ABB FARIA: MR. REQUIEM, WHO CURED ALL THE DEAD?

Teotonio R. de Souza

Abb Faria:

Mr. Requiem, who cured all the dead?

Probably the only authentic contemporary caricature, preserved in the National Library in Paris, portrays Abb Faria with bolts of lightning emerging from his head, riding a scrawny horse, describing the rider as "Mr. Requiem, famous physician, who cured all the dead". He was the butt of black humour in the theatre Variets. Besides such attempts to ridicule him, Abb Faria merited a more serious and largely authentic treatment in Dumas novel , the Count of Monte Cristo, wherein Faria plays an important role, as a prisoner in the Castle dIf in 1813. But whatever is said about his participation in a revolutionary march against the Convention seems to point to his views against the regime of terror, but probably more to his opposition to the new Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Among his contemporaries, Farias novel theory of hypnotism by talk and gestures was acclaimed as a significant breakthrough by General Noizet, known for his interest and practice of induced sleep. However, Abb Faria was too stubborn to trust anyone to support his views. His written French text was probably not too easy for a native French reader to grasp, and as Noizet recorded in his Memoirs, Abb Faria had sought his help to review the proofs of his book, but would not easily give in to correcting even his faulty language structure. General Noizet felt sorry for having obliged Faria, but acknowledged nonetheless his scientific merits. Dr. D.G. Dalgados biography of Abb Faria (Paris, 1906) has provided us General Noizets graphic description of Abb Faria, whose demonstration of hypnotism he once attended: "A tall and handsome old man, with half-graying black hair, dark complexion, elongated face, hooked nose, large bulging eyes and a sort of beautiful equine head". Faria required a donation of three francs from those seeking admission to his weekly Thursday sessions. Two and half centuries later, the Goan pioneer of scientific hypnotism in Europe, has justice done to him. His name is given to a city road in a prestigious zone of Lisbon, the Park of the Nations, which houses the Live Science Pavillion (Pavilho do Conhecimento Cincia Viva), created as part of Expo98. This grand recognition took long to come. The wheels of history grind, slowly, but surely. His Portuguese admirer and biographer, the Nobel laureate in Medicine in 1950, Dr. Egas Moniz, had complained on the occasion of the bicentenary commemoration of the birth of Abade Faria in the Geographic Society of Lisbon in 1945, over which he presided, that it was important that Portugal, and Lisbon in particular, should recognize and manifest its respect for the merits of Fr. Faria, by associating his name and that of Pope John XXI (the Portuguese pope) to two new roads of the capital city. He further lamented on that occasion that the city fathers had shown indifference to these eminent Portuguese citizens, and had paid more attention to political figures and artists, but had forgotten the men of science. This was not entirely true, because Agostinho Vicente Loureno, who had distinguished himself as chemical scientist in French and and German laboratories, had gained a road name in Lisbon.

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ABB FARIA: MR. REQUIEM, WHO CURED ALL THE DEAD?

TEOTONIO R. DE SOUZA

Unfortunately, following the April 25 democratic revolution in Portugal, some unwise councilor mistook the Goan scientist with the chief of the hated PIDE, the secret police of the Salazar regime, with that same name. Until the mistake was recognized, the Goan scientist had to retire from the city road, at Areeiro.
Right through his book on the lucid sleep, which probably very few have cared to read, Abb Faria is revealed to be a man of faith and true to his priestly Catholic theological formation.

