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2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl Hardcover – May 4, 2006

by Daniel Pinchbeck (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 179 ratings
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Read Daniel Pinchbeck's posts on the Penguin Blog


Cross James Merrill, H. P. Lovecraft, and Carlos Castaneda -each imbued with a twenty-first-century aptitude for quantum theory and existential psychology-and you get the voice of Daniel Pinchbeck. And yet, nothing quite prepares us for the lucidity, rationale, and informed audacity of this seeker, skeptic, and cartographer of hidden realms.

Throughout the 1990s, Pinchbeck had been a member of New York's literary select. He wrote for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar. His first book, Breaking Open the Head, was heralded as the most significant on psychedelic experimentation since the work of Terence McKenna.

But slowly something happened: Rather than writing from a journalistic remove, Pinchbeck-his literary powers at their peak-began to participate in the shamanic and metaphysical belief systems he was encountering. As his psyche and body opened to new experience, disparate threads and occurrences made sense like never before: Humanity, every sign pointed, is precariously balanced between greater self-potential and environmental disaster. The Mayan calendar's "end date" of 2012 seems to define our present age: It heralds the end of one way of existence and the return of another, in which the serpent god Quetzalcoatl reigns anew, bringing with him an unimaginably ancient-yet, to us, wholly new-way of living.

A result not just of study but also of participation, 2012 tells the tale of a single man in whose trials we ultimately recognize our own hopes and anxieties about modern life.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Tarcher/Penguin
  4. Publication date
    May 4, 2006
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1585424838
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1585424832
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pinchbeck, journalist and author of the drug-riddled psychonaut investigation Breaking Open the Head, has set out to create an "extravagant thought experiment" centering around the Mayan prophecy that 2012 will bring about the end of the world as we know it, "the conclusion of a vast evolutionary cycle, and the potential gateway to a higher level of manifestation." More specifically, Pinchbeck's claim is that we are in the final stages of a fundamental global shift from a society based on materiality to one based on spirituality. Intermittently fascinating, especially in his autobiographical interludes, Pinchbeck tackles Stonehenge and the Burning Man festival, crop circles and globalization, modern hallucinogens and the ancient prophesy of the Plumed Serpent featured in his subtitle. His description of difficult-to-translate experiences, like his experimentation with a little-known hallucinogenic drug called dripropyltryptamine (DPT), are striking for their lucidity: "For several weeks after taking DPT, I picked up flickering hypnagogic imagery when I closed my eyes at night ... In one scene, I entered a column of fire rising from the center of Stonehenge again and again, feeling myself pleasantly annihilated by the flames each time." Pinchbeck's teleological exploration can overwhelm, and his meandering focus can frustrate, but as a thought experiment, Pinchbeck's exotic epic is a paradigm-buster capable of forcing the most cynical reader outside her comfort zone.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

"Daniel Pinchbeck's 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is a dazzling kaleidoscopic journey through the quixotic hinterlands of consciousness, crop circles, and ancient prophecy, as well as an intriguing and deeply personal odyssey of transformation. 2012 presents a compelling and complex teleological argument, weaving together the twilit realms of the human imagination and the harsh realities of accelerated global catastrophe. Its conclusions are surprisingly robust, original, and thankfully optimistic."
- Sting

"A daring and intriguing, sometimes deeply disturbing, very well researched and extremely readable book that puts an entirely new slant on 2012. From quantum physics to aliens, from crop circles to reincarnation, from shamanic hallucinogens to Rudolf Steiner, from the Amazon jungle to Stonehenge, from fragments of jaundiced autobiography to the ending of worlds, Pinchbeck takes us on a mind-bending, paradigm-rattling ride."
- Graham Hancock

"Few things are more difficult to convey in writing than the epiphanic drug experience or the mystical vision, and it is to Pinchbeck's credit as a writer that he is able to articulate these visions so clearly and memorably."
_ Geoff Dyer, Los Angeles Times

"Pinchbeck's reporting is fascinating and entertaining." - Brian Doherty, Washington Post Book World (front page)

"The author is not some hippy-dippy hedonist staggering down the road of excess but rather a skeptical philosopher of consciousness seeking the enlightened path." - Troy Patterson, Entertainment Weekly

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tarcher/Penguin; First Edition (May 4, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1585424838
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585424832
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 179 ratings

About the author

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Daniel Pinchbeck

Daniel Pinchbeck

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I am the author of Breaking Open the Head (Broadway Books, 2002), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), How Soon Is Now (Watkins, 2017), and When Plants Dream (Watkins, 2019), among other works.

