incarnate fellows is through a medium. It is believed that when a medium goes into trance he or she is able to turn his or her body over to another spirit who then is able to use it to communicate and interact with the living. Spiritists believe that both incarnate and disincarnate spirits are able to advance or progress by doing good works. Many disincarnate spirits, when they incarnate, do so with the specific mission of becoming what are called ‘curing mediums.’ Curing mediums, it is believed, can be assisted by disincamate spirits who in a previous lifetime were trained in and successfully practiced a form of the healing arts. These spirits in their disincarnate state also are able to advance along the path to spiritual perfection by returning to this world to help curing mediums, who, with their help, treat the material and spiritual ills of those in need. Once the medium is found, it is believed that they are able to do anything the medical profession can do, and then some. Adolph Fritz, according to Brazilian spiritists, is such a spirit who first selected ZC Arigo, and then, after the latter’s death in an automobile crash in 1971, other mediums who also died in automobile crashes. He then chose Edson Queiroz. Dr Fritz is believed to have last been incarnate in Germany during the First World War [15]. Fritz, however, as both Edson and Arigo explained while in trance, does not work alone. Instead, in the best medical tradition, he works with a team of disincamate physicians and healers, each a specialist in a different branch of medicine. Fritz is believed to turn both the medium and the patient over to each of his colleagues when their specific skills are required. As we have seen, when operating while in trance Edson (or Fritz) does not use either antiseptics or anesthesia. In the middle of removing a tumor, or performing some other surgical intervention, he often will stop to explain that the antisepsis and the anesthetic have been taken care of by a specialist working at the spiritual level. Of course, he will visible world,

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observe, it cannot be seen by us as mere human observers. Before proceeding I should note that spiritists do not believe that all illnesses can be cured by their healers. Some illnesses, they believe, are part of the Karma of the individual. That is, they are part of the lesson the individual in the quest for spiritual advancement has incarnated to learn. To cure him (or her) would defeat the purpose of the incarnation and retard his (or her) development. To avoid this, healers like Jose Carlos Ribeiro and Edson Queiroz communicate with the spirit guide of each patient before undertaking treatment. Only if told to proceed by the spirit guide will they do so. If not, they will dismiss the patient without treatment. TREATMENT

MODALITIES

There are four treatment modalities used by spiritist healers in Brazil. The most spectacular is the surgery described above. The most common, however, are the administration of magnetic hand passes [16]. Figure 3 represents a body that is out of balance with its environment. The healer, as St Clair informs us, knows where the liver lies, how the kidneys should function and where the important nerve endings are. He also knows about bone joints, heartbeats and the digestive tract. He also learns where the positive and negative parts of a human body are located, and he uses one against the other, much

like a magnet [13, p. 1961. Figure 4 represents the + (positive) and the (negative) areas of the somatic body. Using energy brought by spirits from the invisible world, the healer-medium runs his or her hands down the sides of the patient’s body in a movement called a pass. In doing so, the medium’s hands are said to turn a light blue color-which only another medium can see-as energy is transmitted to the patient. The rays, if they could be seen, would look like a triple shower head at work [13, p, 1971.

Fig. 4. From [13, p. 1961.

SIDVEY M. GREESFIELD

Fig. 3. From [13, p. 1951.

The medium knows when contact is made with the troubled area because his hands feel as if they are enveloped in a kind of invisible fog, or they begin to tingle as if ‘going to sleep.’ The patient also is said to feel his or her skin tingle. The third type of treatment administered by spiritist healer-mediums is for patients with mental illnesses, believed by spiritists to be caused by perturbations brought about primarily by low level spirits who often are not aware of their discarnate status. Three gradations of perturbations are recognized and ranked according to the type(s) of conditions provoked and their degree of severity [3, p. 201. Perturbations of the first order result from mild spiritual influences causing such conditions as mild depression, inhibition, fear, malaise, complexes, jealously, sadness, irritability, nervousness, and domestic misunderstandings. They are treated by means of a procedure in which a knowledgeable and articulate spiritist leader explains the sitation to the errant spirit (who appears through a medium) and requests that it stop disturbing, or perturbing, the patient. The healer also orients the spirit in the moral advantages of behaving appropriately. The patient usually IS not present at these sessions. Perturbations of the second degree include more intense forms of the conditions identified above as vvell as some physical illnesses. The low level inter-

