Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind [Hardcover]

Graham Hancock has unleashed a veritable typhoon of unorthodox ideas in this book. It is not for those who enjoy staying on the firm ground of familiar paradigms. As the sufis put it so brilliantly: 'If it is safety you seek then stay on the shore, but if it is the jewel of the deep you are after then dive in.'

This is a book for those who are dog tired of the materialist mantras that blithely inform us without any substantial evidence that:

a) We are descended directly from primates
b) Consciousness is the result of neural activity
c) History is about five thousand years old and we were in caves
picking our noses all day long previous to that
d) DNA just happened to show up as it was vomited out of the 'cosmic soup'
e) Anything that does not correspond with the above view of reality is a 'hallucination'

Ad nauseam..

No this is a book for individuals who have questions literally pouring from their neural software. How did we get all the art and creative power that seemed to erupt about 35,000 years ago? How is it that every culture on Earth and throughout all history (until very recently) speaks of beings that do not exist physically, such as faeries and elves? Where in the galaxy does the very specific information contained in our DNA originate? What indeed are these 'other worlds' and where are they-the ones that every single culture on Earth has some form of information on-whether it be ancient rock art or modern day Peruvian shamans?

Hancock has really gone out on a long thin limb this time but without losing the rigorous intellect of a true journalist. He does not cave in easily to all the alternative explanations we are spoon fed by the scientific elite. Ideas such as the patently absurd notion that people in diverse historical settings and epochs are all coincidentally hallucinating about the same beings.

Hancock blows away the dross that the priests of science have allowed to collect around what is a really noble pursuit. That of finding the truth. But if you are looking for the truth behind the same set of paradigm spectacles that so many of our 'leaders' in archaeology, astronomy, anthropology and medicine are so unfortunately fettered with, so tediously often with, then this book will no doubt offend.

You will never get it unless you risk body and soul to some extent. Hancock, unlike so many academics and pseudo researchers who pontificate about subjects they know absolutely nothing about (check the meaning of the verb KNOW), put his own brain on the line by ingesting very powerful shamanic plants. Not drugs. Please check the facts. Do not jump to hallucinatory conclusions. Hancock himself underwent an obvious and profound change of consciousness and has gifted us with a log of his encounters in other dimensions. They are visions which are undoubtedly not the product of his imagination. Why would his relatives 35,000 years ago dream up the same theriotropic visions? Are we really to believe this is all a 'coincidence' though Hancock tirelessly documents precisely the same beings, patterns and encounters throughout all of our past. Or is not far more truly logical to assume, or at least to be open to the idea that we are actually created as multidimensional beings?

Graham Hancock has really broken new and stunningly relevant ground here that is as ancient as we are. We have simply forgotten. We closed the lid on Pandora's box so tightly we ended up with even more chaos. We really need this information at this juncture having strayed so very far away from the profound and healing poetry that exists very deeply-right down there at the DNA level.This book will shake the orthodoxy to its brittle bones-not out of any malice whatsover as Hancock obviously has a deep respect for the noble face of science-one that should be humble enough to accept a new truth whether it agrees with old theories or nor.

Read this book! It might literally save your mind from the unceasing and dreadfully boring attack on it by rational scientists who have just simply lost the plot. We are fast losing control over our own most sacred possession, our own consciousness itself. Absolutely inane laws now make it a crime to investigate deeper versions of reality whilst allowing us to turn into deranged wombats under the influenec of state sanctioned drugs, addictive ones at that, like alcohol. This is the best that Hancock has produced in a long and often very unfairly attacked career as an independent thinker. What if this world really was a supernatural domain? And what if YOU could acces it?

Graham Hancock's "Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind" follows in a tradition that goes back to the turn of the last century, as cited in various books listed in the author's extensive end-notes and bibliography.
More recently, the lineage includes "Breaking Open the Head," By Daniel Pinchbeck, "The Cosmic Serpent," by Jeremy Narby and "DMT: The Spirit Molecule," by Dr. Rick Strassman. Various works by Ralph Metzner and Dr. Benny Shanon are also solidly part of this explosive new resurgence in consciousness research and reality exploration.

All are highly recommended, but Mr. Hancock's "Supernatural" is by leaps and bounds one of the most provocative, intellectually sustaining and emotionally riveting reads of the last few decades.

The book begins with a plaintive, haunting question: What makes us what we are? What made our species come out of the daze of our historical existence on this planet and enter into a rich, complex, transcendental sense of the interior life?

The path that Mr. Hancock takes us on, to address this conundrum, is like being immersed in a sweeping, cinematic experience of epic proportions. From the caves of Neolithic humankind to the molecular dimensions of our own DNA, from hallucinogenic substances to multiple dimensions, the journey's propulsive trajectory starts in the mists of our most distant past and establishes a continuous link to our current experience as human beings and how our meat-based brains process "reality."

The odyssey is truly shamanic in scope.

Eschewing easy answers to existential problems that are often glossed over with platitudes by some "New Age" writers, Mr. Hancock is scrupulous in the way he uses multiple vantage points and perspectives.

There are no definite conclusions offered in this supernaturally compelling book. But the truly numinous possibilities echo with the reader long after the book is finished.

