Fascinating look into indeginous shamanic cultures of present day. Exploration of how these ancient ideas / methods have universal appeal & application to the healing of our souls & the planet. The use of "entheogens" - visionary plants in soul healing & communication with spiritual realms is ancient & worldwide shamanic practice still existing today, & a necessary resource to change our way of thinking about & seeing our relationship to the universe. It's been several years since I read this book & am looking forward to a re-read.

Already a modern classic of psychedelic drug writing, distinguished by the author's dogged efforts to try every notable psychedelic drug he could get his hands on, even if it meant traveling to remote corners of the world.

One of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read, I wish I had read it ten years ago when I first heard of it. This book was so ahead of its time. It will deepen your knowledge of psychedelic journeys and expand your mind to places you didn’t know were possible. Full of both mesmerizing encounters and cautionary tales, Pinchbeck draws you in with his writing style reminiscent of the beat generation. I appreciate his brutal honesty about himself and the world around him, it feels so incredibly refreshing and authentic. He never tries to portray himself as some kind of hero or outstanding citizen, or even to appear likable. Chronicling his experiences with psychedelics, he is a completely different person at the beginning of the book than he is at the end. Breaking Open The Head does exactly what the title suggests.

ok, it is great.
It gets better and more intense as you go on. He winds up on a pretty wrenching analysis of how the earth is being destroyed and how it is a measure of our consciousness.
Not finished yet,
Its a good expose on burning man. Pinchbeck likes to talk about his own personal journey. He spends a good amount of time marveling about sycronisity in his own life, you know, stoner stuff.

This changed the entire way I view psychedelics, as well as the physical and non-physical world. It made a deep impact on me, and I'm not one that can be convinced easily.

The amount of research and first hand accounts are insane in number. Look at the bibliography, I've got a ton of further reading just from that alone.

If you've ever had any interest in Shamanism, psychedelic drugs, or are just curious about the unknown forces in this world, I recommend it.

Intriguing history of psychedelics throughout history including many substances I’d never heard of and how they have been used by indigenous tribes. It also includes many recommendations for other works on the topic and real experiences by the writer. A must read for anyone curious about psychedelic exploration.

This is so much more than his experience of taking psychedelic drugs. Shamanism, mysticism and the nature of reality all get explored here. I love his articulation and the style of his writing and found the book hard to put down. He prompted me to think about reality in a totally different way and I warmed to his analysis of his proposed alternate understandings of how the world might operate on a spiritual rather than materialistic foundation.

Joseph Conrad's quote at the beginning of the book sums it all up very well "one must explore deep and believe the incredible to find the new particles of truth floating in an ocean of insignificance"

The capitalist, consumer society that many of us inhabit does foster feelings of insignificance. Pinchbeck found himself losing interest in himself. "I felt like an actor who had lost the motivation for his part. or, I was like the character of 'Daniel Pinchbeck' trapped in a half-finished novel that an incompetent author was in the sluggish, surly process of abandoning." For Pinchbeck, drugs were the road towards a shift in perception and consciousness and his accounts are memorable. Whilst I would not wish to attempt the process myself - I can fully understand why an individual would want to.

Modern life has banished folk knowledge along with all modes of non-ordinary perception. Exiled to the realms of fairy tale and myth to order to create a culture devoted to mercantilism, industrialisation and scientific progress. We have lost the Shaman from our culture and the artist has replaced this role. Altered states of consciousness allow individuals to escape, temporarily, from the overwhelming and intoxicating dream world of capitalism.

Pinchbeck's alternate Shamanic realities are no rose tinted utopia. In instances, what he describes is scary, horrific even and a taste of dystopia. "diabolical hierarchies, secret cabals, vast libraries of wickedness... we little human beings have absolutely no idea what is going on in the cosmos."

So, are the trips that people experience on psychedelic drugs evidence of some kind of other order? Or are they just latent powers or quirks of the human mind? Delusions? Con-jobs? Synaptic fritzes? You are left to make up your own mind but Pinchbeck does suggest that "once you have had the experience, you are permanently rewired. You can consign existentialism to the scrap heap as you wrap your old ontological constructs around this new pole"

For Pinchbeck, the nature of reality is spiritual not physical. He lacks any hard evidence but he intuits it as an unfathomable truth - pieces of his private puzzle.

I, for one, am glad that he has shared his experiences, beliefs and intuitions.

'The capitalist mind perceives the world purely in terms of material resources to be used for its benefit, to increase productivity and profit without thought of long term consequence. If there is still a vague and oppressive sense of guilt, of wrongness and imbalance, this gnawing guilt spurs capitalism on to greater acts of consumption, more ... Read moreviolent attempts to subjugate nature, more totalizing efforts to create distractions. To the "rational materialist" mind, death is the end of everything; this thought feeds its rage against nature, which has placed it in this position of despair.'

should have been a podcast.

I am ambivalent about this book. Experimenting with drugs is not my thing, however Pinchbeck's insights and posed questions do have a merit. It is clear that the author is a well read erudite, a man who travels a lot (which I admire) and is either brave or crazy enough to put his sanity and life on line in order to try and dig deeper under surface of reality, which makes the book a fun and educative read.

I do not know what to make of that. I am certainly not compelled to try out psychedelic drugs, but have a feeling that after reading this book, some people could be. Which I am not sure whether is a good thing. However, Pinchbeck does open a Pandora's box of archetypes, images shared with other (living and extinct) cultures, speculations on the 'real' world and conclusions which he personally experienced (provided he was telling the truth), but which have an eerie, universal streak to them.

Honestly, I do not know what to do with experiences he shared or how to answer questioned he posed about future and nature of human beings, the world, our sense of self, etc. since I do not plan to go on empiric expedition of my own. It was a fun book to read, nevertheless, somewhat mixed-up, unbalanced and memoir-like, but worth the effort.

In the end, however, I must conclude that after all that talk about drugs being good for opening your mind and, thus, the 'Establishment's' methodical efforts to keep the drugs on the other side of the law for easier manipulation of the masses, I still do not see how tall this tripping has made the author a better person.

More than what it says on the fly leaf. This is about e writer’s journeys into psychedelics and shamanism, yes, but it weaves in deep observations of social critique, political and economic theory and human history, and the nature of reality… really good. 4.5

I was recommended this book because of the nature of the subject it discusses, mainly psychedelics. After reading it I was impressed by Daniels knowledge about psychedelics, clearly a subject he has frequented from a young age and his indoctrination into intellectual studies has no doubt enhanced his awareness of the subjects mentioned in the book. I did however feel the book had a feel to it which revolved around a purely disconnected perspective. Perhaps, at least for me, the book felt like it was a play on words, an ensemble on poetics and intellectualism rather than on the bare foundations of psychedelic experience. I felt like Daniel may have chosen to maintain his identity within this book to a degree that his personal experiences took center stage, I wouldn't say it's an egotistical piece of work but it feels like he is selling his own cultural, social and intellectual heritage as apposed to selling the shamanic journey. He talks about his apartment, his father, his upbringing, his affluence and education and I feel the disconnection from this and the actual subject could have been more pronounced. It seems at times you are accompanying him through a book which focuses more on his memories and on his personal preferences rather than the separate unbiased perspective of the realms of psychedelic experience and shamanism. I guess you have to take into account this is a book about him and his experiences but you also expect to learn more about shamanism and about psychedelics and I feel the book weighs heavily towards his own identity, memories and experiences rather than delving deeper into the subjects he attempts to discuss. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book and Daniels use of language and context often appeals and leaves you wanting more, however, there is alot more I'd personally expect from a book of this nature.