Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Reviews

• Investigative Reporting on the Archeology Beat: Toward a New Understanding of the Nature of Man

  
  By A1X1S1TUPEYVL on 2006-09-19
  This is a book that casts an extremely broad intellectual net, but Hancock quite ably holds it all together and offers some compelling and though-provoking insights into the nature of spirituality, cognitive evolution of mankind, and, yes, the supernatural.
  
  Most of Hancock's work is in a field I'd call archeological investigative journalism-- perhaps an arcane field, but he is the best there is at it. In Sign and the Seal he went looking for the Ark of the Covenant (not unlike Indiana Jones); in Fingerprints of the Gods he went looking for Atlantis.
  
  Here, he begins by investigating cave paintings, the earliest known artwork left to us by early man. Beings very much like modern day humans had lived for tens of thousands of years, but suddenly, about 25,000 years ago, they began making cave paintings. Hancock asks the two obvious questions: WHY did they suddenly start painting, and WHAT were they depicting?
  
  In brief, Hancock makes a compelling case that the trigger of the act of cave painting was the experiencing of shamanic visions-- essentially the first, core, religious experience-- resulting from the ingestion of hallucinogenic herbs and plants. And too, he makes a compelling case that the content of these early paintings is quite simply the "visions" one sees in such an altered state. He demonstrates that the same plants and psychoactive substances have generated a remarkably consistent set of imagistic responses in humans across time and culture and setting, and shows how the icons and symbols of cave paintings are indeed replications and renderings of these visions (for instance, the part-man, part-animal creatures that dominate cave paintings and indeed Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Native American mythology.)
  
  From there, Hancock traces the accounts through the ages of people who have claimed encounters with supposedly mythical creatures such as little green fairies, up through aliens and UFOs, and again notes the remarkable similarity across time and setting in the accounts. Indeed he shows how this sort of collective human experience with the "other world" has slowly evolved over time, and that the construct (e.g., aliens after World War II) that humans apply to the other-worldly visitors is culturally driven, but that the broader experience itself transcends culture. He also loops in the empirical work modern scientists have done, giving human subjects a high dosage of a psychoactive drug in lab settings and documenting their descriptions of experiences.
  
  Hancock goes on to note that, while these drugs reliably trigger a core set of hallucinations in human subjects, some small percentage of people-- tagged by one study as 2%-- have these experiences without the benefit of the drugs. These are the people who, in recent times, have stories of being abducted by UFOs, and who in medieval times were abducted by fairies.
  
  Of course, Hancock does not point to this as proof that aliens have been abducting humans. Rather, he demonstrates that the ability and tendency to experience of these visions, waking dreams, hallucinations, is a part of our DNA, part of what makes us human. If this is true, it suggests that humans are different from other species in part because we have a genetic predisposition to commune with what can only be described as the "supernatural."
  
  Note that you do not have to believe in the existence of some parallel nether realm in order to buy into the premise of this book. All you have to believe is the idea that it is possible to empirically observe and describe and categorize the nature of hallucinations people have been having through the ages, and in laboratory settings.
  
  What most interested me about this book-- besides the way Hancock hits so many topics of interest to me and ties them together into new knowledge-- is that if you read without prejudice, you will see how science and the supernatural re-mingle in Hancock's world view. He looks at the same set of phenomena in three ways-- subjectively (as one who has experimented with psychoactive substances like Ayuhuasca); spiritually (the construct of the religious observer); and scientifically (the construct of the empiricist.) Each construct uses different languages, but each describes, accommodates, accepts, "knows" the same set of phenomena. The implication is that science and religion are not so much diametrically opposed, as they are akin to the 5 blind men describing the elephant. Each knows there's an elephant in the room. It is only in the description, not the actual perception, that differences emerge.
  
  
  

• Super Supernatural

  
  By A1492Z4ZF42ZE on 2006-10-28
  Graham Hancock, the author of Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind could never be accused of pussyfooting around the revelations of his research, and he certainly postulates the heck out of the place of consciousness altering agents in the shamanic origins of religion and consciousness itself. It's a brilliant, breakthrough book which comes close to being the unified field theory of, if not all of the supernatural, at least of all encounters between humans and supernatural beings.
  
  Hancock begins with a description of his own visionary experiences with the hallucinogen Ibogaine, which he took, with a logical vigor that escapes most academics, in order to truly gauge its effect, and therefore the validity of his theories. He follows this with a (perhaps too) meticulous examination of the cave paintings that represent the beginnings of human art, concentrating on their bizarre and seemingly inexplicable nature, at once representative and fantastic, a contradiction that the bonehead academics have (naturally) been totally unable to puzzle out in over a hundred years of trying.
  
  But just when I thought the book was going to be one of those tedious Fortean catalogues of weird stuff, Hancock brought forth his first thesis, based on David Lewis-Williams's The Mind in the Cave. Lewis-Williams's idea is simple - that the enigmatic cave paintings were produced by shamans in a trance state and are representations of the shamanic experience. It's an audacious, elegant solution - the psychotropic distortions and patterns match that of drug users and there's no doubt that many shamanistic cultures, such as the prototypical Siberian and the still extant South American, exhibit a heavy use of mushrooms and other hallucinogens to achieve shamanic journeys and transformations. Hancock also examines the rock art of a tribe in South Africa whose paintings were similar to cave art and whose imagery was explicated by the last survivors of that tribe.
  
  This theory seems almost self-evident, so naturally it remains controversial in the academic world. Perhaps as a reaction to the sixties, the academic establishment now rejects all the fruits of dream, drug and trance as hallucination, and tries to efface the very clear fingerprints of sense altering agents in our culture and civilization. It should come as now surprise, then, that several stalwart defenders of the empty status quo have stepped forward to advance their careers by attacking Lewis-Williams theories with various sophistries. Hancock handily refutes them, exposing them as deeply misguided if not purposefully dishonest. It's a deft explanation for the general reader of a difficult theory in the manner of Colin Wilson, but the start of the book is just a stepping stone for Hancock, who moves on to his own conceptual breakthroughs.
  
  The genesis of Hancock's insight, like many of the crucial insights of modernity, came while he was under the influence. During his Ibogaine trip he saw a large headed, bug eyes "alien" figure, and recognized several similar creatures in cave paintings. One of the major techniques of modernity is juxtaposition, and Hancock placed the shamanic model next to contemporary accounts of alien abduction and concluded "Shamanic experiences of spirits and modern experiences of aliens are essentially a single phenomenon." There are startling similarities - transformations, journeys into the sky, ritualistic, invasive body manipulations and encounters with powerful, mystifying, alien entities. But what in heaven's name do these creatures want with us? As I said in Snakes in Caves, the purpose of the whole Alien project may be some kind of vast breeding experiment, and shamans were certainly familiar with intercourse with various interstellar entities and even the production of human/alien hybrids.
  
