What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness

I was particularly interested in the potential breakthrough of treatment for mental illness in its many manifestations. I am hopeful society as a whole is now receptive to the appropriate and monitored treatment of psychedelic treatment and that this offering will become available for all who are in need of help.

Found this story fascinating. Just be prepared as it is a mashup of history of the early research into psychedelics, a report on the current state of professional and popular attitudes, and his own personal journey to experience them despite his fear born from the disinformation campaigns of the late 60's.

In a well-researched, engaging and informative exploration of psychedelics, Pollan delves into spiritual, clinical, economical and societal aspects of the use of psychedelics. Interweaving his own experiences with well-cited research, he provides an excellent narrative of the evolution of the research in this field, the accompanying philosophical schools of thoughts, and a down-to-earth appraisal of some of the elements via personal experience. This makes for not only an informative read, but also paints a realistic picture of the risks and benefits involved in wider acceptance or use of psychedelics for treatment and/or recreational/spiritual reasons.

"Trips" associated with various types of drugs form one of the major chapters - these narratives are not overly romanticized or judged - in fact the neutrality and inquisitive tone is reflected in another key chapter in the book that talks about three specific use cases of "trip treatments" - end of life care, addiction treatment, and depression. Pollan outlines key issues in defining treatment protocols using these chemicals very succinctly - the limitations of current blinded studies, the focus on pharmacological interventions alone, the inability to verify the authenticity of patient feedback/comments in therapy, the suggestibility of the care providers and the drug itself, etc. These two chapters alone are well worth the read. Added to these two core chapters, others explore the key personalities, scientists, organizations involved in this domain and a somewhat linear narrative of the scientific and political/legal milestones in this domain. One also gains a greater appreciation of Eastern philosophies that have traditionally identified "ego" and "attachment" as key issues leading to distress.

Pollan largely succeeds to keep the reader engaged throughout the book, though it is not without its dry sections, especially when they start talking about the key opinion leaders; nevertheless, the rich references, first-person accounts, and a non-judgemental exploratory approach to the subject is well worth the read. (It will enable a reader to create one's own science-backed BS meter to navigate the political drama that accompanies some of these topics)

Michael Pollan exhibits the old rule that most people are afraid of three things or at least one or two of them . 1) Death 2) other people or animals 3) their own mind . In this book he definitely exhibits fear of Death and his own mind constantly and fear of people to a degree that he has to have proof or credentials that would satisfy an academician. He basically rehashes the history of LSD and Sacred Mushrooms without adding anything new but just uses it as a filler . His new “ information or knowledge “ is a collection of what is available at reset.me or maps.org or on Roland Griffins John Hopkins on You Tube or just google Magic Mushroom research. Nothing he writes of his own experience shows any insights to the Rituals and Ceremony of taking an Enthogens. The best you can say is that a lot of people who like his other books that were more original might read this assembly of tired old information covered by other people far better. I. E. Storming Heaven or other similar books and hopefully his natural audience will find out about much better books . Sacred Mushroom Rituals, The Search for the Blood of Quetzalcoatl a 300 Page 81/2”X11” Color Book and Kindle version of ORGINAL NEW INFORMATION will be available before September 2018 . Wait for that book before you buy this book if you plan on consuming Sacred Mushrooms

Another reviewer suggests that this would be a good book to jump around in reading a section here or there. If that was the author's expectation it explains what is a particularly repetitive book. Actually the text is two books interfiled, a superficial yet extensive historical survey of research into psychedelics and Pollan's own muddling through his decision to take these drugs himself, under what safeguards, and with what results. There could have been more of that and the result would have been a confessional memoir. We actually see the wheels turning as Pollan weaves his own story into his reportage. The second book, the historical survey focuses on a medical model of people giving other people psychedelics in the hope of mediating addictions, depression, and fears of mortality. We could call that "in order to" tripping. The practice of taking drugs for kicks or as sacrament is largely ignored.

A larger problem may be laid to Pollan's admission that he is a "stone-cold materialist" who has never had a spiritual experience. In a way, which amounts to cutting open the goose that lays the golden eggs, we are repeatedly shown that the import is not in a description of the subjects fantasies. Pollan recognizes the consensus reports that what one experiences while taking psychedelics is "ineffable," indescribable, nothing but goose guts, but ignores the folly of reporting accounts of the details of many people's trips. Imagine that. What subjects call the most profound experiences of life rendered boring.

