The Secret of Dr. Grinberg: Documentary Explores Mysterious Disappearance of Telepathy Researcher (Evaluate)

Official authorities curiosity in psychic phenomena (each in the US and the previous Soviet Union) stays a controversial subject which most historians choose to brush below the rug and depart it to ‘conspiracy theorists.’ But the historical past of the Chilly Struggle can’t be absolutely comprehended if we don’t consider how significantly had been these psychological potentialities taken by Intelligence businesses on each sides of the Iron Curtain: no matter may give them an edge over their enemies –irrespective of how unbelievable it might have sounded at first look– was considered and covertly explored.

And oftentimes the extra ridiculous the thought sounded the higher: The Manhattan venture –initiated on the behest of Albert Einstein, who feared Germany would possibly get forward of the Allies within the growth of their very own atomic bomb– employed greater than 130,000 individuals from completely different international locations and price almost US$ 2 billion (greater than $30 billion in in the present day’s cash); not lengthy after the Soviets devoted appreciable sources into making an attempt to meet up with the People, and different superpowers adopted of their steps, in order that by the 1960’s there have been solely 5 nations (the US, the USSR, England, France and China) able to growing nuclear weapons at an incredible price to their GDP. Compared, exploring the hidden potential of the human thoughts is comparatively low cost and requires modest materials wants when it comes to lab and gear; so oftentimes probably the most handy deterrent in opposition to enemies who would possibly get forward of you with an necessary breakthrough –if they only knew the place to look– was the giggle issue surrounding this ‘forbidden’ data.

However what occurs when these breakthroughs are not achieved by one of many world’s superpowers, however elsewhere? How far would secret Intelligence businesses go in an effort to applicable such data, or at the very least stop it from falling within the incorrect palms?

These are the questions posed by a captivating new documentary: “El secreto del Dr. Grinberg” (The Secret of Physician Grinberg), directed by Catalan filmmaker Ida Cuéllar, which is at the moment getting quite a lot of reward within the worldwide movie competition circuit and can hopefully develop into extensively out there to the general public by way of a distributor or digital streaming platforms.

[Mild Spoilers Ahead]

Dr. Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum (1946-?) was a Mexican neurophysiologist and psychologist who was known as “the Einstein of Consciousness” by journalists and colleagues. Within the footsteps of the counterculture emanating from the US within the Sixties, he started to push the boundaries of scientific methodology by exploring the mysteries of the thoughts. By interviewing relations, shut pals and associates, Cuéllar’s movie does an incredible job in exhibiting how Grinberg’s genial eccentricities had been (not surprisingly) manifested from an early childhood; and the way sure key experiences all through his life –the tragic demise of his mom when he was solely 13, a gathering with a British spiritualist whereas residing in a Kibbutz in Israel, his experimentation with LSD whereas getting his PhD in New York within the 70s, and many others– would set him on a path of going in opposition to the grain of educational institution.

Among the many controversial experiments Grinberg performed throughout his quick albeit prolific profession, he taught younger kids dermo-perception –i.e. the flexibility to ‘learn’ texts utilizing solely their fingertips. He additionally performed a examine of the alleged paranormal skills of Mexican shamans, together with “Pachita”: a curandera who –in line with many credible witnesses, together with Grinberg himself– was in a position to carry out ‘psychic surgical procedures’ with no anesthetics* and below unbelievable unsanitary circumstances; utilizing nothing however a rusty knife with a blunt edge to open up her sufferers, and even ‘materializing’ wholesome organs to interchange those she extracted.

Based on the documentary, Grinberg was launched to this outstanding girl by way of the intercession of the president’s sister. Allow us to not overlook that throughout the administration of President José López Portillo, Uri Geller –the (in)well-known Isreali-born psychic (though skeptics would like the time period ‘mentalist’) grew to become very near Mexico’s First Woman, Doña Cármen Romano; so the likelihood that “Pachita” was a standard visitor on the presidential residency of Los Pinos sounds fairly believable.

