Father Landell
Studies & Research
”Every human body is surrounded by an element of vaporous form, more or less of Health, depending on nature or the State of the individual or the environment in which he finds himself... ”
– Roberto Landell de Moura
Roberto Landell de Moura left behind many handwritten notebooks containing thousands of texts, religious, philosophical, and scientific dissertations. This material offers insight into his inquisitive mind, intellectual capacity, and the breadth of studies he pursued. Priest Landell demonstrated deep knowledge in physics, chemistry, biology, parapsychology, philosophy, theology, and especially electromagnetic waves, as he conducted the world’s first wireless voice transmission. He was also highly ingenious: he built all of his inventions himself, piece by piece, with limited resources, in the humble rooms of the churches where he served.
The handwritten notebooks are archived at the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre, and were composed in the first three decades of the 20th century—a time when Brazil was entering an early stage of scientific development, limited compared to countries in the Northern Hemisphere, and marked by political instability and oligarchic control. It was also the beginning of science becoming institutionalized in the country, with the founding of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (1900) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (1916). The Old Republic (1889–1930) faced crises like the Vaccine Revolt (1904) and the Copacabana Fort Revolt (1922), which paved the way for the Revolution of 1930. Priest Landell’s great challenge was navigating turbulent waters, remaining faithful to both religion and science, in the face of the conservative and ignorant thinking of the time.
During his parish post in Mogi das Cruzes (SP), between April 1906 and March 1907, at the Igreja de Santana, Priest Landell discovered the so-called Kirlian effect (decades before the Soviets) and practiced exorcism. The episode is described in more than 200 handwritten pages. He developed devices to detect the phenomenon but was forced to stop the practices and resign. In 1916, while serving as parish priest at the Igreja do Rosário, in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, he set up a Laboratory of Experimental Anthropology to study hypnotism and spiritualism.
In 1919, he wrote and anonymously published the book Apontamentos de Psychologia. Using the pseudonym Bernardus Valumbrosius, he published Psycologia ascética. This “Valumbrosius” may have been a reference to the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who was accused of heresy by the Church for believing that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Galileo began his early studies at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallombrosa. In an interview with the New York Herald in 1902, Priest Landell said: “I know what it is to feel like Galileo and to shout: E pur si muove…”. The use of a pseudonym highlights his condition as someone censored.
Roberto Landell de Moura also studied medicinal plants and homeopathy. He became part of the faculty at the newly inaugurated Homeopathic Medical School of Porto Alegre in 1914. He wrote texts on botany and therapies for the body through baths and lotions using herbs. He created diagrams classifying diseases and their corresponding medications or therapeutic agents. Metaphysical questions run through some of his writings, along with essays like On Transcendental Psychology, The Life of Emotions, and dissertations on neurosis and mental illnesses, among many other topics.
Below are more information about his studies and research, including some of his many manuscripts
Bioelectrography
Bioelectrography is a technique that captures, through special photography, the energetic emanations of the body, also known as the human and animal aura. This effect gained notoriety after being accidentally discovered by the Kirlians in 1939. However, Father Landell had already been researching and documenting the phenomenon three decades earlier, in 1906–1907, through extensive and methodical scientific studies, recorded in his manuscript “Caderno A”, under the title “O Perianto”.
ROBERTO LANDELL DE MOURA – THE FATHER OF BIOELECTROGRAPHY
(Photo Landell-Kirlian)
Vânia Maria Abatte
In his studies, Father Landell discovered a form of energy that surrounds the bodies of living beings, which he called the perianth. To detect this energy, he built a device that allowed the phenomenon to be photographed. This is recorded in his notes in Notebook A.
The priest didn’t stop at theory—he succeeded in photographing the effect. He wrote:
“Human radioactivity exists, as my friend can verify by examining these radiographs produced by the radioactivity of my thumbs.”
And further: “It is precisely in human radioactivity, in suggestion, and in nervous currents that we will find the explanation for miraculous cures and so many other apparently wondrous phenomena, such as (illegible), the transmission of thought or mental suggestion, (illegible), etc.”
Father Roberto Landell de Moura went far beyond, as he had profound knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, parapsychology, philosophy, theology, and especially electromagnetic energies—knowledge well ahead of his time.
The Landell-Kirlian Photo was taken with a special machine where the fingertips are pressed onto a photographic film, causing ionization of the gases and vapors emitted by the body, which in turn produces a vaporous layer flowing from the human body in the form of disruptive or silent discharges. These are called energy signatures, remnants of all that has occurred within the cellular structure.
Bioelectrography photography helps as a diagnostic tool for illnesses, offering a preventive health approach before physical-emotional/mental/energetic diseases manifest. This diagnostic method is legally recognized and accepted by the Russian Ministry of Health. In Brazil, hundreds of clinics, institutes, and hospitals use the Landell-Kirlian Photo to monitor their patients. Supporting this fact is the “Kirlian Oncological Diagnosis” based on the work of Dr. Júlio Grott of the Armed Forces Hospital of Curitiba. This work was published in the Technical-Scientific Edition No. 4, Oct–Dec/1987, by the Armed Forces Hospital of Brasília—the first official body in South America to publish such material. This research has greatly helped parents to understand and spiritually connect with their children.
