If Pinchbeck had managed to let his own ego get out of the way, this could have been a great book. Instead, it is meandering and irritating. I give it three stars primarily for some of the middle chapters, when he is doing serious self-work and seeking; those are four-or-five-star writing. I especially like the time he spends in England, researching crop circles and contemplating. However, the final chapters are just semi-prurient garbage. I think he was onto something worthwhile in the beginning, but somewhere along the way, he got detoured and just lost the thread entirely. Read only if you have deep interest in such topics.

Interesting but really fragmented collection of ideas. Some of it is really fascinating - I like the elements discussing the quantum nature of the universe (in language understandable to somebody as relatively scientifically illiterate as I am) and its relationship to spirituality, just as a lot of the ideas about egalitarianism in the face of increasingly oppressive socio-political machinations are always welcome.

The problems with this book are manifold, however. Pinchbeck relies heavily on the input of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, many of whom hold to some fairly unconventional belief systems. There's nothing wrong with believing in any of the things presented, but these sources are often taken at their word, which can sometimes be difficult to swallow for somebody who hasn't done the same drugs or hung out in the same crop circles. These ideas are somewhat messily arranged, and seem to fit more with the author's own experiences and revelations. This inchoate structure, coupled with the fact that what Pinchbeck reveals about himself often makes him seem like an insufferable jackass (I could tell he was an only child before it was ever mentioned) does his ideas no favors. Maybe it's just that I'm too immured in the sort of faulty reliance on empiricism that this book tends to shy away from, but I think that if the contents had been presented a little more clearly with a little less emphasis on the author's personal life it would've been a far more compelling read.

It is important, though, to consider what Pinchback states at the book's onset. The text works far better as an elaborate thought experiment and, even at his most out-there, the author's strongest moments are when he's approaching his subjects with some doubt. It is an interesting compendium of interrelated esoterica, one riddled with ideas worth implementing and pursuing. There's just a lot of distractions as well. Not a bad book, but one requiring the largest grain of salt imaginable.

One of the worst books ever written, possibly more so than Mein Kampf, and to cap it off Pinchbec once again proves his utter lack of familiarity with parts of his subject matter in regards to Christianity: in Chter 4 of Part 6 he describes Christ as described in the Bible as half-man half-God, which is not only untrue, but is heresy, for someone who is important enough for a mesoamirican god to use as a vehicle of transmission one'd thinnk he'd've heard of the the Third Ecumical Council, but th again when you pretend to have all the answers you don't ask any questions...

Actually, I am still reading this one, about 1/2 way through. Another fascinating Pinchbeck investigation. Thoughtful, yet conversational writing style I really enjoy...some may find him too verbose. Gives some interesting auto-biographical information about his background (parents, education, etc). Delves into the Ancient Mayan predictions for a major end of a Planetary cycle on Dec. 12, 2012. Correlations to this date by Nostradamus, Biblical references, as well. Consciousness shift? Major catastrophe? A huge end of a cycle & beginning of something completely new...but what? Got to read to the end to find out I guess.

A personal journey in search of transforming consciousness with a little help from Mayan Deity Quetzalcoatl, just in time for the fireworks of 2012!

Pinchbeck applies his extensive literary craftsmanship to weave a lusciously layered multi-topic tome built on intertwining Fibonacci spiraling column chapters of poetically ruminating prose...

I'd give zero stars if it was an option. This was actually recommended by Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes. Love their music but Chris's reading tastes are for shit. This book was more atrocious than I can even convey. Terrible!!! Myopic!!! Stupid!!!

Daniel Pinchbeck loses all my respect in this mysogynistic, drug-addled, masturbatory, new age pile of drivel. He asserts that the problems of the modern world are to be blamed on women and the feminine, and that in order to save ourselves we should have a big free-loving orgy, even if we've fathered a child we should be responsible for and loving toward. He also claims that he is channeling Quetzelcuatl, and that crop circles are speaking to him. He has had one too many sips of ayahuasca if you ask me. I wish I could slap him.

