Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Paperback – September 1, 2006

Graham Hancock is the king of speculation. His books will either convince you there's a lot more to human history or make you scoff at his speculation. Regardless, it is damn entertaining. One of the first books I ever bought was his Fingerprints of the Gods (1996) which discussed how anomalies associated with ancient monuments tend to indicate a wide-spread ancient advanced civilization. Even though I was intrigued by the way Hancock tied all those threads together I'm still deeply skeptical of his overall thesis. And yet, I've been completely hooked by his 2007 book Supernatural. This one is deeply convincing because anyone can follow his thesis with a little supplemental research. Using the bitterly accepted idea proposed by anthropologist David Lewis-Williams, that ancient art depicted what early humans saw in altered states of consciousness, Hancock weaves a story that gets at the very heart of what it means to be a member of our species. Where academics might be starting to accept Lewis-Williams' idea, they are far from ready to use the same plants and rituals that produced these early trance states. This is where Hancock picks up, by starting taking the iboga vine, the plant that enables men to see the dead, and follows with the sacred ayahuasca brew of the Amazon.Where I'm sure I would have been more sympathetic to Hancock's other works if I had actually been to the monuments he describes, I can follow the writing here because of my own exposure to these ancient plants. Before I knew the themes and details in this book, my own experiences were eerily similar to those described in Supernatural. I've been the archetype of the wounded man and had interactions with serpents. Reading the story of someone thousands of years ago describing something that happened to me (along with its "mystical" significance) is a chilling synchronicity. Hancock's sketch on p. 52 of the beings he encountered while doing his field research were exactly the same things I've seen, and as I learned by reading, have been seen for thousands of years by scattered native groups across the world accessing these same states through various means.Hancock ties the similarities of the modern UFO/abduction phenomena to experiences that indigenous tribesmen have in altered states to the mythology of the medieval fairies. In doing so, he uncovers that throughout human history our species has been describing the same thing from different angles. Whatever this phenomena is, it appears to be changing over time, evolving and advancing. Hinting at a form of intelligence. All of these encounters have similar themes, particularly in encountering entities with an interest in human sexuality and reproduction mechanisms. That fairies allegedly impregnated and abducted women or danced around in circles to fly into the sky draws more than a few parallels to modern UFO lore. While the case Hancock lays for these similarities takes up the first half of the book, it is in the second half of Supernatural where the mind gems really shine through.All human languages have a direct, exact, unvarying mathematical relationship between the rank of a word and the actual frequency of occurrence of that word. This relationship is known as Zipf's Law, named after linguist George Zipf and has proved to hold true for every human language. Oddly enough, when the non-coding regions of DNA are analyzed according to Zipf's Law a perfect linear Zipf Law linear plot emerges. In fact, the chemical "writing" of the non-coding regions of DNA appear to have all the features of a language, and may in fact be a language. Perhaps it is this language that ancient plant based sacrements tap into. Hancock brings to light the evidence that our interactions with `the other' could be enabled by ancient plant substances because these chemicals allow us to access information encoded in the 97% of our DNA we currently think of as `junk DNA'. Further work in this area was done by Dr. Jeremy Narby in his book The Cosmic Serpent, which Hancock touches on briefly, specifically regarding the presence of snake constituted helixes in nearly every culture. That the snake in mythology is often a reference to DNA.Since Hancock published Supernatural, the knowledge that Francis Crick discovered the shape of DNA while using LSD has become widely known. What is less well known is that Crick later published a book where he explains that DNA is so complex no mechanism of evolution could have produced it on this planet, concluding it must have originated elsewhere in the universe. Strangely, the mythology of many tribes in the Amazon tell the exact same story, of serpents falling from the sky and living inside us. While anthropologist Michael Harner ingested ayahuasca in 1961 he reported seeing, "dragon-like creatures that came to earth from deep in outer space after a journey that had lasted for eons." These dragons explained that they hid in the multitudinous forms life and that humans were the receptacles for these creatures. Similar encounters have been described by other scientists ingesting these ceremonial brews and ancient cultures are inundated with related stories. Hancock hesitates from drawing any sort of conclusion other than that these ancient myths and timeless sacraments may be far more interesting than we could ever guess. Personally I agree.Even stranger is that psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) is essentially orally active DMT, an indole compound with a phosphorylated functional group which exists nowhere else in nature. If this pattern exists nowhere else in nature, where could it have come from? What if the alien we've been searching for has been here inside us all along? A chilling prospect to consider, but after reading through Supernatural you'll be forced to confront this possibility in all of its grandeur.