Summary of the book “BIOELETROGRAFIA – EFEITO LANDELL-KIRLIAN – “PERIANTO”” by Vânia Maria Abatte.
UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETING THIS ENERGY THAT SPARKLES/VIBRATES FROM THE ENERGY/SPIRITUAL BODY TO THE BIOLOGICAL BODY REQUIRES A SUTILE AND INTIMATE OBSERVATION.
BEFORE WE ARE A PHYSICAL/MATERIAL BODY, WE ARE AN ENERGY/SPIRITUAL BODY, THAT IS, WE EXIST BEFORE MATTER, THUS, WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS MATERIALIZED RADIATING LIGHT.
THERE ARE SEVERAL NAMES, SUCH AS: PERIANTO, LANDELL/KIRLIAN EFFECT, BIOFIELD, BIOPLASMIC BODY, AURA, ETC… REQUIRES AT LEAST A QUANTUM AND INTEGRAL OBSERVATION OF THE LIVING BEING.
WE HAVE LEARNED INCORRECTLY THAT WE ARE MATTER BEFORE WE ARE ENERGY. IN REALITY, WE ARE BOTH. SPIRIT AND SOUL/MATTER. EVERYTHING IN ITS DIVINE EVOLUTIONARY ORDER.
METAPHYSICALLY, THE PERIANTO AS DESCRIBED BY LANDELL MAKES EVIDENT WHAT INVOLVES MATTER – A SURROUNDING FIELD.
DERIVED FROM GREEK – (PERI “around”), ANTHOS (“flower”).
“IN ANY CASE, TO FACILITATE THE STUDY OF THE ‘R’ ELEMENT THAT EXISTS IN THE HUMAN BODY, I ATTRIBUTE IT TO THE PERIANTO, BECAUSE AS ITS NAME SAYS, IT IS AN EFFECT OF THE ‘R’ ELEMENT JUST AS ELECTRIC TENSION IS AN EFFECT OF THE ELECTRICITY THAT ACCUMULATES AROUND CONDUCTORS. THE PERIANTO IS INVISIBLE IN ITSELF, BUT THROUGH CERTAIN LIGHTS, IT CAN BECOME VISIBLE AND EVEN BE PHOTOGRAPHED.” Summarizing…
“WHAT IT PROVES IS THAT THE ‘PERIANTO’ IS DUE TO A VIBRATION OF A MORE SUBTLE ELEMENT THAN AIR.”
THE CONTRIBUTION OF FATHER LANDELL MARKED A NEW MOMENT IN HUMANITY’S HEALTH.
PERIANTO ORGANIZATIONS
“THE LIVING TISSUE OF LIFE”
VÂNIA MARIA ABATTE
At its essence, the work “Bioeletrografia” records the physical presence of the door that is the connective passage between the past and the future. It seeks to be the graphic and didactic link between these two universes: on one side, the Cartesian man who was left behind, and on the other, the wonderful, modern, and always current world of the real energetic individual. Based on the work of Landell de Moura, it presents in a simple and pedagogical way the election of the “pairs” of each one… It is a work that separates and at the same time unites. On one side those who seek the new and on the other those who cling to the elemental transience of Cartesian matter. Still, in another parallel concept, it discusses the way to record and interpret the ionized cellular emissions that indicate the health or difficulty of the organic world… it further popularizes the “Perianto” proposed by Landell, leaving behind the simple measurements that are merely carnal and of decomposing tissues. In thruth, the author recounts that Landell made it clear who his ‘peers’ would be, and that he chose modernity… and everything that was yet to come… Showing beforehand what is still modern now…
The Perianto Organizations thank, on behalf of all humanity, the work developed by Father Landell de Moura for the benefit of all incarnate society.
PERIANTO ORGANIZATIONS
“THE LIVING TISSUE OF LIFE”
RENON AFFONSO CARBONI JUNIOR
ENGINEER
BIOELETROGRAPHY
The Landell-Kirlian effect
by Sabrina Müller (in Portuguese)
Psychology
Apontamentos de Psychologia
Transcript 1 – Handwritten text, entitled ‘Sobre a Psicologia Transcedental’, by Landell de Moura, in which the author discusses this experimental science currently called parapsychology. He addresses issues related to the object of science, its purposes, as well as topics such as hypnotism, cures and facts considered ‘marvelous’, the action of radioactivity on the human body and the light produced by it. N.d. s.as. 8p. LM-0066.
