I found it a bit dense and meandering. Too heavy on the crop circles and alien abductions for my own interests. But he did introduce me to a whole slew of new authors I must find, and I enjoyed much of the rest when it was concerning his own experiments diving down the rabbit hole, as well as explorations into quantum theory, metaphysics, ethnobotany, and global spiritual traditions and myths. By midway I had to put it down for a few weeks and wasn't sure I'd return. Ultimately i'm happy I picked it up again. The final portion contains a fascinating recount of the author's adventures in the rainforest, culminating in a transmitted message announcing the Mayan god, Quetzalcoatl's coming return.

2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl is sure to dazzle your spiritual and intellectual mind. The author put a lot of effort into this book... very well researched.

2012: The Return of the Quetzalcoatl is a new spin on thetheary of 2012. It describes the the most popular thearies of destruction, but Daniel Pinchbeck rejects these idea and speaks of a culture phenomonon and a change in human life. He beleives that the thearies of destruction are not reffering to actuly destruction and death but of the destruction and our society as we know it.
As with Daniel Pinchbecks other novels he leaves penlty of questions unanswered that you must find the answer yourself which keeps you attention through out the book.

This was a really fun and engrossing read. Ripped right through it. I loved almost every chapter, although the crop circle stuff was a little slow and seemed to be out of place. I don't care about the "grays" or what have you. But so much of the rest of the book was right on the money. It reminded me a lot of Graham Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods", which was a great read from the '90's. Always excellent to have an alternate view to the dogmatic hogwash of the contemporary science community, which largely seems to be a bunch of soulless atheists who have their collective head up their collective ass.

I've seen Pinchbeck read before and he is erudite, well-spoken, and very balanced. I have respect for him and what he is trying to do. Also, Pinchbeck's mother, Joyce Johnson, dated Jack Kerouac, which is pretty great, also. Anyone who quotes the Beats is in the right ballpark, as a general rule.

Read this book - very illuminating and transformative, without the horseshit of most New Age books.

Wow. If you want to take a trip through alien abductions, crop circles, a bit of conspiracy theory, psychedelic enlightenment, tribal knowledge and the end of time all wrapped in some rather odd psychodrama from the author about his troubled marriage and relationship with love, this is it for you.

I mean, I read it. And it's not bad for what it is. But you have to suspend a bit of disbelief, and you have to take the author with a grain of salt. There are plenty of perfectly lucid, fascinating passages, but Pinchbeck continues to get in the way of the story he is trying to tell, and this increases exponentially, like the spiral that is the coming end of time, as the reader approaches the end of the text.

If you're into this stuff like I am, read it. Just be forewarned that you'll be scratching your head at times.

The author reveals his experience on almost every psychedelic drug while breaking down the man-made destruction of the planet. The beginning gives a bleak look into the future of the planet as Pinchbeck reveals a variety of aspects of the planet's woes. The ending seems to be more of Pinchbeck's internal evolution through the use of psychedelics, and the conclusion that he himself may be Quetzaquatl, the savior of the human race in the nick of time before our planet blinks humanity out of existence.

Yeah, I know, but I had to. So. Much. Crack.

Actually, at first, I was kind of impressed with Daniel Pinkchbeck. He knows a lot of big words, for one thing. And how to sling them around. Son of an NYC artist and a NYC writer... he was bound to wind up a little pretentious around the edges. But he makes up for it by doubting himself at every turn. Because he's also neurotic. Just the right kind of person to injest copious amounts of hallucinogens. Oh, and then combine extensive reading in the subject of shamanism, the use of hallucinogens, mystic visionary writings, etc. Throw in a giant cauldron. Set the cauldron down in the middle of the Burning Man Festival. Set it on fire. Run far far away.

Pinchbeck manages to draw together threads from every New Age, LSD inspired, culturally appropriated, loonie hippie pipe dream he stumbles across. Crop circles (check). Meso-American Mythology (check), Rudolph Steiner (check), Carlos Castaneda (check), Aleister Crowley (check), African iboga boogie men (check), Free Love (check), the "noosphere" (THE WHAT? IS THAT A COW RELIGION???) check check checkity check check.

Dudes, seriously, this guy is a few screws loose of having a running tractor.

I mean, he does try and make up for it by adding in disclaimers that he may be entirely wrong about every single theory he entertains. But he does entertain them. He sits all these wacked out theories down around a tiny, painted table and serves them tea and crumpets. Then he pushes everything off the table and dances naked in his underwear.

It's not a pretty sight, I promise you.

But what the hell. The portions of the book that I managed to plow through without having to set it down and laugh until my abdomen hurt were pretty entertaining. I think some of his research has validity... in that I do believe in shamanism, and the energies that it works with. But the edge he, and others like him, take it to are of the ridiculous IMHO.

