Cesare (or Caesar) Lombroso and Spiritism
[Originally published in Guia-Heu by Marinei Ferreira de Rezende — http://www.guia.heu.nom.br/Lombroso.htm]
Cesare Lombroso was an Italian university professor and criminologist, born on November 6, 1835, in Verona. He became world famous for his studies and theories in the field of characterology, or the relationship between physical and mental characteristics.
Cesare Lombroso was born on November 6, 1835 and passed away on October 19, 1909. A scientist universally known for his important work in the legal field, he dedicated himself to letters from an early age. At the age of twelve, he wrote the work entitled “Grandeza e Decadencia de Roma”, which had great repercussions in the intellectual circles of the time.
About the work of Mazolo, a great Italian psychologist, he wrote an article, which was published in one of the Italian newspapers. Mazolo read this article and invited Lombroso to his house, as he wanted to meet the new writer. In front of the boy, who was only fourteen years old, he was surprised, given his precocious intelligence.
Lombroso converted to Spiritism after carrying out experiments on the mediumship of Eusapia Paladino, presented to him by Professor Chiaia, from Naples. In one of the sessions with this medium, he witnessed the materialization of the Spirit of his own mother. From then on, Lombroso had no doubts about the spirits' survival and communicability.
He wrote several works, both in the fields of Medicine and Philosophy.
Among them, the notable monograph “Criminal Anthropology”, “L'Uomo di Gênio”, “L'Uomo Delinquente”, as well as others on psychology and psychiatry stand out. On Spiritism, we cannot fail to mention the “Research on Hypnotic and Spiritist Phenomena”, through which he reports all the experiences carried out, not only with Eusápia_Paladino, but also with other mediums of physical effects, such as Elizabeth D'Esperance and Politi .
It was slow and arduous, however, continuous and sure, the march of Lombroso towards Spiritism. At first, he ridiculed psychic manifestations. He mocked mediums and “turning tables”. He even went so far as to insult the Spiritists. However, on a certain occasion, through a letter from his friend Ercole Chiaia, he came to know the figure of a Neapolitan woman, illiterate, of humble, robust class and whose name was Eusápia Paladino.
As a skeptic, he refused to attend sessions, having as a medium the great medium Eusápia Paladino. But his friend Chiaia insisted so much that Lombroso insisted on imposing the conditions. The other participants in the meetings, including the Medium, accepted all the conditions imposed by Lombroso. Thus, in March 1891, in the presence of Lombroso, under strict supervision, with the Medium being held by two people, phenomena took place...
- object transport,
- of partial materializations,
- of typtology, (transcendental message obtained through blows),
- of direct voices
- and others of the same strain.
After all that he had witnessed, without a doubt, Lombroso surrendered to the Truth and confessed: “I am very ashamed and disgusted for having fought with such persistence the possibility of the so-called spiritual facts; but the facts exist and I am proud of them to be a slave”.
Lombroso passed away serenely in the arms of his talented daughter Dr. Gina on October 19, 1909, in Turin, at the age of 74.
In the midst of his research on mediumship, he first starts attempts to study the phenomenon under the positivist aspect of factual evidence – as other scientists of the time did elsewhere, several of them imbued with positivist ideals – and at the end concludes by scientifically confirming the doctrine and studied phenomena. He then became a defender of Spiritism in Italy at the time, as did several trends in the positivist movement at the time.
His works cover several areas such as: anthropology, criminal sociology, psychology, criminology, philosophy and medicine.
His studies became known as criminal anthropology.
Lombroso's work with the medium Eusápia Paladino followed and progressed. Under the ectoplasm released by Eusapia, Lombroso, ever vigilant, obtained wonderful revelations. The aforementioned revelations overcame Lombroso's scientific distrust and did not fail to illuminate his Moral Conscience. In a certain session, Lombroso's full conviction was strengthened even more, before the materialization of his mother's Spirit. Eusapia promised Lombroso a surprise and it came about through the materialization of her own mother's Spirit. Yes, my friends, the Spirit of Lombroso's mother materialized and, approaching her son, said: "Cesare, fio mio" and then, removing, for a moment, the veil that covered his face, she gave him a kiss. And Lombroso confesses that, at the moment when the materialization of his mother's Spirit took place, Eusápia had her hands trapped by two people and that Eusápia's stature was also much taller than that of her mother's materialized Spirit. Here, my friends, is the Truth through the testimony of a Man of Science, a Sage. Will anyone be able to dispute it, we believe not…
Born on the 18th of November to a wealthy family in Verona and graduated in Medicine at the University of Pavia, he graduated in 1858. A year after graduating in medicine, he obtained a degree in surgery in Genoa. He improved his knowledge in Vienna and Padua, where he perfected his knowledge, aligning himself with positivist thinking.
