A Psychonaut's Guide to the Invisible Landscape: The Topography of the Psychedelic Experience

Very interesting read. A deep dive into the dissociative psychedelic world with a facinating and terrifying substance(dxm). Would recommend if you have an interest in psychedelics and dissociatives, and there mind expanding properties.

This book is a tremendous contribution to the canon of psychedelic literature.Do not be misguided by DXM’s use as a cough suppressant: the experiences Carpenter relates here are extremely profound. It’s not just descriptions of “organic technology, green plasma, The Spiral, the Hive, the shimmering crevices, the self-assembling Lego-block machines”—it’s also his experiences of ego dissociation, personality formation, emotion, memory, consciousness, relationship vs. individuation, Mind and thought, OBEs, life after death—the very crux of The Self, the Human. Written very accessibly, sometimes humorously, even emotionally.At times his sentences can feel slightly jumbled or disconnected—such is the nature of attempting to describe (and capture the essence of) the ineffable.It is true what other reviewers say, that the book is much less a guide than an annotated trip diary. (Someone pointed out that the publisher chose the title after the author’s death by suicide, shortly before publication…) So don’t expect any how-to’s.He does emphasize (echoing Terrance McKenna) the need for consistency and an open-minded, exploratory, almost scientific approach in order to navigate and map out these Other realms. Here he contributes to that very project faithfully and substantially.

I actually love this book. I relate so closely to his experiences and I'm irritated that kids are giving this mind-opening drug a bad name and refer to it as sizzurp, lean, robotripping...there are so many applications of this drug and honestly use it for meditation, introspection and shamanism. The author writes pretty well to boot.

The title of this book is misleading. It should have been titled "My DXM Experience" or some such. The word "guide" suggest that there would be recommendations. Given the extremely subjective nature of the psychedelic experience, any attempt to "guide" another psychonaut is pretty futile IMHO. I give the book three stars because the author does posit some interesting theories about consciousness. I would recommend buying the book used, or try finding it in your local library like I did.

I got this book and do not agree with any of the following statements that Daniel Pinchbeck made about it;"offer a serious contribution to contemporary psychedelic thought", "His work follows in the tradition of inner-space investigators such as..." & "This will be a `must-read' for every serious psychonaut.". I would love to hear how Daniel managed to reach those conclusions.I think the title is misleading as well, this book is not a companion work of the "Invisible Landscape" by T&D McKenna.So if the content of this book is not on par with the classics what is it? Basically each chapter is the recollection of 13 separate trips on DXM (cough syrup?).These recollections were not satisfactory in my mind, I did not experience the passion that might have resulted in the author having written this book.So far my experience of books that people have penned on this subject has been good, perhaps because they took the effort to make their experiences relevant in some greater context, or because the experiencing was incidental and the emphasis of the effort was on the greater context?I hope future attempts at similar efforts are a bit more inspiring.

I found the book to be quite interesting although scary at times to realize that the author was willing to leave his ego behind in search of the spiritual world and the inner workings of the mind. It was fascinating to read of his journey. DXM is found it cough syrups but the author used it in a powdered form which makes it seem a more logical way to use it if a person is so inclined to do it for exploration. The previous sentence is in response to the last person's review.

:-)

I really wanted to like this book. I've had some interesting experiences of DXM myself. Sadly, it rapidly became clear to me that DXM trips may be fun, but they are largely nonsensical. The tragedy is that trippers become convinced they've seen something profound, but which falls flat at the slightest rational analysis. Really disappointing book.