  Hancock then further links the shamans of the stone age to the abductees of today by brining in theories advanced by Jacques Vallee in his book Passport to Mangonia. Vallee compared the fairy lore of medieval times with UFO data and found similarities there as well, with more abductions to unearthly realms, time distortions, encounters with superhuman "others," and, of course, "reproductive contact." Hancock then draws a single breathtaking, unbroken line of human/supernatural contact from the dawn of humanity to the present, the nature of the contact basically the same, but understood in accordance with the prevailing conceptual world view.
  
  Where do these "others" come from? Parallel universes will be, I believe the overriding theory of the twenty-first century, and it's certainly easy to see, as many have postulated, the often inexplicable aliens emanating from other vibrations rather than other planets, but Hancock introduces an even more audacious theory. Like a lot of archaic/psychedelic thought it originated with the late, great Terence McKenna who, confronted with the prevalence of helix imagery during his trips, postulated that his drug of choice, DMT (an ingredient in many shamanistic substances), makes "information stored in the neural-genetic material available to consciousness." In other words all that "junk" information contained in DNA, which resembles a language and has inexplicably been preserved for millennia, is in fact a message that the superior beings who created it imbedded in advance of the time we would be able to understand it (kind of like the monoliths in 2001). Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of DNA (who was, by the way, under the influence of LSD when he first visualized the double helix shape of DNA - something they sure didn't tell us in high school when we reverently studied The Double Helix) even came to believe that DNA itself was the result of an alien seeding project.
  
  Hancock presents these ideas as more speculative than the rest of the book, as indeed they are, and in his final chapter gives a quick overview of the shamanic origin of all religions and the essentially psychedelic nature of shamanism, tracing the use of hallucinogens in such landmarks of ancient spirituality as the mysteries of Eleuis and the Soma of the Vedas.
  
  All in all, it's an impressive, enthralling book which gains force as it continues, firmly grounded in scholarship, yet able to utilize the fruits of personal experience and experimentation. Hancock presents a unified theory for almost every encounter between humans and supernatural beings (although, in the "spirit" of the season I must say that, despite the fact that departed ancestors play a role, Hancock does not grapple with the localized phenomena of ghosts). Supernatural is a brilliant work, the capstone of Hancock's career, one that has (of course) been ignored by mainstream media and science, despite being much more interesting and valuable than timid but more ballyhooed works like William J. Broad's The Oracle.
  
  Hancock is no freewheelin' hippy, but a rather rigorous enquiring mind of the old English school, but he's not afraid to go where Wisdom beckons, and the book's final scene shows him recumbent in the midst of nature, about to gobble a handful of magic mushrooms, the results of the journey to be recorded, I can only hope, in his next volume.
  
  

• Magisterial work and riveting read

  
  By A1RJD10TTI568L on 2007-01-04
  This fascinating book by alternative historian Graham Hancock investigates the origins of consciousness with reference to the work of David Lewis-Williams and his theory of the neuropsychological origins of cave art. It also goes further in proposing that those worlds and entities encountered in shamanic visions are not mere hallucinations but very real and that altered states are the means to gain entry to them.
  
  Part One: The Visions, includes the author's experiences with the African hallucinogenic plant Iboga, looks at the cave of Pech Merle and then examines the theory of David Lewis-Williams. It also includes a section on Hancock's use of the South American plant ayahuasca.
  
  Part Two explores the cave art of Upper Paleolithic Europe, with a closer look at the half-human half-animal representations that are so widespread. These "therianthropic" designs also occur in the rock art of Southern Africa and elsewhere. Hancock examines recurring themes in this ancient art, like that of the Wounded Man. He also discusses other aspects of this art, like the dots, starbursts, nets, ladders and windowpane-like geometrical figures. He closely examines the similarities and the differences between the art of ancient Europe and that of Africa. For example, the European art is found in dark subterranean caves while in Africa it is most often found in open rock shelters.
  
  Chapter Six looks at the history of the academic study of rock art and concludes that it led nowhere until the theory of Lewis-Williams came along. Hancock demolishes the criticisms leveled at the work of Lewis-Williams and exposes the smear campaign waged against the South African academic. Among other interesting topics, he considers the 19th century notebooks of Bleek and Lloyd on the mythology of the San. These valuable documents provide clues to the religion of the San and the trance or altered state experience.
  
  Part Three: The Beings, starts with discussions of the experiences and work of William James, Aldous Huxley, Albert Hoffman and Rick Strassman. It also looks at the UFO abduction experience and compares it with the shamanic exploration of other-worlds, with supernatural myths and folkloric traditions like that of fairies and elves. There really are fascinating correspondences between fairy lore, the UFO abduction experience and certain hallucinatory states.
  
  Part Four: The Codes, looks at the structural similarities and connections and the common themes like therianthropic transformations, small robot-like humanoids, the breeding of hybrid infants, the idea of the Wounded Healer, etc. Hancock is convinced that the mind is a receiver and not simply a generator of consciousness. In this section he relates his impressions after smoking DMT, and then goes into a deeper exploration of the work of Dr Rick Strassman who is famous for his work with this substance. The passages on DNA are particularly gripping, especially the idea that our DNA might contain specific information on our origins and future. Hancock also discusses the work of other researchers like Jeremy Narby, Terrence McKenna, Benny Shanon and Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA.
  
  Part Five: The Religions, examines the belief in supernatural entities in all the world's major religions. He points out how "Father Christmas" and St Sebastian are ancient shamanic figures, the first for his red and white clothes which resemble the colours of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom and the second for being a therianthrope with a dog's head. Dreams and visions are then investigated, including those of Joan of Arc and Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. Also the vision of Ezekiel, the mysteries of Eleusis and the role of Soma in Vedic religion. Hancock concludes this section with similar themes in the religion and mythology of ancient Egypt and the Maya.
  
  Part Six: The Mysteries, returns to the work of Lewis-Williams and the fact that the ancient cave art is the oldest surviving evidence of the belief in spirit worlds and supernatural beings that exist at the heart of all religions. He disagrees strongly with Lewis-Williams about the reality of these realms and beings. He observes that people have consistently reported the same pattern of experiences from every part of the globe and from all cultures. Hancock believes that these alternative realms are very real and that we may gain access to them via the trance state, whether it is brought about by ingestion of substances, trance dances, fasting or other practices that cause a change in consciousness.
  
