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Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind
by Graham Hancock

Reposted for another member:

Quote:

THE STONED AGE
Graham Hancock Believes Human Culture Arose With The Use Of Hallucinogens

When the possibility of interviewing Graham Hancock presented itself, I wasn't sure if I could do it -- time was tight, there was a 700-page book to read, and I had a host of other commitments. But, then, as my partner Donna slipped into the hypnagogic state -- that trance-like transition between waking and sleeping -- she suddenly blurted, "An old woman in a blue dress just popped into my head and said you should do it." When Hancock heard this story, he chuckled and commented, "Interesting."

After reading Hancock's latest book, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind (Doubleday Canada. 710 pages, $39.95), I might be convinced that Donna's vision wasn't entirely random.

Supernatural takes readers on a trip from ancient pre-history to the present day, seeking the beginnings and tracing the evolution of human consciousness.

From cave art to DNA, from Amazonian shamans to American psychedelic drug research, from alien abduction stories to DNA coding, Hancock searches for clues about how those little people in our heads have been talking to humans for millennia -- and the possibility that maybe they're not in our heads at all.

"I'd had the germ of the idea for a book on the mysteries of human origins for years," Hancock, who is in his 50s, explains over the phone from Bath, England, where he's preparing for a tour of Canada to promote Supernatural.

When I started to research it (human origins) seriously," he continues, "I discovered most of it wasn't interesting or mysterious. It was incredibly dull for millions of years. It's only after 40,000 years ago, and really rather suddenly, that it starts to get interesting."

This interest in his subject matter drives Hancock. Supernatural is as much a record of his investigation as it is a synthesis of archeology, science, and belief. "I wanted to bring my personal experience to this inquiry. If I'm going to write it, I have to experience it for myself."

He documents his visions as he ingests the African hallucinogenic root, iboga, drinks ayahuasca with South American shamans, doses himself with illicitly obtained DMT, and eats magic mushrooms on a henge in England. Less psychedelically, he describes what he sees in his visits to the painted caves and rock shelters of Europe and South Africa.

Indeed, the rock art provides the clues that inspire his interpretations of the origins of being human. "The great and dramatic change seems marked by, expressed through the rock and cave-wall art. In other words, human experiences with altered states of consciousness and the resultant visions seem to have been instrumental in the transformation of our ancestors," he says. "Cave art quite explicitly connects the great change in human behaviour to visionary experiences, and documents this connection."

Hancock elaborates: "Our ancestors reached full anatomical modernity at least 200,000 years ago, with fully modern brain size. But what we would recognize as modern human behaviour -- with all its subtleties and creativity, with all its powers to conceive of the abstract and to manipulate symbols -- only shows up in the archeological record after 40,000 years ago.

"The hardware stayed the same -- homo sapiens had reached full anatomical modernity, with the modern-sized brain, at least 160,000 years previously. So what changed had to do with the software -- with the basic programming of human behaviour."
Specifically, he posits that it was altered states induced by hallucinogens or trance-inducing practices that sparked human culture as we know it. "Visionary experiences seemed to switch it (consciousness) on."

Hancock's heady mix of adventure-travel, history, archeology, and speculation has earned him a huge readership. His books have sold more than five million copies around the world.
"It's the mysteries that are fascinating," he says. The mysteries that Hancock has plumbed in his work before Supernatural have included the Ark of the Covenant, the riddles of the Sphinx, and lost continent of Atlantis.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, he spent his early years in India, where his father was a surgeon, and later graduated from Durham University in 1973 with first class honours in sociology. He began his writing career as journalist, working for leading newspapers in the U.K. like The Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. By the early 1980s, he was East African correspondent for The Economist. "In Ethiopa, I came across the claim that the lost Ark of the Covenant was there, and I met the guardian of the ark," he recalls.

Over the next several years, Hancock followed the story. "I pursued my investigation of the ark as an investigative journalist." The resulting book, The Sign and the Seal (1992), was his breakthrough into bestsellerdom. He switched the direction of his writing, and he carried on exploring mysteries of lost civilizations for 10 years.

The nature of Hancock's material, and his very unorthodox challenges to conventional wisdom, have gained him legions of fans and detractors. Of his methods, he says, "I'm synthesizing a lot of material. When it's brought together it gains a lot of force." For some, this kind of synthesis is contrary to scientific and academic practice. For others, it is a welcome alternative.

Hancock argues that "archeologists and academic historians have appointed themselves as the spokesmen for and sole interpreters of the past in the modern world. Often they do brilliant work, but they can be extremely dogmatic and narrow-minded over certain issues. I think there is room for alternative perspectives."

Supernatural is unlikely to quell either the enthusiasm for or the criticism of his work or methods. Chapter titles like The Shabby Academy, are sure to raise the ire of the orthodox. The detailed analysis of alien abduction narratives will attract the Area 51 and Roswell conspiracy fanatics. His voyages into inner space will appeal to 21st century theosophists.

