Book Freak 170: How to Change Your Mind
Michael Pollan's personal journey into the world of psychedelics
Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind explores psychedelics' potential to change our view of consciousness and mental health. Pollan mixes history, science, and personal experiences to show how LSD and psilocybin help treat depression, addiction, and existential distress.
Four key ideas from the book:
Psychedelics can occasion profound, transformative experiences
"For most of the volunteers I interviewed, their psilocybin journeys had taken place ten or fifteen years earlier, and yet their effects were still keenly felt, in some cases on a daily basis. "
Psychedelics may help in confronting mortality
“Several cancer patients described edging up to the precipice of death and looking over to the other side before drawing back. Tammy Burgess, diagnosed with ovarian cancer at fifty-five, found herself peering across ‘the great plane of consciousness. It was very serene and beautiful. I felt alone, but I could reach out and touch anyone I’d ever known. When my time came, that’s where my life would go once it left me, and that was okay.’”
The potential of psychedelics in addiction treatment
"Six months after their psychedelic sessions, 80 percent of the volunteers were confirmed as abstinent; at the one-year mark, that figure had fallen to 67 percent, which is still a better rate of success than the best treatment now available."
Psychedelics can change personality
“A psychologist on the Hopkins team crunched the survey data produced by fifty-two volunteers, including follow-up interviews with friends and family members they had designated, and discovered that in many cases the psilocybin experience had led to lasting changes in their personalities. Specifically, those volunteers who had ‘complete mystical experiences’ showed, in addition to lasting improvements in well-being, long-term increases in the personality trait of ‘openness to experience.’”
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