Customer Reviews

Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book begins fairly well with often hilarious (and as another reviewer pointed out, sometimes unintentionally so) accounts of the author's various psychedelic dabbling with modern-day 'shamans' and other, more dubious purveyors of mind-altering drugs. But it fairly quickly slides downward into Pinchbeck's narcissism and drug-induced paranoia. The early portions of the book exude a kind of youthful optimism and well-meaning if naive interest in mind-altering drugs and what they, and cultures that have used them for thousands of years, might have to teach us. But Pinchbeck seems to find fault (quite justifiably, it seems) in all of his 'shamanic teachers' while at the same time advocating that a return to some kind of shamanic usage is the best path. He also blasts Timothy Leary for promoting open-access for these drugs for everyone, while it is almost certain that Pinchbeck himself would never have encountered these drugs had it not been for Leary's proselytizing. By the end of the book Pinchbeck is convinced that a psychedelic substance has released a 'poltergeist' in his New York apartment, and that a friend he met at the Palenque conference had developed telekinetic (or something) power over the weather... where did the questing spirit of critical inquiry go amiss??? Somewhere between ibogaine, heroin, ayahuasca, and blow, apparently.

Certainly entertaining, but ultimately kind of vacuous and disappointing.

This book is an absolute must have for anyone interested in shamanism, psychedelia, or anything of the sort. Pinchbeck walks the reader through a winding trail of spiritual enlightenment that will lead you across the globe.

definately an interesting subject, however, i didn't enjoy it much. the author, a self described neurotic, seems to be empty and searching for something, and the book seems to be more of a justification for him doing psychotropic drugs than a look at the role of the drugs in modern shamanism. the book is quite well researched but is sluggish and at times overbearing or pretentious. at one point he turns into a green peace rain forest advocate, which i don't see as having anything to do with shaman practice. if the subject is of interest to you, and this isn't the first book you have on the subject, there probably isn't anything new here for you. if you want to hear about his personal experiences, then buy the book.

This book, like all good books, expanded my consciouness without the use of any psychedelics- psychonauts please think on these words.
Anyway, I found that the most important idea explored in this book to cover in my review is that human beings have many, perhaps infinite doors into different states of consciousness within the human mind. Whether or not we choose to deny these completely different worlds, we must understand that current "rational" theories about the world, and about consciousness in general could never be true or complete without exploring these worlds; if you see them you know that many are just as true as "rational" reality. Those doors are there for a reason, or they simply wouldn't be there. Interestingly enough, not only are the doors there after millions of years of evolution, but many keys to open these doors are naturally occuring in thousands of diverse life-forms all over the world (Some of which Mr. Pinchbeck describes wonderfully). Considering psychoactives, I find it particularly interesting that (for example) although the brain has a receptor for THC found in the soft drug marijuana which kills 0 people a year (themselves from use), alcohol- the legal alternative- poisons the brain to intoxication and kills countless brain cells, users and non-users a year. It is also important to note that in general natural psychelics cause no physical addiction or damage (quite the opposite), as the brain is wired specifically for their use. I don't necessarily support the habitual use of drugs, as I find that the mind can be explored to a great extent without them, but they are tools on this earth which we are obviously meant to use- if you don't agree, read this book, as I found it very convincing.
Don't forget to explore EROWID.ORG!!!
One Love

Okay, so he ain't Wittgenstien, but neither was Ludwig. Pinchbeck deserves a decicive clap on the back for his feverish, foolhardy romp into the unknown. To those who pooh pooh him, I ask--what have you done for me lately? This is Kapucinski meets Casteneda in a dread-laced Holographic Universe, and if you feel that intellectual rigor is lacking, or that the author relies too much on Benjamin's politics, I ask you when you last met the splinter-faced god of the forest? I feel that Pinchbeck is earnest and refuses to pose as a guide when he is in fact nothing but a balsy, intellectual Brooklinite who grew bored with chatter-mouthed literati and with himself--so he decided to cast the eternal dice and record his findings with talent and intelligece that may not be first rate, but are, nevertheless, uncharateristic of our time. In sum: a pip.

Pinchbeck's journey into the unkown is one of the best adventure stories I've ever read. Our culture's disregard for the reality of unseen beings and dimensions, it's reductionistic polarization into secular vrs. theistic worldviews, and the hegemony of the rational among the educated are highlighted. But Pinchbeck's book is no polemic attack on these failings; instead he comes across in the best journalistic sense, thoughtfully open and humble- he reports simply where his journey has taken him, and what he has learned, however easily ridiculed or dismissed. I loved his blend of head and heart as he explores the jungles of Mind.

