Transcription
Jacob Greenberg described our world as a matrix 20 years before the Matrix movies came out. To him, it was science, not science fiction. And he was about to prove his theory when he mysteriously vanished, never to be found again. This is the mystery of Jacobo Grinberg's unsolved disappearance.
Jacobo Grinberg was 12 when his mother died from a brain tumor. This sad period in his life motivated Grinberg to study the human brain. As a result, he spent his young adult years pursuing degrees in psychology and psychophysiology. Ultimately, he got a PhD and set up a lab in Mexico researching how the brain reacts to different stimuli. Grinberg was on track to a stellar career in academia. All he had to do was stick to whatever was normal in his field. But what Jacobo was about to discover was anything but normal. And it all started with an unexpected invitation.
In 1975, the scientist was invited to Los Pinos, which was like the headquarters of the Mexican president back then. Who invited Grinberg? The president's sister, Margarita Lopez Portillo, a powerful socialite and supporter of indigenous cultures. Portillo introduced the scientist to a mysterious woman known as Dona Pacita. On paper, Pacita was a cabaret singer and a lottery ticket seller. But what made her famous was her side hustle of healing people with her paranormal procedures. Nothing about what she did appeared medical. Yet people swore by her methods. She had cured blindness, made childless women fertile, and even brought people back from death's door. Traditional doctors and scientists were skeptical of Pacita. But Grinberg decided to keep an open mind, and what he saw changed his whole narrative about life itself.
Da Pacita would soon become Grinberg's mentor, and he would write about her spirit surgeries in great detail. In one of his books, Grinberg wrote that Pacita “was capable of materializing and dematerializing objects, organs, and tissue.” And he had a somewhat scientific explanation for these supernatural feats. Grinberg theorized that Pacita was doing something to affect the very building blocks of reality, or as he would put it, “the manipulation of organic structures.” And with his later work, Grinberg would investigate and explain how Pacita pulled off her miracles.
But before getting into Grinberg's explanation, I have to highlight Pacita's most important miracle. At different times in her life, the government went after the shamaness for the crime of, and I quote, “practicing voodoo rites.” But anytime that happened, Pacita would simply vanish from the face of the earth. No matter how many law enforcement officers went looking for her, and no matter where they looked, Pacita was nowhere to be found. The government, with all its might, couldn't find her. And when things cooled down, and this could take years, Pacita would reappear, looking like she hadn't aged a day. It seemed like Pacita had found a way to exit our reality altogether. And this is important because years later, Grinberg would vanish in a similar fashion, except he would never reappear.
Jacobo Grinberg disappeared just before he was about to prove that reality as we know it is just a hologram that we can directly affect with our brains. Now, how did Grinberg come to this conclusion? Of course, by observing Pacita.
In 1987, Grinberg released his most popular work titled *The Shamans of Mexico*. The book had six volumes, which Grinberg had written in a short period, as if possessed by an external spirit. The result was an intense stream of consciousness captured in over 1200 pages. The book's main argument was that Mexico was in a state of subjugation, which had made it lose its sense of self over centuries of foreign influence. As a result, Mexico's shamanic traditions had been dismissed in favor of Western materialistic interpretations of reality. Grinberg didn't want Western science to limit his investigation. So instead of using it to dismiss the shamans he'd seen, he decided to use science to explain their work. And that's how Grinberg became one of the first academics to compare our world to a Matrix. And this was decades before the Matrix movies came out. But Grinberg didn't need the movies anyway because he got to see up close the numerous supernatural feats of Pacita. He dedicated an entire volume of *The Shamans of Mexico* entirely to describing these miracles.
According to the book, Pacita performed her spirit surgeries using a knife that was a family heirloom. And given that Pacita claimed to be the niece of Moctezuma and the sister of the Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc, who knows where that knife had been. But thanks to Grinberg, we know where it was in the 70s, being waved over patients and miraculously curing blindness, repairing broken limbs, and reversing old age.
Critics of Grinberg were quick to point out that Grinberg hadn't pushed back against any of the claims made by Pacita, including those related to her ancestry. He had also not shown enough skepticism around other people's reports of her miracles. According to the critics, Grinberg was more of a fan than he was a scientist. Still, he did put forth a scientific-sounding explanation for Pacita's miracles. Grinberg theorized that Pacita could enter a state of pure energy where everything was alterable. And from that state, she was able to change reality, conjure up organs out of thin air, and chase away illnesses without contact or medicine.