  There are many black and white illustrations and paintings throughout the book and a set of colour plates that includes, amongst others, the paintings of Peruvian shaman Pablo Amaringo plus photographs of San rock art from Southern Africa. The three appendices are: Critics and Criticisms of David Lewis-Williams' Neuropsychological Theory of Rock and Cave Art; Psilocybe Semilanceata: a Hallucinogenic Mushroom Native To Europe by Professor Roy Watling; and an illuminating interview with Dr Rick Strassman. The book concludes with bibliographic references arranged by chapter, and an index.
  
  Supernatural deals with so many thought-provoking matters that the interested reader might want more information and/or other perspectives on various aspects of the study. The following books may be helpful: DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman, Huston Smith's Cleansing The Doors Of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, William James' Varieties Of Religious Experience, Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness by Abraham, McKenna and Sheldrake, White Rabbit: A Psychedelic Reader by John Miller, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann and Christian Ratsch, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy by Clark Heinrich, The Cave Of Altamira by Pedro Ramos and The Mind In The Cave by David Lewis-Williams.
  
  

• supernatural indeed!

  
  By A2VMT89TCSF105 on 2006-10-19
  Since I'm a conventional "sceptic" of the pro-establishment variety, reading and reviewing this book was a real challenge. Graham Hancock is a controversial "alternativist" writer based in Britain, but constantly on the move all around the globe (and beyond?). Real Egyptologists, archeologists and historians usually regard him as pseudo-scientific. Indeed, his books are filled with all the stuff we sceptics just LOVE to hate: hyper-diffusionism, pyramidology, the face on Mars and (surprise) the Illuminati. "Supernatural" is Hancock's latest work. In some ways, it's even crazier than his earlier ones. But in some other ways, it's actually better. Yes, my Satanist friends will be surprised that I of all people said that...
  
  In this book, Hancock has identified some real scientific problems, in contrast to face-on-the-Mars and other pure pseudo-problems. One such real mystery is why our species, Homo sapiens, lacked a real culture for the first 50,000 or even 100,000 years of its existence. The brains of our species have always been as large as they are today. So why was Homo sapiens on Neandertal level until about 40,000 years ago? Then, suddenly, humans started to paint, and developed a religion. How? Why? What on earth is going on?
  
  Hancock quite rightly points out that many scientists have given up trying to explain these things. For instance, many historians of religion prefer not to speculate about how religion came about. We simply don't know. Hancock, however, believes there is an explanation: cave-paintings and religious beliefs are the result of shamanic experiences induced by hallucinogenic drugs. Apparently, a faction within the anthropological community supports such a theory. Hancock succesfully demolishes the semantic jibberish surrounding the term "shamanism", and also demonstrates that hallucinogenic mushrooms were indeed available to Stone Age Man in the Old World. Hancock's own experimentation with hallucinogenes (vividly described in the book) have lead him to the conclusion that essentialy the same experiences appear again and again, thus explaining the similarities between animist notions from different parts of the world. This, of course, is another mystery: why do people all over the world seem to experience the same hallucinations?
  
  It is at this point that Hancock crosses the barrier and boldly goes where no CSICOP-er have dared to go before or after. He claims that the spirit-beings encountered during shamanic ecstasys are...well, real. Where you go, I cannot follow.
  
  But what about the more down-to-earth theories of "Supernatural"? Can humanity's turn to culture really be explained by the discovery of hallucinogenes? Although the speculation is probably just as good (or bad) as any other, it does raise several new questions. Why didn't our ancestors discover hallucinogenes much earlier? After all, they were available before 40,000 BP. Also, trance states can be induced without drugs, for instance by certain body postures, dancing or meditation. Why didn't the turn to shamanism happen much earlier? We may never know. Personally I suspect that the origins of culture might be connected to language. Perhaps our ancestors lacked sophisticated language abilities before 40,000 BP? A language capable of expressing abstract concepts might have speeded up cultural development. But of course, this too raises new questions. Why did language develop when it did and not earlier? After all, our brains have always been large.
  
  All said and done, Hancock has pinpointed a number of real science mysteries and explained them supernaturally. Fair enough. That, after all, was the whole point of his book. The book is a good read, and might merit 4 or 5 stars for that reason, but the sceptic inside me only gives it 3.
  
  
  

• You have to dig to find the nugget

  
  By A39H670PD32Z1X on 2007-09-13
  I was very much looking forward to reading this book. I bought the hard cover version which I do not recommend for those who tire of lifting a 10 lb/4 kg weight for long periods of time.
  
  Hancock's 700 pages of text contain a very interesting hypothesis: that psychotropic substances can act as portals to other dimensions where aliens are met and secrets are learned. After the first 450 pages, another interesting clue comes out: that encoded into our DNA is a hidden message (unfortunately that message is never told).
  
  Unfortunately, Hancock drones on and on and on, and on and on again, about his various psychotropic experiences. The reader suffers painfully as Hancock moves from thought to unconnected thought until finally you find yourself skipping pages to get to the next point. Hancock tells too many stories that sound the same. Unfortunately his worthy points get lost in his verbose prattle.
  
  There is no reason why this book had to be 700 pages. If Hancock had a decent editor who could 1) organize Hancock's thoughts for him; and 2) chop out the unnecessary bits (we get the message after the 100th similar story), then this could have been a very interesting book.
  
  I'd love to see a Second Edition of this book that refines his general ideas, whittles them down to the core essence, and backs them up with the excellent appendices and endnotes that Hancock wisely does include at the book's end in this edition. Until then, I would advise you to save not just your money, but really your time. It took me months to read.
  
  
• Courageous exploration of our shamanic history.
  By A1EJ4UQCOXECGL on 2006-11-13
  I've followed Graham Hancock's work through the years with great interest and appreciation, even when he has been on a few side trails. History is less easily tested than the "hard" sciences, but Hancock has made a career of gathering together many small bits and pieces of things to reveal the underlying patterns that were not as noticeable before, but now appear strongly and certainly to be true.
  
  Always in pursuit of the presumed lost civilization that gave birth to our own, Hancock has been all over the world and even under the seas in his recent book, Underworld, searching for empirical evidence in ruins of human structures dateable to a time before the commonly accepted genesis dates of civilization. It was quite a twist for me, then, when I learned that he was writing a new book on a totally different angle. In Supernatural, Hancock takes us on an epic journey from the famous pre-historic cave art of Europe and rock art from Africa with its strange menageries of part human-part animal beings, through modern expressions of shamanistic beliefs and techniques, and the use of and research into psychoactive substances that seem to open a doorway into another reality. These things, he maintains, are all connected and should be given the consideration of representing something real rather than being casually dismissed as primitive superstition or "brain fiction" caused by chemical reactions in the molecules of the brain.
  