I loved following Pollan on his journey into psychedelic medicines. It's a readable and informative overview of a topic that has been suppressed for way too long. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in not only psychedelics, but to anyone interested in healing mental suffering.

Michael Pollan again delivers. He combines a factual history of psychedelic compounds, the current state of research and a cast of colorful characters to create an informative, entertaining and easy to read work.

While some may have knee jerk positive or negative reactions, which reflect their personal history or moral position on psychedelics, anyone with an open mind will enjoy this book both as entertainment and as education. Pollan differentiates science from opinion, puts his personal opinion in plain view, and delves into the more "out there" theories with skepticism but respect.

Highly recommended.

How to Change Your Mind? A: Take psilocybin, LSD, or other psychedelic drugs.
How do I obtain these drugs legally in the USA? A; You can’t, except as a subject in some study.
How to Cook a Brontosaurus Burger. 1) Take 1 medium brontosaurus.

I felt that much of the information presented is already well-documented and well-known.

I love the description of the woman who confronted her fear of cancer. Pollan sees how the mind keeps us in a prison programmed from childhood. The yogis and other self-realized people can escape the ego without drugs. The rest of us are looking for a way.

Reading Michael Pollan’s new book called How To Change Your Mind which is all about the renaissance and resurgence of psychedelics as a healing medicine.

I’m in the middle of it now and he’s done a FABULOUS job documenting the history of psychedelics. I’ve learned a LOT about stuff I didn’t know. And I’ve read quite a bit about that history. Plus he’s an incredible writer.

But I find myself swearing and spitting at least every other page at his white, male, close minded, judgmental, provincial attitudes about healing, the inner life, shamanism, altered and expanded states, mystical experience, spirituality and anything that isn’t scientific materialism.

He even gets snotty about something as simple and basic to the healing process as the concept of holding space.

My husband is getting kind of tired of me walking around muttering “ Michael Pollan is really pissing me off. Again. “

I’m in the second part of the book where he begins to talk about his own experiences with journeying. I’m hoping that he’ll make some internal shifts due to having done some personal work with the medicines. But I’m not holding my breath.

All that being said, I think the book is useful in that it is bringing the work with psychedelics out into the public eye in a way that other more conventional types of folks may be able to relate to.

And he IS respectful of the work that has been done on the medical front helping people with addictions, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, etc. I just wish he could have extended that respect and have been a LOT less snarky to the brave folks who continued to do this work with psychedelics and didn’t just bail when the dominant culture decided to repress them.

And he still pisses me off.

Michael Pollan’s book, How to Change Your Mind, is replete with all kinds of interesting anecdotes and observations about the history, folklore and seeming effects of psychedelic drugs. However, the author’s fluency covers up a number of serious flaws, omissions and misstatements. As an example, he states that the edited book by C. Tart, Altered States of Consciousness, made “a tremendous impression on Paul,” but he failed to mention that my opening chapter by the same title in that book, defining the characteristics of these states, conflicted with many of his observations about psychedelics. Most important, for all his seemingly scholarly references, he completely omitted to mention the results of perhaps the largest, federally funded research project comparing the effects of hypnodelic therapy, psychedelic therapy and hypnotherapy to placebos on chronic alcoholics (A. M. Ludwig, J. Levine, L. Stark, LSD and Alcoholism, 1970, Chas. C. Thomas, Publ.). This study won the Hofheimer Award, given annually by the American Psychiatric Association for outstanding research. In brief, what this two-year follow-up study (plus several previous articles) showed was that although the patients receiving hallucinogens claimed greater subjective improvement than those receiving placebos, they were comparable on all objective measures (e.g., legal difficulties, social problems, employment, marital problems, relapse, etc.) to those receiving placebos. In other words, psychedelics contributed no significant improvement in their overall behavior. Also, Pollan’s book made no mention of prior actual studies dealing with the use of LSD in the treatment of drug addiction.

Aside from this omission of critical information, the author’s interpretation of the major effects of psychedelic drugs is questionable. After his experience with the drug, he appropriately stated, “Psychedelics can make the most cynical of us into fervent evangelists of the obvious.” One of his great insights after taking a hallucinogen was, “Love is everything.” Nice. But what he does not emphasize is that psychedelics also can make users fervent evangelists of the PREPOSTEROUS. Unfortunately, the author of the book does not adequately distinguish between “true” meaning and the artificial or false sense of meaning. Just because something seems very real or profound to someone does not make it true. A paranoiac’s delusion proves the point.