Grinberg knew that explanation without evidence was useless. So he set out to devise experiments that would prove that we do live in a matrix that can be manipulated with altered states of consciousness. Of course, Grinberg's peers in academia had no patience for his claims. They rejected his theory almost immediately, saying that it was impossible to test. But this didn't stop Grinberg, who spent years polishing his theory, which eventually became known as the Curic theory. According to this theory, we live in a simulation of sorts created by an informational matrix, where the matrix is like the source code and our consciousness is like the code reader. Experience is created when the code of the matrix is run by our consciousness. Grinberg argued that shamans like Pacita could alter their conscious state from code reader to code writer and alter reality at its source. As a result, I have to admit that this claim is quite out there, but it does have some internal logic.
And to prove at least a part of his theory, Grinberg devised an experiment which involved two participants with electrodes attached to their heads attempting to communicate with each other telepathically. After the participants spent some time meditating with the goal of connecting with each other, they were separated. One was sent to a different room and the other was bombarded with sounds and flashes. In nearly 25% of the cases, the brain wave activity of both participants revealed simultaneous reactions. Apparently, both participants' brains were reacting to the sounds and flashes that only one of the participants was experiencing. In other words, their brains were telepathically entangled for a short while. This was Grinberg's proof of the universal field connecting all human minds, a grand background connection that forms, you know, the matrix.
Grinberg isn't the first to put forward such a theory. However, theoretical physicist John Wheeler, who is most famous for inventing the term black hole, put forward the participatory anthropic principle, which posits that the universe is created by its observers. He argued that every aspect of the universe, from atoms all the way to the space-time continuum, derives its existence from information that would be worthless without an observer. Remember, 99.99% of the universe is empty space. Less than 0.01% is matter. And matter is made up of atoms. And 99.99% of each atom is empty space. The closer you look, the more empty space you find. So it isn't a reach to say that reality itself is made up of information. In Jacobo's time, such theories weren't taken too seriously, though. But more recently, the simulation hypothesis has gained momentum, and many intellectual heavyweights are open to the idea that we live in a simulation. Frank Tipler was the first to really push this idea back in 1994. Nick Bostrom pushed it into the mainstream in 2001. But back in the 1980s, when Jacobo was trying to make a case for the informational matrix, he was met with ridicule, criticism, and ostracization. He was cornered into the fringes of academia.
But while the uptight academics were turning their backs on him, Jacobo found interest from an unexpected party: the CIA. Back then, the CIA was investigating psychic phenomena, remote viewing, and telepathy. Jacobo's work was among the materials studied by the agency for its Stargate project. Under this project, the agency tried to find ways to use mind-reading, remote viewing, and psychic warfare for national security purposes. Yeah, you heard me right. Now, if such phenomena didn't exist, the project would be shut down within a year or two, right? But the Stargate project went on for nearly two decades, during which the agency tested different ways to induce out-of-body experiences. But all of this was happening in secrecy, of course. So the outside world did not know how highly the CIA regarded Grinberg's work. And that's why traditional academics continued to dismiss him.
Grinberg expected as much, actually. So he wasn't discouraged by the predictable lack of acceptance. All new theories started off this way. And all Grinberg had to do was devise an experiment that would shut up the naysayers once and for all.
The greatest criticism of Grinberg's simultaneous meditation experiments was that they were easy to fake. If both participants were exposed to simultaneous light flashes, their brain activity would look similar. Grinberg could then claim that only one of the participants was exposed to the flashes and make it look like, you know, both their brains were telepathically linked. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So if Grinberg wanted to prove that all humans are connected through this universal neuronal field, he would need to do more than show EEG charts of two people who had participated in one of his studies behind closed doors. So he set out to shut up the skeptics with an experiment that would be impossible to fake.
During what turned out to be his final days, the scientist told his daughter, Estushia, that he was going to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, to participate in a series of meditations. Now, it's said that he wanted to replicate his experiment on a large scale by testing the brain activity of meditators on two separate continents. Such an experiment would be harder to debunk and would involve multiple observers; it would finally prove Jacobo's theory. But that experiment never happened.
On December 8th, 1994, Jacob Grinberg vanished without a trace. No goodbyes, no final wishes. Initially, there were no attempts to find him because it was hard to tell if he was missing or wanted to be left alone. But after 4 days, his siblings got suspicious when he didn't show up to his own birthday party. Right. Grinberg was reported missing, and local media tried to get the word out regarding the scientist's disappearance. If he was in Mexico, someone was bound to run into him. But since Grinberg had mentioned going to Kathmandu, he could be outside the country. Something horrible could have happened to him. Fortunately, Grinberg's daughter, Estushia, was a lead singer in the band Heaven and Earth, which meant that she could get on TV. And get on TV, she did, when she appeared on an American channel's broadcast to offer a cash reward for any news of her missing father.