Graham Hancock's journeys have taken him into some of the most inaccessible caves of Europe and to the farthest reaches of the mind in an attempt to answer the question: What happened around 40,000 years ago that changed humanity? Before this period in history there is little that we would recognize as modern human activities, but quite abruptly after this period, modern human behavior emerged. Hancock believes that this sudden change was the result of the widespread use of psychoactive plants. Hancock begins his guided tour into the Pech Merle cave in south-western France where, around 25,000 years ago, during the epoch known as the Upper Paleolithic, ancient artisans began to use the cramped, inaccessible, dimly lit, and damp walls of the caves as a canvas for their paintings of red ochre and black manganese. There, Hancock discovers many of the traditional scenes of hunters and game animals, such as woolly mammoths and bears, but there are also surrealistic drawings of animals with disproportionately small heads, cartoon type figures of fairly like humans, the "wounded man" paintings of humans pierced with arrows, and the half-man half- beast images, known as therianthropes that are common to much prehistoric art. It appears that around 40,000 years ago a symbolic revolution began in which humans began to be concerned with more than just survival. They began to ponder the after-life, gods, deities, and supernatural beings. Since our anatomy and genetic make-up have not changed in at least 200,000 years, it is the belief of Professor David Lewis-Williams and a growing number of anthropologists and paleoarcheologists that about 40,000 years ago religions sprang up as a result of the hallucinogenic visions brought on by the widespread ingestion of psychoactive plants. It is now a widely held view among scholars that these ancient cave painting were an expression of the psychedelic visions of shamans. Lewis-Williams, the architect of his neuropsychological model of cave art and religion has, since the 1980s, spent an enormous amount of time and effort defending his proposition. With so much invested, Graham Hancock was miffed that Lewis-Williams had never consumed any hallucinogenic products himself. Hancock felt that for the sake of research it was necessary to experience these substance first hand so he took it upon himself to become a psychonaut, and over the next few years began experimenting with ibogaine, psilocybin, DMT, and ayahuasca. By this time, Hancock was already familiar with psychiatrist Dr. Rick Strassman's research program at the University of New Mexico, in which he administered DMT (Di-methyl-Tryptamine), a highly psychoactive drug, to volunteer subjects in the early 1990s. DMT is one of the active ingredients in ayahuasca, a psycho-active plant used by the shamans in the Amazon regions of Brazil. The similarities of what was reported by Strassman's subjects and what has been reported by abductees in the UFO research field and seen in the shamanistic cave art from antiquity is remarkable. These visions included: therianthropes, (half man half beasts), bird-like creatures, threads of light, tunnels, stairways, spaceships, small humanoids about four feet tall with large heads and black almond shaped eyes, spaceships, insectoids, reptiles, and most importantly coiled serpents, a staple of most hallucinogenic experiences. Strassman's subjects were not satisfied with the explanation that these were mere hallucinations hardwired into the neural structure of the brain only to be released upon the introduction of a chemical substance. To them the experiences were too real. Nor, was Hancock satisfied. He points out that this reductionist viewpoint makes no sense either evolutionarily or culturally. Hancock began to wonder if it were possible that there is a message encoded on the DNA that is directly accessible with the introduction of psychoactive substances. It is an ideal place to store a vast amount of information that won't be degraded or compromised by the passage of time. But is there any evidence that such an encoded language exits? As it turns out there is no evidence for a language being encoded on the DNA that codes for proteins that run the machinery of life, but two separate tests applied to the so called "junk DNA" suggests that it is very likely a language. From here Hancock speculates on some of the surprising possibilities of whom or what left these messages for mankind. I took a chance of this book because of the high regard I hold for the author. As it turned out it was a real gem. I think it is Graham Hancock's most important work. This review by David Kreiter author of: Confronting the Quantum Enigma: Albert, Niels, and John (2011, Amazon)