vening spirit may cause the magnetic fluid of the perturbed individual to become stagnant or at times too dense. This then may effect the balance or fit between the fluidic and somatic bodies. In severe cases, new magnetic fluids may have to be transfused from the healing medium into the patient. Most often, however, a spiritist leader can effect a cure by enlightening the disturbing spirit and convincing it to leave the patient alone. Perturbations of the third degree come from intense spiritual influences. The most serious of these is obsession. Symptomatically the patient may experience an uncontrolled outburst of crying, apathy, or extreme pain at the top and frontal regions of the head. The patient may be treated in part with passes to transfuse magnetic fluid and energy; but, as with all illnesses caused by perturbing spirits, a religious leader will have to indoctrinate the troublemaking spirit into the Kardecist belief system before it will stop perturbing the patient. The final treatment modality is fluidic healing at a distance. Having followed me through this extensive description of the healing practices of spiritist curers, I can now tell you that according to believers in spiritism all these practices are really unnecessary. All healing, as we have seen, is performed by spirits. In what has been described, the spirits have used the bodies of the mediums to heal the bodies of patients.

The

return of Dr Fritz

But this material intermediacy is really unnecessary. The healing spirits can dispense their charity and cure the patients through their very spirits. Edson Queiroz, for example, has tried to explain this to those who seek his help. He therefore limits the patients he sees in person to 100 residents of the greater Recife metropolitan area a week. He asks all others who need help to send him a letter containing: (1) the name, age, sex, address, telephone number, civil state, and religion of the patient; (2) a statement of their problem or symptoms; and (3) a stamped, self-addressed envelope. His staff will use the envelope to inform the patient of the date and time the spirits will come to perform the needed treatment. Included in the envelope is a list of instructions for the preparation of the patient. The only reason he sees patients in person Edson (or Fritz) says, is that Brazilians, like all people, are overly materialistic. They need to physically see the healing performed by the spirits or else they will not have the faith to believe. In time, with sufficient dissemination of information about the surgeries and other ‘showy’ healings, and widespread indoctrination in spiritism, material intervention will no longer be necessary. ORSERVATIONS

At this point the reader might ask whether or not the patients treated by Edson Queiroz, Jose Carlos Ribeiro and other spiritist healers and their spirit guides are cured. First, however, he or she may wish to know whether patients operated on develop infections and/or other post-surgical complications. During the summer of 1984 my wife, my daughter, my colleague Dr Cary Milner and I visited and interviewed patients treated by Edson Queiroz. We also sent out a mail questionnaire to patients who received fluidic treatment at a distance. Edson Queiroz customarily prescribes large doses of medications (antibiotics, analgesics, vitamins, etc.) to patients on whom he performs surgery while under the influence of Dr Fritz. He dictates the prescriptions to an assistant who writes them on paper bearing the name and office address of the pathologist who works with him and often assists during surgery. These medications are to be purchased by the patient at the pharmacy. Often they are quite expensive. Edson also prescribes or dispenses medications for patients he sees who he believes do not need surgical or other therapeutic treatment. Several drug companies provide Edson and the Funda@~ medical supplies and pharmaceuticals as a donation. When possible, these donated drugs are dispensed without charge by Edson to poor patients. Only when what he needs is not in the supply room will he write a prescription for a patient. I should note that many of the patients Edson administers to, and on whom he performs surgery, are in a state of hypnotic trance during treatment. I learned this only after the fact when I showed video tapes of surgery and other treatments to a group of magicians [17]. As they pointed out, the induction process was probably not what we could expect. In fact, on numerous occasions in the middle of a surgery Edson emphatically stated that the patient on whom he was working had not been hypnotized.