The phone began to ring. Call after call with claims of sightings, but pretty much all of them would crumble under scrutiny. The callers wouldn't be able to describe Grinberg or would get details like his height completely wrong. The person vetting the telephone tips was Clemente Padilla, a Mexican police officer who had left no case unsolved. Before Padilla, case workers seemed to be playing hot potato with Grinberg's file, passing it around with no one ready to put in the work. But Padilla was more than ready, and he started by checking with the country's passport control. That's when he learned that there was no record of the scientist even leaving Mexico. Padilla then looked for testimonies from Kathmandu and realized that not even a single tip came from Nepal. So he hadn't left Mexico, and no one had seen him in Kathmandu. That would narrow the scope of Padilla's investigation. Since Grinberg didn't take a plane out of Mexico, Padilla would look at testimonies from Mexico and its three neighboring countries that are road accessible. And that's how he arrived at the only reliable sighting reported in this entire case. A woman told Padilla that she was walking her dog in a neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado, when she saw a man who looked like Grinberg. Padilla asked her how she knew what Grinberg looked like, to which she replied that she was a reader of *Scientific American* and had seen the scientist's picture in one of the issues. Then she told Padilla something he didn't expect. Apparently, Grinberg was being followed by two men in suits. He seemed to know that he was being followed and didn't try to evade them. Were they protecting him, or were they making sure he didn't contact anyone? Above all, who were these men? Well, Padilla knew how to find the answers. Just contact the best intelligence agency on the continent.
So, using his position and connections, Padilla got on the line with a CIA agent. To his surprise, the agent knew the men he was talking about. He identified them as Rick Howard and Marina Velasco. The agent knew Howard and Velasco because both of them were his colleagues. Padilla felt like he'd cracked the case. The man reported to resemble Grinberg was being shadowed by CIA agents. It was pretty clear what was going on. All Padilla had to do was get the Mexican government to request information from the US. But when Padilla landed in Mexico, he knew things weren't right. Officials were waiting for him with a uniform expression that betrayed displeasure. Padilla was taken off the case without a satisfying explanation after that, and frustrated with how none of his findings were used by the subsequent case workers, Padilla resigned from his job altogether. Soon after, the PGR lost Grinberg's file and stopped trying to look for him. To this day, the disappearance of Jacob Grinberg is the only case Padilla hasn't been able to solve.
For a while, Jacobo's second wife, Teresa, was the prime suspect. Grinberg had left voicemails for one of his siblings complaining about how Teresa was torturing him mentally. Teresa, it turned out, was jealous and would often fight with the scientist, who was getting all sorts of attention for his groundbreaking work. She was bipolar and had married Grinberg without informing her own family. This made Grinberg's close circle very skeptical of his new wife. His brothers, Estushia, Aunt Hilda, and even his first wife all thought that Teresa was planted by those who wanted to control Grinberg—sort of like a secret agent working for god knows who. Many in Grinberg's inner circle doubted that Teresa was even her real name. Her academic credentials seemed to be fake as well. And it looked like Grinberg was beginning to catch on because for the last few months, he didn't sleep at home. Instead, he chose the discomfort of sleeping in his car. Was Grinberg trying to stay away from Teresa? Well, we won't know, will we? Because exactly 1 year after the scientist's disappearance, Teresa vanished as well.
It's been over 29 years since Grinberg vanished. And to this day, the case of his disappearance remains unsolved. The nature of Jacobo's work, followed by his mysterious disappearance, has fascinated people, especially those who seek esoteric knowledge. To them, the scientist's disappearance is a clear sign of a cover-up. After all, the CIA was interested in his work. The CIA's declassified documents mention Grinberg's name and work, and its Stargate project looked into consciousness, remote influence, and psychic phenomena. Perhaps Grinberg's plan to visit Nepal didn't sit right with the agency. The only problem with this theory is that the agency wouldn't have much to gain from making the scientist disappear. If anything, the mystery would further spread his ideas. It would be far more practical to sabotage Grinberg's international meditation experiment and make him look crazy. The only angle that holds up to logical scrutiny is that Grinberg went into a protection program offered by the CIA, but that would be out of character for someone who was against Western materialist influence. Grinberg wanted people to know the truth, and going into hiding with the help of the CIA doesn't seem like the best way to make that happen, now does it?