Well despite how much I might want to like Dan Pinchbeck, his book leaves me unsatisfied. I agree that there are more thngs in heaven and earth than may be explained by simple material reductionism. I don;t even really discount his own subjective experience, after all, I've had a few of these kinds of inexplicable-any-other-way times myself. But not being one of these "end of the world is coming! All hail the great Serpent God!" people, I find it hard being worked up over this particular epismetology. Why the Mayans? Why not Glastonbury and Stonehenge, - who is to say where the "new age" begins, or began? Why crop circles and UFOs? Why not things that carry less "wingnut" baggage?
Which his part of the problem with this book... Rather than give his feminine participants names, we get "my partner" or "first and second priestesses." One wishes more intimacy had been involved in this depiction of a personal tale of evolution from skepticism to true believer. And it would be a lot cooler, for me anyhow, if folks like DP would spend less time working over the "shamanic" aspects of psychedelics, and spend more time trying to rescue them from the legacy of the 1970's witch hunts.
I still prefer Huxley's vision of all this to the modern (oh, should I say "postmodern?" oooh.)revanche oblique as regards the role psychedelics [might] play in our culture. He calls "tripping" an adolescent fixation. Well, good for him. But there's subjectivity everywhere and what is adolescent hedonism to one person is another's sincere quest. And no ban exists on mixing the two either; nor should one. So I felt uncomfortable at times reading this, however much I wanted to find things to agree about. The 'Burning Man' section -I found a lot there to agree with. But since I'll never bother with it (perpetual outsider) I wouldn't want to spoil their party. So I'll go.

The first two-thirds of this books is an interesting discussion of the nature of time and of combining contemporary science with a myth-based science and what the human consciousness might be like in the future. The "future" being after 2012, the date the Mayans predicted would be the end of this world or at least the ending of the current cycle that time is in. The last part of the book is just the author complaining about how "1st priestess" won't sleep with him after he has renounced monogamous relationships (to the dismay of his partner and daughter.) Just stop reading this book after he talks about "grey" Aliens responsible for abductions being akin to Trolls that live in the center of the earth.

If I had wanted to read a memoir by an anti-monogamy commitment phobic, I would have picked up a book with the title "Why I Hate Women," because this is the ultimate subject of this anti-feminist screed masquerading as current events non-fiction.

While the author mentions a few relevant facts about the Mayan calendar in the beginning, most of the book is dedicated to his world travels in search of psychedelic intoxication which he believes gives him "special insight" in the coming apocalypse. The only apocalypse the reader can anticipate is the life of the author's daughter, whom he abandons when he leaves her mother for a series of women, all of whom reject him.

The book starts out like you expect, leading the reader through the history of the 2012 prophesy, and we are treated to a world tour of crops circles and the usual unsatisfying alien discussions, hoping further on the author will bring new information. By page 300, however, the author finally drops all pretension and succumbs to vicious generalization, such as the opinion that monogamy is "cultural" but certainly not "natural," bolstering his view with such pithy observations as, "Women tend to feel they are in competition for men and their 'value' (in quotes, to make sure we know they actually have no value) rests in their powers of physical attraction, making them possessive, jealous and insecure." Despite having no background in anthropology (or college training whatsoever, the reader later learns) the next sentence reads, "It is possible.... that their innate propensity for gathering has reasserted itself as a cultural obsession with shopping." (p. 323-4). Several pages later, when the author's sexual advances are yet again spurned by a woman not his partner, he talks about his "hurt and disappointment." At this point, the reader is feeling some empathy, at least in the hurt and disappointment categories.

What any of this has to do with 2012 and Maya is for the reader to guess. "Nothing" is my guess.

Read with Tim Craighead...an interesting spin on the Myan calendar and 2012 mixed with citations from Jung, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marcuse, et. al. wrapped in Pinchbeck's own psychedelic journeys (literally and literally) and other unexplained paranormal phenomena including the mystery of Crop Circles...I have heavy criticisms of how he connects all his findings to the thesis of a cosmic shift in consciousness comes roughly 2012 (the year i hope to be starting law school, so i hope there's room enough for me to still go if his predictions are on target)

wow. never has a book i was enjoying and interested in lost me so quickly. talk about unreliable narrators. pinchbeck is a piece of work- he loses all principles of journalism and objectivity in spectularly ridiculous fashion; he himself stresses the importance of journalistic objectivity and healthy scepticism early on in '2012,' when writing about subject matter which is considered dubious or occult by society's standards. He does this by basically declaring himself a prophetic vessel for Quetzalcoatl towards the end of the book, where the transcription of the Mayan God's speech appears in italics, of course. All the while his own narrative of his own actions -most of which involve him trying to get laid by playing mind games with new agey women- -and his relationships undermines the seriousness of his 'quest,' and he comes across as a weak and weaselly dude, rather than as a spiritual seeker.

i bought this book in an international airport in spain; i wanted something from left-field. The unfortunate thing is, there are a lot of really important ideas in 2012. If any of this stuff is even remotely of interest, it is worthwhile to rip out or copy the book's bibliography. a more disciplined writer really could have done a thorough, studious and strong study of how neglected occult phenomena like crop circles, rudolph steiner's ideas of the spirit world, the mayan calendar and transcendental experience through psychotropic drugs are interrelated, as disparate parts of some kind of evolution of consciousness. this much is clear. But it's not Pinchbeck. Apparently I am not the only person who couldn't even bring myself to finishing his book.