Handwritten text by Landell de Moura, covering a variety of topics. In psychology texts, he addresses metaphysical questions, now parapsychology, related to the nature of matter and ether, the phenomena of life related to nature, the nature of the atom and its primary function in bodies, and the soul. He also addresses questions related to the formation of the universe, the Catholic vision of paradise and the so-called celestial realms, and human perfection before God. N.d. s.as. 171p. (sewn notebook) LM-0074.
Handwritten text, entitled ‘Psycologia Ascética’, by B. Valumbrosius, pseudonym of Landell de Moura, dealing with man as a rational being. It addresses themes related to the psyche and the soul. Divided into the following chapters: tendencies and their varieties, the sensitive will, a false consequence, the apparent impossibility, common sense, discernment, freedom, the creations of the imagination, psychic dynamism, a healthy resolution, the orientation of the will, the body and the soul, the cooperation of our souls, the action on the senses, the will and its disorders, automatism, intelligence, the independence of body and soul, conscience, ideas and their dynamic force, aberrations of the will, the acquired good habit, the passions, man or animal, violent temptations, excesses, fatal consequences of certain uses and customs, necessary precautions, the neurosis of the soul, consequences. N.d. s.as. 53p. LM-0095.
Handwritten text, entitled ‘A vida das emoções’, by B. Valumbrosius, pseudonym of Landell de Moura, dealing with questions related to love and affection. It is divided into the following chapters: the psychology of love, the laws governing the phenomena of the life of emotion, the tendencies of the will, natural love, the transition from spiritual love to natural love, the transition from natural love to instinctive love, instinctive love, the difference between the instinctive love of man and that of animals, conjugal love, love and sex, platonic love, the illusion of happiness in marriage, a remediable deception, an illusion of love, and displays of affection. N.d. s.a. 27 p. LM-0101.
Medicinal Plants
Handwritten text by Landell de Moura, writing about body therapies through baths and lotions, using herbs. Includes text discussing electricity and its use in circuits and electronics. He also writes about wave propagation and emitting and receiving devices, in addition to using diagrams and drawings to illustrate them. Unpublished, 58p. (sewn notebook) LM-0077
Transcription – Handwritten text by Landell de Moura, writing about body therapies through baths and lotions, using herbs. Includes text dealing with electricity and its use in circuits and electronics. He also writes about wave propagation and emitting and receiving devices, in addition to using diagrams and drawings to illustrate them. Undated, 58p. (sewn notebook) LM-0077
Handwritten text by Landell de Moura, addressing topics related to science, psychology, and religion. The majority of the scientific topics are as follows: waves, electrical resistance and alternating currents, vibratory movements, radio reception, various wireless telephone schemes, and medicinal plants. Topics related to religion and psychology include: the soul and life, intelligence, will, freedom, and law. Several unsigned sonnets also appear. Undated, undated, 171p. (sewn notebook) LM-0088.
Philosophy
Handwritten text, entitled ‘O Ideal’, by B. Valumbrosius, pseudonym of Landell de Moura, dealing with subjects related to human feelings and their aspirations. Divided into the following chapters: Good and evil, the ideal, the ideal and the passions, the partial and the universal ideal, ideal love, the object of the ideal, God and his role in our ideal, the human ideal, in the struggle for the ideal. S.d. s.as. 16p. LM-0096.
Transcription – Handwritten text, entitled ‘O Ideal’, by B. Valumbrosius, pseudonym of Landell de Moura, dealing with subjects related to human feelings and their aspirations. Divided into the following chapters: Good and evil, the ideal, the ideal and the passions, the partial and the universal ideal, ideal love, the object of the ideal, God and his role in our ideal, the human ideal, in the struggle for the ideal. N.d. s.as. 16p. LM-0096.
Theology
Handwritten text by B. Valumbrosius (pseudonym of Landell de Moura), dealing with religious and psychological subjects. It is divided into the following chapters: the life of relationships, organs corresponding to the intellectual psyche, the intimate nature of the faculties, the different faculties of the soul, knowledge of the faculties of the soul, the life of psychic and physiological relationships, the nature of the passions, the vegetative faculties, the sensitive faculties, the transition from the sensitive to the cognitive act, the intellectual faculties, the human soul and its nature, the higher faculties, consciousness, ideation and judgment, reasoning, reason, will and its causes, freedom and free will, perception, images and sensation, ideas and psychic perception, knowledge, imagination, sensitive and intellectual consciousness, habitual and current consciousness, memory, imagination and nerve centers, instinct. N.d. s.as. 68p. LM-0097.
Transcription – Handwritten text, entitled ‘Jesus, os Santos e outros’, by Landell de Moura, covering a variety of subjects, many of which are unfinished. Religion is a theme in the following texts: ‘Jesus’, the Saints, outbursts of indignation, little faith, the influence of blood on relational life, the double deficiency of the will, the Kingdom of Jesus, the interior life, the matter of bodies, and holiness. There is a text on the question of electricity and another dealing with the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, a brotherhood that belonged to the parish of the same name, of which Landell de Moura was the parish priest. N.d. s.as. 27p. LM-0104.