From the desk of Nan Zingrone, July 20th, 2021: It is with a broken heart that I am here to let those know who have not yet heard that Carlos passed away at the age of 66 on Friday, July 16th.
A few days after his last post on this blog, we were in the ER at the University of North Carolina hospital. Two tumors were discovered on, around, and below his temporal lobe. On the 15th of January, he had neurosurgery which successfully removed all but 3% of the tumors. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer on the 2nd of February. Throughout the spring, Carlos endured radiation treatments, and three different regimes of chemotherapy, but the residue of the original tumors continued to grow. On the 21st of June he entered an at-home hospice program, and on July 16th, passed away peacefully in our home.
Throughout his battle with cancer we were both inspired and comforted by the kindness and caring of the staff, nurses, and doctors at UNC Hospital, UNC Home Health, and UNC Hospice, as well as the prayers, healing intentions, cards, letters, calls, and visits from friends, family, and colleagues. We were grateful for everyone who sought to help him recover, survive, and then who prayed for and facilitated his peaceful passing. We could not have been more blessed in that regard.
If you are on Facebook, seek out the Parapsychology Foundation Facebook page and elsewhere around the FB universe where there are tributes to his character and work, and comments that have been so comforting to all of us who knew and loved him. The personal emails of condolence I have received and the public comments I have read have helped me so much with the pain of his loss after 38 years of happiness with this extraordinary man.
If you are a reader of the blog but don’t know as much as you would like to about his life and work, there is a biographical entry recently published on Psi Encyclopedia. In the fall of 2020, Carlos worked with Michael Duggan who writes many of the biographies in that encyclopedia. Dr. James G. Matlock helped finalize the biography while Carlos was in hospice and after he passed. The hard work of Michael, Jim and others has resulted in a very informative entry with a selected list of his publications. Click here to read this entry.
The Parapsychology Foundation’s first announcement of Carlos’ death included a link to an interview that PF President, Lisette Coly, published on the PF YouTube channel. Click here to watch that interview. If you put “Carlos S Alvarado” or just “Alvarado” in the search button on the PF YouTube channel, you will find a long list of Carlos’ interviews and lectures. The interview that Lisette linked to was uploaded 4 years ago and is a wonderful look into Carlos’s passion in the various topics of the field.
Over the next few months, I will be asking many of our colleagues to reproduce or discuss their tributes to Carlos here. I will also work to provide information about the various efforts that are made to memorialize his life and work, and to preserve his legacy. I don’t know how soon I will be able to start this series of blogs because, for me, this is an immediate and searing loss, but rest assure, the material will appear.
Your own thoughts and comments on Carlos, his life and work, and the content of this blog is welcome. I end this note with one of my favorite photos of this brilliant and generous man who has left us all too soon.
Parapsychology 