“I’m a scientist, I’ve a laboratory” Grinberg stated throughout a televised debate present in Spain, in 1989. “I examine mind exercise and neurophysiology. And so they invited me to fulfill this girl (“Pachita”) and witness her procedures. And what I witnessed there, in precept, contradicted each idea and each data I had about actuality [emphasis mine]. And what I witnessed taught me […] that I can not say what’s the restrict of human capability. From that have on I dare not say “the human being can not do that” or “the mind has this restrict in its potentiality.” However it could appear as a substitute as if we’re all inside an unlimited continuum, and we have no idea what its true limits are.”

Like Terence and Dennis McKenna after getting back from their initiatic journey at La Chorrera, Grinberg was confronted with the hard-edged limits of scientific canons. And what he got down to do was, if to not fully repudiate orthodox science (as Terence did) at the very least to try to go past these limits, whereas nonetheless sticking to the scientific methodology as greatest he may. He grew to become a bridge between the world of shamanic traditions and the experimental world of mind analysis, and he tried to convey coherence to the ‘miraculous’ skills of the curanderos with what he referred to as the Syntergic Idea.

Making an attempt to encapsulate Grinberg’s principle of Syntergy (his coined combine between ‘synthesis’ and ‘vitality’) into just a few paragraphs is likely to be an unimaginable job. As greatest as I can clarify it, he posited that the true construction of the Universe is a holographic matrix of data previous area and time which he referred to as ‘Lattice’, as a result of he was impressed by the molecular construction present in crystals. From the interplay between the Lattice and the ‘neural discipline’ generated by the mind is that each one perceptual objects come up. Grinberg proposed that the larger the coherence within the mind exercise of gifted people like “Pachita” and psychic mediums, the stronger their neural discipline and the best way it may get in synchrony with the Lattice, permitting them to reshape the legal guidelines of physics as we at the moment perceive them –like Neo bending the foundations of the Matrix within the Wachowski’s movies.

To Grinberg, all the things within the Cosmos was Consciousness and altering one’s perceptions allowed you to discover and work together with completely different planes of actuality. If this sounds so much like what counterculture founder Carlos Castañeda used to put in writing, that’s not a coincidence. In reality, in line with “The Secret of Dr. Grinberg,” each males knew one another and have become fairly shut till they’d a falling out.

Grinberg additionally utilized the precept of quantum mechanics to his experiments. If subatomic particles can get entangled, as posited by Einstein/Rosen/Podolsky (and later experimentally confirmed by French physicist Alain Side in 1982) then why not brains? In any case, the atoms conforming the brains of each human being all had the identical origin with the Massive Bang. Grinberg managed to indicate in his lab that inducing a luminous stimulus right into a check topic would set off an identical neurophysiological response into the mind of a distinct topic, with none bodily interplay between the 2 people; all that was required to ‘sync’ the 2 individuals’ minds was to get them to meditate collectively.

By the top of 1994, Grinberg was within the technique of conducting a number of formidable initiatives: he needed to seek out out if there was any connection between the minds of human beings and that of dolphins** –maybe following within the footsteps of John Lilly. He was additionally planning a transcontinental experiment through which he would try to supply ‘transferred potentiality’ between the brains of a person in Mexico, and one other one positioned in India. Dr. Amit Goswami –who as soon as made an look in Joe Rogan’s podcast– was concerned with the venture and makes a short cameo within the movie.

After which… Grinberg disappeared.

Cuéllar’s movie develops a charming deconstruction of the completely different theories making an attempt to resolve this 26-year-old riddle. Was he murdered by his spouse –who has additionally disappeared– in a passional crime? Was he maybe kidnapped due to his PSI analysis? “The Secret of Dr. Grinberg” clearly sides with the latter risk, by offering the testimony of Chief Superintendent Clemente Padilla, who was the police detective accountable for the case, till he started to uncover data stating to an obscure ‘double life’ Grinberg and his spouse had, which not one of the individuals near him had been aware of.

