Arquivo mensal: fevereiro 2025

In Rio, a Reincarnated Spirit Can Chase Away the Rain (Atlas Obscura)

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Original article

Cacique Cobra Coral is often tapped by officials to keep weather from ruining important events.

by Constance Malleret

February 13, 2025

  

In Brazil, the summer rainy season stretches from December into March.

In Brazil, the summer rainy season stretches from December into March. Daniel Ramalho/Getty Images

Rainstorms are a frequent occurrence in Rio de Janeiro’s tropical climate. Yet year after year, the Marvelous City defies meteorological forecasts and is blessed with dry weather and clear skies when it needs it the most, such as during its famed Carnival celebrations.

This, locals will tell you, is not the result of good luck, but the work of a weather-controlling spirit called Cacique Cobra Coral.

In Brazil, the spirit is widely credited with guaranteeing a clement climate during major events, including music festivals and presidential inaugurations. It is particularly well-known in Rio, where the mayor is said to have a long-running agreement with the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation, an organization that claims to communicate with the spirit through a medium. Every year, as Carnival approaches, Cacique Cobra Coral pops up in conversations and on social media, as revelers hope the festivities will be spared the summer downpours.

The belief that a religious or spiritual entity has the power to control the weather is widespread in Brazil, where there is “a ritualized understanding of nature,” says Renzo Taddei, an associate professor of anthropology at the Federal University of São Paulo who has studied the Foundation. In the Afro-Brazilian religion Umbanda, which blends Indigenous beliefs with African traditions, caboclos are the spirits of Indigenous elders who return through a medium to provide help or guidance to supplicants. The Cacique Cobra Coral—whose title cacique means “Indigenous chief” in Portuguese—belongs to this spiritual tradition, says Taddei.

Umbanda is a syncretic religion that combines African and Indigenous beliefs.
Umbanda is a syncretic religion that combines African and Indigenous beliefs. Pulsar Imagens/Alamy

What sets the Cacique Cobra Coral apart—and contributes to its fame—is the exposure that its meteorological feats have gained in the press. Then there’s the fact that both public bodies and private companies sign contracts with the mysterious Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation to ensure good weather.

“Cacique Cobra Coral arrives in Rio for the G20 ‘to avert embarrassment,’” read one recent headline in a Brazilian newspaper. “Medium from the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation has agreement with [São Paulo] city hall,” reads another, from 2009, describing how the rain stopped for a papal visit. The spirit even works internationally: it was reportedly hired by an unnamed billionaire to clear the skies for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 and for the 2012 London Olympics. In 1987, the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation told British newspaper The Guardian that it had offered its services to Margaret Thatcher to end a cold spell. The then-prime minister never replied, but the Foundation still claimed credit for a rise in temperatures.

Cesar Maia, the former mayor of Rio who started the city’s now-legendary relationship with the Foundation, publicly credited the organization for sparing Rio from floods during his two terms in office between 2001 and 2008. The Foundation was also hired to ensure clear skies for the Rock in Rio music festival, according to businessman and festival founder Roberto Medina’s 2006 biography.

Rio local Bruno Simas admits he is not familiar with the specifics of the spirit’s workings, but has faith in its ability to alter the weather. “People say, let’s ask for Cacique Cobra Coral’s help so that it doesn’t rain during Carnival. I like to believe in this, to direct my energy towards this,” he says.

Rio de Janeiro's relationship with Cacique Cobra Coral began during the tenure of former mayor Cesar Maia (second from left).
Rio de Janeiro’s relationship with Cacique Cobra Coral began during the tenure of former mayor Cesar Maia (second from left). Imago/Alamy

For the initiated, the Cacique has a rich history. Originally, they believe, the Cacique was an Indigenous North American. “In the spiritualist line of thought, people say that the Cacique Cobra Coral is an incarnation who went through various stages throughout civilization. Some say he was Galileo Galilei, that he then incarnated as Abraham Lincoln,” says Luiz Antonio Simas (no relation), a historian and prolific author who writes about Brazilian beliefs and popular culture. “That’s the belief, that he is a spirit who has already been present in countless manifestations and that today advises a medium.”

Said medium is Adelaide Scritori, president of the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation. According to Osmar Santos, Scritori’s husband and the Foundation spokesperson, Scritori channels the spirit’s powers to make atmospheric changes over small areas, such as diverting a cold front to cause or prevent rain. Santos also says that Scritori consults meteorologists on what exactly needs to occur. “We call this a climate operation,” he says “Each one is carried out with advice from a scientist, who follows the operation from start to finish.”

