2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Hardcover)

by Daniel Pinchbeck (Author) "Our civilization is on a path of ever-increasing acceleration, but what are we rushing toward?..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Burning Man, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Pinchbeck, journalist and author of the drug-riddled psychonaut investigation Breaking Open the Head, has set out to create an "extravagant thought experiment" centering around the Mayan prophecy that 2012 will bring about the end of the world as we know it, "the conclusion of a vast evolutionary cycle, and the potential gateway to a higher level of manifestation." More specifically, Pinchbeck's claim is that we are in the final stages of a fundamental global shift from a society based on materiality to one based on spirituality. Intermittently fascinating, especially in his autobiographical interludes, Pinchbeck tackles Stonehenge and the Burning Man festival, crop circles and globalization, modern hallucinogens and the ancient prophesy of the Plumed Serpent featured in his subtitle. His description of difficult-to-translate experiences, like his experimentation with a little-known hallucinogenic drug called dripropyltryptamine (DPT), are striking for their lucidity: "For several weeks after taking DPT, I picked up flickering hypnagogic imagery when I closed my eyes at night ... In one scene, I entered a column of fire rising from the center of Stonehenge again and again, feeling myself pleasantly annihilated by the flames each time." Pinchbeck's teleological exploration can overwhelm, and his meandering focus can frustrate, but as a thought experiment, Pinchbeck's exotic epic is a paradigm-buster capable of forcing the most cynical reader outside her comfort zone.
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Product Description
This literary and metaphysical epic unifies the cosmological phenomena of our time - from crop circles to quantum mechanics to the worldwide resurgence of shamanism - in support of the Mayan prophecy that the year 2012 portends an unprecedented global shift.

Cross Umberto Eco, Aldous Huxley, and Carlos Castaneda and you get the voice of Daniel Pinchbeck. And yet nothing quite prepares you for the lucidity, rationality, and informed audacity of this seeker, skeptic, and cartographer of hidden realms.

In tracing the meaning of the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, and the imminent transition from one world to another prophesied by the Hopi Indians of Arizona, Pinchbeck synthesizes indigenous cosmology, alien abductions, shamanic revivalism, crop circles, psychedelic visions, the current ecological crisis and the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse into a new vision for our time. The result is an unprecedented and riveting inquiry into where humanity is immediately headed - and its strange and startling congruence with the ideas of the mysterious civilization of the Classical Maya.

Throughout the 1990s, Pinchbeck had been a member of New York's literary select. He wrote for publications like ArtForum, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine. Critics acclaimed his first book, Breaking Open the Head, as the most significant contribution to psychedelic literature since the work of Terence McKenna.

But the unexpected occurred: Pinchbeck found himself increasingly pulled into the shamanic and metaphysical realms he was reporting on as a journalist. As his mind opened to new and sometimes threatening experiences, disparate threads and synchronicities made new sense: Humanity, every sign suggested, faces an imminent decision between greater self-potential and environmental ruin. The Mayan "birth date" of 2012 could herald the close of one way of existence and the beginning of another, symbolized by the prophesied return of the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl, the mysterious "Plumed Serpent" of ancient myth. In just the nick of time, the skeptical modern mind can reclaim the suppressed psychic, intuitive, and mystical dimensions of being, and institute a new planetary culture. But it is only - and by no means assuredly - possible if we confront the environmental catastrophe staring us in the face.

Something is in the air: many, if not most, of us feel that real change - for good or ill - is afoot. Pinchbeck's journey - a metaphysical opus that takes the reader from the endangered rain forests of the Amazon, to the stone megaliths of the English plains, to the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada - tells the tale of a single man in whose trials we ultimately recognize our own secret thoughts and unease over modern life. And a redemptive vision of where we are heading.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; First Edition edition (May 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585424838
• ISBN-13: 978-1585424832
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,545 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #53 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination > Prophecy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 200 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Note-card mania, July 6, 2006

By	J. Thomas (NY, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is less of a book and more of a collection of note cards thrown into the air and then randomly assembled. Sometimes the reader gets a run of a few pages that seem linked, yet in other places Pinchbeck goes from topic to topic in a matter of paragraphs or within one paragraph itself. On pages 52-53 he goes from maya to Relativity Theory to enlightenment to psychic phenomena to synchronicity. Sounds good if you do justice to each of those topics, but not if you are just throwing them out there because they all sound good together.

His propensity for generalizing is rampant with such things as "according to Eastern thought" (cause we all know Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism are really of one mind). These generalizations turn scary whenever he broaches the topic of women. His anger and bitterness towards women (p.356) is obviously based on personal history, but he tries to couch it in cosmic terms. He also rails against monogamy, but his argument seems to be that monogamy is getting in the way of him having sex with whomever he wants (seriously). At one points he has the arrogance to write, "if women want to do the work of integrating their shadows" (p. 328), as if there are not legions of women out there doing it to a degree he can't begin to approach himself.

In places where he writes on his work with plant medicine (p. 254 -260), he seems to hit his stride and some of his best reflections come out. It seems as if the constraint of keeping to a story, however briefly, does him a world of good in regards to being coherent. It's always good to hear the plants speak, even if through such a shaky scribe.