  This is a philosophy I've been personally exploring for some time, and it is quite a treat to have a researcher with the time, resources, and courage of Hancock, to forge so strongly ahead in a direction I was going. He has locked on to the same literary resources that propelled my own interest - Narby's "Cosmic Serpent", Shanon's epic "Antipodes of the Mind", Strassman's "DMT The Spirit Molecule", etc. Plus, he has now personally experienced the effects of those natural psychoactive plants that have opened a portal for humans for millenia, from magic mushrooms to iboga to ayahuasca. Far from being "pleasure trips", most of these substances are difficult and extremely unpleasant to use. The ritual and sacremental use of them is endured in order to experience the non- ordinary realities that they can reveal. Realities that seem to include non-human entities. Hancock takes us through the centuries with stories of angels, demons, fairies, goblins, and all the "other beings" called by various names through the centuries. Not the least of these are the modern concepts of extra-terrestrial aliens. He shows how these are all expressions of the same phenomenon, from the part-human/animal cave art depictions to the grey aliens of UFO's, and how their interactions with humans over time has seemingly evolved towards some purpose.
  
  The first part of the book dealing with the cave art gets somewhat long and repetitive, but I realize that Hancock is being rather more careful these days to back up what he is saying with the most thorough research job he can achieve in order to deflect as much of the certain academic backlash as possible.
  
  Supernatural is a very important book for those seeking a quantum jump forward into unknown but extremely compelling territory. Its subject matter will certainly cause it to be profoundly ignored or at most crassly denigrated by the orthodox scientific/academic community, but that is the nature of human nature. It takes someone with courage who has no turf to protect to simply go in pursuit of these things with the golden purpose of finding out what is real. That is certainly my goal, having recently returned from a similar journey to Peru to work directly with Ayahuasca. It is a valued resource, as well as a pleasure and a comfort, to have Graham Hancock on that road with me.
  
  
• IS PREHISTORIC ROCK ART ABOUT TRANCE VISIONS? ARE VISIONS THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION?
  By AMFIHLW5HTUCZ on 2007-02-25
  Graham Hancock has taken on his most controversial topic in Supernatural, exploring the origins of religion. He takes us back 36,000 years to the magnificent drawings our ancestors made in the caves of Europe, explaining that entoptic shapes (universal shapes thought to originate in the brain) and therianthropic figures (part human, part animal) are heavily featured in these drawings. Why should the drawings be so similar in rock art spanning a huge stretch of time and in numerous locations around the world? The answer lies in the trance state which shamans in all times and places have used to communicate with "other realities."
  
  Hancock does not merely interview shamans and those who study them; he tries their hallucinogenic drugs himself and encounters some of those other realities. With the drug ayahuasca in Peru, he meets a human with a crocodile head. He researches different peoples, current and ancient, who have a tradition of shamanism and finds the their visions share many features. Drug-induced hallucinations are part of many spiritual traditions; even the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries involved participants drinking a hallucinogenic brew before entering the Temple for an inititation ceremony. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Rick Strassman ran a government-approved study with the drug DMT, giving it to volunteers. The reports of participants were eerily similar to tales from shamans the world over.
  
  Not all shamans use drugs. The same trance state can be induced by other methods: rhythmic dancing with drum-beating or hypnotic music, self-mutilation, or sensory deprivation. But use of a psychedelic drug is the most common method. Hancock postulates that it was these very meetings with supernatural beings while in trance that first gave our ancestors the idea of a spiritual realm and that this is the origin of religion.
  
  But aren't these hallucinations just images manufactured in the brain? Not necessarily. Those who have visitied these realms are generally convinced of their reality. If you can accept that consciousness is separate from the brain, that the brain may simply be a receiver, then you can consider the possibility that human consciousness is actually traveling to other realities through the intervention of DMT or other psychedelic drugs. Shamans report that they bring back knowledge from their travel to these other worlds. Many say they have learned all they know about healing and other useful arts from the beings they meet in the other realm. It is common that they meet the same beings repeatedly. Shamans do not doubt the actual reality of the places they visit in trance.
  
  When did we lose the connection to these supernatural visits? Modern religious leaders have no supernatural power to offer us, only dogmas. Direct experience of the supernatural is discouraged and hallucinogenic drugs are illegal in the United States and Great Britain. We are effectively blocked from having these experiences, which, throughout the history of mankind, have been so revered for the insights and wisdom they can potentially bestow.
  
  Hancock searches for other instances throughout history where people report similar kinds of experiences. He finds fairies and aliens. He finds parallels with the alien abduction experiences widely reported.
  
  Hancock gets a bit shaky when he suggests that UFO sightings are a result of spontaneous altered states of consciousness. He speculates that about two percent of all people can enter an altered state spontaneously. If drugs bring on experiences like seeing a UFO, why do people who are not taking drugs also see them? Many UFO sightings have involved large numbers of people who could not all have been in an altered state. The theory that you only see these beings in a trance state may be wrong. Perhaps the beings sometimes enter our reality and, when they do, they become physical like us and can be seen by everyone.
  
  The parallels between reports of ayahuasca users and alien abduction reports are many. The widely-reported instances of aliens apparently seeking to breed with humans and create hybrids are echoed in experiences of hallucinegenic drug users. Is it possibile that the entities are trying to gain a foothold in our reality by creating hybrids?
  
  Hancock intorduces another intriguing idea, that our very DNA contains a history (in the so-called "junk DNA") of our race, as well as useful knowledge. Particularly with the drug DMT, users report being in a kind of school where they are rapidly presented with large amounts of information from beings who seem robotic. Does the drug let us access information coded into our DNA?
  
  The DNA of all living things (plant and animal) is almost entirely the same. Is this why mystics report that enlightenment brings the knowledge that "we are all one?" Do the therianthropes of the cave art represent the insight that man and animals are essentially the same?
  
  Hancock ends his book with his last drug experience, and he too alludes to having achieved something personally valuable from his drug experiences, but he lets the words trail off without telling us what happened in that last visit to the other realm. He leaves us with the impression that there is so much more he could have told us.
  
