Advanced Praise

“This is a book on the biggest sort of thinking––from personal to societal––written by an author with an eye for what matters, an ear for story and a mind for the sublime."

David Eagleman, Neuroscientist at Stanford, author of Livewired

"I have a feeling that like most readers, I'm closer to those who have lost the rapture than those who live in it. Luckily for us, Jamie Wheal has laid out what sounds like a fun and accessible path to reclaiming the ecstasy that makes life not merely worth living, but possible in the first place and sustainable in the long run."

Douglas Rushkoff,
Author of Team Human and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus

“The death of belief has led to a collapse of meaning, and many of us are looking to neuroscience and psychology for inspiration and understanding. Wheal knows that peak states bring about deep healing, and he is here to deliver. This enrapturing book not only details various drivers of our cultural evolution, it becomes one itself.”

Julie Holland, MD,
‍Author of Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection From Soul to Psychedelics

This book is about a big idea.

And the idea is this:

Slowly over the past few decades, and now suddenly, all at once, we’re suffering from a collapse in Meaning. Fundamentalism and nihilism are filling that vacuum, with consequences that affect us all. In a world that needs us at our best, diseases of despair, tribalism, and disaster fatigue are leaving us at our worst.

It’s vital that we regain control of the stories we’re telling because they are shaping the future we’re creating. To do that, we have to remember our deepest inspiration, heal our pain and apathy, and connect to each other like never before. If we can do that, we’ve got a shot at solving the big problems we face. And if we can’t? Well, the dustbin of history has swallowed civilizations older and fancier than ours.

This book is divided into three parts.

1. Choose Your Own Apocalypse
2. The Alchemist Cookbook
3. Ethical Cult Building

Part 1. Choose Your Own Apocalypse

The first, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, takes a look at our current Meaning Crisis –– where we are today, why it’s so hard to make sense of the world, what might be coming next, and what to do about it. It also makes a case that many of our efforts to cope, whether anxiety and denial, or tribalism and identity politics, are likely making things worse.

Part 2. The Alchemist Cookbook

Applies the creative firm IDEO’s design thinking to the Meaning Crisis. This is where the book gets hands on –– taking a look at the strongest evolutionary drivers that can bring about inspiration, healing, and connection.

From breathing, to movement, sexuality, music, and substances –– these are the everyday tools to help us wake up, grow up, and show up.

AKA –– how to blow yourself sky high with household materials. And the best part? They’re accessible, by anyone anywhere, no middleman required. Transcendence democratized.

Part 3. Ethical Cult Building

The final third of the book, Ethical Cult Building, focuses on the tricky nature of putting these kinds of experiences into gear and into culture—because, anytime in the past when we’ve figured out combinations of peak states and deep healing, we’ve almost always ended up with problematic culty communities. Playing with fire has left a lot of people burned.

This section lays out a roadmap for sparking a thousand fires around the world––each one unique and tailored to the needs and values of its participants. Think of it as an open-source toolkit for building ethical culture.

“Can humanity survive today’s exponential world change? Doomsayers say NO––we’re flying blind in the spiraling collapse of civilization. But Wheal offers us a savvy, intriguing and novel roadmap to self-renewal. And it’s packed with literary, cultural, historical and biological references as well. You won’t forget this gem––it’s a fascinating read.”

Dr. Helen Fisher,
‍Senior Research Fellow, The Kinsey Institute

"Recapture the Rapture offers an invaluable roadmap for transformational consciousness and culture. It reminds us to let the "Mystery stay the Mystery" while giving us practical tools to harness our healing, reclaim our inspiration and connect to each other for the road ahead."

Rick Doblin,
Founder and Executive Director, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

A highly personal, richly informed and culturally wide-ranging meditation on the loss of meaning in our times and on pathways to rediscovering it, from breath through psychedelics––a search fueled by Jamie Wheal’s boundless curiosity and commitment to transformation.

Gabor Maté M.D.,
Author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts and Close Encounters With Addiction

Calling all HomeGrown Humans

For podcast episodes, recommended readings, premium video content, and other goodies that hint towards the concepts in the book, visit our hub at homegrownhumans.us

Check it out

This apocalypse has been made far more complicated than end-times usually are, but Jamie lays it all out clearly in a logical sequence that navigates the complexities with rigor and merciless wit. He is one of those writers who frustrates my desire to make disparaging generalisations about non-Indigenous thought!

Tyson Yunkaporta,
Author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, Apalech Clan

Recapture the Rapture is both a hymnal and an operations manual for the party at the end of the world-as-we-know-it. Wheal is a Galaxy Class hedonic engineer, and the DIY transformative tech he serves up here is rooted in science and deep exploration. Unlike so many lifehackers, though, Wheal doesn’t get stuck in the optimized self, but weaves that self into the Infinite Game of collective meaning-making and earthy ethical culture. The cure for spiritual bypassing and conspirituality is not more mindfulness, it seems, but a redemptive and mutant religiosity that dives into the deep end of our contemporary catastrophe.

Erik Davis,
Author, High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the 70s

The way forward, argues Wheal...is to rediscover and reinvent our humanity in radical ways that places community, respect for ourselves, the planet and the human species at the center of our strategy for survival; and it’s a strategy that can work for everyone.

Dennis McKenna,
‍PhD, Ethnopharmacology, Author Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss and The Invisible Landscape: Mind Hallucinogens, and the I Ching

"In his rhythmic prose, Wheal crafts a fool-proof formula for transcendence. And the kind of sacraments here, at the end of history, that could spawn the much-needed recognition of our shared humanity. A mystical balm."

Brian C. Muraresku,
Author, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

Recapture the Rapture

Rethinking God, Sex and Death in a World That's Lost its Mind