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What probably happens is that he (with the help of his assistants) unconsciously induces trance during the introductory presentation. This presentation begins several days prior to treatment. The expectations it builds up, in addition to the authority of Edson’s person when under the influence of Dr Fritz, quite likely contribute to their trance-like state. As the magicians observed, this effect is more like what a good stage performer can do with an audience than what a therapist using hypnosis will do with a single individual. That is, in a large group, different individuals will achieve different degrees of trance; some may not even be affected. But trance states are not foreign to Brazilians and Brazilian culture: Brazilians go into trance about as easily and as often as, for example, Americans fall in love. Therefore, the likelihood of Edson Queiroz or some other healer inducing trance in a large percentage of those he encounters in the intense setting prior to treatment is considerable [18]. So some of Edson’s patients-and others who are accompanying them or who are present as observers-are undoubtedly in deep trance though others experience only superficial or no trance at all. Hypnosis, according to Ewin [19], can produce effects similar to those produced by chemical anesthetics [20]. It also has been reported to help with antisepsis and in the treatment of many symptomatic conditions [2l]. When combined with the fact that Edson Queiroz performs surgeries only on what are called “clean wounds” [22] and that he does not cut into the abdominal cavity, we may have some explanation of the absence of reported post surgical infections and other complications. I should note that during an interview with an official representative of the Medical Society in Recife, I was told that several patients had died as the result of Edson’s procedures. He refused me access to evidence, however, explaining that it all had been included in the legal case brought against Edson. Since the case was in the courts, he said he felt he ought not discuss the matter. When Edson was convicted and his titles, licenses, and privileges revoked, I assume that this evidence influenced the decision. Then, when he was exonerated and reinstated on appeal, I supposed the judge found either no proof or insufficient evidence of the allegations of the Medical Society (unless no evidence was submitted at all, which hardly seems credible). I personally know of no documented complaints brought against Edson, and the media reports to date do not mention serious infections or other complications. Whether Edson and the other spiritist healers cure or not is another matter. We certainly were able to obtain a large number of testimonials from people who believed that they had been cured and now considered themselves well. We also have cases in which patients returned to their own doctors after treatment by Edson and were told that the tumor or other disorder that had been noted on their X-rays and/or other tests was gone. But we as a group had neither the training nor the competence to seek what might be considered objective confirmation of cure. I am an anthropologist, Dr Milner is a sociologist, my wife is a teacher and my daughter is a history student:

SID?iEY M.

110-l

our training and skills lie elsew-here. But even if we had the competence and interest, or collaborated with those who have, I doubt that it would be possible to do the kind of study that would satisfy the standards of medical research. The primary reason for this is that Edson and his associates at the FundarGo Espirira Dr Adolph Fritz are more interested in their religious and spiritual mission than they are in the conduct of research. Medical science and research, they would argue, is limited by its refusal to accept both the existence and the priority of the spiritual. They consider their approach to be more advanced than that of medicine. They would be willing to teach doctors and medical researchers, as they did us, about the role of the spiritual in healing. But to stop what they are doing or to do it differently to indulge what to them are the whims of materialists who deny the spiritual is another matter. And patients either feel the same way, or are far too preoccupied with picking up the pieces of their already disrupted lives to satisfy what seems to them the often excessive demands of carefully controlled research. This is not to say that we have given up on obtaining data on rate of cures. As I stated earlier, this is a preliminary report on an ongoing study. Perhaps in the future we and/or others joining us shall be able to contribute in this area. Most of the patients interviewed in the days and weeks after treatment by Edson Queiroz claimed that they were healed. They attributed their cure to him and to his spirit guides. Their recovery from their symptoms invariably strengthened any degree of belief they had in spiritism. Many returned to attend indoctrination sessions at the Fundqio Espirita Dr Adolph Fritz. Meanwhile, those who were not helped felt disappointed, but felt no animosity towards the healer or the religious belief system that informed his efforts. Instead most of them went off to another healer, usually representing another belief system. That is, they would go to an Umbanda medium, or to an Afro-Brazilian healer, or make a vow to a saint in the Roman Catholic pantheon, or perhaps go to a medical doctor [23]. Among those who believed that they had been cured by Edson, however, what as an anthropologist I found to be of particular interest was the kind of relationship that developed between the healer and his patients. I should like to turn to this aspect of social structure as I turn to Brazilian culture as the framework for analyzing the healing practices described above. SPIRITIST HEALISG AND PATRONAGE NETWORKS

