How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan: A Review
By Emily Johns
By Emily Johns
When I initially stumbled upon Michael Pollan’s latest book, I only read the first part of the title and quickly dismissed it as another well-meaning but ultimately trite self-help book. Who could blame me when the title led with How to Change Your Mind? Yet, a few months later, I once again stumbled upon this book while searching for new reading material during the isolating months caused by the one and (hopefully) only COVID-19 pandemic. This time, I read the whole title: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. I found myself equal parts interested and weary. As indicated in the title, Pollan uses his latest book to explore various facets of psychedelic drug research. As a Harvard student, I had heard about the dismissive ways in which students and professors spoke about Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychology professor in the 1960’s, and how his experiments and the controversy they caused undermined the legitimacy of the scientific and ethical approaches used to study psychedelic drugs. I also questioned how the author, a serious scientific writer and journalist, would approach a subject that has been clouded with so much social and moral controversy. Yet, just as Pollan artfully explores the culture and implications of the food we eat in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, he spares no details in elucidating how psychedelic substances can not only change your mind, but can even, if you let them, offer a window into your soul.
Pollan begins in the present, where he articulates the current state of psychedelic drug research. He uncovers the surprising fact that such research was not firmly halted after the counterculture that such substances were said to inspire in 1960’s America. The public banishment of lysergic acid diethylamide (known more commonly as LSD), psilocybin (AKA “magic mushrooms”), and other psychedelic substances was not absolute. Rather, it just forced the substances, as well as their users and researchers, underground. However, as the 20th century ended, a “renaissance,” as Pollan calls it, began: “A new generation of scientists, many of them inspired by their own personal experience of the compounds, are testing their potential to heal mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction” (Pollan, 2018, p. 3). Such a renaissance seemed almost too good to be true, yet I remained open-minded.
Pollan wastes no time before diving into the natural history of the substances, their natural and laboratory origins, as well as the potentially lethal consequences of mistaking other nearly indistinguishable little brown mushrooms called Galerina autumnalis for the “magic” variety. After a compelling description of his time studying and searching for psilocybin mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, he transports us back to 20th century America where he details the cast of characters involved in early psychedelic research, from disgraced Harvard professors to renowned authors of English literature to a peculiar undercover government agent. Along the way, he recounts psychedelics’ hailed entrance and prompt exit from the field of psychiatric treatment.
Then Pollan takes a bold turn—he reserves nearly 70 pages to detail his own, guided “trips” or experiences with LSD, psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic substance derived from toad venom. Pollan spoke of his mystical experiences in an expert and objective manner. I was impressed. I expected much more New Age drivel. I appreciated the risk such a serious author took in detailing these very personal experiences. Through these experiences, Pollan boldly suggests that the materialism which rules most individuals’ perceptions of reality is a thin and more than insufficient way to engage with the world.
Pollan drives this point home most intensely when he speaks of the incredible benefits of psychedelics for the dying, the addicted, and the depressed in broadening their awareness and improving their quality of life. One particularly compelling example is that of Patrick Mettes, a fifty-three year old news television director who, while dying of cancer, enrolled in a psilocybin research study at New York University (NYU). The idea of the research was to use psilocybin to mediate the emotional agony that accompanies a slow and inevitable death. During his psilocybin trip under the guide of NYU researchers, Mettes experienced alternating fits of laughing and crying, the perception of giving birth, a visual tour of his own lungs, and a brief death. Pollan (2018) notes that Mettes finished the session by reporting that he “touched the face of God” (p. 344). As far fetched and mystical as this experience sounds, the long-lasting therapeutic benefits from this session were equally, if not more, astonishing. For the last year of his life that followed his psilocybin trip, Mettes reported that he was finally able to live in the present rather than stress about his grim future. Most remarkably, months after his trip, as he was slowly dying of cancer, Mettes remarked “I am the luckiest man on earth” (Pollan, 2018, p. 347). Here, Pollan makes it clear that though the drug-induced experiences may seem bizarre and almost mystical in nature, the sustained therapeutic effects of the experience can greatly improve psychological well-being.
There is something in this book for the most interested and the most skeptical reader. How to Change Your Mind is the intense tale of psychedelic substances, covering their mycology, psychology, neuroscience, political and social history, therapeutic benefits, past dangers, religious meaning, ethical implications, and first-hand experiences. Pollan argues that the mystical experiences that arise from use of these substances and their therapeutic effects are not mutually exclusive. He expertly intertwines spiritual and scientific notions to produce a thought-provoking read that pleases both the skeptic and the zealous mystic.
About the Author
Emily Johns is a senior at Harvard College joint concentrating in Neuroscience and Classics.
