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| My new guru |
My first review of a Graham Hancock book, posted at Amazon in 2006. Today, I think Graham is on to something, probably something yuge! Well, much can happen in 12 years...
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 new agey chat buddies 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.
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.
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