An edition of Breaking Open the Head (2002)

Breaking Open the Head

A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism

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  • 4.0 (2 ratings) ·
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Last edited by ImportBot
March 28, 2025 | History
An edition of Breaking Open the Head (2002)

Breaking Open the Head

A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism

  • 4.0 (2 ratings) ·
  • 9 Want to read
  • 2 Have read

"While psychedelics of all sorts are demonized in America today, the visionary compounds found in plants are the spiritual sacraments of tribal cultures around the world. From the iboga of the Bwiti in Gabon and the ayahuasca of the Secoya in Ecuador to the psilocybin mushrooms of the Mazatecs in Mexico, these plants are revered because of their potential to awaken the mind to other levels of awareness and to act as gateways to other dimensions - bringing about a holographic vision of the universe.".

"Breaking Open the Head is a passionate, multilayered, and sometimes rash personal inquiry into this deep division between views. On one level, Daniel Pinchbeck tells of encounters between the modern consciousness of the West and these sacramental substances, highlighting such thinkers and seekers as Allen Ginsberg, Antonin Artaud, Walter Benjamin, and Terence McKenna as well as a new underground of present-day ethnobotanists, chemists, psychonauts, and philosophers.

It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation into these outlaw compounds. We witness Pinchbeck's thirty-hour tribal initiation in West Africa; an encounter with the master shamans of the south American rain forest; and sleepless nights in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, at the "Archaic Revival" that is the Burning Man Festival - all part of his effort to grasp the meaning of shamanism as well as the stages of his own spiritual quest.".

"Breaking Open the Head is brave participatory journalism at its best, a vivid account of psychic and intellectual experiences that opened doors in the wall of Western rationalism and completed Daniel Pinchbeck's personal transformation from jaded Manhattan journalist to shamanic initiate and grateful citizen of the cosmos."--BOOK JACKET.

Publish Date
Publisher
Broadway
Language
English
Pages
336

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Book Details


First Sentence

""The Bwiti believe that before the ceremony, the neophyte is nothing," Daniel Lieberman told me on my first morning in Gabon, as we took a cab from the Libreville airport."

Classifications

Library of Congress
, BF1621 .P56 2003

The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Number of pages
336
Dimensions
7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
Weight
1.6 ounces

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL8064486M
ISBN 10
0767907434
ISBN 13
9780767907439
OCLC/WorldCat
54758325
LibraryThing
332697
Goodreads
1815

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL5852188W

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
March 28, 2025 Edited by ImportBot Redacting ocaids
December 19, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 8, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 12, 2021 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 29, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record