A guide to contemporary shamanism, this book takes an alternative view of an age-old subject, asking only that readers plunge in headfirst. There are many treats to be tempted by as Pinchbeck guides us forward in his always-plausible, always-sane, always-sceptical tour of the psychedelic horizon, from tribal rites in West Africa and Mexico, to other tribal rites in Brooklyn apartments and at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Continually enthralling. As gripping as a novel." Geoff Dyer, LA Weekly "I much admire Breaking Open the Head for being the account of an authentic quest for enlightenment in jungles, up rivers, in deserts, and hardest of all to access, the human mind and heart via the one of the oldest thoroughfares on earth, mind-expanding drugs. This is a serious and illuminating journey."--- Paul Theroux "As mind-expanding as the chemicals it chronicles, Breaking Open the Head is the most artful and provocative investigation of psychedelia since Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception." --- Stephen Johnson, author of Emergence 'The author of this "journey into the heart of contemporary shamanism" is not some hippy-dippy hedonist staggering down the road of excess but rather a skeptical philosopher of consciousness seeking the enlightened path. In the late-90's, a spiritually exhausted Pinchbeck took a magazine assignment to gobble the African psychedelic iboga, launching an earnest exploration of himself, his self, and this world. Acid in Manhattan, mushrooms in Mexico, yage in Ecuador... He reports on his trips, travels, and travails in an unfailingly strong voice and analyzes a broad range of theorists with a light touch.' Entertainment Weekly "This is a brave book. Brave because it accepts, as matters of fact, realities that cannot co-exist peacefully with the standard American Myth. That the discussion of these issues avoids both New Age glitter-speak and standard psychedelic hoo-ha makes it all the more provocative. It is also brave for its unflinching willingness to bare the less expanded parts of the author's psyche. And it is brave, as it is always brave, to attempt to speak clearly of that which can't be spoken." --- John Perry Barlow 'Breaking Open the Head is a thrilling, brave and intellectually engaging account of a visionary search. A sustained but sceptical contribution to the ongoing project of psychedelic exploration, Pinchbeck's book is mind-expanding and heart-felt. It is also, implicitly, a much-needed rebuke to a cocaine-fuelled culture of irony and cynical detachment. I warmly recommend it.' - Geoff Dyer
About the Author
Daniel Pinchbeck is a founding editor of Open City, and he has written for many US publications such as Rolling Stone and the Village Voice.
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I grew up in the New York counterculture of the 1970s and '80s. My father, Peter Pinchbeck, was an abstract painter, and my mother, Joyce Johnson, is a writer who participated in the Beat Generation. She was dating Jack Kerouac when On the Road hit the bestseller lists in 1957 (chronicled in her book, Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir). As a journalist, I have written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, etcetera. I am currently the editorial director of the Evolver Project (www.evolver.net).
In my late twenties, I fell into a deep spiritual crisis that led me to the study of shamanism and psychedelic susbtances. My first book, Breaking Open the Head, recounted my initiation into several tribal cultures that use hallucinogens in their rituals. Over time, I became convinced of the legitimacy of the shamanic and mystical worldview held by indigenous peoples around the world. This led me to my most recent book, 2012, a study of prophecy.
In my late twenties, I fell into a deep spiritual crisis that led me to the study of shamanism and psychedelic susbtances. My first book, Breaking Open the Head, recounted my initiation into several tribal cultures that use hallucinogens in their rituals. Over time, I became convinced of the legitimacy of the shamanic and mystical worldview held by indigenous peoples around the world. This led me to my most recent book, 2012, a study of prophecy.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
More Flapdoodle, Please!,
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This review is from: Breaking Open the Head (Print on Demand (Paperback))
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 Brooklynite 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 intelligence that may not be first rate, but are, nevertheless, uncharateristic of our time. In sum: a pip.
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