A fascinating account of the benefits of metanoia, what traditional religious practices used to be quite familiar with, but we have since forgotten and must now present as a 'science'. Alas, such a sordid boon! I would have liked to have seen more discussion of the religious perspective along the lines of Huxley's 'Perennial Philosophy', it is worth having the perspective of the teachers of the last few thousand years, as the autistic savants of science yet again attempt to understand why depression is an inevitable result of the scientistic worldview.

Like some other reviewers, I am "experienced" as Jimi Hendrix would say.

Also like some other reviewers, my experiences were in connection with actual bona fide medical treatment for depression. Albeit anecdotal, my treatment with sub-clinical (low dose) IV Ketamine was absolutely transformative. Now, mind you, my doctor would assert that the metaprogramming aspects of my infusions (I focused on, among other things, asking to be repaired while listening to selected music) derive from the bounty of the placebo effect, and that the actual mechanism of my vast improvement comes from Ketamine's repair of dendrites. Who's correct? Who cares. (I think both mechanisms work synergistically.)

What I *know*, is that for me at least, Ketamine was a last resort and it did for me what dozens of other medications over many years could not. Although unfortunately, the effects of an individual infusion tail off over several weeks, I experienced a robust aggregate improvement over time that, candidly, I did not expect nor even imagine possible. I credit Ketamine with giving me my life back at a time when I had come to terms with the "fact" that I would suffer from debilitating depression for the remainder of my life.

Yes, psychoactive substances, both Rx and "illicit," can be abused and do great damage. But rejecting any beneficial use out of hand is like banning all knives because they can be used to slash and stab, without acknowledging that scalpels are indispensable in medicine.

Thank you, Mr. Pollan, for turning your considerable skill set to the subject of this book, and hopefully, fostering a wider much-needed discussion. And your cover is very evocative of what Ketamine did for me--I was stuck down in a dark place and Ketamine literally changed my mind, showed me an opening to the world I used to inhabit before depression, and even elevated me to inhabit that world again. I recall that after an early infusion, I walked home acutely aware of the beauty of the afternoon sky. You got it just right.

Pollan’s book brings to a popular audience a case for a renewal of at least research into the effectiveness of LSD and psilocybin for therapeutic uses, and potentially for the “betterment of the well” (what is usually called “recreational use”).

The history of LSD and psilocybin is inextricable from the sixties, the counter-culture, and the political and cultural backlash against the counter-culture. But, as Pollan shows, therapeutic trials of LSD during the 1950s had already shown significant promise in the treatment of depression and alcoholism, among other conditions. Early pioneers, starting with Albert Hofmann, were hardly counter-culture figures — they were pharmaceutical researchers, attempting to find effective treatments for widespread problems.

In some ways, it’s unfortunate that the two substances became such centerpieces of the counter-culture. They may well have substantial therapeutic value, but of course that’s not what they became known for. For many people, they became symbols for rebellion and resistance to traditional American culture and institutions. Timothy Leary’s championing of LSD made him “the most dangerous man in America,” in the words of Richard Nixon.

LSD and psilocybin (or more simply, magic mushrooms) became symbols, probably much bigger in symbolic significance than their use and results would merit. They were symbols of free-thinking, open-mindedness, rejection of the values associated with the war in Southeast Asia and the mentalities of competition, careerism, and the fifties “organization man.” The backlash was inevitable.

The backlash tarred the substances with what now appear to have been propaganda scare campaigns about people falling into horrifying addictions, jumping off buildings, suffering genetic damage, going insane by overdosing, . . . I remember all of this stuff, growing up in the sixties. People were genuinely afraid of LSD and mushrooms, that you took a real chance of never coming back if you tripped.

The backlash was moral in tone as well — it was as if the entire traditional American culture felt the need to defend itself against a mortal threat. Absolutely no good could come of an experience with mushrooms or acid.

