Graham Hancock- shamans, fairies, aliens, saints and DNA

[enoch]

Originating with Hancock undertaking Ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon, he charts the history of cave art, fairies, witchcraft, alien abduction and establishes the clear evidence of all these phenomena linking throughout history and culture to present us with definate icons of the supernatural realms experienced through altered states of consciousness...all of which science is only just touching upon!

A thoroughly enjoyable, fact-packed and thought provoking nutshell of one of the possible origins for religion and art.

[CFTraveler]

Would this be considered fiction or new/age? I ask because I manage a bookstore on my spare time & it sounds interesting.

[Tempestinateapot]

Must be a Unity bookstore. I can't imagine managing a Barnes & Noble in your spare time. (L)Unitiks rock!

[CFTraveler]

Guilty as charged. So when I say I have three jobs I'm not kidding.

[enoch]

Sorry, guys...I totally bamboozled that one!! It's GRAHAM Hancock..not Robert...

CF..there is no jacket 'label' on this, but I would consider it a microhistory of altered states.....hold on...I'll find you the google blurb.....

[enoch]

here's the amazon blurb and reviews

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 45-2256667

You wouldn't go wrong stocking it, cf....it's an excellent read

You'll find a review (amongst the mainly 5 star reviews) that tears the book apart and recommends David Lewis-Williams' 'The Mind in the Cave' - but what the reviewer doesn't inform you is that hancock devotes more than a quarter of this book to examining and praising Williams' theory of cave art being the result of altered states of consciousness in prehistory.

[CFTraveler]

Thanks! I think I'll get it for myself and if I like it I'll donate it to the bookstore.

[enoch]

There's some beautiful artwork included such as this ayahuasca-inspired vision painted by pablo amaringo:-




The surreal and visionary art forum is quite interesting too: http://visionaryartforum.com/index.php

[CFTraveler]

Beautiful. I love that kind of art.

[Beekeeper]

The book is Graham Hancock's Supernatural, Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. The first thing to note about it is that it's 710 pages long with a further 45 pages of appendixes and 91 pages of footnoting. Don't let that put you off, however, there's a lot in it for people of our ilk. (Elk just wasn't funny)

This is more a summary than a review. I'll try to be succinct but it will be lengthy nonetheless. I'll post it in instalments. Be patient, it may initially look like the summary of someone's 'trip' but it does go somewhere.

For a review: http://www.grahamhancock.com/supernatural/