Hancock remarks that "How readers react and which particular readers respond to a book is something I can't control. All I can do is write the best book I can -- which means writing with passion about things I'm interested in."

Ultimately, Hancock distances himself from the reception of his
books: "I've always written my books for me, about subjects that I have a special interest in." Undoubtedly his enthusiasm and no small skill as a journalist and storyteller help to engage readers.

Supernatural explores fascinating territories of the known and unknown, perhaps even the knowable and the unknowable. And the next time a voice pops into your head while you're daydreaming -- well, it might really be trying to tell you something important. Maybe.

good read might try and d/l the book if i can find it.

Synopsis
"Supernatural: of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws." Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as "the greatest riddle in human history", all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In "Supernatural", Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious "before-and-after moment" and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern human mind. His quest takes him on a journey of adventure and detection from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain and Italy to remote rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa where he finds a treasure trove of extraordinary Stone Age art. He uncovers clues that lead him to travel to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca with Indian shamans, whose paintings contain images of "supernatural beings" identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves and rock shelters. And hallucinogens such as mescaline, also produce visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other "dimensions". Could the "supernaturals" first depicted in the painted caves and rock shelters be the ancient teachers of mankind? Could it be that human evolution is not just the "blind", "meaningless" process that Darwin identified, but something else, more purposive and intelligent, that we have barely even begun to understand?

Re: Graham Hancock: Supernatural / The stoned age

Anyone here read this?
I read about a 1/3 or more of the book, just skimming through it, trying to take in all the drug related bits (I wasn't all that interested in the cave art stuff at first, but may read the entire book in the future). The trip reports are quite interesting and it features some beautiful art, especially the ayahuasca inspired art. I found it to be a good followup read to Food of the Gods by Terence McKenna.
Graham Hancock makes mention of Shulgin, Leary, Huxley, Mckenna and especially Strassman, author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule. With the many citations in this book, I decided I must finish reading Strassman's masterpiece. And there is an interview in the book with Strassman.
This book provides thought-provoking theories about how altered states of consciousness (often but not always drug-induced) are responsible for all religions.
It is a very big read. It includes info on UFOs, aliens, drugs, shamanism, cave art, egyptology, religion and more.
If you have an interest in history, the supernatural and drugs, I would definitely recommend this book.

Re: Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

just got done reading this last week. very interesting read, hancock connects alot of different aspects of humanity with psychedelic experiences. he tends to repeat himself which can get annoying but i suppose he decided it was necessary because he backtracks alot in the book. the whole book is pretty speculative but graham hancock cites a wealth of interesting facts to back up his theories. i wish he got deeper into some aspects and did get pretty drained reading about all the goddamn cave art near the beginning of the book, but overall i enjoyed it alot.

Re: Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

There is already a good review and some brilliant comments about this book. However, having just read it, I'd like to chip in by saying that I think it's both a fantastic read and an important contribution to human understanding, no less.

As mentioned above, it picks up where Terence Mckenna left off. Two of the ideas introduced by T.M. were: 1/that hallucinogens (specifically psilocybin-containing fungi) may have played a vital role in the evolution of human culture and religion 2/ that entities sometimes contacted with the help of psychedelic substances may not just be 'projections of our unconscious', but may have their own independent existence.

Mckenna's writings are fascinating but frequently highly speculative, so it is easy for the sceptic to dismiss them as ramblings from yet another wacky drug fiend. In 'Supernatural', however, Hancock has gone to great lengths to produce a large body of evidence to support his ideas. This is why, I suspect, he gives so many examples of Upper Paleolithic cave art and rock paintings from southern Africa. His work therefore screrams out to be taken seriously, and is not so easily ridiculed by those who might find some of his truths rather inconvenient.

Of the several major threads in the book, I would say that Hancock is convincing about the following: 1/ Ancient cave art, more modern rock art from southern Africa, fairy stories, alien abductions, and experiences of entities on DMT, ayahuasca etc are all tapping into the same region. 2/ these are all intimately connected with altered states of consciousness, most reliably (though not exclusively) accessed with the aid of psychedelics. 3/ The use of psychedelic substances, and shamanic devices generally, has played a much larger part in the development of human culture and religion than many people will fel comfortable with.

As for whether the fairies, therianthropes (those half-human, half-animal beings), and other entities are 'mere hallucinations', whether they have been hard-wired into our DNA from the beginning (radical idea), or whether they 'really are out there', the jury is still out, despite the topic being investigated thoroughly, including a substantial interview with Rick Strassman.

So, yes, for those interested in religion, visionary art, shamanism, psychedelics, aliens, what-are-we-doing-here-anyway?, this is a must-read.