At the beginning of this paper I observed that spiritism and spiritist healing appeared in Brazil when the society first urbanized and then grew and developed along with further urbanization and industrialization. I also noted that in the past several decades Brazil’s population has increased greatly, with a large majority now living in urban areas. But in spite of economic growth rates that often have been the envy of other third world nations, the new, mostly capital intensive industries have not been able to generate enough jobs to employ the fast growing population. Unemployment and underemployment are wide-

GF~EESFIELD

spread. The social upheaval and dislocation brought on by- the forces of urbanization and industrialization of course have been considerable. Large scale migrations from the hinterland to the cities. combined with natural rates of increase, have strained the ability of Brazil’s institutions to the point of breaking. The cities in many cases have not been able to provide even the most basic facilities for their rapidly increasing numbers. Many urban Brazilians, for example, live in squatter settlements, known asfatlelas. in dwellings often assembled from other people’s trash or from stolen materials, on land that is not theirs and whose ownership often is in dispute. Water. sewage, electricity, public transportation, and other basic facilities often are not available to them. And there are few agencies, public or private, able to help with the countless problems the new urban poor encounter daily. Traditional social institutions, it is argued, cannot survive radical modernization. The old rural ways, including the system of social relations that enabled the poor to satisfy their basic survial needs, are assumed no longer to work. But in the cities no new ways have developed. Although the majority of the forebearers of today’s urban dwellers were poor and dissatisfied in the hinterland-the primary reason for their leavingthey had been able to survive there, something many of their descendants are finding themselves less and less able to do in the cities today without turning to crime [24]. The poor in rural Brazil had been able to survive in spite of being dominated and exploited by a small number of elites who owned the land on which they lived. The reason for this was that the traditional social system, which was characterized by hierarchy and inequality, fostered exchanges of different types of goods and services between unequals. That is, rich and poor would engage regularly in exchanges, each obtaining from the other what they needed while making available to the other what they had that the other lacked. This traditional system of social relations, referred to in the literature of the social sciences by the terms patronage and &enrage [25], is best understood in the example of the relationship between a landowner and the many dependent laborers living on his property. The two parties, of course, are of unequal status and have access to and control over different kinds of goods and services. Both, however, have needs which differ significantly from those of the other. The laborer, for example, who is landless, needs access to the means of production, which in this case is the land owned by the other. He also needs a place to live and someone to whom he can turn in the event of illness or other emergency. The landowner in turn also has needs that complement those of the laborer. He needs workers both to cultivate his land and to do the large number of daily tasks requiring physical labor. The needs of both parties were satisfied by means of an exchange in which the proprietor provided access to his land and a dwelling in return for manual labor from the other, both on the land and elsewhere when requested. The parties then shared in the crops produced, the split usually varying depending on circumstances from 50-50 to 75% for the landowner and 25% for the laborer. The relationship was left open-ended so that what