  
  
• ***** Seeing through the Third-Eye of a Spiritual Scientist *****
  By A127JMGT826X6U on 2006-09-25
  As a life-long scholar of consciousness evolution studies, in general, and shamanism, in particular, all I need to say is, if you can find a better book on this topic ... buy it!
  
  In brief, however, under the influence of "plant teachers" this author confirms by examining firsthand prehistoric painted caves of Europe and South Africa, as well as the trance-created paintings of South American shamans, that the same "super-natural beings" are depicted over and over again. That the same "stick" symbols convey the same meanings, in other words. How can that be if consciousness itself is not a flowing stream, a "field," of imagery common to mankind everywhere and everywhen at once? Of course, it cannot; no matter how the skeptics slice and dice it this truth will not die now! Anyone worth their salt as a "quantum" neuro-scientist, of whatever ilk (e.g., biology, psychology, physics, even theology) knows that paranormal phenomena are screaming this singular fact at us today: "We are one global human being!"
  
  That is, we share a unified field of mind that is only partitioned out into six billion bodies presently. We even have a name for this type of biological distribution throughout nature; we call it "fractal geometry." Thus, I can't help but meditate on the wisdom of "as above, so below, as within, so without" and wonder where did that gem come from anyway -- a third-eye-open shaman? Hancock is right-on-target in that regards, too: "Gifted and experienced shamans the world over really do know more -- much more -- than they [scientists] do." (p. 285)
  
  To the point: Do states of trance and "vision" plants let us see behind the curtain of creation? Could we be peering into the soul of invisible albeit "real" realms -- the archetypal, ideal, home of gods? Is our brain a tuning-device not the creator of mind? Is mind what matter is made of? That is the conclusion of orthodox physicists today; the cosmos is made of mind-stuff and operates more as thoughts, than a machine, within the Mind of God. Indeed as this rhetorical question is asked in this book: "Could it be that human evolution is not just the 'meaningless' process that Darwin identified, but something more purposive and intelligent that we have barely begun to understand?" Ya' think? Go figure!
  
  How about when we all learn the secret truths of the shamans' rituals and begin to focus our minds as a single laser of cutting-edge consciousness to solve our planet's problems of pollution? How about when we form larger spiritual communities to heal one another using the "solar" power, the photosynthesis, contained within organic, natural, plants? That is to say, don't we grasp that we are a cancer-creating, dis-eased society today because we live, and move, and have our being in a low-energy, highly-toxic, radioactive, asphalt jungle? Oh, now there's the deeper meaning to this astute explorer's "supernatural" revelations. We are tasked with restoring the Garden of Eden now! As Hancock himself proclaims, as I do profusely, "This is hardly surprising since Christ was so obviously and so profoundly a shaman." (p. 499). Power to the plants that created the people on our beautiful blue-marble planet! A-men.
  
  Dr. John Jay Harper is author of Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century.
  
  
• Tihs book is very repetitive
  By A2MBGLS7N5GC58 on 2006-11-19
  I think the scope of this book is much too narrow for how long it is(over 600 pages). Not that the content was not interesting, just that he rephrased the same concepts over and over and over and over. You start to get that 'lovely feeling' that the author is trying to fill pages.
  
  Hancock likes to produce epic narratives, and I think he should have incorporated a wider range of more information and research into this book(or made it shorter).
  
  
• The Key Questions
  By A2BE07PWAU7M7V on 2006-06-13
  There is a very basic question to be asked of this (very long) book: are subjective experiences "real" in any objective sense, or are they deceptions we play on ourselves by altering our perceptive senses?
  
  Hancock, of course, insists on the first option: subjective experiences brought about by drug-induced hallucinations transport one to another realm, an alternate reality populated by living, supernatural beings. This, indeed, has been the claim of mystics and shamans since time immemorial.
  
  The problem with this claim is twofold. First, no two hallucinations are the same, often for the same person on the same drug taken on different occasions. If the realm of the supernatural is objectively real, it seems to change every time drugs are ingested. Indeed, an entirely different "realm" is entered if different drugs with different effects are ingested, or if different doses of the same drug are taken.
  
  So what seems more likely? That the "reality" of the supernatural realm differs from person to person? Or that when you play with consciousness (a mysterious phenomenon in itself) and alter perceptions your brain plays tricks on you? Do we really think that when we dream, for instance, we are actually entering a different reality or is it more likely the case that our brain is just working through issues with images and impressions? I know which option seems more likely to me, esp. given experiments that can stimulate impressions of, say, a foreign presence in a room by applying mild electrical currents to certain parts of the brain.
  
  What do you say about people who, without taking any drugs, live in an alternative reality due to a stroke, accidental brain damage, an inherited chemical imbalance in their brains, or a mental illness (see the bizarre cases documented by Dr. Oliver Sacks)? Have these patients moved house into an alternative reality? Or are they struggling with damaged brains, brains that are playing cruel tricks on their perceptions and rendering them, effectively, invalids? Often these people can be brought back to the real world by giving them drugs to suppress their symptoms. What does all this tell you about how our brains interact with the world? What does it say about a supposed "alternative" reality, in this case entered by brain damage and left by taking drugs?
  
  The second problem is that centuries of attempts to "prove" the supernatural realm by charting its alleged intrusions into physical reality have come to naught. Investigation after investigation of spiritualists, mediums, seances, psi-factor, talking to the dead, efficacious prayer, ghosts and spirits, dreams, etc have all produced either null results are highly disputed claims, quite distinct from the replicable results in genuine science. At the very least, the claimed intrusions of the supernatural into the physical realm should leave some documentable traces somewhere. But they don't. They are *always* highly controversial claims, often solely personal testimonials from witness with no testable, physical manifestations to look at.
  
  So, once more, the basic question has to be: are the subjective experiences of meditators, mystics, shamans, dreamers, and hallucinators "real" in any objective sense, or are they phantasms conjured by our brains when we play with its perceptive capacities?
  
  
• Right on theory
  By A3PGVJF37JSHFO on 2007-01-15
  Graham is right on with his theories. He has put his toe into the water that was the pool of Terence McKenna. No one since Terence, including Pinchbeck, has been able to communicate in this area with authority and integrity.
  
  If you have not read/listened to much Terence or don't know who Pablo Aramango is, never heard of Paul Stamets, ayuascha, etc. then you will get much from this book. If however, you have studied McKenna and Eliede then there is not much new here for you.
  
  Overall a very good book.
  
