2012 The Year of the Mayan Prophecyl by Daniel Pinchbeck is a literary and metaphysical epic that binds together the cosmological phenomena of our time, ranging from crop circles to quantum theory to the worldwide resurgence of shamanism, supporting the Mayan prophecy that the year 2012 will bring an unprecedented global shift.

In tracing the meaning of the prophetic Mayan ‘end date’ of 2012 to our present society, Daniel Pinchbeck draws together alien abductions, psychedelic visions, the current ecological crisis and other peculiar aspects of 21st century life into a new vision for our time.

2012 heralds the end of one way of existence and the return of another, in which the Mesoamerican God Quetzalcoatl returns, bringing with him an ancient – yet to us, wholly new – way of living. There are many hints, both in quantum theory and elsewhere, that humanity is precariously balanced between greater self-potential and environmental disaster.

Pinchbeck's journey, which takes us from the endangered rainforests of the Amazon to Stonehenge in England, tells the story of a man in whose trials we recognise our own hopes and anxieties about modern life, and also provides us with the opportunity to think differently about a new culture for the planet.

About the Author: DANIEL PINCHBECK is one of the founders of Open City, an art and literary journal. He was a 1999-2000 Fellow of the National Arts Journalism Programme at Columbia University and has written for many leading magazines including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, The Village Voice and The Art Newspaper of London among other publications. He is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (Tpb: 000714960 3, Pb: 0007149611). He lives in New York City.