| Nov. 25th, 2007 @ 10:59 pm article for Vic college The Strand |
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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 21’st 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, massive sideburns too, and leading all the X-Men-like mind-freaks to 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 over-quotation from 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 particular fashionable in 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 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, indeed they are provocative, timely and intelligent, 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) 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. |
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