Gustavo Adolfo Rol (

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

June 1903 – 22 September 1994) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

parapsychologist, philosopher and painter. His devotees consider him to have been a great spiritual master and have testified to miraculous feats he supposedly accomplished.

Biography

Rol was born in

, Italy, and graduated in law at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law in 1933. He also studied in London and Paris and began a banking career that took him to other major European cities. He was also an amateur painter and his work was featured in exhibitions at the ''Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli'' and the ''Guido Costa Projects''. While in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

during 1925-1926, he encountered a person who showed him some card tricks, triggering an interest in

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

al and paranormal phenomena. He pursued deeper spiritual studies and had an experience in Paris of which he wrote in his diary: "I discovered a tremendous law that links the color green, the musical fifth, and heat. I have lost my will to live. I am frightened by power. I shall write no more!" As a result of this crisis, he briefly retreated to a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

. Upon returning to Italy, in the 1930s he became known in aristocratic and political circles. Rol engaged in various demonstrations of his supposed mystical powers, including telepathy,

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

, and other psychic or magical feats. He also became a friend, among others, of film directors Federico Fellini and

Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...

and writer

Dino Buzzati Dino Buzzati-Traverso (; 14 October 1906 – 28 January 1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for ''Corriere della Sera''. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel ''The Tartar Ste ...

. Toward the later part of his life, and after his death, Rol was a focal point of debate in Italy between skeptics and advocates of parapsychology. His alleged mystical powers were never demonstrated, and he repeatedly refused to be cross-examined by other illusionists.

References

External links

Biographical site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rol, Gustavo Italian psychics 1903 births 1994 deaths People from Turin University of Turin alumni Place of death missing

Biography

References

Further reading

External links