Jorge Villanueva & Mariano Villalba
Instituto de Psicología Paranormal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Introduction: Inspired by previous studies , we designed a study to compare a sample of medium’s clients with another sample composed of no-mediums’ clients (religious widows). We planned additionally to determine the covariation between the degree of distress over the loss of a loved one and the degree of hope remaining in the lives of the bereaved, as well as a number of unusual sensory experiences. It was hypothesized (H1) that the medium’s clients would experience a greater degree of complicated grief compared to that of religious widows, as well as (H2) less hope compared to that of religious widows, but (H3) that a negative and significant relationship would be found between complicated grief and hope in the medium’s clients. Methods Participants: Two samples were used: thirty women who were looking for a medium to facilitate spiritual communication with their deceased loved ones (the “medium” group), mean age 51 years, whose time since the death until the moment of completing the instruments was from one to 20 years (Mean = 6.13 years). Fifty-six percent of this sample was without a current partner (only 40% were in a relationship). The second sample to compare with the mediums’ clients, were thirty women, all widows, with an age mean 60 years old, who had lost their spouses in a period between three and nine years earlier (Mean = 3.73 years) at the time of completing the instruments. Fifty-six percent were without a current partner, and 26% were living with a partner. Instruments: A questionnaire was administered with questions related to sex, age, marital status, religion, and spirituality (self-perceived). Three scales were also used, including the Complicated Grief Inventory , the Hope Scale , and the Unusual Perceptual Experiences Questionnaire. Procedure: The religious widows were part of a previous study of 160 religious widows from whose database 30 cases were selected, matched by age and time after their loss. For both samples, each participant produced a signed consent. The data were treated with confidentiality and anonymity in their responses. Any cases of incomplete or incorrectly answered questionnaires were excluded from the sample; moreover, the medium’s clients must (1) have requested his guidance for the first time, and (2) done so a year or more after the death of their loved one, while the religious widows (3) had to have been widowed for more than one year at minimum, and (4) had been married/partnered for five years or more. A medium (LK) was willing to cooperate in this study with his own clients. Small groups of 5 to 20 women, who were gathered at the Institute of Paranormal Psychology over a period of eight months at the rate of one Saturday afternoon a month, were summoned by the medium for individual readings, at the end of which they were invited to complete the three instruments.
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Jorge Villanueva is a Civil Engineering graduated from Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is an independent researcher in parapsychology since 70s. During the period 1990-2004 has been Editor in Chief of the quarterly journal _Revista Argentina de Psicología Paranormal_ Argentina, serving as a translator of English and Portuguese. He has published articles on the history of parapsychology, particularly on psychics, mediums and parapsychologists. His areas of interest are investigating the ESP in ganzfeld, Psychomanteum, hypnagogic-states and other states of consciousness around psi. He is a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association and President of the Instituto de Psicología Paranormal based in Buenos Aires. He has received four grants from BIAL Foundation to develop parapsychological research, particularly on the ganzfeld and psychomanteum research. He has published articles in _International Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research_ and the _Revista Argentina de Psicología Paranormal_, for which he has published more than dozens of Spanish and English book reviews. He currently serves as book reviewer for the _E-Bulletin Psi,_ the electronic magazine on parapsychology.
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Published on April 23, 2026