At the age of twenty, he demonstrates his line of interests with a study on madness. Lombroso already outlines the subjects that will make him famous: the contrast between the genius of man and theories about degenerative nature. As a medical officer, he wrote, in 1859, “Memory on Wounds and Amputations by Firearms”, which is still considered one of his most original works. Then he was drawn to Calabria by the anthropological and ethnic problems of the region. These observations were developed in a psychiatry course, which he began in Pavia in 1862, where he began to analyze the possible influences of the environment on the mind, ideas that at first achieved success and, later, distrust. He starts a course in psychiatry and the following year transforms it into a course in “clinical mental illness and anthropology”. His frequent visits to the mental hospital, where he assisted patients free of charge, allowed him to deepen his study of the relationship between genius and neurosis. “The ideas of the greatest thinkers burst out of the blue, unfold involuntarily like the compulsive acts of maniacs,” he wrote. At the International Congress of Anthropology held in Milan, several criticisms were raised against Lombroso's position, but his pioneering role in therapy with the mentally ill was recognized: rational relaxation of treatment, introduction of manual work, conversations with outsiders, collective entertainment , diaries written and printed by the patients themselves. It was a new method, used today by psychotherapy.
In 1864, Lombroso became known for the book "Genius and Madness". Psychiatrist and director of the asylum in Padua from 1871 to 1876, he collected enough data for his theories. From the examination of hundreds of mental patients and criminals, he comes to the conclusion that the criminal is formed by some basic tendency inherent in his destiny, and that the "seeds of a criminal nature" can often be identified in the child. He also believed that the social environment, combined with astral influences, prepared individuals whose nature was anti-social for criminal action. The ideas defended by Lombroso about the “born criminal” advocated that, by analyzing certain somatic characteristics, it would be possible to foresee those individuals who would turn to crime. Many other beneficial changes adopted by criminal legislators around the world derived from the studies pioneered by Lombroso. Lombroso's main idea was partially inspired by genetic and evolutionary studies at the end of the 9th century and proposes that certain criminals have physical evidence of an atavism (reappearance of characteristics that were presented only in distant ancestors) of a hereditary type, reminiscent of more primitive stages of human evolution.
These anomalies, called stigmata by Lombroso, could be expressed in terms of abnormal shapes or dimensions of the skull and jaw, asymmetries in the face, etc., but also in other parts of the body. Subsequently, these associations were considered highly inconsistent or completely non-existent, and theories based on the environmental cause of crime became dominant.
In 1882, in his booklet “Study on Hypnotism”, he ridiculed spiritist manifestations, but, invited by prof. Morselli to study the subject better, participated in sessions with the medium Eusápia Palladino, becoming convinced of the incontestable veracity of the facts. For many years he denied psychic and spiritual phenomena as quackery and simple-minded credulity.
On July 15, 1891, a letter was published in which he declared his surrender to spiritual facts: I am very ashamed and disgusted for having fought so persistently against the possibility of so-called spiritual facts; I say facts, because I am still opposed to theory. But the facts exist, and I'm proud to be a slave to them.
When he goes to Moscow, it is in 1897, as a participant in the Psychiatric Congress, he meets Tolstoy, who knew very well his ideas about genius and madness.
He then became a defender of Spiritism in the Italy of his time, as did various currents of the positivist movement of the time.
Lombroso, always faithful to the experimental method, bequeathed to the spiritists an excellent collection of information about mediumship and the vast phenomenological field. A deeply honest man defended the veracity of Spiritism until his death, which was prominently reported around the world, on October 19, 1909.
It was the end of the mission, which in his case, started in reverse, from the position of ridicule to that of sincere defender, would strengthen the spiritist movement through its own inclusion in the midst of its researchers and defenders.
God has many ways for men. For Lombroso, the path was to retrace his own path, that is, to consolidate what he, through ignorance of reality, had attacked, by formulating mistaken concepts about Spiritism, portraying himself intimately and publicly a posteriori through the immense work he carried out.
Lombroso was one of the greatest criminal doctors of the last century.