An interesting mix of the worthwhile and the worthless. Some really good bits in this book but it does digress and wander a bit.

Daniel Pinchbeck, author of Breaking Open the Head and co-editor of Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age (which I previously reviewed), has presented a collection of 2012-related information with his work 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatal. Once again, this is a double-edged sword for his readers. He gathers a wide variety of information. His main subjects include crop circles, Mayan prophecies, psychedelic drug-induced visions, modern uses of technology and philosophical concepts from Jung and Nietzsche. Unfortunately, as was the case with his previous book, Breaking Open the Head, Pinchbeck stretches himself too thin. Lacking a specific direction or focus, he attempts to explore every nook and cranny of the 2012 phenomenon, often losing sight of his original intentions mid-sentence. Worse, he occasionally leaves several stones unturned and moves onto something else. At times, his writing is truly sporadic.

Yet, other than the stylistic problems that I’ve grown accustomed to with Pinchbeck’s writing, there is some very useful and timely information to be found here. The various tribal societies that Pinchbeck has encountered have clearly had a profound influence on his way of thinking. His ability to share his transformations is exciting and easily relatable - especially if the reader has had similar experiences. Many of Pinchbeck’s stories that were introduced in Breaking Open the Head are rehashed in 2012, giving them new life. At first, I found this annoying - it seemed as if Pinchbeck was unable to come up with any new material for his sophomore effort. For example, explaining his mother’s relationship with Jack Kerouac and the meaning of his surname (“pinchbeck” describes something that appears valuable, which is actually cheap or tawdry) to me in both books isn’t really necessary. But it eventually dawned on me that he intentionally gives the reader a very personal connection in an effort to find his audience, which he elaborates on in the Afterword. As a reader, I appreciate that, and it also helps break up the rather humdrum collection of facts. For me, the book teeters on the verge of nausea when Pinchbeck elaborates on numerology, but I was revived toward the end of the book, when he brings the level of exploration back down to my level. Overall, I think this is a must-read, especially for those interested in the concept of consciousness transformation in 2012.

4/5 Stars. 411 pages. Published 2006.

This book was a waste of time; I got halfway and couldn't bring myself to finish it.

I don't say this because of the content. While other negative reviews had a problem with the "unscientific" nature of the ideas Pinchbeck discusses, I'm generally into "woo" (parapsychology, UFOs, New Age spirituality, etc.). Instead, my problem with the book was that it consists mostly of Pinchbeck giving summaries of other people's unrelated, far-out theories, with no real guiding theme or message beyond "wouldn't it be wild if this was true?" The only reason I gave it two and not one stars is because it does at least highlight for other possible authors that might actually be worth the reader's time. Maybe Pinchbeck ties it all together in some satisfying way at the end, but I doubt it.

Once again, after the equally annoying Breaking Open the Head, Pinchbeck makes it very difficult to get through what should be a fascinating subject: the end of history as we know it, according to the Mayan calendar. The title should read "2012: Return of Quetzalcoatl incarnated by Daniel Pinchbeck" because he inserts so much obnoxious autobiography -- even going so far as to imply that he himself is the reincarnation of the Mayan god -- as to make the book infuriating to read. I actually gave it two stars (and not one) specifically because of that: in spite of how much I hated him, he still compelled me to keep reading. I had to see where he was going to go with it. After getting to the end and the answer of "nowhere", that's not a mistake I ever want to repeat. Even more frustratingly, there were some occasionally good discussions of 2012, crop circles, and other matters of the occult.

@pointblaek

I absolutely loved this book and I find myself going back and re-reading some of the more mind boggling chapters. Pinchbeck does a really great job pulling out all kinds of strange syncranicities that surround us. It is told in the style of an autobigraphy but due to the subjective and mysterious content of the book, it only seems apropriate. He also backs up all of his ideas with a substantial amount of evidence. Overall it changed the way I percieve the world, and if a book can do that...then damn, it's a job well done.

This book is about (or at least I expected it to be about) the ancient Maya Calander that ended in the year 2012, various people took this to mean 2012 will be the year we see either the "end of the world" or the "end of the world as we know it" I read this before 2012, not thinking the world would end but interested in looking at how this idea has caught on among the fringe of modern society. Pinchbecks book however spends very little time on the Maya Calander, its in there alright, but along with more New Age mumbo jumbo than you would think could fit in 394 pages; the book is semi-autobiographical, semi-philosophical and at times semi-polemical, if I were to review the book in one sentence that sentence would be "a steaming pile of po-mo New Age bullshit."

But to go more deeply; the problem started when early on Pinchbeck showed himself to be a comitted idealist, so I knew his ideas would be difficult to rationalise with my own materialist outlook. Pinchbeck uses some discussion of quantum physics to give a scientific basis to his world view, and thats where the science ends and the psudoscience begins. Around the middle of the book, he criticizes Jard Diamond, the scientist whos book Guns, Germs and Steel helped bring historical materialist ideas back into popular consciousness. Pinchbeck looks at a section in the book on the Spanish conquest of the New World and argues that Diamonds materialist view on the situation is wrong and the Spanish were able to defeat the Aztecs because of the Aztecs "myth based consciousness" I found this idea silly and slightly offensive, at this point I put the book down and went to the library to pick up some Noam Chomsky to read instead, a couple of chapters into Failed State I decided to finish 2012, what the hell, I made it half way. By the time I'd reached the index my views remained unchanged.