(Four and a half stars) Dreams are fascinating, and psychedelic experiences are fascinating, to the one who has them. And the rule of thumb is, that people's descriptions of their fascinating dreams and trips rate right up there on the boredom
meter with hole-by-hole narratives of your boss's last golf game.

It's not coincidence, I think, that the two great, readable narratives to come out of the psychedelia's da-glo glory days in the sixties (Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) and its nightmarish decline and fall in the seventies (Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) came from two fellows whose primary love and loyalty was to journalism. Then the substances that Daniel Pinchbeck calls "entheogens" fell into cultural eclipse, the interminable pathology known as the War on Drugs took center stage, and little original or noteworthy has been published on the topic for quite a while. Terence McKenna, brilliant but sometimes barely in touch with the real world, has had the field pretty much to himself.

Now we've got another entrant, not quite up to Wolfe or Thompson, but as wide ranging as McKenna, while staying more level-headed and instructive. The strengths of "Breaking Open the Head" are once again journalistic. Pinchbeck undertakes an odyssey in search of genuine shamans, who can properly initiate him into the authentic use of psychoactive plants. He takes us with us on his journey, sets us into scenes from West Africa, to the invisible perennial contemporary Woodstock in Nevada known as the Burning Man Festival, to the Amazon, to the peyote fields of Mexico, to labs in New York City where chemicals the plant kingdom never quite got around to inventing are concocted and consumed.

We get Pinchbeck's trip reports, yes. We also get his personal spiritual journey, and a refreshingly objective picture of what remains of traditional shamanistic cultures, and what is emerging of Western shamanism (or pseudo-shamanism, as the case may be.) Best of all, we get his thought-provoking ruminations, goosed by his eclectic reading from Huxley to Eliade to Walter Benjamin to Rudolf Steiner, as to what this mysterious human drive to get high at almost any cost is all about. I don't think much of his answers, but his principal question is spang on: what is it about Western civilization? What gives us this chip on our shoulder about any and all forms of ecstatic consciousness, chemically assisted or not? Why is ours almost the only culture in the world to regard hallucinogenic plants with horror, rather than with reverence and
respect?

In the final few chapters, Pinchbeck goes off the deep end, down a rabbit hole into which few of his readers will probably want to follow, convinced that there are objectively real "plant spirits" out there directing psychedelic experiences. But his reportorial instincts are so sound, that he doesn't let his ultimate views color his account of events along the way. And so we are free to ponder some of the questions he doesn't raise. Like: if these chemicals are so all-fired spiritual, why are half the traditional shamans he meets violent, or greedy, or vain? And: how is it that all the ingesters from traditional societies
take the drugs to get practical advice from the spirit world on how to live their ordinary lives, while all the westerners take them in order to find Ultimate Answers, and to step outside consensus reality? With goals so different, can the Westerners' quest really lay claim to the value these substances might have within traditional cultures?

A lively, illuminating read, one of those books that is as fun to argue with as it is to learn from.

Breaking Open the Head is at once a personal memoir of the visionary kind, as well as a much needed psycho-social, psycho-spiritual assessment of our society from the vantage point of alternative ways of knowing and potential problem solving. In the spirit of Terrence McKenna, in the same stream of transpersonal voyaging and open entheogenic exploration as Huston Smith and Ralph Metzner, Pinchbeck not only unfurls the topography of his own soul journey through psychedelic shamanism, but details multiple encounters with different plant spirit teachers in a truly gleaming example of multidisciplinary scholarship and informal ethnographic accounts. What is probably the most convincing aspect of Pinchbeck's writing and journey is precisely the fact that he openly admits to being--once upon a time--a cynical, Manhattan atheist who saw no validity to anything spiritual or metaphysical. As an experiment he takes the plunge into a domain that, rather than leading him farther and farther into the cancerously consumeristic and addictive society we find ourselves in, he is initiated--genuinely--into the world of holographic, shamanic perception. An adventurous, stunning, and thrilling ride, as well as a timely wake-up call regarding modernity's ill-fated relationship with psychedelics (as demonized and illegal substances rather than sentient intelligences with the capacity to heal and offer profound guidance and knowledge when worked with in a safe manner as has been done by humans for tens of thousands of years previous to industrialized society), Breaking Open the Head is sure to stand as a classic visionary account and a classic social commentary of our world. . . a world that is, from my perspective, gearing up for its own shamanic initiation.--Frank MacEowen, author of The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, & Seekers (New World Library)

We can now speak of an entheogenic renaissance and this book is part of the growing literature of that movement. "Breaking Open the Head" is an autobiographical account in which the author details his transformation from a cynical Manhattan atheist to an entheogenic psychonaut. Along the way, the writer introduces us to the various psychedelics in use, their effects and cultural history (i.e how they have been used throughout history &/or at present).

