Occultism, shamanism and the mad science of Dr. Grinberg: A prospectus

I friend of mine gave me a push to start posting out there in public what I write, not out of some skill in the art but of an urge of adventure. That motivates me in the right way for I tend to judge the quality of my output not the joy I get from it. So before I turn into an old grumpy man prematurely, here is the first of a set of posts that I intend to write about Mexican and more broadly perhaps Mesoamerican spirituality, shamanism and the scientist --yes, you read that right-- the scientist that has brought the field into the eyes and ears of the public whom now even has an award winning film by Ida Cuéllar that dramatizes his life and work: The Secret of Dr. Grinberg which you can watch for free on Vimeo.

Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum is surrounded by mystery and controversy not only for the topics that he liked researching but because of the fact that he ended disappearing until this day without notice leaving everything behind him untouched. People around him claim wild hypotheses about what happened. From becoming enlightened and dropping the body and its manifestation in a rush of energy which wouldn't leave a trace behind to him being kidnapped by the CIA.

I don't intend to write much about the conspiracies surrounding him since I personally find them as speculative entertainment but not much more than that. What I intend to focus on in this series of posts is on the work regarding consciousness and the Mexican shamanst hat he developed while at the institute he founded at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM): The National Institute for the Study of Consciousness that was an offshoot of the Psychology department at the time. This I intend to explain and comment from the lens of occultism.

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