In When Plants Dream, coauthored with anthropologist Sophia Rokhlin, we look at the global spread of ayahuasca. We consider the history of ayahuasca, how indigenous communities use it, as well as its legal, medicinal, and spiritual aspects. Graham Hancock writes: "When Plants Dream ... is the first book to set the Ayahuasca phenomenon in its proper context as it emerges from its background in Amazonian shamanism into the foreground of the urbanized 21st century.The authors write well, demonstrate a masterful grasp of their subject, set out all the key facts and all the latest research and developments, and lead us to some thought-provoking conclusions. All in all a tour de force. Highly recommended."

How Soon Is Now came out in February, 2017. Featuring a preface by Sting and an introduction by Russell Brand, How Soon Is Now looks at the ecological crisis as a rite of passage or initiation for humanity and proposes a "blueprint for the future" - how we must redesign our technical and social systems to avert the worst possibilities and to build a regenerative society for the future. According to John Perkins, "Daniel Pinchbeck’s life is the hero’s journey. Like Homer’s Odyssey, How Soon Is Now is a song of redemption for a world torn apart by the monsters of our own creation. We’ve dreamed a world that is consuming itself into extinction. Pinchbeck offers us a new dream and in doing so takes us on a powerful, magical voyage into balance and sanity."

Other new titles include The Occult Control System, on UFOs and aliens, and a full-length play, Deep Zero. These are only available via Amazon.

My essays and articles have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Rolling Stone, ArtForum, The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice and many other publications. I have written columns for Conscious Living and Dazed & Confused. My life and work were featured in the 2010 documentary, 2012: Time for Change, directed by Joao Amorim and produced by Mangusta Films. Amorim and I also produced a series of short animated films, PostModernTimes.

I have been a speaker at conferences around the world. These have included DazedFest in London, Horizons in New York, Breaking Convention in London, Distortion in Copenhagen, La Callaca TedX in San Miguel del Allende, the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, and Summit Series in Utah. I have been interviewed by The Colbert Report, Coast to Coast AM, The History Channel, Whitley Strieber’s Unknown Country, BrandX with Russell Brand, Interview Magazine, Purple, and many other places.

I have written introductions for The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary, The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts, and Rainforest Medicine by Jonathan Miller Weisberger and Kathy Glass. I have written catalogs for art exhibitions including a show of Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol at the Gagosian Gallery in New York.

I hosted a talk show, Mind Shift, for GaiamTV, exploring the evolution of technology and spirituality, and our potential for the future. I have facilitated retreats to Costa Rica, with the Secoya, an inidigenous group from the Amazon in Ecuador, and Colombia, with the Kogi and Aruak people. Please join the mailing list at www.pinchbeck.io for information on upcoming work and events.

My podcast, How Soon Is Now, is on iTunes.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
179 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Foodie
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and provocative
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2006
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This is a very compelling follow-up to Breaking Open the Head, Pinchbeck's first book (which I also really enjoyed). But this book is even more complex than the first, exploring and expanding his ideas with lots of research from philosophers, scientists, psychologists, and others. He personalizes these explorations with details from his own life, which are brutally honest and sometimes uncomfortable for the reader.

One reviewer claims that Pinchbeck is a misogynist, and I have to disagree with this assessment (and yes, I'm a woman). Pinchbeck spends a lot of time discussing the "lunar" female and "solar" male aspects of our world and displays respect for both. He shows affection for the women featured in his book, and he doesn't seem threatened, disdainful, or intimidated by their strength, intelligence, or power. Certainly he's not hateful. But he does not always handle his personal relationships with opposite sex in the most constructive way, and if I were his partner with a baby, I'd be pissed at him, too. He doesn't try to sugar-coat his behavior, so I think even he realizes his own short-comings. Misogynist he is not. Egocentric? Yeah, probably.

I enjoyed the way he weaves his own personal tale of discovery into a larger discussion of edgy theories about humanity's future and the nature of our world and the universe. The honesty in which he portrays himself makes it clear that he's not perfect, but that should be inspirational to those of us who hope to find our own journeys. This is a thought-provoking read.
9 people found this helpful
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Robert S. Robbins
5.0 out of 5 stars Far Out Ideas
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2006
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I find it useful to follow the interests of the psychedelic undergound but I usually come to my own conclusions. For example, this book may encourage me to explore quantum physics, the Maya culture, and the Hopi Indians but I'm sure to have a different perspective on these subjects.

