| Daniel Pinchbeck is not a scientist, but rather is an author and an advocate of hallucinogenic drug use and shamanism. He opposes the idea of a global disaster in 2012. |
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| Daniel Pinchbeck |
Daniel Pinchbeck has been making appearances on various 2012 programs including some on the History Channel during their "Apocalypse Week". Regarded highly within the 2012 movement, he was the moderator of the 2012 Tipping Point Prophets Conference held in July of 2010. We examine his claims and credentials.
Biographical overview
Daniel Pinchbeck was born June 15, 1966 to painter Peter Pinchbeck and writer Joyce Johnson. They separated when Pinchbeck was five.
Drug Use
Pinchbeck advocates the use of psychedelic drugs, and decries their being outlawed in the west. Some of the drugs he advocates are: LSD, Psilocybin mushrooms, and peyote.
Author
Pinchbeck has written articles which have appeared in numerous periodicals including Village Voice and Rolling Stone. He is a founding editor of Open City (a literary journal) and in 2007 he launched a new Internet-based magazine, Reality Sandwich1, which claims to offer "a new paradigm for a planetary culture". He is the executive producer of PostModernTimes, a series of web videos presented on the iClips Network2. In 2005 he co-founded The Evolver Project, with the plan to create a membership organization supporting sustainable commerce.3
Pinchbeck is also the author of two books:
- Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (2003)4
- 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2007).5
Views on 2012:
To Pinchbeck, 2012 represents a "global consciousness transformation". 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. While he appears in various "mockumentaries" that support global disaster, he has also stated his opposition to these ideas.
Pinchbeck advocates "enriching people's intellectual, psychological and spiritual beliefs through the psychedelic experience"6 and Shamanism - including the consumption of assorted hallucinogens.7
In other words: Pinchbeck examines media hype and views on drug use through not investigation, research, and the scientific method, but by the deliberate ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs and writing what comes to mind during the experience. The detached researcher is not present.
Visions
According to Pinchbeck, he regularly experiences 'visions'. In 2012 he describes a series of visions and hallucinations in which he becomes convinced that the mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl is communicating with him, or speaking through him.8,9
The Galactic Alignment
Pinchbeck has his own version of the, Galactic Alignment that appears to be a misreading or misunderstanding of the Solstice Alignment popularized by John Major Jenkins.
An Independent Analysis
Tom Swiss at unreasonable.org wrote an article in January 2010 titled "Why Daniel Pinchbeck needs a slap upside the head", in which he takes on some of Pinchbeck's more ludicrous claims. At one point Swiss declares:
Pinchbeck seems so ridiculous that I can almost imagine that he is playing a giant practical joke: that when nothing especially momentous happens in December 2012, he will pull off the mask and say, "Gotcha! Boy, I can't believe people took that stuff seriously!"
Conclusion:
Pinchbeck has conducted no scientific research into 2012. He is an admitted user of hallucinogenic drugs who apparently trusts his hallucinations more than he does research, study or empirical evidence.