At the time of Padre Faria, Portugal was not a police State, although some decades earlier, following the Lisbon earthquake and the expulsion of the Society of Jesus, Portugal saw the iron rule of Marquis of Pombals Chief of Police, the dreaded Pina Manique. The denunciation of the Pinto Revolt in Goa in 1787 forced Fr. Faria to move out of the reach of the Portuguese police and organize his livelihood in France. He did it with great creativity and fanfare, by questioning the popular and authoritative figure of Mesmer in the field of hypnotism. Abb Faria did not limit himself to dramatic performances, and put down his doctrines on paper. However, the public ridicule to which he was subjected by his rivals and the hardships of life conditions hastened his early demise in 1819, providing pastoral needs to a home of some pious and charitable ladies at rue de Orties, at the age of 64, before seeing the printed edition of the first of the four projected volumes of his De la cause du sommeil lucide (On the Cause of Lucid Sleep), translated for the first time into English by Laurent Carrer, himself a practising hypnotherapist, in 2004 [ISBN 1-41404488-X]. Dr. D.G. Dalgado had earlier reprinted the book with a Preface and Introduction (Paris 1906).

Abb Farias opus magnum on lucid sleep (just a part of his projected work) is curiously organized on somewhat apocalyptic numerology, divided into 14 chapters of 14 sections, even at the cost of leaving some sections blank! There are at least 4 sections missing in Lecture VI. Seven represents completion in the Bible, as in seven days of creation. Fourteen conveys double completion . The term "14th" is found 24 times in scriptures, and the number 14 represents deliverance or salvation and is used twenty-two times in the Bible. Jacob served Leah and Rachel during 14 years; the feast of dedication of the temple of Solomon lasted 14 days; the genealogy of Jesus in Mathew is divided into sets of 14 generations. In the Book of Proverbs the expression the fear of the Lord occurs 14 times. Right through his book on the lucid sleep, which probably very few have cared to read, Abb Faria is revealed to be a man of faith and true to his priestly Catholic theological formation. Throughout his efforts to define lucid sleep, he sticks firmly to the human make-up of material body and spiritual soul, intimately and mutually dependent. Abb Faria defends that an epopt, as he designates persons susceptible to benefit from lucid sleep, is master of freewill, and defends right though his treatise that no one can be forced into lucid sleep without his/her will or cooperation. The hypnotist is a mere concentrator, an occasional cause, and never an external human efficient cause or a Devil. Abb Farias scientific contribution was acknowledged by Jean-Martin Charcot, whose prestige took his views and practice to the great Hospital of Salpetrire, laying the foundation of the Nancy School of Hypnotism in 1980s. Abb Faria wrote his book to refute his professional detractors, but partly to assuage his fellow clergymen who had suggested that he was

practising magic or witchcraft. Abb Faria declared that those who had no interest or competence to pursue the honest could hardly bother him. His only interest was to follow his conscience, which alone ruled his conduct. It is to be noted that Faria was very conscious about every word he used, and it isn't surprising that he raised constant doubts about Noizets suggestions for changes in the text. Abb Faria was deeply convinced that there was nothing supernatural about lucid sleep, and regarded its causes as more intellectual than physical, and consequently, the difficulty in subjecting it satisfactorily to the rigour of a physical demonstration or analytical method. Abb Faria had treated over five thousand persons, and concluded that one of every five of them could be induced into some level of lucid sleep. Abb Farias theory of lucid sleep, which some have named Fariism, defends its benefits over and above the natural sleep, but was cautious to distinguish it from religious prophecies or mystical manifestations, and denied its capacity

to predict the future with any certainty, or to foretell the lucky numbers in a lottery, as some in the gambling establishments at the Palais Royal had accused him of doing. For Abb Faria, the lucid sleep provided a glimpse into eternity, which for him meant loss of link with time consciousness, including any clear reading of future events. To conclude, we can return with Abb Faria to Goa, where he was born and lived till 15. In Lecture VI, he discusses the practice of massage in the Indies, and one practiced in many families to help relaxation and fight diseases, by inducing a pleasant sleep. He called it mutt marunk, meaning in Konkani to strike the calves with the fist, leading to drowsiness and numbness. Abb Faria, who had identified himself in Europe as a Goan Brahmin, also paid special homage to the Brahmins, and their practices of bhar in Hindu temples, associated with oracles. He mentioned that they kept to themselves the secrets of inducing lucid sleep in their epopts, but believed that they followed what his own experience had taught him.

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