This Is Your Mind on Plants
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This Is Your Mind on Plants

Michael Pollan ā€” 2021
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: people around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. We don't usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So then what is a drug? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs -- opium, caffeine, and mescaline -- and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and such fraught feelings? A unique blend of history, science, memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively -- as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that's one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay written more than 25 years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.
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Photo of Susan
Susan@itzzuzan
3.5 stars
Mar 27, 2024
Sweet
Vibrant
Original
Feel good
Remarkable
Fast paced
Refreshing
Light hearted
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Sachi@sachi
4.5 stars
Dec 27, 2023
Candid
Educational
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Lord Aragorn@lordaragorn
4 stars
Feb 19, 2023
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Keven Wang@kevenwang
5 stars
Feb 4, 2023
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Vanessa Arenas@varenas
2 stars
Oct 31, 2022
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Nate@wiredfractal
4.5 stars
Apr 4, 2022
Cerebral
Paradoxical
Controversial
Inspirational
Thought provoking
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Laura Mei@thelibrariansnook
4 stars
Feb 24, 2022
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Hooman Askari@hoomanaskari
5 stars
Jan 20, 2022
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Loren Botica@lozbot
3 stars
Dec 31, 2021
Educational
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Piet Terheyden@piet
4.2 stars
Dec 19, 2021
Honest
Eloquent
Easy read
Sophisticated
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Madison@madisonfrye
3.5 stars
Oct 5, 2024
Insightful
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Trip Dunham @trippyd
3.5 stars
May 26, 2024
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Ethan Dorn@ethandorn
4 stars
Feb 22, 2023
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Martin@mrtnmgs
4.5 stars
Oct 28, 2022
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Elizabeth Jones@emariet20
5 stars
Sep 6, 2022
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Trinity Vorm@trinityviera
4 stars
Aug 30, 2022
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Adam Becker@adambbecker
4 stars
May 6, 2022
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Justin@justinreist
3.5 stars
Mar 29, 2022
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Karolina@fox
3.5 stars
Mar 19, 2022
Offbeat
Refreshing
Intelligent
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Aaron Long@along
5 stars
Dec 29, 2021
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Denis@denis
4.5 stars
Jul 13, 2021
Powerful
Delightful
Page turning
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Henry Stromberg@hstromberg
3 stars
Jul 30, 2024
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Andrew Reeves@awreeves
4 stars
Jul 5, 2024
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William Buller@tuttifruttikid
4 stars
Mar 21, 2024

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