Reading :: How to Change Your Mind

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
by Michael Pollan

Just a quick review of this NYT bestseller. Michael Pollan conducts a "personal investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs" (according to the blurb on the back cover). That is, Pollan examines the history of psychedelic drug use and research, seeks out and interviews contemporary researchers in the area, and also interviews those who clandestinely serve as guides for those who take psychedelics for various reasons. He also describes his guided and unguided trips on LSD, psilocybin, and toad venom. Along the way, he examines how psychedelics use might fundamentally change one's outlook on the world.

The book is engaging enough, although I confess it strengthened my resolve not to use psychedelics. 

Pollan is a popular writer, and as such, he allows himself the freedom to explore and entertain various ideas that his interviewees have. For instance, in examining the history of psychedelics in the mid-20th century, Pollan repeats an idea of one interviewee, which is that psychedelics are sent by Nature to guide us through a period of crisis (p.124). "Could that be why nature has sent us these psychedelic molecules now?" Pollan asks, apparently feeling no obligation to actually answer the question (p.124). To me, Pollan's asides sound strikingly like Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants, in which Kelly posits a teleological argument in which technology is evolving into a self-sustaining system. It's worth noting that Kelly is name-checked in Pollan's book (p.183) as part of the Whole Earth Network, a group formed in Silicon Valley by Stewart Brand after Brand's experiences with LSD. "How much does this idea of cyberspace, an immaterial realm where one can construct a new identity and merge with a community of virtual others, owe to an imagination shaped by the experience of psychedelics?" Pollan asks -- another question that he is content not to answer (p.183).

In all, I found the book to be a bit of a frustrating read. It posed more questions than it answered, it entertained many ideas without trying to reconcile them, and although it told me a great deal about the history of psychedelics, I'm not sure it taught me anything concrete "About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence," as the subtitle promises. But if you're interested in a lay introduction to the history and use of psychedelics, this book is a good place to start.