The

return of Dr Fritz

might be considered subsidiary transactions could be added. That is, the landowner, or patron, for example, could call on his client-dependent should he need him at any time. Likewise, the laborer was able to turn to his patron should some emergency develop. The dyadic patron-client exchange was both strengthened and extended at the end of the nineteenth century with the establishment of the Republic, when electoral legitimacy was instituted as the basis for holding public office. The rural worker now was able to add his vote to the package he could offer a potential patron. With the votes of his many client-dependents, the landowner was able to enter into exchanges with politicians from whom he received a new set of benefits. Under the new arrangements, the original dyadic exchanges between patron and client were extended into the networks of interrelated transactions where a patron at one level functioned as a broker between different segments, regions and levels at another [26]. Given the benefits they derived as patrons and brokers of votes, the landowners and others gradually became more responsive to their client-dependents through the first half of the twentieth century. They arranged soiutions to problems brought to them on a case by case basis. In this way, the rural poor learned that when things got bad they could turn to their patron: most of the time help, however grudgingly given, would be forthcoming. In doing a study of patron4ient exchanges in the Zona da Mata of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais during the mid-sixties [27], I was struck by the participation of medical doctors not only in patron-client exchanges, but in the political-electoral process as well [28]. To my surprise several doctors had been key figures in the local level electoral dynamics. It turned out that their professions provided them with a large number of client-dependents. As I have observed before, concern with illness is epidemic in Brazil. Anyone who has spent time there and has come to know Brazilians, no matter their social class nor native region, is perforce aware that in general people either are ill, believe they are ill, fear they soon will be ill, or are very involved in an illness of a friend or relative. Elsewhere I have referred to an article in the Portuguese journal Seara NOLYIthat claimed that “Brazilians are a sick people, and the country may be likened.. . to an immense hospital without beds” [29]. In the years since the publication of that article, the situation has deteriorated both in the countryside and in the cities, in spite of government and other efforts. As I observed in a 1977 paper [26, p. 1711, the doctors in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais have not had lucrative medical practices. Most of their patients, like most Brazilians, were poor. In spite of government efforts to provide health insurance, most of the poor in Brazil did not, and still do not, qualify for coverage because the programs are tied to employment: most Brazilians were and are at present either unemployed or earn their livelihoods in ways that do not meet insurance requirements. The doctors in the Zona da Mata would treat patients whether or not they could pay a fee. Consequently there were always long lines outside their clinics. They also attended patients at any hour of the

1105

day and night, so there were considerable demands on their time. But, as I wrote about one typical doctor, “He gives of himself. . . generously and without complaint, almost at times, as some of his loyal followers reported, in the image of a saint performing a spiritual calling” [26, p. 1181. I explained that as a result of this situation doctor and patient entered into a relationship in which the latter, among other things. became indebted to the former. At election time those debts would be called in: politicians competing for office would request the doctor’s support, which is to say the votes of his patients and dependents, in exchange for future consideration. The future consideration ranged from a hospital or clinic to be built and run with state or federal funds from which he would receive a salary and other benefits as the administrator, to free medical supplies (paid for out of government grants), low or interest free loans, construction contracts for him or his designate to administer, or other things that, independent of their social value, would improve the doctor’s material status. Thus, the doctor was an intermediary between a group of local dependents willing to vote for whomever he chose, and state and national level politicians who would exchange the resources of the government agencies they hoped to administer for the votes that would elect them to office. Extensive networks of patronage and clientage articulated state and national institutions with the residents of local communities scattered throughout the country. Doctors, among others, performed unpaid services, and in the traditional system served as patrons and brokers in the political process. In the cities there were no patrons to provide for the needs of the mostly poor, rapidly growing masses so many of whom are no more than a generation or two removed from rural life. But in Recife, some 20 years after the traditional system was put on hold by the coup of 1964 and the military regime that ran the country afterwards, Edson Queiroz is providing healing as charity. As with the doctors studied in Minas Gerais, Edson’s patients become indebted to him every time they are treated. Unable to make payment, since, whether they can afford it or not, he accepts no fees, their indebtedness manifests itself in fierce loyalty and devotion. But not all of Edson’s patient-dependents are poor. Some not only are rich, or well to do, but also hoid social and economic positions of prestige and power. Should Edson turn to them with a request, they are unable to refuse. For example, one day while in trance, Edson is reported to have told a group of his more affluent local backers, most of whom had been his patients, that Dr Fritz wanted them to help feed the poor. Under the direction of a couple who own several restaurants in Recife, a program of preparing soup and bread to be distributed to the residents of a nearby fuvelu was started. Others in Edson’s network of dependents then were asked to contribute materials, money, and/or time to the venture. The program was a success. As a result, the spiritist goal of providing practical charity to the poor was expanded. In addition, the number of poor who have come to see Edson as a source of solutions to their problems of practical survival has increased.

