Product Description

A journey from cynicism to shamanism by a young US writer. Daniel Pinchbeck was an essentially sane and rational person, living the life of a sophisticated urbanite. But one disenchanted day he felt he'd exhausted the shallow aspirations of the contemporary scene. So he went on a quest. And he went all the way: to west Africa to test Iboga, a psychedelic herb which can cause such profound insight that one dose equals 20 years of psychoanalysis; to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, where cutting-edge technology meets radical self-exploration; to Mexico and to the Amazon, where shamanic traditions are practised daily. Sceptical but curious, following in the footsteps of Aldous Huxley and Terence McKenna, Daniel Pinchbeck guides his readers on an astonishing journey around the world and through the mind. Are you brave enough to suspend your postmodern cynicism and break open the head with him?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228365 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"I much admire Breaking Open the Head for being the account of an authentic quest for enlightenment in jungles, up rivers, in deserts, and hardest of all to access, the human mind and heart via the one of the oldest thoroughfares on earth, mind-expanding drugs. This is a serious and illuminating journey."--- Paul Theroux "As mind-expanding as the chemicals it chronicles, Breaking Open the Head is the most artful and provocative investigation of psychedelia since Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception." --- Stephen Johnson, author of Emergence

Stephen Johnson, author of Emergence
"As mind-expanding as the chemicals it chronicles, it's the most artful and provocative investigation of psychedelia since Huxley’s The Doors of Perception."

From the Publisher
This is a brave book. Brave because it accepts, as matters of fact, realities that cannot co-exist peacefully with the standard American Myth. That the discussion of these issues avoids both New Age glitter-speak and standard psychedelic hoo-ha makes it all the more provocative. It is also brave for its unflinching willingness to bare the less expanded parts of the author’s psyche. And it is brave, as it is always brave, to attempt to speak clearly of that which can’t be spoken.

Customer Reviews

Gripping, insightful, passionate, poetic � and terrifying
Once upon a time, Daniel Pinchbeck was a thirtysomething member of the New York literary set: "atheist, suspicious, cynical, disbelieving in metaphysical possibilities". Until he had his head "broken open" during a shamanic ritual involving the visionary plant, Iboga, in the Gabon. Already questioning his dependence on and self-disgust with "that most terrible drug" - himself, he embarked on a quest to explore the limits of his own disbelief. The quest led him on frightening and often hilarious journeys visiting shamans still practicing in far-flung pockets of the world: the Ecuadorian Amazon, the high plains of Mexico, and um, The Burning Man festival in Nevada.

Shadowing these mind-expanding encounters is the personal story of his metaphysical journey to inner space, via the visionary brew yagé, and other psychedelic plants and chemicals. He is relentlessly confronted with experiences flatly contradicting the mechanistic secular scientific world view of Western life, and is forced to change his mind on just about everything.

This is no new-age thesis or extended 'trip report'. The book is an intellectual and personal inquiry. It is rich with literary references and perspectives from thinkers such as Rudolph Steiner, Carl Jung, and Walter Benjamin, as well as the 'usual suspects' such as Sasha Shulgin and Terrence McKenna. It details the cultural history of psychedelic use and delivers philosophical perspectives on shamanism. It probes the powerful synchronicities between the shamanic view of the cosmos and what modern science is just beginning to suspect: that the universe may be far more complex, more bizarre, and more alive and conscious than our rationalistic, materialistic thinking has allowed us to believe.

Pinchbeck discovers shamanism - and its modern, urban psychedelic equivalent - to be an ambiguous tool. An antidote to Western ennui but simultaneously an apocalyptic wake-up call. The more you probe the shamanic cosmos, Pinchbeck discovers, the more it throws up its visions of "imminent historical breakdown and unleashed horrors ahead now approaching us at high speed." Gulp.

Very enjoyable.

Full of adventures and ideas
Pinchbeck throws himself so completely into his subject that this book could have been the senseless ramblings of some burnt out hippie that has done too many psychedelics.

