Deeply and fundamentally bogue if taken on its own terms. Three and a half stars if read as a confession by an aging horndog and failed artiste attempting to found a dope/occult cult in order to slake his need for hippie poon.

Alright, I’ve gotta call it quits on this one.

Probably just read Castaneida instead. Or drop acid and cut out the middle man.

Reading through Pinchbeck's incredibly well-documented experiences with various plant substances such as iboga and ayahuasca, along with his quest for knowledge in understanding the dwindling shamanic culture of the rainforests was a thrilling way to live vicariously through someone's most intimate and trippiest moments. He's just that good at getting it all down on paper. But the best part of this book is the message that really gets driven home to the heart of who we are, the potential of what we have yet to learn about ourselves, something humankind has barely scratched the surface of-- which he saves for the few chapters toward the end.

I won't spoil it for you, but Pinchbeck definitely has a lot to say about where we sit in this particular branch of "time" and the how much these ancient plant worlds play a huge part. Without getting too cheesy here, I have to say if there ever was a perfect role model of a modern-day shaman, he is it.

Part biography, part history of the major psychedelic compounds.
What's remarkable is the author's story arc as his head breaks progressively wider open. I wonder if I'll also get to the later stages, using crystals and tarots to rid my house of evil spirits.

Highlights:

Laid out for me was the entire, intricate process of my self-development. The process was complex yet ultimately organic. The extension of the self was, I realized, a natural process, akin to the blossoming of a plant. While a plant extends toward the sun throughout its life, human beings evolve internally. We rise up and flourish, or become stunted, involuted, as we react to the forces that press against us. Our growth takes place in the invisible realm of our mental space, and the unreachable sun we rise toward is knowledge—of the self and the universe.
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We have sacrificed perceptual capabilities for other mental abilities—to concentrate on a computer screen while sitting in a cubicle for many hours at a stretch (something those Indians would find “utterly impossible and incredible”), or to shut off multiple levels of awareness as we drive a car in heavy traffic. In other words, we are brought up within a system that teaches us to postpone, defer, and eliminate most incoming sense data in favor of a future reward. We live in a feedback loop of perpetual postponement. For the most part, we are not even aware of what we have lost.
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he anticipated the development of culturally sanctioned mood-lifting drugs such as Prozac and Ritalin, which would be mass-prescribed: “They may help the psychiatrist in his battle against mental illness, or they may help the dictator in his battle against freedom,” he wrote. “More probably (since science is divinely impartial) they will both enslave and make free, heal and at the same time destroy.” Huxley died in 1963.
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This vision was a small revelation. I realized that most thoughts are impersonal happenings, like self-assembling machines. Unless we train ourselves, the thoughts passing through our mind have little involvement with our will. It is strange to realize that even our own thoughts pass by like scenery out the window of a bus, a bus we took by accident while trying to get somewhere else. Most of the time, thinking is an autonomous process, something that happens outside of our control. This perception of the machinelike quality of the self is something many people discover, then try to overcome, through meditation.
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Bergson suggested the universe “was a machine to create Gods.”
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“My assumption about psychedelics has always been that the reason they are not legal is not because it troubles anyone that you have visions, but that there is something about them that casts doubts on the validity of reality,” he wrote. “They are inevitably deconditioning agents simply by demonstrating the existence of a nearby reality running on a different dynamic. I think they are inherently catalysts of intellectual dissent.”
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The first 3/4 of this book was this guy trying to achieve spiritual faith that most women contain by the age of 11 but once we move past that it gets pretty crazy. I appreciate how well researched this is and I can definitely see it being an important read for men who are overly attached to the physical world and their own arrogance. Four stars because it was so so well written

The book could have been shorter. It’s clear that when he wrote this book he could not see the true value of psychedelics, I don’t know if he still does. He advocates for respecting psychedelics while casually ingesting, snorting, etc like it’s no big deal.The hypocrisy of the book is mind bending. He goes on to project some semblance of humility with anecdotes from friends and disdain for the capitalists mindset. However, he fails to realize that he is part of the very culture he resents. The traveling hippie lost in the world looking for a culture to appropriate in order to satisfy a spiritual void.

Pinchbeck is the embodiment of a modern Huxley, Castaneda and McKenna. His descriptions are believable, honest and valuable. Anyone with a remote interest in shamanism will enjoy this book. I will say that every once in a while, his ideas seem to carry themselves away and take him along. Keep that in mind, but for the most part, this is an excellent book.

Since November of 2007 to present day August 27, 2009 I have read an estimated 160 books. Daniel Pinchbeck is a voice that speaks to me more than any I've encountered along my self-developmental path. With a supreme command of the English language, Pinchbeck accounts the history of his and many great minds of the "Beat" generation while venturing into unfamiliar cultures, ritualistic initiations, and transcendent states of being and alteration through a number of organic substances and synthetic solutions. Mindful encounters with the drugs iboga, ayahausca, psilocybin mushrooms, DMT (dimethyltryptamine), and DPT (dipropyltryptamine) among others lift the veil from this remarkable author's eyes as he hears, "This is it. Now you know. This is it. Now you know."

Undeniable spiritual encounters, true hallucinations, and the emergence of fresh realities relayed via a vast lexicon render this title one I have purchased at least 4 times and hand delivered to friends.

This is my number one pick for 2008; Daniel's voice and topic leaves the reader thirsty for more of his words.

It's an intriguing, educating and inspiring read. Don't get discouraged by the overdone literary analysis at the beginning (or just beyond the beginning) of the book; there's some good stuff in there but if that's not your thing just keep going and he gets back on his psychedelic journey where he accesses parallel dimensions and his ethical reflections on human life on this planet. For me it was one of those books that sort of changes your whole perspective on things, or better put, it brings you back to ways of thinking and feeling that you've experienced before but get lost as you ride the waves of everyday life. Probably one of the most important books I've read in the last few years. It reminded me that this life is an adventure, and that every step counts.

Wow, I have rarely seen such an arrogrant prick writing so lazily. If the subject matter hadn't been absolutely fascinating, it would have gotten 1 star. Because of the subject matter, I only hated it (or more precisely, hated the author).

@pointblaek

interesting subject, author seems generally unpleasant

I enjoyed this perspective on modern/ancient psychedelic experiences. The author has a frank honesty about the rationale for his drug use and seeks out spiritual experiences throughout this novel for his own personal fulfillment. I enjoy books that suggest other authors for me to check out and point back to an author's reading experience and journey as a learner and this book was not short on those suggestions. This book seemed to me to be the evolution of perspective that one might have on drugs if a student followed their passion for the psychedelic experience into their adult life after college. The blending of other culture's spiritual perspectives within the world of mind altering substances is an interesting study in the strange stance that our society takes on drug use as well as other perspectives that are possible to hold. An enjoyable, entertaining personal journey novel that asks the reader to come along an interesting path that other cultural perspectives offer the modern adventurer.