GREESFIELD

As we have seen. when Dr Fritz prescribes medicines for needy patients, he asks representatives of the major drug companies to contribute supplies and materials. Edson also solicits money from his more affluent patients and dependents. He turns these contributions into materials that he distributes to the poor to faciliate their cure and care. He has also asked patient-dependents to arrange loans or jobs for those in need. Thus he is able to broker resources from those above him in the socio-economic hierarchy to those below him. He also may be the personal recipient of gifts from those he has helped. Periodically. for example, Edson is invited to spend a weekend healing at a spiritist center in some other part of Brazil or occasionally in some other South American country. (Though spiritist centers are found today in all parts of Brazil, the largest number are located in such wealthy metropolitan centers as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.) These trips are usually underwritten by one or two families of very rich spiritists who invariably have a sick member the medical profession has been unable to help. They pay all expenses for the medium and his entourage, composed minimally of the President of the Funda@o Espirita Dr Adolph Fritz. his nurse, a pathologist who assists him. and his wife. Edsoni Fritz then treats the sick member of sponsor’s family in addition to attending to the crowds who come to the local center. On one such trip Edson could not be found one morning. He had no commitments, but something needed his attention. He was not at the hotel and his host did not know his whereabouts. I later learned that he had gone with a rich local @enda (plantation) owner to see some race horses. Edson loves to race. I also learned later that after saying that he liked a particular horse, it was given to him as a gift. Although he cannot accept remuneration for his services, there apparently was nothing wrong in accepting a present, especially if given in the spirit of charity. And while he does not encourage it from most of his patients, it is not uncommon for rich fellow spiritists to give him very valuable gifts rumored to range from race horses to farm machinery and motor vehicles in gratitude for his services. These gifts belong to and are used as the personal property of the healer. However when he considers it appropriate, he may include some of them along with the variety of resources, he brokers from others in his network to resolve the medical, material, and/or spiritual needs of his clients. In brief, Edson Queiroz, like mediums and cult leaders of Umbanda and Xango [30], and other spiritist healers, are developing in the disorganized, anemic cities of Brazil [3l] networks of patronxlient relations similar to those that integrated the haves and the have-nots in the rural hinterland of the past. But Edson Queiroz’ extend even further, I have already mentioned the fluidic healing at a distance (see p. 1103) by means of which Dr Fritz and the spirits go to the homes of patients who write letters requesting help. In late 1983 Edson’s healing was featured on Brazilian national television. This plus extensive newspaper and magazine coverage brought him to the attention of Brazilians throughout the country and overseas. As of July, 1984, just six

months after opening the doors of the Fundagrio Espirita Dr Adolph Fritz. he was getting between six and eight thousand letters a month requesting healing at a distance. The writers of these letters are a part of the already massive and still growing network of patronage and clientage that has evolved around the healing activities of Edson Queiroz, a network that includes the rich and the poor of all races, classes, beliefs, and backgrounds, both urban and rural, and through which extensive resources-supematuralto solve a spiritual. healing. and material-flow broad range of daily survival and other problems.