Might or not it’s potential the US authorities was considering Grinberg? The truth that there are a few his papers [1] [2] who had been just lately launched by the CIA as a part of their declassified data pertaining to the Stargate ‘psychic spy’ program leaves little doubt about it. Was he really concerned in considered one of their PSI initiatives? That is the million-dollar query…

As any product of mass media consumption, the documentary is not with out errors. There’s a half within the movie through which a supposed ‘necessary convention’ Grinberg attended is talked about, and given quite a lot of significance within the narrative as a result of it occurred only a month earlier than his disappearance (November 1994) and he talked about his experiments in telepathy. The pictures confirmed within the scene instantly struck my consideration as a result of I immediately acknowledged distinguished figures throughout the UFO discipline, comparable to Jacques Vallee, John Keel and J.J. Benítez.

After some digging, I managed to find these pictures had been taken on the “Congress on the New Frontiers of Science” at San José, Costa Rica, on October 12-18 of 1985***, the place certainly the aforementioned UFOlogical researchers had been current; together with Andrea Puharich, John Lilly, and several other others. Whether or not there was one other comparable convention celebrated in Costa Rica in 1994, I’ve not been in a position to verify it.

The movie portrays Grinberg as a Promethean-like determine, who paid the last word value for his quest to bridge the hole between fashionable science and people different realms visited by mystics and sorcerers. Outdated recordings of his and extracts from his books recommend he maybe perceived himself within the optics of the ‘Starseed’ mythos –a member of a complicated alien civilization exiled on Earth to satisfy a sentence all through quite a few reincarnations– and some private anecdotes shared by these near him would possibly trigger some viewers to conclude the person was only a crank.

My private opinion is that, regardless of his quite a few human imperfections and foibles, Grinberg was a outstanding man forward of his time. His concepts closely resonate with issues conjectured by different researchers I like –like in Dean Radin’s Actual Magic, when he proposes that human consciousness has a form of ‘gravity discipline’ able to affecting exterior actuality. And naturally, the parallels with The Matrix are unmistakable.

However even in case you don’t give a rattling about Grinberg’s ‘far out’ concepts, the documentary is so properly made it should hook you as a police thriller unravelling a chilly case greater than 1 / 4 of a century outdated. And Grailer readers will after all discover the parapsychology stuff –full with some good cameos, like that of British writer Patrick Harpur– fully fascinating.

As for me, this documentary left me fully obsessive about Grinberg and his work. Nevertheless it additionally left me with anger, that I had by no means heard about him till pretty just lately when Greg Bishop requested me about it throughout his go to to Mexico final 12 months. He’s hardly ever talked about in Mexican media**** and his books are laborious to seek out in libraries.

It’s virtually as if he suffered two disappearances: a private one in 1994, but in addition a disappearance of his reminiscence. The primary one might or might not have been a part of a world plot orchestrated by Intelligence businesses; however the second, which is in my thoughts much more outrageous, appears to have been the results of that very same ‘sweeping below the rug’ I began this evaluate with, once we are confronted with one thing uncomfortable we barely perceive.

“The Secret of Physician Grinberg” might not have a lot influence in serving to uncover the reality of his private disappearance, however I hope it should at the very least handle to resurface his work from oblivion and encourage others to proceed his work the place he left it.

This is among the greatest documentaries I’ve seen in a very long time, and I urge you to present it a watch everytime you get the prospect.

NOTES:

(*): From what I’ve managed to seek out out –and in contrast to what’s normally assumed almost about psychic surgical procedures carried out by different mediums– “Pachita’s” sufferers did really feel appreciable ache throughout the procedures. Nonetheless, they had been in a position to stroll out of the working room below their very own toes proper after them, with none scars or incision marks of any form.

(**): Grinberg’s curiosity in dolphins just isn’t talked about by the movie

(***): Jacques Vallee mentions this convention in his public journal Forbidden Science, vol 3. He doesn’t point out Grinberg, although.

(****): Certainly one of Grinberg’s half-brothers, Ari Telch, is a well-known actor in Mexico. In 2019 throughout a pink press interview he talked about him and stated he’d been like a father determine to him.