Daniel Pinchbeck- Modern Shamanism and Reality Bending

By Preston Peet
Posted DrugWar.com
February 5, 2007

Published in High Times Magazine
February, 2007

To many, Daniel Pinchbeck is one of this generation's closest thing to Terrance McKenna. Already well known and respected by many for traveling the world ingesting just about every psychedelic, mind-expanding substance known to man, [as detailed in his first book, Breaking Open the Head- a Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism] Pinchbeck is a leading visionary when it comes to the possibilities inherent in exploring our inner spaces, as well as an enthusiastic proponent of consciously thinking a positive world into reality.

Pinchbecks latest book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl , takes a good hard look at the state of the world today-the massive destruction humankind is doing to the planet, and the possibility that we may be reaching the point where, as the Mayan calendar predicts, a cosmic change or even the end of time- could rapidly be approaching. Whether this means an end to the human race or merely the end of our current destructive habits and outlooks, has yet to be determined.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Pinchbeck after an event at the Gershwin Hotel in Manhattan, where he read selected excerpts from his newest book, accompanied by a musical ensemble playing trippy, ethereal music. The reading was followed by an intense dialouge, during which he and the audience discussed shamanism, apocalyptic visions, the evolution of consciousness, and the end of the Mayan Calendar in the year 2012.

During the exchange, Pinchbeck proposed the idea that prohibition might not have been entirely negative in effect. Pinchbeck argued that prohibition could be considered almost a Western equivalent of the initiatory process that indigenous peoples must experience before being allowed to ingest the variety of psychedelic substances their cultures treat as sacred. It has forced those Westerners interested in these explorations to actively prepare themselves for the experience by having to actively seek out these substances and go through all the risks and stresses to obtain and take them.

"I personally feel there's this evolutionary process going on that is going to work itself out properly," says Pinchbeck, "and all the things that seem like resistances [particularly prohibition] are actually aspects of the process, that force us to get smarter and more discriminating and overcome things put in our path. So in that respect I feel things might be happening in the proper sequence. There's a way now that psychedelics are coming back into the popular culture but in a sidewise fashion-whether it's the John Hopkins study I mentioned covered by the Wall Street Journal [where descriptions by more than 60 percent of the 36 study participants of the effects of their taking psilocybin met the criteria for "full mystical experience" as defined by scientifically accepted psychological scales], or the Supreme Court allowing ayahuasca use [in the United States] by these Brazilian religions.

When asked if he felt that everyone should experiment with strong psychedelics these substances made legal, he replied, "I think it's kinda like a self-selection, If you look at indigenous cultures, not everyone becomes a shaman. Most people do it once or twice, like in Gabon with the Bwiti [who take ibogaine, an extremely hallucinogenic root, in ritualistic ceremonies] but only go through the initiation once. Those who really go into those states deeper and deeper become shamans, that's only one out of fifteen to twenty out of a group. So we might find that if this were allowed back into our culture, we could find a similar small coterie of individuals who feel this natural dispensation to go into these realms in a deeper way."

Despite the horrors he describes in his latest book-especially the destruction and veritable waste being laid to our planet and its ecosystems-Pinchbeck describes himself as optimistic about humankind's future.

"If you think about the idea that what we're learning is that consciousness is somehow more fundamental to reality than we've previously recognized, then our intentions, our orientation, becomes more important," Pinchbeck points out. "If we have a more positive orientation, that could bring more positive things into realization. I learned a lot from speaking with Jose Arguelles [an influential spiritual of the ancient Mayan calendar system]. One of the things he said is that in the next five years we could have this really incredible outcome for humanity and we could take away some of this negative technology and create a garden planet. I told him that this is never going to happen. He replied that his job is being a visionary and that as a visionary it is his job is to envision the most positive outcome for humanity. I thought, 'Hey, I like that, I think I'm going to take that as a job as well.' I think that if everyone did that we'd be in a much better place."