We live in a different time now, and maybe Pollan is right to advocate a renewal and re-examination of LSD and psilocybin. We’re in the midst of addictions of all sorts at epidemic levels, including not just the old standards of alcohol and tobacco, but we have a new headliner in opioid addiction. If psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin really do have the therapeutic potential Pollan cites, it’s a shame to have buried them under a cultural backlash (and possibly just as much a shame to have promoted them, as Leary did, as a panacea for a culture gone wrong).

Pollan goes to some length to try to explain what the physical and chemical effects of psychedelics are, and why they might have effective therapeutic uses. In big terms, they help us to break behavioral and psychological patterns, to experience what life presents us with a fresh outlook, rather than fitting everything that comes along into entrenched patterns of interpretation and response that may have rigidified destructive coping strategies — feeding paranoia, depression, and addictive behaviors.

There is much more than anecdotal evidence to support the claims of therapeutic promise. Studies of psychedelics have gone on, in muted numbers, despite the legal and cultural clampdown. Studies include trials with patients as well as studies of how the substances work within the human brain, how they affect patterns of neuronal connections.

Of course, therapeutic use is only half the story. And Pollan is sympathetic towards, if not the “recreational” value of psychedelics, their use to enhance the lives of healthy people — the “betterment of the well.” Pollan himself, as part of the story he tells about the history and potential of psychedelics, has guided, controlled experiences, not only with LSD and psilocybin, but with other substances said to produce similar effects — mystical experiences of egolessness, oneness with nature and other people, the wonder of existence and the physical universe, . . . — the very types of experiences that excited the cultural backlash in the first place.

Setting aside mystical experiences, the same breaking of behavioral and psychological patterns that could benefit those suffering from depression or addictions could, at least in principle, benefit others as well — what one of the researchers Pollan interviewed (Robin Carhart-Harris) calls “shaking the snow globe.” Pollan includes a good discussion of Carhart-Harris’s and others’ thoughts on neuroplasticity, entropic brain theory, and other attempts to characterize the effects that psychedelics could have on otherwise healthy minds.

One of the interesting, and misunderstood, things about LSD and psilocybin is that they don’t themselves produce the content of your experience while using them (hallucinations, if you want to call them that), as if the chemicals composing them were to produce the content of experiences in your brain. It is more that they allow your brain to function differently, different neuronal connections, producing different experiences than you normally have.

And it is the experience that affects you, not the drug per se but what the drug enables. Thus the importance that Pollan stresses of controlling and guiding the experience — the “set and setting” — and the role of guides or therapists who are trained to help keep the experience on the rails.

The danger that Pollan reflects from those involved in research on therapeutic uses is that any mention of anything sounding at all like “recreational” use will raise the dead from the cultural backlash to re-demonize psychedelics. So there is tension between those who advocate the “betterment of the well” and those who don’t want to risk legalization for therapeutic uses by talk of “recreational” use.

The story that Pollan tells of course is incomplete. We don’t know the outcome — whether legal restrictions on substances like LSD and psilocybin will be relaxed, trials will ramp up, etc. There does, at least by his account, seem to be renewed interest, maybe in both therapeutic use and in the “betterment of the well.” We’ll see — given the damage done in the cultural backlash, it’s an uphill battle. LSD is a drug (psilocybin has on its side that it is a naturally occurring substance), and drugs that alter mental functions are, on the one side, rightly looked upon with caution in therapeutic use for side effects, etc., and on the other, branded with the same selective cultural stigma that all “recreational” drugs are hit with.

Pollan is a journalism professor, so he knows how to write for a popular audience. I know the style he adopts here flies well — he has the success to show for it, and the book certainly flows easily. It’s honestly not my favorite journalistic style. To me, it harkens back to Tom Wolfe — the first person experience as journalism but with an atmosphere of awe at the people and events the writer is witnessing and participating in. It’s the style that I got very tired of in Wired magazine, where every article seemed to present itself as a bigger than life revelation of something incredibly significant and impressive going on in that unremarkable building down the street. But that may be more about me than Pollan. Obviously, lots of readers aren’t bothered.

Michael Pollan has written the conservative boomer's guide to the current world of psychedelic drugs. Admittedly a bit of a square in his early years, (he threw out his sacred stash of magic mushrooms) he decided to break the confines of sobriety and confront the anxieties of aging and death with a new perspective. An admitted Skeptic, Pollan was able to find renewed spiritual awakening through his recent experiences with mushrooms and LSD. Seeing the light himself, Pollan admits most tepidly that these drugs MAY be useful to confront a "failed" mental health industry and PERHAPS MIGHT relieve the modern hominoid left stranded in the spiritual vacuum of capitalism's wake.