Thankfully it isn't, and instead, contains stories of meetings with remarkable people from both from the ancient world and the modern west. Pinchbeck ties this together with some real insights about the role of shamanism and how it can rescue us from our destructive lifestyles.

Everyone I know that has read this book has been changed by it. I myself have started taking what I dream very seriously.

A few molecules from heaven
I first encountered Daniel at the launch of his book, via Strange Attractor magazine, held at the Horse Hospital in London way back in Febuary 2003.

Now I must be honest from the moment the place filled up my concerns started. I am neither a stranger to mind altering chemicals or to supernatural events, and have much experience of those linked to either and indeed both. It quickly became apparent that the bulk of the audience were quite simply what I would call 'druggies' and burnt out hippy rejects, not the etheogenic shamans of which the book was relating to. Unkind perhaps but you had to be there to see it, such as the self proclaimed 'buddhist' who started glowing red and swearing, or the rude judgemental comments aimed at those who dared ask questions. This left me wondering what to expect from our speaker, and indeed his book.

However I found him to be both articulate and down to Earth, which was a good start. What left me concerned, as someone heavily involved in self development and an experiencer of many mystical events, was that I could hear little about real positive benefits from his experiments with chemicals or any of the peculiar happenings. There was no talk of moral and spiritual advancement, it was all just a great adventure, nothing wrong with that however, adventures are fun to hear about after all, but I was glad to realise this before reading the book as I think some may have been expecting rather 'higher' information than was on offer.

He did however mention a subject that I am very involved with, 2012 and the Mayan calendar. On this he showed a deeper side, and seemed more engaged with refined spiritual thought, revealing this side I was able to get a better view of him. His thoughts were very interesting, not identicle to my own but thats neither here nor there. Later i had the chance to question him, and in the evening a few of us went for dinner, where I got a little more of Daniel the man rather than the novelist. An inteligent, polite and fair seeming chap. A contemplative thinker, but more a sceptic rather than a dreamer.

What I am trying to get across is a more balanced picture of both Daniel and his book. Both seem to get very skewed and judgemental reviews all around the net. Despite many accusations to the contrary he made no movements to indicate he should be viewed as some kind of psychedelic guru, or mystical chief. He came across as what he was (back then in 2003) a man with a normal if very succesful career and home life (by normal I mean not supernatural or drug orientated!) whom had encoutered a new and radical mode of thinking. He had dared to step outside of the constricting western materialistic paradigm that had left him feeling uneasy about life, and had taken great risks to find a cure for his malaise.

It seems that for this he has experinced an old treatment of spiritual explorers, crucifiction by the masses.

If you read breaking open the head with this review in mind hopefully you will be able to view the material in a less hostile manner then some seem to of. There is much to be gained and much to enjoy, as I said this really is an adventure novel, but one based in fact rather than fiction, and with a most unlikely hero considering the context in which we find him.

If you have no knowledge of Etheogens (herbal drugs) then this is a perfect gateway into a wolrd much more fascinating than you ever did'nt bother to think. If your a hardened psychonaut then think of it as a greatly extended entry on Erowid, and they are generally good fun right?
As for the journeys to Mexican pyramids, Burning Man, Amazonian jungles and all the rest, well surely everyone loves travel stories with high jinx thrown in?

we are introduced to many of the characters and tales that make etheogenic study the captivating subject it has become. Also we get to see a man teleported from his normal life and job, into a realm where poltergeist start plagueing his home and he has to turn to experts on the occult to better understand what he thought was the 'normal' world around him. So for all those who have had a couple of weird events they will appreciate this.

For me, as someone who has a solid base in the spiritual and supernatural arena, I simply found it interesting to see what my 'normal' world does to those newbies who wander it into, wether purposefully or by accident. I took great voyeuristic pleasure in watching this poor chap squirm at times, but was very glad to see that he came out the other end stronger, better educated and more self aware.

I would advise anyone to read this book, like I say there is something in it for mystics, psyconaughts, sceptics and adventurers alike. I have strted reading his second book '2012', and feel that if you like the first you will like the second to.

Free your mind and the rest will follow...