The unusual abilities of healers, mediums, and shamans to produce miraculous outcomes defy conventional scientific understanding. But the great mystery these phenomena point to – the nature of consciousness itself – compels some intrepid researchers to dig deeper despite the controversy. One such figure was Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum (1946-1994), a Mexican scientist fascinated by the magician-like skills of the psychic surgeon known only as "Pachita."
In his audiobook Pachita, Grinberg recounts witnessing this unassuming woman enter puzzling trance states where she would perform violent surgeries with her bare hands, extract malignant energies from patients‘ bodies, communicate with spirits through their voice boxes, and even manifest the presence of spiritual entities in physical form.
Beyond the Scalpel: Psychic Surgery‘s Place in Medicine
While shocking, the enigmatic talents showcased by Pachita have parallels in shamanic rituals and folk medicine traditions around the world. Indigenous cultures acknowledge mysterious psychospiritual factors influencing well-being, which modern medicine tends to dismiss or pathologize despite impacts on healing outcomes.
The dramatic cures apparently catalyzed through Pachita‘s frenzied ministrations in dingy Mexican clinics raise profound questions. Can science measure or validate the ephemeral energies and entities she claims to manipulate? Do her talents point to latent psychosomatic forces modern medicine fails to leverage?
Skeptics decry psychic surgery as sleight-of-hand tricks exploiting the vulnerable. Documented cases exist of unscrupulous healers causing injuries or spreading infection through their treatments. One analysis found the 5-year mortality rate for patients undergoing psychic surgery was over 30% – markedly higher than conventional treatment pathways.
Yet those cared for by Pachita describe seeing tissues opened painlessly by invisible forces, her hands excavating inside to remove diseased tissue or foreign objects before the wounds miraculously close. Long-term cures of supposedly incurable conditions do get reported. Controlled trials found distant healing practitioners could impact biological systems like cell cultures, suggesting some anomalous influence.
Might disciplines like psychoimmunology, exploring mind-body synergies affecting disease, offer clues to resolve the mystery empirically? Or do we require radical paradigm shifts recognizing uncharted territory beyond conventional notions of body, self and causality? The audiobook inspires more inquiry than conclusions.
Voyaging Beyond the Veil: Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
Seeking understanding, Grinberg joined Pachita‘s ritual healing sessions fueled by incense, candles and employees chanting. Immersed in this environment, his perceptions rapidly intensified into full-blown visionary experiences piercing the veil of consensual reality.
He sensed profoundly expanded awareness which he interpreted as merging into the Earth‘s consciousness. He witnessed scenes from Mexican mythology overlaying the room. He perceived worms, eyes and snarling faces lurking below patients‘ skin, which Pachita deftly removed. He felt his innards replaced by a glowing aura. Ultimately he attained rare lucidity to inspect his own brain non-invasively – with Pachita‘s blessing.
While induced by an unorthodox healer‘s ministrations in a foreign clinic, Grinberg‘s adventures resemble states induced by recognized shamanic sacraments like ayahuasca or peyote. They align with notions of non-ordinary or holotropic states of consciousness described by transpersonal psychologists Stanislav Grof and others.
Grof‘s research found techniques like accelerated breathing could trigger profound altered states with healing and transformative impacts. Neuroscience hypotheses suggest hyperventilation may disable filtering systems regulating information flow in the brain. This could unleash a flood of data that overwhelms the ego‘s ordinary constraining awareness.
Might science better grasp Pachita‘s skills when viewed through these lenses, as manipulating usually inaccessible domains of mind and embodiment? Should researchers courageously self-experiment beyond customary thresholds as Grinberg demonstrates? His recordings suggest untouched reservoirs awaiting our exploration should we overcome mainstream taboos.
The Shaman‘s World: Understanding Indigenous Healing
The idea of psychic surgery seems incredible through the lens of mechanistic medicine. Yet indigenous cultures have acknowledged interdependent mind-body-spirit paradigms for millennia. An estimated 80% of people worldwide use traditional healing modalities centered on mysticism and an expanded role for consciousness.
Shamanic practices hold that invisible energies and spirits influence wellness outcomes. Skilled healers access non-ordinary states to journey through these realms, gaining wisdom and removing negative entities or blockages. Though irrational to Western thought, shamanic intervention shows clinical promise addressing certain conditions.
For example, Stanford doctors assessed whether Peruvian shamans could improve outcomes for patients with untreatable cancers using ceremonial healing sessions. Despite only a 30% acceptance rate among invited subjects, the treated group increased immune functioning markedly over matched controls. The researchers, who included Minister of Health figures familiar with indigenous medicine, felt compelled to continue investigations even while unable to explain the results through conventional models.
Might phenomena like psychic surgery tap universal healing forces our culture fails to recognize? Dismissing them as backwards or magical thinking may represent cultural chauvinism more than reason. As Einstein noted, widening our circle of compassion to include all realities – however strange – makes us more fully human.
The Interdependent Web: Glimpsing Unitive Being
Beyond marveling at Pachita‘s paranormal talents, Grinberg ponders their philosophical and spiritual implications. Repeatedly he experiences visceral sensations of underlying interconnectivity enfolding seemingly separate objects, envisioning threads linking all organisms.
This evokes ecological visions like Gaia theory or the integrated "superorganism" models of scientist James Lovelock. It also parallels nondual realizations within contemplative traditions like Buddhism holding no fixed divide between self and other. By directly engaging these states in Pachita‘s intense arena, Grinberg seems to access the perspective of unitive being.
Perhaps exceptional healers can manipulate energetic matrices binding us that ordinarily elude conscious recognition. Might this allow them to erase pathological patterns or catalyze well-being through channels unacknowledged by mainstream medicine? Could nurturing gratitude for interdependence – our actual condition – at levels deeper than concepts help us transcend isolation and separation underlying much suffering?
The audiobook‘s vivid exemplars resonate beyond mystical allure, kindling humanitarian inspiration. As a doctor investigating Pachita‘s gifts shared with me, "Observing events that defy my training hasn‘t collapsed my worldview, rather expanded it to hold deeper connectedness between all beings. I don‘t claim to explain these phenomena yet – but unveiling such love manifest through her work made me a better physician and human being."
Conclusion: Possibilities at the Edges of Understanding
Grinberg‘s dramatic chronicle suggests consciousness operates by more malleable and magical rules than our culture acknowledges. It highlights courageous individuals violating taboos to glimpse the uncharted, demanding revolutionary models of self and cosmos.
Troubling yet visionary, Pachita inspires us to look beyond familiar fences without clinging to rigid beliefs, remaining open and curious about life‘s abundant anomalies. Our investigations may lead us into the unknown, but what we find there could change everything we know to be true.
**References**
Grinberg-Zylberbaum, J. *Pachita*. Mexico City: Editorial Diana, 1993.
Hurtado, J., Han, S., Leventhal, D., Amengual, M., Clark, C. et al. “Symptom Reduction In Terminal Patients After Exposure To Iowasca Institute Shamans.” _Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine_, 25(10), 2019, pp. 960–967.
Radin, D., Schlitz, M., Baur, C. "Distant Healing Intention Therapies: An Overview of the Scientific Evidence." _Global Advances in Health and Medicine_, 4(Suppl), 2015, pp. 67–71.
Thalbourne, M. "Psychic Surgery." _The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine_, 7(1), 2001, pp. 97-101.