How to Change Your Mind The New Science of Psychedelics

I feel like I learned a lot from this, and while I enjoyed this is your mind on plants a bit more, this one felt more “done”, more cohesive. the structure of the book felt like a completed arc— the first section on history of psychedelics, including their legal status and cultural impact, the second on the author’s personal lived experience taking three different psychedelics, and the third on the brain science and theory behind how psychedelics work in the brain and what that might mean in using it for treatment of certain mental illness. the author’s style was very up my alley, and I personally enjoy a mix of the scientific and interpersonal. I found this fascinating and I think more people should read it!

Not quite as good as the Omnivore's Dillema, but great nonetheless. Michael Pollan explores psychedelics. As someone who has never used them before, and has viewed himself on the conservative side of the spectrum, this will be an interesting experience for him. Michael delves into the history of psychedelics, it's rise and fall from the mainstream. Taking these drugs seems to have some incredible effects when given to patients, retirees, ext and mostly in a good way. The history of the drugs includes figures such as Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor who widely pushed the drug on the public. Overall, psychedelics seem to have a universal change to the structure of the mind, after usage, in which there is less action in the Default mode network and the subconscious takes root. There is large amounts of intercourse, if I may, between several regions of the brain. Accessing this state requires the letting go of the self, the ego. Practicing meditation is another way to reach this fantastic state, where curiousity and love abounds and a deep wonder and love for the beauty of the world is rekindled. There seems to be an increase in the plasticity of the brain as well, leading to increased openess, and if you didn't guess it, a method to change your mind.

Interesting science and history with compelling implications. A smooth read.

3.7 I enjoyed the first 2 and the last 2 chapters the most (the history of psychedelics and the science of psychedelics). The stuff in the middle like the vivid description of the author's trips, while necessary for the book to feel cohesive, can be skipped entirely. IMO it is like seeing a ghost or witnessing a miracle. You won't get it until it happens to you. Some concepts I found very intriguing (Eg. default mode network). Though it all makes a lot of sense which makes me skeptical. I was cautious. Now I'm _very_ curious.

I skimmed some parts, as I have done enough drugs to not need any of Pollan’s convincing. This is like good but not enthralling reportage with some erowid reports in the middle. Still, I’m glad a middle of the road pop science book about psychedelics exists, and Michael Pollan does a better job than most with the task.