The second theory is similar to the CIA theory, but instead of the CIA, it's the Mexican government that's blamed for Jacobo's disappearance. The biggest thing this theory has going for it is the fact that Padilla was removed from the case by the Mexican government. Grinberg was introduced to Dona Pacita by—remember—the president's sister, and Pacita herself had a political past. In her youth, she fought with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution. She was wanted by the government at different points in her life. So politics was at play since the very beginning. And since the Mexican government back then was cautious of people promoting voodoo and witchcraft, it might have mistaken Grinberg as a negative influence. The obvious problem with this theory is that the government of Mexico isn't the same anymore. The power has changed hands a couple of times since the scientist's disappearance. Yet, no whistleblower has come forward with as much as an accusation of abduction or forced disappearance.
That, therefore, brings us to the third theory: that the scientist simply wanted to retire from public life. Given that his message went farther than it ever could in his presence, Jacob's vanishing act seems to have killed two birds with one stone. For starters, he got his privacy back. But more importantly, his ideas spread alongside the story of his disappearance. Jacobo no longer needed to prove his ideas because of the myth of his disappearance. You know what I mean? If people thought he was taken by government agencies, then his ideas might have some merit, right? This theory requires fewer conspirators, so it's quite plausible. But to believe it, we have to think of Grinberg as an extremely selfish man who would leave his own family hanging. And that's not really the picture you get from what his friends and family have to say about him. It really doesn't look like Grinberg would ditch his own daughter and siblings for Teresa. Unless Teresa made him disappear.
That's a theory as well—one that even Officer Padilla considered. According to this theory, Teresa may have done something to Grinberg, but not for his money. She did cash a check for $1,000 after his disappearance, but that's not nearly enough money to shoot and bury your spouse for. The Teresa theory is actually far more ominous, as she seemed to be making regular calls from various locations to a night watchman at a school. That watchman had a paramilitary background. Teresa was also seen multiple times with a blonde woman—not a big deal on its own—but when she visited one of her homes to pick up her dog, clothes, and some other stuff, the blonde woman was still with her. That made it look like she was Teresa's handler or something. It didn't help that she gave conflicting reports to different people either. She told the watchman at one of her homes not to come back to work since her husband had flown to another city within Mexico. But just a few days after that, she told Grinberg's stepmother that she was flying to Nepal with the scientist. And months later, she was spotted alone on a beach in Tijuana, which is in Mexico, obviously not Nepal. And then in December 1995, she vanished as well, never to be heard from again.
And finally, the wildest theory is that he left the Matrix. Many cite Pacita's multiple disappearances that happened whenever the government was after her. She had plenty of followers ready to shelter her. But what if she was hiding outside of our reality? And what if she taught Jacobo how to pull it off in case someone was after him? To believe this theory, you have to accept that we live in a matrix and that Pacita was somehow capable of departing from it. I, for one, am not ready to believe that yet, if for no other reason than because Pacita sounds kind of like a suspicious figure. She was famous enough to have celebrities at her doorstep. One of her admirers was jazz legend Charles Mingus, who went to see her because of his ALS diagnosis. He was 54 at the time and couldn't play double bass anymore. So he received spiritual surgery from Pacita, who had him lay face down on a bed and used a knife to perform a ritualistic procedure. After it was over, Mingus swore that he'd been cured, as he remarked, and I quote, “She knows how to cut just between the pores from God to Pacita.” Mingus was bandaged and left satisfied. His wife, Sue Graham, was skeptical and decided to look under the bandage while the musician was taking a nap. There was no blood or cut under the bandage. She never told Mingus about this and kept changing his bandages. A few months later, Mingus died from a heart attack brought about by the disease. The only power Pacita seemed to have was the ability to make people believe her. But the claim that she could exit reality and taught Jacobo to do the same is a fascinating theory that isn't backed by evidence.
Just like Jacobo's work, actually, much of which vanished with him. There was an attempt to replicate the meditation experiments that Jacobo conducted, but the results were far from what he got. No one has been able to replicate Jacobo's experiments, and so his theory remains unproven by modern scientific standards. If there is any evidence of us living in a hologram, scientists these days haven't...
Been able to find it. But in possibly the most poetic twist, Jacobo's disappearance serves as a reminder that just because you can't find something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.