I could go on about such things as Pinchbeck suggesting we deal with the issue of alien visitors by applying the nondual perspective of Dzogchen (as usual, there may be something in there, but not the way he slaps them together), but I will stop here. My suggestion is to give it a good 10 - 20 pages of reading in a bookstore before buying it, as I suspect people will have widely varying reactions (hence the differing reviews). Cheers.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Breaking Open the Head, May 19, 2008

By	Jeffrey Benner "Keenly watching the 21st cent... (Chicagoland, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Paperback)

Pinchbeck's "Breaking Open the Head" was as good a book as this one is awful.

In "2012" Pinchbeck capitalizes on two heavy cultural phenomena, one contemporary and the other ancient. A smart student of cultural trends, he rides the cresting, recent wave of renewed psychedelic research, entheogenic studies and self-experimentation; and as New Age Consciousness Wonk he also invokes the ancient, time-tested vehicles/archetypes of Prophet of Doom and End of World Preacher (though Pinchbeck's Apocalyse is of a particularly unspecific, vague, and metaphysical nature, when he is challenged about it; he will not tell you what the Apocalypse is, and he does not hesitate from using that undefined fear to sell books).

To these two Main Ingredients he tosses in a few smidgeons of UFO Religion, a morsel of Goddess spirituality, and a pinchbeck of post-modern neo-Mayanism (nothing like a dead religion; no living followers to challenge half-baked modern interpretation and misappropriation by the white man). And Bam! You got your basic Pinchbeck layer cake. Throw in some hints to the ladies that his guru stud services are available, and there's your frosting. But this rock and roll psychedelic celebrity cake, though loaded with calories, has zero nutritional value. Its only purpose is to put Pinchbeck on the lecture circuit and generate fame at Burning Man and a New York bohemia notable mention. Bon Apetit!

In a little more detail . . .

When I spend time reading about psychedelic culture, I want to read something original. Instead we get in "2012" highly secondary and derivative ramblings about a dozen different ideas originated and popularized by other people.

2012 as a psychedelic focus was popularized by Terence McKenna. Pinchbeck is no McKenna. There are no original ideas here. More distressing is the way Pinchbeck appears to be riding that old faithful steed of crazy eyed prophets everywhere, the Horse of the Apocalypse. By hitching his dreams to the End of the World, apparently he hopes to make a living on the lecture circuit, and increase his circle of shamanic goddess groupies, for at least the next four years (until the 2012 meme dries up).

The autobiographical content is embarrassing and inexplicable. Apparently Pinchbeck's celebrity hobnobbing has gone to his head; he feels that he himself is interesting enough to force us to wade through his life story. Uh uh - I advise you to move along, there is nothing to see here. Just another minion of the counterculture who thinks he is unique. My mother might have thought him interesting, but he's really just another self-obsessed, moribund hipster, and I've already seen plenty of that to last a lifetime.

Using psychedelics and psychedelic reputation for sex is nothing new. Timothy Leary wrote the book on taking advantage of women from a guru / psychedelic provider power position. Is this a path that Pinchbeck really wants to follow?

To conclude on a positive note: "Breaking Open the Head" was a useful book as an introduction to the entheogenic experience and culture. I recommend people read that book instead. Or don't read any Pinchbeck at all, until he decides to come up with a new idea. Maybe he needs to find some new psychotropic medicines, because the current ones aren't working.

135 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too much ego, October 14, 2006

By	vw (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

For someone who has spent so much time ostensibly obliterating his ego, Pinchbeck uses the words "I, me, and mine" with surprising frequency. "Breaking Open the Head" was a brave and well-told story, and Pinchbeck does have great skill at telling the tales of his own adventures down the rabbit hole. He is, at his best, a journalist with a skill for wrapping his own experience into fascinating questions.

But 2012 is a disorganized, rambling repeat of many of the delightful "Breaking Open" tales with some vague and poor attempts at analyzing and synthesizing "scholarly" information about the upcoming apocalypse, mysticism, crop circles, and psychedelics.

2012 left me with the nagging, slightly sticky feeling that Pinchbeck was not a wide-eyed explorer of consciousness, but rather a rich Manhattan art world brat (his description of walking around Berlin in the rain is particularly indicative) who left his wife and daughter in pursuit of the End of the World Party complete with as much free sex and intoxication as he could afford. Rock star or mystic? Free thinker or man trapped by his own pursuit of What Is Cool?

After bushwacking through the crop circle revelations and the mysteries of the modern calendar, 2012 settles upon and rediscovers - or discovers, as Pinchbeck seems to believe - the complex world of non-monogamy. He declares that the polyamorists among us are more emotionally evolved and free, and uses this thin, tired excuse to treat women with great disrespect. One wonders if the feminine principle Pinchbeck claims to value includes women over 40, mothers, and women who choose celibacy as a spiritual pursuit.

Pinchbeck pays a great deal of lip service to the necessity of compassion and community, but all his stories are about skipping from country to country, enjoying himself at Burning Man, exploring the jungles of priestesses and princesses...all quite selfish pursuits. If his compassion is so great, why doesn't he write about his volunteer work with the poor? The hungry? The disabled? The unhip, unwashed masses? I finished the book realizing that it doesn't make as good or salable a story to spend your time with those members of your community, that Pinchbeck's fans would much rather read about the heartfelt, wacky hijinks of the Man Who Would Be Terrence McKenna.

Leave yourself entertained and intruigued by "Breaking Open the Head", and forget the ego of "2012".