  
• Primordial peeps tripping in caves eventually see aliens. Film at 11.
  By A3RTX9SNUXNEER on 2007-09-24
  In January, I read Graham Hancock's Supernatural in which he runs the gamut from early human cave paintings to gods, and angels, fairies, psychedelics, shamans, and aliens and links them all together as basically the same phenomenon. In my mind, (being subjects I've already spent a fair amount of time studying) he does a very good job of forming a solid theory with many examples to back up this theory. Basically he is saying that our encounters with the supernatural, are the same, only the outer appearance changes along with our technology and world view, that what we once thought were angels became fairies in later times, and then became aliens in the present. He makes sure to state that this all presupposes that these experiences are real. And if we suppose that they are, then how do we begin to study a supernatural reality. As I said, the book is great and very entertaining.
  
  
• Courageous exploration of our shamanic history.
  By A1EJ4UQCOXECGL on 2006-03-01
  I've followed Graham Hancock's work through the years with great interest and appreciation, even when he has been on a few side trails. History is less easily tested than the "hard" sciences, but Hancock has made a career of gathering together many small bits and pieces of things to reveal the underlying patterns that were not as noticeable before, but now appear strongly and certainly to be true.
  
  Always in pursuit of the presumed lost civilization that gave birth to our own, Hancock has been all over the world and even under the seas in his recent book, Underworld, searching for empirical evidence in ruins of human structures dateable to a time before the commonly accepted genesis dates of civilization. It was quite a twist for me, then, when I learned that he was writing a new book on a totally different angle. In Supernatural, Hancock takes us on an epic journey from the famous pre-historic cave art of Europe and rock art from Africa with its strange menageries of part human-part animal beings, through modern expressions of shamanistic beliefs and techniques, and the use of and research into psychoactive substances that seem to open a doorway into another reality. These things, he maintains, are all connected and should be given the consideration of representing something real rather than being casually dismissed as primitive superstition or "brain fiction" caused by chemical reactions in the molecules of the brain.
  
  This is a philosophy I've been personally exploring for some time, and it is quite a treat to have a researcher with the time, resources, and courage of Hancock, to forge so strongly ahead in a direction I was going. He has locked on to the same literary resources that propelled my own interest - Narby's "Cosmic Serpent", Shanon's epic "Antipodes of the Mind", Strassman's "DMT The Spirit Molecule", etc. Plus, he has now personally experienced the effects of those natural psychoactive plants that have opened a portal for humans for millenia, from magic mushrooms to iboga to ayahuasca. Far from being "pleasure trips", most of these substances are difficult and extremely unpleasant to use. The ritual and sacremental use of them is endured in order to experience the non-ordinary realities that they can reveal. Realities that seem to include non-human entities. Hancock takes us through the centuries with stories of angels, demons, fairies, goblins, and all the "other beings" called by various names through the centuries. Not the least of these are the modern concepts of extra-terrestrial aliens. He shows how these are all expressions of the same phenomenon, from the part-human/animal cave art depictions to the grey aliens of UFO's, and how their interactions with humans over time has seemingly evolved towards some purpose.
  
  The first part of the book dealing with the cave art can get somewhat long and repetitive, but I realize that Hancock is being rather more careful these days to back up what he is saying with the most thorough research job he can achieve in order to deflect as much of the certain academic backlash as possible.
  
  Supernatural is a very important book for those seeking a quantum jump forward into unknown but extremely compelling territory. Its subject matter will certainly cause it to be profoundly ignored or at most crassly denigrated by the orthodox scientific/academic community, but that is the nature of human nature. It takes someone with courage who has no turf to protect to simply go in pursuit of these things with the golden purpose of finding out what is real. That is certainly my goal, and it is a valued resource, as well as a pleasure and a comfort, to have Graham Hancock on that road with me.
  
  
• Great
  By A29VNBB2RLQJ7U on 2006-10-12
  I've read this book twice, I love it. I think it throws more lite on Zecharia Sitchin's series, What I mean is that it could better explain what the Summarians were witnessing! "Forest of Visions" by Alex Polari De Alverga gives Graham more ammo on what he is talking about! I was hoping he would touch on "We,The Arcturians" by Dr. Norma J. Milanovich, It seems to fit right into what is going on in the book "Supernatural"! I've read all of Graham Hancocks books, The Man is not afraid of so called mainline science. "Underworld" was great and made sense! I would put this man right up there with authors like James Mitchner !
  Thank you Mr. Hancock for another great book.
  [...]
  
  
• But where are the Unicorns?
  By A1JE9INQAN2CT6 on 2006-10-16
  The premise: Paleolithic man painted some scenes that had no basis in everyday experience. Therefore the models for the paintings came either from his imagination or from hallucinations percieved during trace states. The images depicted are archtypal altered state of consciousness visions that can be reproduced in minds of modern humans. Conclusion: Altered states of consciousness are a gateway to an alternative reality.The notion of "conciousness as receiver" is a fascinating way of interpreting hallucinations. Unfortunately, if one carries that concept to its obvious conclusion, it opens some new interpretations of disturbed brain biochemistry, including schizophrenia. It's no wonder Hancock expresses an element of fear when he experiments with hallucinogens. Losing ones grip on "reality" is scarey for a reason. I wouldn't mind snapping a photo of the Loch Ness Monster, but keep it out of my swimming pool, please. Is Cryptozoology folklore, or an alternative Safariland? Are all hallucinations "real", or just those that introduce us to aliens and faries?
  The UFO abduction phenomenon is deliberately treated as analgous to shamanistic experiences, but he fails to mention that the research that he cites was conducted exclusively on hypnotized subjects. Without an exploration of the accuracy of recall under hypnosis Hancock omits a very big piece of the puzzle. The Betty and Barney Hill abduction story stands as a landmark scam case in the abduction literature, but he chooses to use it anyway.
  This is Graham Hancock's best book to date. The sheer numbers of occult phenomena that he takes on under a common theory are worthy of a serious look. The attack on Darwin however, illustrates an ignorance of modern evoluationary theory. Darwin never advocated an orthogenetic version of human evoluation (that is, directionality along channels of internal contraint). However Darwinism refers to adaptation and genetic modification specifically regarding speciation, not cultural or "memetic" changes over relatively brief periods of geologic time. Darwin would have no problem with Hancock's theories, although Hancock himself rightly asks the question "What adaptive advantage could supernatural experience possibly confer on early humans?" To assume redundant DNA is wasteful and therefore another example of contrary Darwinism is another error. Exaptations (copies of the genone that have yet to find utility) are another modern evolutionary concept. What we're talking about is phenotypic expression, when it comes to the experiences of an organism, human or otherwise. The presence of "junk DNA" is in no sense anti-Darwin. I wouldn't expect Hancock to be familiar with all modern evolutionary concepts, but he should stop making references to "human evolution" because it's out of his field of expertise.
  If there's a sequel to Supernatural. it would be a speculative book on the reasons why these "ancient secrets" have been so successfully kept from mankind for so long. William Bramley has already written that book (see The Gods of Eden), but I would love to see an updated version.
  
