Subtitled "A Compendium of Phycho-Physiological Investigation," what you get in the Amok Journal’s SENSURROUND EDITION is a collection of reports, articles and general research on autoerotic fatalities, trepanation, Gualtiero Jacopetti, cargo cults, Neue Slowenische Kunst, self-mutilation and amputee fetishism, infrasound and a collection of true emergency room reports called "Psych-Out."

All of the material presented here is true. Some of it seems unbelievable but all the reports here are covering behaviors that these people were engaging in willingly (even some of the fatal ones) for the purpose of having some sort of heightened sensory experience. Nearly all of this behavior does NOT involve drugs, focusing more on altered experience through altered body state.

Not for the easily squeamish. Despite the extreme subject matter, this volume is highly intelligent and an amazing psychological peek into the fringes of human experiences.

Possibly the driest, greatest, wildest, unsettlingest book ever. I couldn't stop reading it and finished it in one sitting. My mind was reeling after. ( )

[Originally published in EST magazine, 1996]

It's hard to see that this is anything other than the sort of anthology carefully calculated to appeal to devotees of that ever-vague field, the "weird". Sure, Stuart Swezey's introduction tries to suggest the "pursuit of a neurobiological basis for mystical and ecstatic experience" as a theme, but this is just nonsense. Instead, the Amok Journal will appeal to all those assiduous students of the fringes of human behaviour, people who enjoy reading about extreme and unusual practices.

Apart from a lengthy interview with Gualtiero Jacopetti (director of the legendary Mondo Cane) and one with Laibach's Ivan Nowak (part of a section on Slovenian art movement Neue Slowenische Kunst), the book consists of reprints from other sources. A section on auto-erotic deaths reprints several studies of and reports on the phenomenon from psychological and medical journals. These are interesting as much for the detailed accounts of erotic asphyxiation as for the contrast between the dry scientific reportage and the comi-tragic nature of what is being reported.

A similarly uneasy disjuncture between reality and reportage adds interest to sections on self-mutilation and amputee fetishes. The pleasing scientific objectivity is echoed to some extent in a series of pieces dealing with self-trepanation (its very rare practitioners report better results than from taking drugs).

There's an all-too-brief section on cargo cults of the south Pacific, which hints at the incredible power of culture-shock to inspire influential new mythologies, but is really no more than a taster. There is even seventy pages of material on the effects of infrasound, both from the scientific and the religious point of view, to delight anyone who has spent long hours listening to the recordings of such groups as The Anti Group or Lustmørd. (It'll hopefully dispel much of the misinformation that exists too).

There's certainly some writing here that is best not read on a full stomach, but anyone with an interest in the topics featured will enjoy the Amok Journal. ( )