References
Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us
about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. Penguin Press.
When I initially stumbled upon Michael Pollan’s latest book, I only read the first part of the title and quickly dismissed it as another well-meaning but ultimately trite self-help book. Who could blame me when the title led with How to Change Your Mind? Yet, a few months later, I once again stumbled upon this book while searching for new reading material during the isolating months caused by the one and (hopefully) only COVID-19 pandemic. This time, I read the whole title: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. I found myself equal parts interested and weary. As indicated in the title, Pollan uses his latest book to explore various facets of psychedelic drug research. As a Harvard student, I had heard about the dismissive ways in which students and professors spoke about Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychology professor in the 1960’s, and how his experiments and the controversy they caused undermined the legitimacy of the scientific and ethical approaches used to study psychedelic drugs. I also questioned how the author, a serious scientific writer and journalist, would approach a subject that has been clouded with so much social and moral controversy. Yet, just as Pollan artfully explores the culture and implications of the food we eat in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, he spares no details in elucidating how psychedelic substances can not only change your mind, but can even, if you let them, offer a window into your soul.
Pollan begins in the present, where he articulates the current state of psychedelic drug research. He uncovers the surprising fact that such research was not firmly halted after the counterculture that such substances were said to inspire in 1960’s America. The public banishment of lysergic acid diethylamide (known more commonly as LSD), psilocybin (AKA “magic mushrooms”), and other psychedelic substances was not absolute. Rather, it just forced the substances, as well as their users and researchers, underground. However, as the 20th century ended, a “renaissance,” as Pollan calls it, began: “A new generation of scientists, many of them inspired by their own personal experience of the compounds, are testing their potential to heal mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction” (Pollan, 2018, p. 3). Such a renaissance seemed almost too good to be true, yet I remained open-minded.
Pollan wastes no time before diving into the natural history of the substances, their natural and laboratory origins, as well as the potentially lethal consequences of mistaking other nearly indistinguishable little brown mushrooms called Galerina autumnalis for the “magic” variety. After a compelling description of his time studying and searching for psilocybin mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, he transports us back to 20th century America where he details the cast of characters involved in early psychedelic research, from disgraced Harvard professors to renowned authors of English literature to a peculiar undercover government agent. Along the way, he recounts psychedelics’ hailed entrance and prompt exit from the field of psychiatric treatment.
Then Pollan takes a bold turn—he reserves nearly 70 pages to detail his own, guided “trips” or experiences with LSD, psilocybin, and 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic substance derived from toad venom. Pollan spoke of his mystical experiences in an expert and objective manner. I was impressed. I expected much more New Age drivel. I appreciated the risk such a serious author took in detailing these very personal experiences. Through these experiences, Pollan boldly suggests that the materialism which rules most individuals’ perceptions of reality is a thin and more than insufficient way to engage with the world.
Pollan drives this point home most intensely when he speaks of the incredible benefits of psychedelics for the dying, the addicted, and the depressed in broadening their awareness and improving their quality of life. One particularly compelling example is that of Patrick Mettes, a fifty-three year old news television director who, while dying of cancer, enrolled in a psilocybin research study at New York University (NYU). The idea of the research was to use psilocybin to mediate the emotional agony that accompanies a slow and inevitable death. During his psilocybin trip under the guide of NYU researchers, Mettes experienced alternating fits of laughing and crying, the perception of giving birth, a visual tour of his own lungs, and a brief death. Pollan (2018) notes that Mettes finished the session by reporting that he “touched the face of God” (p. 344). As far fetched and mystical as this experience sounds, the long-lasting therapeutic benefits from this session were equally, if not more, astonishing. For the last year of his life that followed his psilocybin trip, Mettes reported that he was finally able to live in the present rather than stress about his grim future. Most remarkably, months after his trip, as he was slowly dying of cancer, Mettes remarked “I am the luckiest man on earth” (Pollan, 2018, p. 347). Here, Pollan makes it clear that though the drug-induced experiences may seem bizarre and almost mystical in nature, the sustained therapeutic effects of the experience can greatly improve psychological well-being.
There is something in this book for the most interested and the most skeptical reader. How to Change Your Mind is the intense tale of psychedelic substances, covering their mycology, psychology, neuroscience, political and social history, therapeutic benefits, past dangers, religious meaning, ethical implications, and first-hand experiences. Pollan argues that the mystical experiences that arise from use of these substances and their therapeutic effects are not mutually exclusive. He expertly intertwines spiritual and scientific notions to produce a thought-provoking read that pleases both the skeptic and the zealous mystic.
About the Author
Emily Johns is a senior at Harvard College joint concentrating in Neuroscience and Classics.
References
Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us
about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. Penguin Press.