So... Joe Bob sez check it out if you are looking for some crack. Or to know what it's like to drop so much acid that your brain turns to gluons without actually damaging your cerebral cortex.

Clearly this guy has touched a nerve with some of the folks that have reviewed his book. In all fairness I considered it an open minded and unique perspective on the connections between spirituality and materialism in our culture -along with a mess of other things. Sure some of the stuff he writes sounds crazy, and sure he jumps around....a lot. (& I also don't particularly care for how he addressed his relationship with his partner in the book, but people make mistakes...they are allowed to...) I think it's important to remember that however many times you've gone to Vassar (cuz why is that a thing?) you don't know everything...I don't either...nobody does...I just think it worth acknowledging that this guy put himself out there looking for more to life and is attempting to be open minded and honest. (Something that not everyone is ready or willing to do.)
For that, along with his interesting and thought provoking (if at times convoluted and confusing) insights I give the book 4 stars.

Awful book written on an overdosis of mushrooms. So full of rubbish and crap and totally beyond what it promises.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Run for your life the world is ending or its over already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That wasn't exactly the argument of his book if I remember correctly, but there was definitely lots of fucking Aliens (they weren't copulating, but there were lots of different types greys, blue, greens, I was soon made aware of Alien zoology!), synchronicity involving cracks or bricks or something (very Jungian, Freud's beard would be on fire if he had read it), lots of the coolest drugs all the guys in skinny jeans are trying, pretty sure there was a conspiracy or two in there as well (the Illuminati not only rules the world its banging your significant other as well, go figure!)

The funniest part for me was of course the godless philosophical materialists are stupid and closed off from the great OM or whatever his thesis was, the author gently chided them but believed that these adorable dinosaurs could eventually be brought back into the fold as their era would end in 2012 (or Quetzalcoatl would eat them, shit them out, then eat them again,AD INFINiTUM..Quetzalcoatl is in the form of a circle on the front cover)... BUT... I remember him being really really pissed off at the 'traditional' religions, because their prophecies and revelations are just dumb, untrue and misguided (what a bunch of closed minded ROBOTS!), unlike his prophecies and revelations that are nothing but the CAPITAL T TRUTH! Why, are his visions more true than any others you might ask? Because the author experienced his visions not the visions of the other religious mystics, so of course his visions are TRUE! How many angels dance on the head of a pin, 5! NO 10!

Cool book, i like it but took me a long time to read, sometimes it seemed I could only read a page or two at at time. If you want a quick summary of his other book breaking open the head read the first few chapters of this. I found the parts with Jose Arguelles and the 13 moon calendars fascinating, but too much of the book seemed to be Pinchbeck rationalizing cheating on his wife.

Good Quote
"The acceptance of an interconnectivity between minds, or between mind and mater, would shatter fundamental postulates of the materialist worldview, forcing a paradigm shift."

This author sort of does things his own way. He doesn't take trips around the world doing research for a book, and then compile his research into a book. Instead, he takes trips around the world doing research for a book, and then writes a book about all his travels. And in the midst of his travelogue, he waxes eloquent on the topics of research for his book. This is problematic for two reasons.

First, because he never compiles his research into a book, he sort of side-steps the whole process of integrating the disparate areas of research under consideration into a single thesis. He frees himself from the discipline of having to back up his conclusions with hard arguments and facts. I wouldn't say that the author does not have an overall thesis, or a cluster of related theses. But I would say that these theses are quite vague and poorly defined, rendering them rather impotent. The individual areas of research in the book are quite interesting, but one gets about a cocktail party conversation level of understanding of any one of them. This could be quite useful if all the research areas were fresh and new, but there was virtually no original material in this book for me; I have read about these phenomena in different sources beforehand.

The second reason why the travelogue style is problematic is because it is painfully personal. This may work for someone like Hunter S. Thompson, who is a fascinating and admirable character. Pinchbeck, in comparison to Thompson, is a bit of a dweeb. Reading the stories of his troubled relationship with his partner is so painful that it becomes an embarrassment to the reader. I won't go into the details, but this guy seems to have made a big mess out of his life. He cannot seem to manage a relationship with a woman. His overuse of psychedelic drugs of various kinds has left him confused and delusional. In short, it seems his soul has been torn to shreds. The story of this period of the man's life, (let's call it the "doing research for my next book" period), is neither gripping nor inspirational.

Two final notes. First, the lack of a table of contents is annoying. And second, if you are looking for a book to explain the Mayan calendar end date of 2012, this is not it. It is a topic of this book, but given no greater weight than any of many other topics discussed here.