I had been misled by the quote from Entertainment Weekly on the back of the book that stated the author "isn't some hippy-dippy hedonist...but a skeptical philosopher" for most of the book this isn't really the case, hes skeptical of the ideas of José Argüelles but given Arguelles' off-the-wall ideas thats no major feat of rationalism, and by the last chapter Pinchbeck is spouting the same sort of nonsense. The few possitives are that Pinchbeck admits a lot of his ideas are "New Age cliches" and states near the end that its up to the individual to interpret his ideas, and that they may choose to ignor them all together, this makes him more respectable than your average guru or New Age cult leader. Also, he is not some kind of neo-Luddite like a lot of New Age types, and even talks (briefly) of how technology could be used to liberate the world. He states a want for a "rationally organised post work society" and at times is critical of capitalism, ideas I agree with in a very broad sense, the problem however is that he doesn't offer any solutions beyond psycho-spiritualist silliness.

This book was great. I enjoyed the book as a whole. It is written very well written from the first person but a bit scattered. Once you get his flow to the book its not so bad to be thrown back into another topic. You also get a very good idea where the author was coming from in his opinions and does a good job developing himself as a character. This being what I would say is a non-fiction book but along the magic lines really opened my eyes to different perspectives on what is knowledge. It changed my opinion on many levels. I'm not saying that I believe everything he says in the book but I do not rule any of it out. He makes good points and seems very passionate what he writes about. I read this book before his first book, Breaking Open the Head. And now, I would like to read that very much. I must say his experiences he tells of in the book are a trip and it really makes you wonder that if your mind is tuned correctly to everything around you how much more could be experienced. Good book.

Oh, and the whole concept of the Mayans and 2012 is something to wrap the head around by itself.

Daniel Pinchbeck uses a wild excess of difficult words, there really is no need for it since he clearly is addressing the mainstream population of readers and not scholars

What begins as a somewhat interesting exercise in thinking outside of the box soon derails into layer upon layer of 'I'm not trying to convince you but here's the evidence'
Like the people he has studied he himself has had a very familiar relationship with all kinds of psycadelics
I put it down on page 290, not the least bit interested in what might be left of it

total, pointless junk. talk to a real ajkin (mayan date diviner) and he or she will call this white control. important to note that mayan time evolved outwards, ie: ka'tuns were the first period developed (20 years) and they noted when clan leadership was to be transferred without conflict. as date-keeping elongated (the records moved into 100's of years), the longer spans were added. longer spans included shifts beyond political control, things like adding a planned city departure so that a famine that might kill the entire city could be avoided. essentially plotting conscious moves in very variable conditions. what pinchbeck does is to erase these actual meanings and spin a western mechanical spirituality, of course, a godhead.

When you have a fuzzy understanding of everything, you get a book like this. Pinchbeck takes everything at face value (from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to quantum mechanics to the space-time continuum to the entire Hindu religion), which comes off as the definition of "spreading yourself too thin", and though I don't doubt for a second that our author is a very smart man (or at least, earnest in his research) everything--and I mean everything--reeks of "DUDE CHECK OUT WHAT I JUST READ ON WIKIPEDIA!"

But the fact that this book doesn't offer anything profound on the 2012 phenomena isn't our author's fault. He didn't set out to shed new light on culture, history, physics, mad trips and the Burning Man festival. No, he wrote a memoir. And probably a pretty good one. Problem is, I didn't buy this book to learn about Daniel Pinchbeck, who seems to be pretty burdened by his bourgeois upbringing (call it white guilt on new cosmic levels). I bought the book it to save myself from the return of the angry Mayan serpent God on Dec. 21, 2012!

Is that too much to ask?

this guy is a fucking idiot. i'm forcing myself to finish this because i need to see where he ends up. after a promising start, the book cruised straight downhill into a pile of endless shit.
um, buddy, guy, dude, you've based your stupid book on widely (and I mean WIDELY) discredited pseudoscience and touchy feely new age drivel. i'd be laughing while reading this if it wasn't so infuriatingly tragic that people believe this garbage. uh, you do understand that science is based on that which is experimentally verifiable and not just some wild thoughts and premises that people of questionable psychological stability dreamed up ages ago. rudolf steiner? carl jung? seriously? c'mon! you've even botched the parts where you criticize Jared Diamond's conclusions (which are based on actual evidence and testable theories) in his books. did you even read his books, because it doesn't sound like you did.... you use whitley strieber's "Communion" as examples of abductions when even he has claimed his book shouldn't be used as an example of an alien abduction, since there's no way to prove it wasn't something that was dreamed.
oh, and i'll end here, but i've done hallucinogens. a fair amount of them. they're fun recreationally. they are, however, not a spiritual doorway to new "consciousness". all they do is reinforce some belief that you already hold about them. jesus, the '60s sucked for a reason, don't try to bring them back you vapid, baby-boomer fuckhead.

okay, deep breaths, deep breaths...i'm done.

Ok, so I have a little bit of a "thing" with 2012. My brother bought this book because he has a little bit of a "thing" with psychodelia and has read other stuff by this guy. I borrowed it because the title was just too interesting to pass up. It's ok...fairly interesting ruminations by a tripper. Kind of a composite of a lot of ideas that I had already been exposed to, but interesting to see them put together in this way. Some of the stuff was way out there and kinda scary! This was a book that I kind of enjoyed in a piecemeal kinda way.