Another tour de force from Mr Hancock. Read it with an open mind and you will be forced to admit, whatever your current world-view is, that reality is far more than what our everyday senses, and the present state of our science, represent to us. Mind is the key, and methods of accessing the true "mind" of Man is what this book is about. And more - Hancock demonstrates that once free of our ingrained shackles, Man is able to visit other realms/dimensions and interact with other beings. And that's just the general thrust: as you would expect from Graham Hancock the whole argument is diligently researched in great detail. For example, did you know that UFO phenomena and sightings of fairy-folk in the past amount to the same thing? No? Well I'm convinced. And - before you scoff, read it! Only complaint I would have is that at times the writer spends too much time on certain historical detail that could conveniently have been stored in an appendix, thus letting the reader follow the reasoning without becoming bogged down. Nevertheless, food for thought indeed! More mushrooms anyone?

Supernatural has perhaps the most revolutionary theory yet visited by Graham Hancock, essentially that Shaman trances, and altered states of consciousness are not just a mere trick of the mind, but are the alteration of the mind's power's of perception, enabling us to glimpse normally invisible spirit worlds.Graham Hancock must have known he would be going up against a very prejudicial and rigid scientific establishment, and has in turn buttressed his work with first class scholarship. The work covers several areas, which point toward a conclusion that the commonalities found in altered states leave little room for pure coincidence. This includes the ancient cave art found in Europe and Africa, the accounts of what is commonly believed to be Alien Abductions, other societal encounters of the spirit world, the nature of the activating catalyst DMT, and the evidence of shamanistic ritual and beginnings in various different religions. Hancock has also provided his recollections of his own experimentation with altered state inducing drugs, which are included at both the beginning and the end.Graham Hancock has delivered an excellent theory, solid, compelling evidence, first class research, a first class effort, but unfortunately, rather poorly edited. The section on caves seems to last too long, and although Hancock has worked hard in his research, one feels he could have made his point with fewer examples, similarly with the chapter on alien abductions.The work includes some interesting insights into the nature of DNA, and the possible supernatural origin of DNA, and pieces together as a comprehensive whole. Supernatural is by no means an easy read, and completing it can seem like a task at some points, but for anyone interested in research into spirituality, altered states, or shaman culture, Supernatural is well worth a read.

The cave painting section goes on for far too long in my opinion. Just keep pushing through it does end eventually and the book starts to become more interesting.Don't get me wrong at first I found the cave paintings fascinating but when it goes on and the same ideas are repeated for hundreds of pages regarding different cave sites... I really had to force myself to get through it. And then it is all summed up in a very nice and scientific way which I can agree with when presented with all of the evidence.And then it becomes really interesting and weird.It had it's ups and downs.

I found it excruciatingly boring.Might be ok for some who enjoy an argument .we have no junk DNA.we were 12 strand DNA beings and.able to commune on any level of consciousness.When we were dismantled,did we have to resort to using mind altering plants to connect with our spirit.There is no other,. we are all one.Try reading Patricia Cori's latest book for a real view of what we are and where humanity is going

He exposes theses that are far away from mainstream knowledge, but he does it with a masterful job of research and intellectual analysis.I gave him 3 stars because he mixed those theses with his own opinions, creating a potentially dangerous mix.He says that people should be allowed to experiment on drugs to penetrate other dimensions and find beings who may help them in finding deep truths.However, he doesn't stress how dangerous this behavior can be, while he shows plenty of evidence that it is dangerous. The beings he's talking about may not take it lightly being disturbed, and generally, they are the first to make a contact with you if they believe they can do something for you. In my opinion, you should never seek contact with them out of your own will, and avoid drugs altogether.Sometimes deep truths are just out of our intellectual scope, and trying to force our way into them may result in severe harm, not only in this world, but in thereafter.