Pollan shines as a careful researcher and his history of LSD is sure to be a resource for years to come. His main concern is that we repeat the follies of the past, where a rigorous scientific community was disrupted and disbanded by a charismatic madman, Tim Leary. However, Pollan dismisses Leary's sense of historical duty while advocating for "scientific" use of psychedelics. Leary saw the Cold War Capitalist culture as fundamentally flawed and called for an actual revolution led by future seeing psychonauts. Whether or not you too want to burn the system, to dismiss Leary as a crazed egoist is a bit of a cop-out.

Pollan's desire to limit availability of psychedelics to promote the scientific plodding that largely confirms the results published over the past 60 years places him firmly in the conservative camp. Radicals on the other hand, guided by the confidence of their psychedelic truths, are prepared to overthrow the existing Knowledge, just as they were before the government and media engaged in a full scale propaganda attack on the movement during the Nixon era.

The recent scientific interest in psychedelics, combined with an active internet pscyhonaut community has led many to believe we may be approaching another "moment" for psychedelic mainstream. Pollan will miss out on this, as will many of the other boomers featured in the book, who hope to confine the drug induced glories to their carefully planned research grants. IF we expect history to repeat itself, enthusiasm for the drugs will be led by the Youth, who again face the stern resistance of the Status Quo.

Akin to your grandad writing a book about hip hop culture, this is the ramblings of a conservatively minded journalist dipping his toe into a world in which he is uncomfortable. It's certainly thorough on the history of psychedelics - repetitively, tiresomely so - but without any new insight or revelation for those that have dabbled. Especially irritating is the fact that he does three trips TOTAL (mushrooms, LSD and a half-hearted attempt at Toad where he clearly doesn't take enough to get the true experience) and thens writes ad nauseum about his unremarkable experiences. I got both the hardback and the audiobook. Audiobook is completely insufferable with his nasal whine, so stick to paper.

I loved pollens food rules and omnivores dilemma, but this book feels like a boomer trying to reconnect with others in their 60s over the good old days of psychadelics rather than really investigating the modern revolution happening now. It's happening in ayahuasca circles and with MDMA in private ceremonies, which are not covered at all in this book. How can you write about psychadelics and skip DMT entirely? I expected a cultural and scientific framing of what's happening today, not some rehash of the ancient grandfathers of psychedelia from the 60s. A single trip to burning man would yield 10x more (updated) info than this including personal experience without the fear of anything quasi spiritual. Unless you're Michael Pollen, of course. Going to new age facilitators instead of actual cultural practitioners is an amateur mistake. You couldn't have gone to see an actual curandero instead of some 60s relic in the bay area? He couldn't have included cultural context and ceremony? What cultural ceremony was there smoking desert toad? No wonder that was not a fulfilling spiritual experience. Excluding both ancestral and cultural wisdom of plant medicines as well as the modern practices in favor of stale 1960s historical rehashing is not a book about the revolution of psychadelics. This was an opportunity to speak to his huge audience about all the NEW things happening (iboga studies! Ayahuasca, Hapé,Changa!) I thought he would really investigate - travel to Panama and try Yopo....but mostly there are interviews with people from university studies. Also he apparently thinks it's important to talk about Timothy Leary a lot. Like every chapter.

I've always wondered how psychedelic drugs work. These were the only drugs I was tempted to take, but never did because of the horror stories I heard about them. The book cited research into the fact these horror stories came from problems relating to misuse or contamination as well as political reaction to those who urged people to tune in and drop out. I listened to the audiobook to satisfy my curiosity, but ended up most satisfied by learning of the research into how these drugs could be used in treatment of depression, anxiety and other conditions. Now I feel it is important for the therapeutic community to abandon their prejudice against the substances and give them another look.

Right now I'm ordering a "real" book so I can use it as a reference. The last part of the audiobook listed a lot of research being done on how the brain responds to psychedelics as well as how one can achieve similar effects with breathing practices and meditation. I've been meditating for years and discovered the parallel between its effect on my life and the positive responses patients had to LSD and other compounds. The drugs aren't a substitute for meditation, but can encourage them to make the changes in their lives that will lead to greater peace of mind.