CONCLLsION

Arthur Kleinman has provided a useful analytic distinction for discussing sickness when he contrasts illness and disease. Disease he uses to refer to biological, biochemical and psychological malfunction. Illness, by contrast, he uses to refer to impaired functioning as it is interpreted and shaped cognitively within a cultural framework so as to make possible its treatment [32]. Recent evidence seems to indicate that stress plays a considerable role in producing disease [33]. Although Brazil has a long history of high morbidity rates, there is little doubt that the stress brought on by large scale migration into the cities. rapid industrialization, population increase, the breakdown of traditional social structures. and a distribution system that reinforces the traditional separation of the rich and the poor. while leaving a substantial segment of the population almost destitute and without hope, have increased those rates in Brazil today. Spiritism in Brazil, through healers like Zt Arigo, Jose Carlos Ribeiro, Edson Queiroz and others, has provided a culturally meaningful system of treating illness that, as we have seen. is complementary to modern medicine. But it has done something more as our discussion of Edson Queiroz’ patronage network makes clear. Using the authority of the spirit of a German doctor. Edson Queiroz has reconstituted through healing, whether he deliberately set out to do so or not, patron-client relationships and a patronage network on the model of traditional Brazilian social structure. If nothing more, this network holds out to those caught up in the dislocations brought about by modernization a link with their past, a link that to some degree minimizes the illness-causing stress to which they have been and continue to be exposed. Further, it provides them with a healing community whose importance modem medicine is just beginning to appreciate. But there is more. As we have seen, Edson Queiroz’ patronage network functions at least in part to channel resources from those who have benefited from the social and economic development of the nation to those who have been marginalized by it. In this respect it functions as a redistributive network. As such it helps to reduce the stress-provoking uncertainty of the new urban-industrial world that has brought hunger and poverty to so many. This may explain at least in part the rapid, recent growth of spiritism and other religions, such as Umbanda, that have incorporated a belief in spirits and the or-

The return

ganizational model of the traditional rural patronage network [34]. I should like to conclude this discussion of spiritist healing and patronage networks with a hypothesis. Brazil has been ruled by a military dictatorship since the coup of 1964. In 1982 elections were sanctioned and held for all offices except that of President of the Republic. In 1985, the first non-military president was elected by an electoral college, preliminary to a return to complete electoral democracy. Much has happened during the two decades of military rule. I have mentioned the large increase in population. the internal migrations, the urbanization, the industrialization and the economic modernization and development of the society. A new generation of politicians therefore must confront a new electorate shaped by these forces. IMYhypothesis is that their first inclination will be to reconstitute the system for mobilizing votes that prevailed prior to the coup and the establishment of the military dictatorship. Whether Edson Queiroz and other spiritist healers, Umbanda mediums, and the leaders of the other fast growing religious cults will become the cabos eleitorais (mobilizers of votes) of the future remains to be seen. In any event, this integration of religion, healing, and resource distribution deserves more attention than it has received in the past. Ackno&dgemen!s-I am grateful to the Fulbright Commission and to The Graduate School, The Center for Latin America, and The College of Letters and Science of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the financial support that made the research on which this paper is based possible. I alone am responsible for its content. My special thanks go to Jose Carlos Ribeiro and to Edson Queiroz for permitting an outsider to learn a little about their mission. I also should like to thank my many friends in Fortaleza and Recife who helped me while I was conducting the fieldwork. Dr Cary Milner, who spent the summer of 1984 with us in the Recife, was especially helpful. I thank him for his long standing friendship, assistance in the field, and comments on this manuscript. My thanks also to Helena Ferreira for her help in Rio de Janeiro and for her encouragement over the years. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the late Professor Paula Schutz for sharing with me a patient’s point of view. Finally I should like to thank my wife Eleanor and my daughter Suzanne for their help and support. REFERENCES

1. Fuller J. Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusry Knife. Crowell, New York, 1974. 2. [I], p. 25. I am grateful to Dr A. Puharich for providing me with a videotape of Arigb performing this procedur; which he used for diagnostic purposes. Mimer C. Gods, saints and spirits: a comparative analysis of Brazilian urban medical systems. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universitv of Toronto, 1980; The best of both worlds: an analysis of complementarity between religion-medical and contemporary health-care systems in urban Brazil. Unpublished manuscript. I learned later that the patients had undergone intensive preparation prior to seeing the healer. See p. 1103 for a discussion of what might have been happening to them during this preparation. I was able to visit this patient at his home in Rio de janeno about a year later. He claimed to be in excellent