In so many ways, this is a book that has the implicate potential to change the way you perceive your every waking moment.

Will there be naysayers and negative reviews? Almost certainly.
Which is precisely what one would expect from a book that takes on massively "political" paradigms that the scientific orthodoxy (and perhaps even the overtly political establishment) would rather not have too many people looking at too closely.

Decide for yourself and see if you too will share that most awe-some, sometimes frightening and often exhilarating feeling that the edge of the curtain is being pulled back ever so slightly and we may be getting a rare glimpse of what is going on "back-stage..."

This thought-provoking book by the alternative historian investigates the origins of consciousness with reference to the work of David Lewis-Williams and his theory of the neuropsychological origins of cave art. It also goes further in proposing that those worlds and entities encountered in shamanic visions are not mere hallucinations but very real and that altered states are the means to gain entry to them.

Part One: The Visions, includes the author's experiences with the African hallucinogenic plant Iboga, looks at the cave of Pech Merle and then examines the theory of David Lewis-Williams. It also includes a section on Hancock's use of the South American plant ayahuasca.

Part Two explores the cave art of Upper Paleolithic Europe, with a closer look at the half-human half-animal representations that are so widespread. These "therianthropic" designs also occur in the rock art of Southern Africa and elsewhere. Hancock examines recurring themes in this ancient art, like that of the Wounded Man. He also discusses other aspects of this art, like the dots, starbursts, nets, ladders and windowpane-like geometrical figures. He closely examines the similarities and the differences between the art of ancient Europe and that of Africa. For example, the European art is found in dark subterranean caves while in Africa it is most often found in open rock shelters.

Chapter Six looks at the history of the academic study of rock art and concludes that it led nowhere until the theory of Lewis-Williams came along. Hancock demolishes the criticisms leveled at the work of Lewis-Williams and exposes the smear campaign waged against the South African academic. Among other interesting topics, he considers the 19th century notebooks of Bleek and Lloyd on the mythology of the San. These valuable documents provide clues to the religion of the San and the trance or altered state experience.

Part Three: The Beings, starts with discussions of the experiences and work of William James, Aldous Huxley, Albert Hoffman and Rick Strassman. It also looks at the UFO abduction experience and compares it with the shamanic exploration of other-worlds, with supernatural myths and folkloric traditions like that of fairies and elves. There really are fascinating correspondences between fairy lore, the UFO abduction experience and certain hallucinatory states.

Part Four: The Codes, looks at the structural similarities and connections and the common themes like therianthropic transformations, small robot-like humanoids, the breeding of hybrid infants, the idea of the Wounded Healer, etc. Hancock is convinced that the mind is a receiver and not simply a generator of consciousness. In this section he relates his impressions after smoking DMT, and then goes into a deeper exploration of the work of Dr Rick Strassman who is famous for his work with this substance. The passages on DNA are particularly gripping, especially the idea that our DNA might contain specific information on our origins and future. Hancock also discusses the work of other researchers like Jeremy Narby, Terrence McKenna, Benny Shanon and Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA.

Part Five: The Religions, examines the belief in supernatural entities in all the world's major religions. He points out how "Father Christmas" and St Sebastian are ancient shamanic figures, the first for his red and white clothes which resemble the colours of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom and the second for being a therianthrope with a dog's head. Dreams and visions are then investigated, including those of Joan of Arc and Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. Also the vision of Ezekiel, the mysteries of Eleusis and the role of Soma in Vedic religion. Hancock concludes this section with similar themes in the religion and mythology of ancient Egypt and the Maya.

Part Six: The Mysteries, returns to the work of Lewis-Williams and the fact that the ancient cave art is the oldest surviving evidence of the belief in spirit worlds and supernatural beings that exist at the heart of all religions. He disagrees strongly with Lewis-Williams about the reality of these realms and beings. He observes that people have consistently reported the same pattern of experiences from every part of the globe and from all cultures. Hancock believes that these alternative realms are very real and that we may gain access to them via the trance state, whether it is brought about by ingestion of substances, trance dances, fasting or other practices that cause a change in consciousness.

There are many black and white illustrations and paintings throughout the book and a set of colour plates that includes, amongst others, the paintings of Peruvian shaman Pablo Amaringo plus photographs of San rock art from Southern Africa. The three appendices are: Critics and Criticisms of David Lewis-Williams' Neuropsychological Theory of Rock and Cave Art; Psilocybe Semilanceata: a Hallucinogenic Mushroom Native To Europe by Professor Roy Watling; and an illuminating interview with Dr Rick Strassman. The book concludes with bibliographic references arranged by chapter, and an index.

Supernatural deals with so many thought-provoking matters that the interested reader might want more information and/or other perspectives on various aspects of the study. The following books may be helpful: DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman, Huston Smith's Cleansing The Doors Of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, William James' Varieties Of Religious Experience, Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness by Abraham, McKenna and Sheldrake, White Rabbit: A Psychedelic Reader by John Miller, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann and Christian Ratsch, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy by Clark Heinrich, The Cave Of Altamira by Pedro Ramos and The Mind In The Cave by David Lewis-Williams.