DANIEL PINCHBECK, THE END OF THE WORLD, AND THE PSYCHEDELIC
RESURGENCE

The world is going to end in 2012. Oh, you didn't know? Perhaps you
haven't been channeling mythological archetypes while tripping balls
on tribal Mescaline in the preternatural wilderness lately.

Well, either that or you haven't yet read Daniel Pinchbeck's latest
book 2012: The return of Quetzacoatl. The nature of the impending
apocalypse, according to Pinchbeck, is actually metaphysical. He
predicts "a sidereal movement of consciousness returning us to levels
of awareness denied and repressed by the materialistic thrust of our
current civilization." Far out, man.

With the acceleration of a planetary ecological meltdown, Pinchbeck
speculates that it seems "likely the structures currently supporting
our civilization, such as the sovereign nation state, will splinter
along with the biosphere". The inevitable institutional collapse and
consciousness shift will come to fruition sometime around the winter
solstice, December 21st 2012. Of course all this is predicted, or
hinted at with seemingly impressive synchronicity, through the Mayan
prophetic calendar, Judeo-Christian scriptures, various astrological
myths and other cultural phenomenon - all of which is skillfully
culled in Pinchbeck's mad ambitious masterwork. He finds himself
thrust into the center of some supra-conscious hyper-shift akin to the
next step in evolution for the human species.

It's hard not to picture Pinchbeck donning a wolverine costume and
massive sideburns, leading all the X-Men-like mind-freaks into the
light.

The coming consciousness expansion will induce a creative, spiritual
and compassionate transformation of the human entity, empowering us to
surmount the chaos and din of the current global climate, which seems
to be reaching fever pitch.

What impressed me most about this book was Pinchbeck's ability to
synthesize everything from quantum mechanics and Jung's psychology to
crop circles and biblical prophecies into a singular, shamanic-drug
jilted worldview. Although the over-quotation of Nietzsche, Jung and a
whole host of esteemed intellectuals feels like an attempt to add
credibility to his rather bizarre conclusions, I must confess a
certain affinity for Pinchbeck. In an age when psychedelia is not
particularly fashionable to the intellectual community, he has woven
together a shockingly well-reasoned manic interpretation of present
global phenomenon. Still, the reliance on the use of psychedelics that
is central to his futuristic ideas, which he believes were imparted to
him by astral beings or archetypes, is suspect to even the most
sympathetic of readers.

A cynical bohemian finding himself, bereft of inspiration or purpose
wandering the urban desolation of New York City, Pinchbeck began
experimenting with psychedelics. "On mushrooms and LSD, the world
seemed temporarily renewed, restored to a level of sensorial acuity
and openness I last knew as a child". Like Timothy Leary before him,
Pinchbeck seeks to champion the use of mind-bending substances as part
of centering rituals in a world veering wildly out of orbit.

I'm not entirely supportive of a critical response to the use of
hallucinogens which would reduce any cosmic revelation catalyzed by
conscious altering drugs solely to a temporary overload of serotonin
or amplification of particular neural capacities in the cortex.

Such a scientific dismissal of radical, drug fueled theorists like
Pinchbeck may very well be accurate on a certain plane, but this type
of rationalistic thinking is reaching beyond its philosophical grasp.

The epiphanies from drug use are often simply unveilings of deeply
held beliefs or perceptions which have been covered in dust through
the mundane conditioning of everyday sensory experience. To deny the
often uncomfortable conjectures from psychic exploration is to deny a
realm of experience, albeit taboo, upon purely subjective moral
grounds without embracing the Platonic possibilities of internal
revelation and introspective discovery - whether stoned or sober. From
my limited personal experience, I interpret my own past use of any
psychedelic as risky adolescent indulgence, an immoral substitute for
a healthy sense of natural wonder and proper relationship with God.
But the scientific process of gaining empirical knowledge should not
denigrate other more internalized aspects of gaining insight,
regardless of moral objections.

One of the most telling passages in the book has Pinchbeck musing,
"had I been preparing myself, without knowing it, to receive the
signal from this emphatic archetype?

Had I broken though, albeit fleetingly, to a new level of
consciousness, receiving 'a new covenant' for humanity?

Or did overuse of hallucinogens merely distort my judgement, tilting
me towards madness?

These questions, among others, swarmed around me"

Important questions indeed, Mr. Pinchbeck. I personally suspect that
the continued use of powerful psychedelics does present certain
obstacles to the balanced functioning of the brain with effects akin
to developing a delusional messianic importance. This is not to say I
find no merit in Pinchbecks writings; they are certainly provocative,
timely and intelligent, but I see them more as a glowing distillation
of multiple sources of knowledge into a disturbingly surreal prophecy,
A testament to the psyche's ability to objectify or rationalize a very
particular and personal interpretation of reality.

Pinchbeck has come to be a bit of a torchbearer for the present
counterculture, he has earned his place in Beat poet lineage (his
mother had a explosive relationship with Kerouac). He's claiming his
inheritance amidst the fringe intellectuals of this century, who,
championing personal freedom and reeling in the haze of globalization,
industrialization and free market ideology, spiral in eloquent, poetic
flights towards societal and personal destruction. If there is any
merit to Pinchbeck's timetable, we best buckle our mind-belts tight as
history accelerates. Regardless of what happens in 2012, we exist in a
global climate demanding urgent original and practical thinking. Let's
try it without the drugs this time.