  
• Fascinating
  By A2URYP4CV1ZFA6 on 2006-11-10
  By far Mr.Hancocks' most readable book to date. I have always agreed with his research,but frankly some of his earlier books were like reading an army field manual. The information is as always, thoroughly researched and refferenced, and in a format that makes for enjoyable reading. There is definately somewhat of a feeling that the subject covered, might be one that is best left alone.( The 80's movie Altered States springs to mind )
  All in all, I highly reccommend this book , just be prepared to have the subject occupy your thoughts for some time.
  
  
• mysterious skeptics
  By A240YD2CI9G81N on 2006-04-27
  The realm of the skeptic is a strange one. Certainly, it is always immersed within fear, denial, arrogance, and, quite frankly, laziness. I had completed graduate level work in human evolution and development many years ago, and I didn't exactly have an easy time accepting the tremendous possibility that 95% of what I had read and regurgitated many times over was simply false, given the compelling frame work of the vast (often hidden) evidence. But, I have always been interested in the truth, no matter how bizarre, so I moved on and contemplated other theories and ideas that were not solely politically based, but rather were rational and simply "workable" in their presentation. I understand academia all too well and I realize that "science" has been bought and paid for for too long, which is why it is somewhat sad for me to encounter the skeptics. They don't understand that the "facts" that they are clinging to have precious little hard science supporting them. Science has become like a group of little tyrants all trying to maintain control and grab a buck while being patted on the head by their financiers. Where has the courage, the curiosity, the thirst for knowledge, the adventurous spirit of science gone? Surely it goes well beyond ego, conservatism, or even money. This is why alternative theories within science always must somehow come to terms with the obvious conspiracy of it all, whether naming it the Illuminati, or Sons of Belial, or space Aliens, or mind control, or Satanism, or whatever, because there is most certainly an agenda operating that is keeping incredible information from us. My humble advice: just let it go, open your mind, and move on. A good start is reading books like this. We may all find that we are far more special, more powerful, more truly bizarre than any "alternative" book has speculated thus far. And what would be so bad about that?
  
  
• Everyone should read it
  By AJ4EGFPCPE19S on 2007-01-02
  I've read widely in the field of religion, philosophy, folklore, UFOs, shamanism, etc., and have written on these subjects as a journalist. Hancock does the best job I've come cross of synthesizing the evidence to provide a remarkably coherent, insightful, and profound theory as to the role of entities in human evolution. I strongly recommend that you read it.
  
  
• Rational Treatment of a Psychicly Charged Subject
  By A39R2QB7QNTRQS on 2007-03-13
  Graham Hancock writes from the Western Perspective. He makes comparative analysis trying to highlight the pattern of events and not just simple word categories. There is more commonality than most of us have ever considered. Perhaps this is because the quasi-spiritual nature of the material is off the standard paradigm hence in effect somewhat taboo. But only by making heuristic "comparative juxtapositions" can commonalities come forth.
  
  He finds strong similarities between the ET's, abductions, fairy peoples, Paleolithic Cave Art, hypnagogic imagery, historic referents and our human DNA. Just to mention a few of the topics. I think it is a ground breaking work and implies (to me) that we may be living in an interactive universe (not just the objective universe of our 19th Century mentation).
  
  However, the projective nature of our human mentation is only now coming to light. We still see many things "out there" which may largely be "between our ears". It is as if our reality is often a psychic (maybe mental) simulation. Robert Stevens
  
  
  
• Good food for the (collective) mind
  By A2PS8SGF4NA76F on 2007-04-22
  I loved this book! It was like a breath of fresh air to the jaded cobwebs of my mind. Unlike the sanitized and banal stimuli (visuals, thoughts, mass media, current academic inquiry, etc.) that surrounds daily life today, this book reminded me of the mysteries that remain within the world. It was repetitive at times but it is such a large book that it's excusable. There appears to be solid reasoning for the proposals in the book. The presentation of the dark side of academic bullying/blackballing was astute, and reminded me of the necessity for our "experts" to put aside their egos to entertain new thought.
  
  
• More long, strange trips
  By AJDYDG7YZY9QL on 2006-05-19
  Science bashing is easy, particularly if you're a bully. Research over the past century has revealed an immensity of new information. The cosmos has expanded and retracted. Our planet's "skin" proved to be a dynamic surface with continents wandering about dodging and clashing. Humanity, once considered the "peak" of Nature's many living things, has proven to be another member of the animal kingdom. While all those areas of study have resolved many questions, they've raised many more. Journalists like Hancock need only select one of those remaining questions, formulate their own answer, then castigate "mainstream science" for not answering it to his satisfaction. It's a bullying tactic that he's used before. The sniping is boring and the dismissal of good researchers is insulting.
  
  One of the last, and latest, areas being investigated is the human mind. What happens in that gob of porridge-like material in your skull. Is it truly a gateway to another universe? Hancock thinks so, but he follows a tortuous path in arriving at his conclusion. He opens with a physical trip into the Amazon region, and a mental journey prompted by a South American drug. Ayahuasca is a "shaman's drug" which evokes visions while purging the gastrointestinal system. People returning from the trip describe all manner of shapes, colours and creatures they encountered in their heads - or somewhere. Modern shamans apply the visions to many aspects of life, but "healing" and "rites of passage" are the major features [there's probably a fee schedule worked out]. Hancock tripped on ayahuasca with predictable results - including the purging. This isn't a pioneering venture - people like Wade Davis [among others] have made the trip on local ground. Hancock's derivation, however, is rather novel.
  
  While we don't know when hallucinagenic drugs were first used to improve bedside manners, we have some indication of what hallucinations can evoke. The evidence is painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain, rockshelters in Africa and temples in the Western Hemisphere. Hancock introduces us to David Lewis-Williams, a South African palaeoanthropologist who devised the term "neuropsychological" to explain the condition cave artists experienced to produce those beautiful, fantastic images at Lascaux, Chauvet and elsewhere. Hancock accepts Lewis-Williams' thesis the cave art was inspired by images perceived by those in an "altered state of consciousness". Fair enough, says Hancock, who wants the scientist to go further. "Trip out with me!", he says in effect, "Otherwise your conclusions aren't valid". That's like saying if cancer researchers aren't infested with tumours we should scorn their results!
  
