Breaking open the head : a psychedelic journey into the heart of contemporary shamanism

322 pages ; 21 cm;" ... On one level, [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, chemkists, psychonauts, and philosophers. It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation into these outlaw compounds. ..."--Back cover;Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-305) and index;MY INITIATION -- 1. The king of the Bwiti -- 2. Mad to be saved -- 3. You want to cheat me? -- 4. Touchers teach too -- 5. I am the one you seek -- 6. I see your grandmother -- STRANGE GROWTHS -- 7. Treacherous excrescences -- 7. Profane illuminatiosn -- 9. Fun with fungi -- 10. Night travelers -- 11. Shamanism and the world tree -- LEAVE NO TRACE -- 12. A cybernetic pulse engine -- 13. Doctor Megavolt -- 14. Great robot empires -- 15. The temple of tears -- SHAMANISM AND MODERNISM -- 16. Walking in mysteries -- 17. I am not here -- 18. An orgy of vision -- 19. A sea of protoplasm -- 20. A handful of ashes -- THE MEDICINE -- 21. The purge -- 22. My shamanic vacation -- 23. Meet the snake -- 24. All the energy in the universe -- LSD AND THE 1960S -- 25. The multiple million-eyed monster -- 26. A pathetic clown act -- 27. The light at the end of the tunnel -- ETHOBOTANY -- 28. White blossoms -- 29. The quality of revealing -- 30. The fairy folk -- 31. Why did you eat us -- 32. Thrown-away knowledge -- 33. I smoked DMT -- 34. Direct mystical transmission -- 35. Do you take responsibility? -- INCONCEIVABLE NEW WORLDS -- 36. Not for human consumption -- 37. New sensationhs -- 38. Magical thinking -- Epilogue: The angel of history
" ... On one level, [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, chemkists, psychonauts, and philosophers. It is also a scrupulous recording of the author's wide-ranging investigation into these outlaw compounds. ..."--Back cover
Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-305) and index
MY INITIATION -- 1. The king of the Bwiti -- 2. Mad to be saved -- 3. You want to cheat me? -- 4. Touchers teach too -- 5. I am the one you seek -- 6. I see your grandmother -- STRANGE GROWTHS -- 7. Treacherous excrescences -- 7. Profane illuminatiosn -- 9. Fun with fungi -- 10. Night travelers -- 11. Shamanism and the world tree -- LEAVE NO TRACE -- 12. A cybernetic pulse engine -- 13. Doctor Megavolt -- 14. Great robot empires -- 15. The temple of tears -- SHAMANISM AND MODERNISM -- 16. Walking in mysteries -- 17. I am not here -- 18. An orgy of vision -- 19. A sea of protoplasm -- 20. A handful of ashes -- THE MEDICINE -- 21. The purge -- 22. My shamanic vacation -- 23. Meet the snake -- 24. All the energy in the universe -- LSD AND THE 1960S -- 25. The multiple million-eyed monster -- 26. A pathetic clown act -- 27. The light at the end of the tunnel -- ETHOBOTANY -- 28. White blossoms -- 29. The quality of revealing -- 30. The fairy folk -- 31. Why did you eat us -- 32. Thrown-away knowledge -- 33. I smoked DMT -- 34. Direct mystical transmission -- 35. Do you take responsibility? -- INCONCEIVABLE NEW WORLDS -- 36. Not for human consumption -- 37. New sensationhs -- 38. Magical thinking -- Epilogue: The angel of history