Although the Cacique is best known for guaranteeing sunny skies for entertainment, Santos says the spirit only interferes for the greater good. He also claims that the organization is contacted more and more these days, due to the extreme effects of climate change.

The organization is described as “peculiar” by those who have studied it, but few dismiss it entirely. In his 2017 book Meteorologists and Rain Prophets, Taddei recounted a conversation with a respected meteorologist about his first contact with Santos, in the 1980s. “One day, someone called him and asked him what would need to be done to stop a cold front coming from Argentina and prevent it from entering Rio Grande do Sul. At first, he didn’t take it seriously,” Taddei wrote. The caller was Santos. “The meteorologist made some calculations and argued that, if the atmospheric pressure above the state was to rise, the cold front would probably lose its force. The next day, the atmospheric pressure rose, and the cold front dissipated.” The meteorologist went on to work for the Foundation.

This marriage of the scientific and the supernatural might seem mystifying from a Western perspective, but this is perfectly acceptable in Brazil where there isn’t such an entrenched distinction between the two, Taddei argues. “The hostile opposition between religion and science is a part of colonialism,” he says. “It makes no sense in Brazil.” This reasoning is part of why Cacique Cobra Coral is generally accepted. When questioned in a 2013 documentary if it was contradictory to be a Catholic and believe in a spirit’s meteorological powers, Cesar Maia, the former mayor, simply replied, “I am Brazilian.”

The Foundation’s relationship with public bodies inevitably raises both eyebrows and questions about the improper use of taxpayers’ money. (Santos assures me that state bodies do not pay money for the Cacique’s work, but in exchange must keep the Foundation informed about environmental works carried out to prevent or mitigate climate catastrophes.) But this is not the only example of Brazilian authorities turning to the supernatural for help.

In 1998, officials from the government’s Indigenous agency flew two Kayapó shamans to perform a ritual in the Amazon state of Roraima, where uncontrollable fires had been raging for over 60 days. It finally rained the day after, and the downpour put out most of the fires. In a subsequent inquiry, the Brazilian Senate did not rule out the possibility that the shamanic ritual had caused the rains. More recently, as torrential rain fell on the Catholic World Youth Day gathering in 2013, Rio City Hall gifted a basket of eggs to the nuns of Saint Clare, a gesture that can clear rains according to Portuguese Catholic traditions. Coincidentally, the stormy weather eased off.

For many people, these tales inhabit a murky area between myth and reality. Ultimately, the belief that the Cacique Cobra Coral can chase away the rains is a part of what the historian Simas calls brasilidades, or ‘brazilianisms.’ These, he says, are “a broad, symbolic grouping of elements from Brazil’s [different] cultures, which involve beliefs, spirituality [and] a relation with the mysterious.” Many Brazilians, from Carnival-goers to elected political leaders, prefer not to question them too deeply.

“I think anything is possible,” says Rio resident Julianna Paes on the sidelines of a sunny Carnival rehearsal. “I don’t pray to [Cacique Cobra Coral]. But if the mayor has an agreement with it, then great, because it looks like it’s working.”

Médiuns têm alterações genéticas, mostra estudo coordenado pela USP (Folha de S.Paulo)

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www1.folha.uol.com.br

Pesquisa comparou pessoas identificadas com o dom com parentes de primeiro grau sem nenhuma habilidade do tipo

Anna Virginia Balloussier

18 de fevereiro de 2025

Ser médium não é necessariamente coisa do outro mundo. Pode estar nos genes, inclusive.

É o que sustenta um estudo que investiga as bases genéticas da mediunidade, publicado pelo Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, revista científica em que os artigos são revisados por pares acadêmicos. A coordenação ficou a cargo de Wagner Farid Gattaz, professor do Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP (Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo) e à frente do Laboratório de Neurociências na universidade.

A pesquisa de campo, realizada entre 2020 e 2021, comparou 54 pessoas identificadas como médiuns com 53 parentes de primeiro grau delas, sem nenhuma habilidade do tipo. Umbanda e espiritismo foram as principais fontes religiosas do grupo.

“O estudo desvendou alguns genes que estão presentes em médiuns, mas não em pessoas que não o são e têm o mesmo background cultural, nutritivo e religioso”, diz Gattaz. “Isso significa que alguns desses genes poderiam estar ligados ao dom da mediunidade.”