  The reason Hancock wants scholars to ingest all those fancy chemicals is that he thinks they're missing something. What they're missing, he argues, is the gateway to another realm. About 2% of us, he contends, can do this without either chemical or physical stimulation. It's those people we should trust to guide us into the "spiritual world" since they don't need stimulation to visit this "outside". Those people, Hancock suggests, have a surplus of a chemical called "dimethyltriptamine" [DMT] in their brains. This tricky molecule turns out to be the gateway to the supernatural. To prove that, one of Hancock's more amenable researchers injected volunteers with DMT. They came back with tales of "the other side". Hancock weaves these studies with alien abduction tales and modern shaman's accounts to declare that the commonality of reactions across humanity says there's something there. Someplace, actually, and for Hancock it's the spirit realm. We can all get there if we try!
  
  Hancock builds his case with style, enthusiasm and scope - sprinkled with a heavy dose of self-esteem. He cites numerous interviews, defends Lewis-Williams against his detractors, and shows us how easy it all is with accounts of his own jaunts into the supernatural. The interviewees seem pretty sympathetic with Hancock's thesis - or at least they don't object to it. Lewis-Williams is quite capable of defending himself. And Hancock's chemistry experiments only show that drugs play havoc with human neuronal nets. He might have learned this prior to his fearsome mental journeys if he'd spoken with some real neurobiologists. They could have explained about "sensory deprivation" and how the brain reacts to it. The information might have opened a few new doors for Hancock, while shutting down a few of his more bizarre speculations. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
  
  
• Top Rate
  By A2U2VO6OVV20I8 on 2007-09-18
  All in all I found this to be a well researched book of Shamanism and religion. It coinsides with much of my own resarch and experience. At times I found the book to be slow and repetitious but intelligently researched if not scholarly. I highly recommend it.
  
  
• A world-wide trek blends with many pointed observations and analyses key for any New Age reader.
  By A14OJS0VWMOSWO on 2006-12-12
  Many New Age and spiritual readers would think the birth of religion and myths goes back to Adam and Eve; but for Hancock it goes all the way back to when intelligent life began - and Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind traces these roots. From an analysis of the nature of consciousness, reality and religious roots to the influence of medicines from the earth and the long history of communications with the dead and divine inspiration guiding human fate, SUPERNATURAL is packed with not only the author's quest for meaning, but with a quest for the spiritual in everyday life. A world-wide trek blends with many pointed observations and analyses key for any New Age reader.
  
  Diane C. Donovan
  California Bookwatch
  
  
• It's okay, but I thought it was overkill on the drawings
  By A3JF812GO7CZXI on 2007-01-09
  The book itself is good. The information is presented quite well.
  
  However,I felt like Hancock committed overkill when discussing the cave drawings in France and South Africa. I understand that he had to present his case...but a whole section??!!!
  
  
• excellent book
  By A2FZ9LTBPZO07A on 2007-01-11
  if you want a different perspective on reality, that gives you a very deep analysis of the different frames on consiousness, and how the influence of ASC, have inspired an entire species-than this book is for you-very academic aswell good, stuff oh ya good stuff
  
  
• One of the best books I've read
  By AB6X2CXBYTWJM on 2007-07-31
  Graham Hancock explores interesting and solid theories and also by giving strong references.
  Fascinating book. I cannot stop reading it. Truly mind expanding.
  
  
  
• Contradictory Oddysey
  By AYNX41F8AICLB on 2007-10-14
  I am an avid reader of many of Graham Hancock's books, but to be honest, I haven't yet acquired or read this one; I have only relied on the "blurb" information on this page to write this review about it. What I want to say is that Hancock has explored all the mainstream approached of "Alternative History" such as Ancient astronauts, Paleocivilisations and now this. I am familiar with this "psychedelic mushroom approach" also, and have perused and come across it while investigating other "arcane" issues such as the year 2012 and in the work of "maverick" US scientist and parapsychological researcher Andrija Puharich who wrote the book "Beyond Telepathy" about 25 years ago, to illustrate his findings and experiments. It doe hold water indeed. But what I don't understand about Hancock's work and travails is that each of his books are excellent, in-depth researches on their own, but their findings all seem to contradict one another: for instance his earliest book "Fingerprints of the Gods" contradicts the conclusions of his later work "The Mars Mystery" and now this book contradicts both of his earlier Paleocivilisational approaches. By "flitting" like this from one approach to the other, he not only undermines his own credibility, but lays his own quite extensive and valuable work open to ridicule, which is a shame as this is a subject that definitely merits serious work and investigation. It is now time for Mr. Hancock, instead, to come up with one "Grand Unified Theory" of all the work he has done and integrate it into a seamless harmonious whole. No doubt that is an "orthodox" scientific method, but it is an essential scholastic requirement, otherwise he will come across merely as a confused globetrotting "bohemian", who is mainly intent on printing as many books as possible in order to keep minting money.
  
  
• Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind
  By AFFVJ7C9JYG7U on 2007-06-08
  It lost my interest quickly. I found it to be to strange. However I will try to understand it, because I have read reviews of Graham Hancocks that are positive.
  
  
• Very Important Read
  By A196CEJAUE8C8T on 2007-10-18
  I found answers in this book which I have long been searching for. It is not a book for the reductionist or rationalist who wants easily digestable answers to go with binary thinking patterns. In stead it is a book for those who are looking beyond the veil of rational thinking; those searching for the mostly difficult to digest answers to the archetypal meaning of their dreams that haunt them so.
  
  'Supernatural' is well researched with no 'stab in the dark' tactics. It takes the reader from the present to the past, and from your comfortable belief system to one that challenges. It might just be the book that - sometime in the future - sheds light on topics ranging from misunderstood and maltreated scizophrenia to the origins of mankind's mind.
  
  
• Do you need lots of examples?
  By ABXGAJ2PBCHBW on 2007-10-26
  Hancock gives so many examples of what he is describing you cannot fail to be convinced of his arguments--He'll example you to death.
  
  That said, I loved this book. And the appendix interview with Rick Strassman MD on DMT was wonderful too.
  
  I have always had a love of ancient cave art and guess what! Hancock clearly proves they depict shamanistic journeys into the netherworlds, brought on by dancing, drumming and/or natural entheogenic drugs.
  
  This is a great book if you can endure and persevere through the many many examples.
  
  

• Fingerprints of the Gods
• Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization
• DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences
• The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)
• Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA