About this title: According to the author, the Mayan calendar's "end date" of 2012 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, wholly new--way of living.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Tarcher
Date Published: 2006-05-04
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: Good. Soft cover with average shelf/handling/edge wear. Black marking on bar code on back book cover. Clean inside pages. Good binding. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Tarcher
Date Published: 5-4-06
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: VERY GOOD. Crisp, clean, unread hardcover with light shelfwear to the dust jacket and a publisher's mark to one edge-Nice! 1.45 lbs. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: J P Tarcher, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Covers have moderate wear with heavier wear at the corners. Interior pages are clean. #5666. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: J P Tarcher
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: Very Good. No creases in spine, very light edgewear, tight binding, 411 pages on the situation of the world and predictions of its demise. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Tarcher
Date Published: 5/4/2006
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: Fine. 1585424838 May show signs of shelf wear. Choose EXPEDITED shipping, receive in 2-5 business days. Please email with questions. read more
Edition: First Edition-First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: J P Tarcher, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781585424832ISBN:1585424838
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Includes errata sheet. read more
Description: Good. Publishers Overstock. A Good copy with a Remainder Mark and wear to the extremities. There is a small tear on the dust jacket and chipping to the edges. read more
Description: Fine/VG, INSCRIBED with an original illustration by Author. Text clean, binding sound, Nr Fine dj with very minor scuffing to crown. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781585425921ISBN:1585425923
Description: Good. Cover has marks, edgewear, bumping, light chipping & light gouges-Bumped / dogeared pgs-Few marks on pgs-Marks on edge-Spine slant-Edgewear-Denting to book causing it to be slighty misshapen doesn't affect reading though-Binding glue is visible at FPD-Price, writing on title pg. read more
"It's as an armchair travel guide to the lands beyond rationality (whether you think those lands lie above or below it,) that this book works best. I didn't mind a big dose of Pinchbeck's personal story being woven in, since we expect that from travel writers like Pico Iyer and Paul Theroux, who can be just as unlikeable and self-involved as Pinchbeck, and are driven to their travels by a similar sense of jaded exhaustion with the possibilities of conventional experience.
It's a big question, though: is there or isn't there a mythic dimension to our collective experience? If there isn't, then I agree with Pinchbeck that human history can seem irredeemably, catastrophically pointless, and consciousness is a bad joke. But if there is, why do we seem to be traveling away from it at breakneck speed, and why is its preservation in the hands of such a bunch of untrustworthy seeming folks: borderline psychotics and over-privileged, empty-headed questers?
I like his continual questioning of his own convictions and those of his guides, his erudition, and his writing ability generally. I like the idea that it's possible to think about time in a different way that could invest life with meaning beyond the day-to-day. And I like that he offers no prescription for enlightenment or salvation, as if they could be dispensed like the drugs he takes so liberally. What to do with all that? Who knows? The lack of resolution is part of the appeal. To coin a phrase: the Way is open, but there are neither travelers, nor guide."
"When I fist saw this book it was at St. Mark's bookstore in the East Village. Some crazy man standing next to me and saw me pick it up. He leaned over and said something like, "pretty crazy, eh?". I figure if one of NY's more freakish types thinks this book is nuts then I certainly have no business reading it! I saw it again more recently in a Chicago book store where I eventually bought it because of my boyfriend's interest in Mezo-American cultures. Turns out, this book is a total mind trip.
If you take it at face value, the author comes off sounding like a burned out hippy/acid freak who is constantly trying to legetimize his euphoric escapades in the Amazon with brazen women and shamans. However, if you approach the subject matter with a totally open mind and have a little faith that perhaps the author really IS on the verge of piecing together the mysteries of the "end of time" (or is it perhaps the begining of timelessness?) then this book can really be an enjoyable read.
I will be honest, bits and pieces of this one come off sounding like rejected versions of the second X-files movie, but that aside, Pinchbeck has an optimistic and at times persuasive way of communicating his ideas. Some will dismiss this whole myan myth as the new "Y2K" craze, which I am proud to say, I was not a part of. But, I for one cannot WAIT for December 21, 2012, just to see what the F@#! is gonna happen!"
"total, pointless junk. talk to a real ajkin (mayan date diviner) and he or she will call this white control. important to note that mayan time evolved outwards, ie: ka'tuns were the first period developed (20 years) and they noted when clan leadership was to be transferred without conflict. as date-keeping elongated (the records moved into 100's of years), the longer spans were added. longer spans included shifts beyond political control, things like adding a planned city departure so that a famine that might kill the entire city could be avoided. essentially plotting conscious moves in very variable conditions. what pinchbeck does is to erase these actual meanings and spin a western mechanical spirituality, of course, a godhead."
"I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks this dude is a total twit, and that it's terribly unfortunate he's become the de facto, or at least most visible (probably due to the publishing contacts he has from those frosted flake celebrity-profiler days) voice of our time in support of entheogens.
His prose is boring and staggeringly unoriginal, everything he writes is informed only by his pomposity and desire to manipulate his "theories" (most often a murky composite pilfered from others) to justify his own behavior and desires. Also, though I am usually interested in hearing about the spiritual paths of others (epiphanic moments, etc) his regurgitations of his malcontent childhood and coke-snorting years just come off as self-absorbed and pointless. This dude is on a crazy ego trip. He is an exemplar of how entheogens do not do the work of spiritual sublimation for you, they are merely a vessel, like yogic asanas, that take you wherever you decide to go. And used sacreligiously in a party context, they're only hallucinogens.
Anyway, he's a false prophet. Like Tim Leary and a succession of acid fascists and psychedelic capitalizers / exploiters before him, he was blessed with epiphany like so many but he lost the plot. For a genuine contemporary sage, try Ken Wilber."
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