A seleção dos participantes seguiu os seguintes critérios: recrutar médiuns reconhecidos pelo grau de acerto de suas predições, que praticavam pelo menos uma vez por semana a mediunidade e que não ganhavam dinheiro com ela, ou seja, não cobravam por consultas.

Os resultados revelaram quase 16 mil variantes genéticas encontradas exclusivamente neles, “que provavelmente impactam a função de 7.269 genes”. Conclui o texto publicado: “Esses genes surgem como possíveis candidatos para futuras investigações das bases biológicas que permitem experiências espirituais como a mediunidade”.

“Esses genes estão em grande parte ligados ao sistema imune e inflamatório. Um deles, de maneira interessante, está ligado à glândula pineal, que foi tida por muitos filósofos e pesquisadores do passado como a glândula responsável pela conexão entre o cérebro e a mente”, afirma o coordenador da pesquisa. Ele frisa, contudo, que essa hipótese precisaria ser confirmada experimentalmente.

Coautor do estudo e diretor do Nupes (Núcleo de Pesquisas em Espiritualidade e Saúde), da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Alexander Moreira-Almeida justifica a opção por contrastar os médiuns com seus familiares. “Se eu pegasse um grupo de controle que fosse uma outra pessoa qualquer, aleatória, poderia ter muita diferença sociocultural, econômica e também da própria genética. Quando a gente pega um parente, vai ter uma genética muito mais parecida e um background sociocultural muito mais próximo.”

Os pesquisadores analisaram o exoma dos voluntários, que contém os genes que vão codificar as proteínas. Muitas partes do genoma, que é a sequência completa do DNA, não têm função muito clara. “Já o exoma é aquela que provavelmente é mais ativa funcionalmente, com maior impacto sobre a formação do corpo da pessoa”, explica Almeida-Moreira.

Darcy Neves Moreira, 82, serviu de objeto de estudo para a trupe da ciência. Ela é professora aposentada e coordena reuniões num centro espírita na zona norte carioca.

Descreve o dom que lhe atribuem como a capacidade de “sentir a influência dos espíritos”. Tinha 18 anos quando detectou a sua, conta. “Senti uma presença do meu lado. Comecei a pensar algumas coisas sobre o nosso trabalho. Percebi que não eram propriamente minhas ideias, mas ideias sugeridas pelo amigo que estava ali pertinho de mim.”

São mais de seis décadas “tentando aprimorar esse canal de comunicação com os espíritos, o que me traz muita alegria”, ela afirma. “É a certeza de que continuamos a viver em outro plano.”

Roberto Lúcio Vieira de Souza, 66, também cedeu uma amostra de sua saliva para a pesquisa. Diz que compreendeu seu potencial mediúnico na adolescência, quando apresentava sintomas que os médicos não conseguiam explicar. Tinha câimbras dolorosas durante o sono, “acompanhadas da sensação iminente de morte, o que me desequilibrava emocionalmente”.

Integrava um movimento católico para jovens na época e queria inclusive virar padre. Acabou numa casa de umbanda para entender as agruras físicas. “Lá fui informado sobre a mediunidade e comecei a desenvolvê-la.”

Souza diz que mais tarde descobriu por que se sentia tão mal. Numa vida passada, fora um senhor de escravizados que, irritado com um deles, mandou amarrá-lo no pátio da casa e passar uma carroça sobre suas pernas. Ele foi deixado por dias ali, até morrer.

O próprio espírito do homem assassinado teria lhe contado essa versão. “Ele gritava que queria as suas pernas de volta e que eu deveria morrer com muita dor nas pernas, como ele. Segundo um amigo espiritual, essa era uma atitude comum da minha pessoa naquela encarnação. Eu teria sido um homem muito irascível, orgulhoso e cruel.”

Psiquiatra e autor de livros psicografados, Souza é diretor de uma instituição espírita em Belo Horizonte que se diz especializada em saúde mental e dependência química.

Gattaz, no comando da turma que esquadrinhou sua genética, afirma que não é preciso ter um determinado combo de genes para ser um médium. “O nosso estudo mostra apenas que alguns desses genes são candidatos para serem estudados em novas pesquisas e podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento do dom da mediunidade.”

Ele já havia liderado outro front do estudo, que apura a saúde mental nos ditos médiuns. Saldo: eles não se diferenciam de seus parentes na prevalência de transtornos mentais. Não apresentaram, por exemplo, sintomas de quadros psicóticos, como desorganização cognitiva ou paranoia.