Additional comment 1/9/2019: I've shared this review with non-Goodreads friends and got a bit of side eye. So I'd like to share some context. I have never taken LSD or mushrooms, or for that matter any non-prescribed drug other than a minuscule amount of pot in college. So my point here is not to promote psilocybin because I use it, because I never have, but rather to provide a review of a very interesting book. How to Change Your Mind is an investigation by journalist and writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Botany of Desire) into the history, use, and benefits of psychedelic compounds. I probably would have passed over this book had I not previously read Omnivore’s Dilemma; I know the quality of Pollan’s research and writing, and that convinced me to give this book a try. I’m glad I did! It turns out that most of what I thought I knew about psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD (the pharmaceutical version of the mushroom) is wrong. LSD and psilocybin have been illegal in the US since the ‘60’s, and are classed (along with heroin) as a Schedule 1 illegal drug. As Pollan describes in his book, the idea of LSD or psilocybin as dangerous is mostly an artifact of ‘60’s anxiety about the counterculture rather than being based on actual evidence of danger from the drug / mushroom. Psilocybin is not addictive, and the number of “bad trips” resulting in injury or death is vanishingly rare. The major concern about psilocybin use is for people who have psychotic tendencies or schizophrenia, because in a few cases the drug may further unhinge them. Many of the reasons that were cited to categorize LSD / psilocybin as a Schedule 1 illegal drug are simply without factual basis. For instance, one claim, which I remember from my youth, is that LSD “damages chromosomes”; there is simply no evidence for this. Pollan reviews, at length, the history of the drug, and the research done on LSD in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, and he shows that scientists then believed that LSD was a promising treatment for depression and addiction. Unfortunately, most of this research was filed away or flushed when the government made LSD illegal and cut off research funds, and even before that scientists were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the promotion of LSD by Timothy Leary and others as a recreational “consciousness-expanding” drug. And yet, expansion of consciousness is apparently one of the real values of psilocybin / LSD. Pollan describes the experiences of many, many peoples’ “trips”, including his own, and the words various people use to describe the experience are remarkably similar: a description of diminution or elimination of the ego; a visual review of their lives, sometimes meeting long-dead relatives or friends; an overwhelming feeling of love and empathy toward other people as well as toward plants and animals; and in some cases the feeling of meeting or being one with “God”. Pollan delves deep into the biological basis for this effect, and the general sense is that the drug increases neuroplasticity on a temporary basis, though some of the effects last for months or longer. Pollan expands upon this later in the book, explaining that the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, which allows rapid processing of new information based on prior experience, is temporarily off-line, and so each new experience, whether it is seeing a leaf, or an insect, or a person, seems as new and wonderful or strange as it would to a young child. Hallucinations also occur, as is well known. And all of the above might be interesting reading with a sort of “so what?” conclusion, if not for the evidence of some truly astounding results in improving outcomes in a number of otherwise intractable conditions. In a study involving smokers who wanted to quit, use of psilocybin resulted in an 80% cessation rate. For those of you who have known smokers trying to quit, this is amazing, to say the least, and it is a better result than any other known approach. Among people suffering from “treatment-resistant-depression”, results appear to be equally high compared to other treatments. A preliminary study of alcoholics treated with psilocybin showed >50% success. One of the most moving stories in the book is about the use of psychedelics to treat anxiety among those with cancer. In many cases, people simply lost their fear of death, and in others it was greatly reduced, and this allowed the cancer patients to have a much better and loving engagement with loved ones, and an improved quality of life as the end grew near. And why does this happen? It appears that the experience of ego dissolution allows people, during, and for a while after their trips, to view themselves truly objectively, while enhancing their love and empathy toward others. The answers people gave to the question, “what happened?”, seem banal or obvious, but they gain profundity through the changed behavior of the post-psilocybin-using patients. When one person who quit smoking was asked how she could do it, she said, “Smoking was no longer relevant”. Others said things like: “I could see now that this was bad for me – so why would I continue?” All these were things that they knew intellectually prior to their trips, but after the trips they knew and they believed. Other effects cited by Pollan, though harder to quantify, are increased creativity, renewed interest in one’s career, and increased love and empathy for others. Pollan makes an enlightening comment about some of the more obscure assertions of 18th & 19th Century writers about transcendence, trance-like states, etc. – maybe they were achieving an ego-less state via meditation, breathing exercises, or some other trance-inducing mechanism; perhaps even psychedelic substances. The same goes for some of the more obscure statements in the Bible, like God speaking from the burning bush. This could have been a psychedelic experience. Almost all cultures have some sort of substance that brings on psychedelic experiences. As the NYT points out: “You don’t necessarily need drugs to enter this strange, egoless realm of consciousness: Near-death experiences, meditation and fasting can get you there, too.” But the psychedelic drugs get people there reliably. Many people, after their trips, begin a meditation regimen which allows them to partly regain the ego-less state and some of its benefits. Experienced meditators, observed in scientific studies, exhibit similar brain function as people who take psilocybin. All in all, this is a very interesting book, highly recommended. Psychedelics are beginning to be studied again at various universities, so I expect we will hear more on this subject in the coming years. P.S. The only reason I did not give this five stars is that Mr. Pollan, god bless him, really does go on at length about certain things that could be dealt with more succinctly. But I love that he has obviously done his research.

A fascinating journey through the rise, fall and re-discovery of psychedelics by Michael Pollan. He is honest about his learnings, interviews and experiments. If you've wondered what all the fuss is about and want a non-spiritual take on alternative states of consciousness, then I highly recommend this book. It didn't convince me to try out the drugs mentioned but left me hopeful that we can learn more about the models our brain builds to understand, survive and thrive.