Pinchbeck's work seems intellectually derivative. He is a scholar rather than an original thinker. He can always cite an authority for every concept he puts forward. I don't think the psyche is well understood so I'd like to see better concepts developed to explain what is observed. Since Pinchbeck travels around and does a lot of experimentation he should have a wealth of personal observations from which to derive new theories.

For example, I don't know why the concept that consciousness is evolving is so popular. There is no evidence for this and it seems counter-intuitive. I think this idea originated in Julian Jayne's book on the Bicarmeral Mind and the arguments are unconvincing.

Now that I think about it, I suppose Daniel has developed some new ideas on prophecy, a subject nobody else is going to touch upon. I kind of filtered that out as I was reading.
9 people found this helpful
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R. Brezsny
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime Thought Experiment
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2006
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With this book, Pinchbeck joins the elite ranks of the renegade prophets who are also first-rate thinkers. Like Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna, he is a visionary activist who uses breakthrough perceptions, witty analysis, and well-grounded intuition as he conspires to overthrow the sour, crippling mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality."

The reviewers who make the preposterous accusation that "2012" is awash in New Age tropes are just not very smart. While Pinchbeck does explore ideas that fundamentalist materialists are allergic to, he does so with a rigorous blend of skepticism and curiosity, marshalling a resilient, tough-minded pioneer's perspective.

There are no clichés here, no lazy abstractions. The habit of mind characteristic of the true believer--whether that's a right-wing religious fanatic, New Age guru, or high priest of atheist intellectualism--is a devotion to the party line. But Pinchbeck's sublime thought experiments consistently delight exactly because he delivers surprise after surprise.
11 people found this helpful
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MarkusG
4.0 out of 5 stars 2012
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2008
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I found this book very interesting and very well written. The interesting with Pinchbeck is his backgrund in the intellectual art milieu of New York combined with a later interest in the occult, new spirituality and mysticism. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is sort of a spiritual and intellectual biography. We follow Daniel on his travels and thoughts, to Stonhenge to look for crop circles, to the amazonas to try hallucinogenic mushroooms and so on. Driven by a frustration over the shallowness and crudeness of "western" "materialism" he seeks new and/or alternative world views.
What I like is Pinchbecks openness towards "the other side". He actually tries it all: drugs, crop circles, meditation, 2012 "prophesies", mayan calendar stuff and so on, with an open but inteligent mind. Often his reasoning is interesting to follow, sometimes it gets a bit too longwinded. I also like that he does not give the reader a new philosophy or ontology or religion or system of beliefs. Rather, as I read him, it is an attempt to shake a little the ingrained view of reality we usually take for granted. Is the established conception of reality so obvious? Or is there something fundamental that we can't see? And if so, can alternative world views give us a hint? 2012 opens up windows to alternative and fascinating ideas, described by someone with a foot in mainstream acedemic discourse as well. Which I think is unusual.
New age-fans or seekers of a belief system will probably find 2012 too ambiguous. Rather I think this book is intended for sceptical readers with an open mind.
3 people found this helpful
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Michèle Marchand
5.0 out of 5 stars Moyen trip
Reviewed in Canada on November 7, 2018
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Vraiment hot. Le gars est complètement halluciné. J'adore.
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Fay Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars Prophecy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2013
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a soul searching book, very deep; will take time to explore. But it is definitely one to spend time study
One person found this helpful
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Ibiza Lover
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2014
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Fascinating
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Jo
1.0 out of 5 stars What a load of....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2011
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...rubbish.
This to me seems like one man's quest to justify his own substance misuse behaviours and to glorify such experiences with little relevance to the subject matter at hand.
Even seemingly qualitative research methods are not explained or methodoligy set out, instead the author uses name-dropping of popular psychoanalysists to try and back up his points with very little indication of their relevance.
I have NEVER thrown a book away (considering them precious objects from which knowledge springs) but did with this one. I would steer clear of anthing written by this man in the future...and it's not as though I had failed to grasp the concept that he was trying to illustrate-it is something I am very interested in and like to think I know a bit about, he just did a very bad job of explaining it!
5 people found this helpful
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