of Dr Fritz health,

I107 and I could

not detect

any marks

on his neck

where the surgery had been performed. 6. When the case against Edson was first heard. his medical degrees, &es, licenses and right to practice were taken away from him. On appeal, however, the case was thrown out of court and they were reinstated and his right to practice medicine was restored. 1. Isaacs E. A history of American spiritualism: the beginnings, 1845-1855. Unpublished MA thesis, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1957; Moore R. L. In Search of White Crows. Spirirualism, Parapsychology. and American Culture. Oxford Press. New York, 1977; Nelson G. K. Spirimalism and Society. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1969. 8 Kardec A. The Spirir’s Book (Translated by Blackwell A.). Livraria AIIan Kardec, SHo Paulo, n.d.; The Medium’s Book (Translated by Blackwell A.). Livraria Allan Kardec, SHo Paulo, 1975: 0 Ecangelho Segundo 0 Espirilismo (Translated by Ribeiro 6.). Federacgo Espirita Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro. 1963. 9. Warren D. A terapia Espirita no Rio de Janeiro por volta de 1900. Relig. Socied. 11, 56-83. 1984. 10. Bastide R. The .dfrican Religions of Bra:il, Chap. 14. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md, 1978. II. Renshaw P. A sociological analysis of spiritism in Brazil. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Florida, 1969. 12. McGregor P. Jesus of the Spirits, p. 73. Stein & Day, New York, 1967. 13. St Clair D. Drum and Candle. p. 115, Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1971. 14. Cavalcanti M. L. 0 mundo invisivel: cosmologia, sistema ritual e No@o de Pessoa no Espiritismo. p. 53. Unpublished masters thesis, National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, 1982. 15. [I], pp. 26 and 66: Comenale R. Ze Arigo. a Oiraua Marariiha, p. 179. Edit&a Boa Viagem, Belo Horizonte, nd. 16. Annond E. Passes e Radiaco‘es. Merodos Espititas de Cura, 22nd edn. Editora Ahanca, SBo Pauio, 1983; Toledo W. Passes e Curas Espirifuais. Empresa Editora “0 Pensamento”, Sao Paula, 1954. 17. I am thankful to IMr Jon Haught for teaching me something about magic and for arranging the opportunity for me to show films of Edson Queiroz at Invocational-84, Chicago, Ill.. October 1984. 18. The insights of the magicians were later supported by researchers and practitioners who use hypnosis in medical therapy. I am grateful specifically to Patric Giesler and Professor Joseph Dane for introducing me to this fascinating literature. 19. Ewin D. M. Hypnosis in surgery and anesthesia. In Clinical Hypnosis, A Multidiscipline Approach (Edited by Western W. C. and Smith A.). p. 217 ff. Lippincott, Philadelphia, Penn., 198 1. 20 August R. V. Hypnosis in Obstetrics. McGraw-Hill. New York, 1961; Esdaile J. Hypnosis in Medicine and Surgery. Julian Press. New York. 1957: Kroeer W. S. Cl&i and Experimental Hypnosis in Medic&e. Den tistry. and Psychology, p. 19. Lippincott. Philadelphia, Penn., 1977; Marmer M. J. Hypnosis in Aneslhesiology. Thomas, Springfield. Ill., 1959; Steinberg S. and Pennell E. L. Jr. Hypnoanesthesia-a case report on a 90 year old patient. Am. J. clin. H_vpn. 7, 355, 1965; We&l E. W. Hypnosis in serious surgical problems. Am. J. clin. Hypn. 10, 1967. 21 Barber T. X. Changing “unchangeable” bodily processes by (hypnotic) suggestions: a new look at hypnosis, cognitions, imagining, and the mind-body problem. In Imaginarion and Healing (Edited by Sheikh A.). Baywood. Farmingdale, N.Y., 1984; Chertok L. Sense and Nonsense in Psychotherapy; The Challange of

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23.

24

25

26

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