One element that differentiates this book from other psychedelic accounts is Pinchbeck raises criticisms of capitalism, often via
the voice of Walter Benjamin. We are all under the spell of capital. We are hypnotised by commercials and advertising jingles. We are told, by the powers that be, that capitalism is "natural", that we have arrived at some kind of Hegelian "End of History", in which capitalism has won and any attempts to imagine a different scenario, a different form of global exchange, is empty utopianism. Unfortunately, many of us have accepted this fabrication. And so it is, that the rainforest continues to be depleted, many people in Third World countries live in poverty (thanks to multinational corporations and the politics of debt played by such organizations as the World Bank); spiritually
empty we, in the post-industrial capitalist countries, greedily seek to fill our spiritual emptiness with things, commodities. We consume more and more, yet still cannot fill the emptiness. We're like rats on a turnwheel.

Psychedelics MAY be PART of the antidote to all of this.
Through psychedelics we are awakened from our trance and can see the world from a completely different perspective. Psychedelics spark creativity. It has been said that Silicon Valley (where I work by the way) would not exist if it were not for acid. That may be an exaggeration, but only in part. Numerous luminaries in the field of computer science sought/seek inspiration through psychedelic visions. What's more, psychedelics reveal a broader (not necessarily HIGHER) reality. As biological organisms, our brains have specialized (at least this is my opinion) and have closed out many parts of the larger reality that exists. In our everyday existence, We stare out at the world through a narrow chink and conclude that is all there is.

All this may sound incredible to those who have never experienced
the states entrained by psychedelics. Many believe that psychedelics are a means of escaping reality. It is possible, like all things, that they could be used to that end. However,
for the escapist, psychedelics would not be the drug of choice. The reason for this being that psychedelics are AMPLIFIERS, not sedatives. If you were to use them as a means to escape some phenomenon, that phenomenon would more than likely end up in your trip amplified to the nth power!

I am happy that through his book an anti-capitalist orientation has been introduced into the psychedelic context. While it is true that psychedelics have more or less defied being co-opted by capitalism (indeed there is a "war on drugs" campaign), there could be in the future an attempt to "integrate" psychedelics into capitalism. We have seen how the "New Age" is, for the most part, a marketing scheme. We have learned how paranormal talents, such as remote viewing, were tested by the CIA for use in spying. Should we break through this period of "anti-drug hysteria", one can well imagine that psychedelics could be coopted for capitalist use.

We, instead, should use psychedelics as a means of breaking free of the capitalist mindset, envisioning other possible socio-economic systems, and re-associating with the broader reality that exists (which some call the "spirit world").

Though I have doubts about any kind of spiritual trancendence, I do find the other worlds or states of mind induced by psychedlics to be an essential experience in learning more about the inner workings of the mind, and in raising questions in regards to our perception of the world around us. Whether you believe these drugs are a portal to another dimension (which they most certainly are, though whether or not that dimension exists "out there" or simply in our minds is debatable) or simply a drug, i.e. bad and of no redeeming value, really comes down to what you "believe" is ultimate reality. Are you one who questions and is seeking alterenatives to what is offered? Or do you feel comfortable with the way things are? Daniel Pinchbeck is definitely the former and the book is an exploration into that search for an alternative. He is honest and does not hold back in his descriptions of his experiences and his passion for that ultimate revelation is sincere. The journey goes from Africa to Mexico to South America and back to New York City. Along the way you meet other travellers and seekers as well shamans, holy men and other visitors to the fourth dimension. Although I was not convinced of the existence of any dimension "out there", I came away with a deeper appreciation of these so-called mind-altering plants as they pertain to a more ecologically sensitive and spiritually healthy perception of the world we live. Instead of drugs that dull the mind and enhance the negative aspects of our personalities we could well use with substances (legally approved of course) that enhance or awareness of natural processes as well as our relation to the planet and other life forms.