Pontuaram mais, contudo, nos itens que avaliaram alterações na sensopercepção —como ver ou ouvir o que outros não percebem.

Scientists have a new explanation for the last two years of record heat (Washington Post)

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washingtonpost.com

Shannon Osaka

Feb 16, 2025

For the past few years, scientists have watched, aghast, as global temperatures have surged — with both 2023 and 2024 reachingaround 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average. In some ways, that record heat was expected: Scientists predicted that El Niño, combined with decreasing air pollution that cools the earth, would cause temperatures to skyrocket.

But even those factors, scientists say, are not sufficient to explain the world’s recent record heat.

Earth’s overall energy imbalance — the amount of heat the planet is taking in minus the amount of heat it is releasing — also continues to rise, worrying scientists. The energy imbalance drives global warming. If it rises, scientists expect global temperatures to follow.

Two new studies offer a potential explanation: fewer clouds. And the decline in cloud cover, researchers say, could signal the start of a feedback loop that leads to more warming.

“We have added a new piece to the puzzle of where we are headed,” Helge Goessling, a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and the author of one of the studies,saidin a video interview.

For years, scientists have struggled to incorporate clouds’ influence into the large-scale climate models that help them predict the planet’s future. Clouds can affect the climate system in two ways: First, their white surfaces reflect the sun’s light, cooling the planet. But clouds also act as a kind of blanket, reflecting infrared radiation back to the surface of the planet, just like greenhouse gases.

Which factor wins out depends on the type of cloud and its altitude. High, thin cirrus clouds tend to have more of a warming effect on the planet. Low, fluffy cumulus clouds have more of a cooling effect.

“Clouds are a huge lever on the climate system,” said Andrew Gettelman, an affiliate scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “A small change in clouds could be a large change in how we warm the planet.”

Researchers are beginning to pinpoint how clouds are changing as the world warms. In Goessling’s study, published in December in the journal Science, researchers analyzed how clouds have changed over the past decade. They found that low-altitude cloud cover has fallen dramatically — which has also reduced the reflectivity of the planet. The year 2023 — which was 1.48 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average — had the lowest albedo since 1940.

In short, the Earth is getting darker.

That low albedo, Goessling and his co-authors calculated, contributed 0.2 degrees Celsius of warming to 2023’s record-high temperatures — an amount roughly equivalent to the warming that has so far been unexplained. “This number of about 0.2 degrees fairly well fits this ‘missing warming,’” Goessling said.

Researchers are still unsure exactly what accounts for this decrease. Some believe that it could be due to less air pollution: When particulates are in the air, it can make it easier for water droplets to stick to them and form clouds.

Another possibility, Goessling said, is a feedback loop from warming temperatures. Clouds require moisture to form, and moist stratocumulus clouds sit just underneath a dry layer of air about one mile high. If temperatures warm, hot air from below can disturb that dry layer, mixing with it and making it harder for wet clouds to form.

But those changes are difficult to predict — and not all climate models show the same changes. “It’s really tricky,” Goessling said.

Other scientists have also found decliningcloud cover. In a preprint study presented at a science conference in December, a group of researchers at NASA found that some of the Earth’s cloudiest zones have been shrinking over the past two decades. Three areas of clouds — one that stretches around the Earth’s equator, and two around the stormy midlatitude zones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres — have narrowed since 2000, decreasing the reflectivity of the Earth and warming the planet.

George Tselioudis, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the lead author of the preprint, said this decrease in cloud cover can help explain why the Earth’s energy imbalance has been growing over the past two decades. Overall, the cloud cover in these regions is shrinking by about 1.5 percent per decade, he said, warming the Earth.

Tselioudis said that warming could be constraining these cloud-heavy regions — thus heatingthe planet.“We’ve always understood that the cloud feedback is positive — and it very well could be strong,” he said. “This seems to explain a big part of why clouds are changing the way they are.”

If the cloud changes are part of a feedback loop, scientists warn, that could indicate more warming coming, with extreme heat for billions of people around the globe. Every hot year buttresses the idea that some researchers have now embraced, that global temperature rise will reach the high end of what models had predicted. If so, the planet could pass 1.5 degrees Celsius later this decade.

Researchers now say that they are rushing to understand these effects as the planet continues to warm. “We are kind of in crunch time,” Goessling said. “We have a really strong climate signal — and from year to year it’s getting stronger.”