A very hopeful book about the newly nascent science of psychedelic-assisted therapy, which has the potential to revolutionize how we treat many ailments of the soul, including depression, addiction, and to allow people to deal with their impending death. I don’t think I can come up with a better person who could’ve written this, the writer was around 60 before doing mushrooms for the first time which makes his experience more valid than that of some 20-year old kid. This book also just wants me to do psychedelics again so it’s about time I order some truffles.

Fascinating read on developing treatments in the medical field.

Great review of the science and spirituality of psychedelics and the modern history of their use. I like the author's descriptions of his own personal "trips" and appreciated that he started off as a skeptic. Interesting to see where the study of psychedelics takes us in the future.

Not a very scientific analysis of the effect of psychedelics. Pollan is convinced that true meaning is found through their use, rather than brain misfirings attaching the "eureka feeling" of the brain to random thoughts. All you can really say from this book is that many psychoactive drugs appear to have no directly harmful effect on humans, and thus should be removed from the list of schedule 1 drugs (US) where they were placed during a Nixonian drug scare. It's certainly interesting to hear others' hallucinogenic experiences, and how some of them may have resulted in shaping the culture of Silicon Valley, but a lot of the stories fall into the same tropes. I'd be much more interested in hearing more about medical and therapeutic uses than recreational, and I think Pollan misses the opportunity of opening the debate on non-medical use of these and other drugs, and the right of an individual to have autonomy over their own nervous system.

did not finish reading this book. it's interesting but the length is really intimidating and I'm just not in a place to slog through a long ass nonfiction book. A bit dry IMO which was a let down. I also already renewed it twice from library and had to return it. Maybe one day I'll pick it up again!!

From the 1950s through the 70s, academic and pharmaceutical research into the potential benefits of psychedelics were not uncommon. Read this for an extensive, through history—from "discovery," popularization, cultural impact, and eventual demonization—as well as the potential benefits in exploration today. However, for me, reading other people's descriptions of their "indescribable," transcendental experiences is like dancing about architecture: it becomes quite the chore. Here find not just one, but perhaps dozens of in-depth attempts to describe the ineffable. Interesting at first, tedious by the end. Recommended with reservations.

Fascinating but a slow going read for me during these pandemic times. I loved the research and I hope the medical establishment doesn't rule out the possibilities of psychedelics to help with depression, addiction and more.

One of the most well written books on a truly profound subject

Rating: 8.3/10 Really liked this one. I've always been interested in the psychedelic experience and the deeper meaning behind altered brain states and this book singlehandedly addressed all of my curiosities about the topic. Although we're starting to hear a bit more about it in mainstream culture, I had no idea that the resurgence of psychedelic research has been going on for several years now. Pollan does a great job of breaking the book into multiple sections: the past, present, and future of LSD research, his own experience and psychedelic journey, and the neuroscience behind this unbelievable hallucinogen. It got a bit boring in parts and it didn't help that I spread this book out over several months. He definitely did his due diligence when it comes to research and unfortunately, this makes the book a bit dry, especially when he takes the time to name almost every researcher or scientist involved in a particular narrative. Despite these shortcomings, Michael Pollan has made me eager for further developments in the field of psychedelics and presented stunningly positive impacts of this often-maligned substance.

A fascinating look at the history of psychedelic drugs in the scientific and university environments, and within indigenous groups, plus some real-world field trips (pun intended) taken by the author with well-known guides.

Really enjoyed this, but I'm a big fan of Pollan in general. Some parts dragged a bit, and I would have enjoyed a little more focus on the "sciency" part. But overall, love that this topic is being brought more attention by some of the more "main-stream" writers like Pollan, as I think we'll see the use of psychedelics become more acceptable for treating things like depression and PTSD (not to mention the benefits for those who take them recreationally, as part of a spiritual journey or "awakening" - not the folks who use them to have a good time).

I love that this book demistified psychedelics for me. It was very interesting and informative, but after a certain point it felt repetitive.

A great intro into the world (universe) of psychedelics. Meaning that it's best to read before you venture out.

Keeping it real. Psychedelics. Need to know. Time to evolve.