How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan

How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics

by Michael Pollan

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Psychology & Mind

Pollan was known for writing about food. Here the subject is LSD and psilocybin, promising research drugs in the 1950s and 60s until Timothy Leary and the counterculture provoked a backlash and prohibition, and you follow their revival before he takes guided trips himself.

Core ideas
  • The quieted self: Psychedelics dial down the brain's default mode network, linked to your sense of self, which neuroimaging researchers associate with ego dissolution.
  • A session or two: Studies with terminal cancer patients facing existential distress and smokers trying to quit typically use one or a few guided sessions, and Roland Griffiths is among the researchers.
  • Risk, sorted: Old fears like chromosome damage don't hold up in his account, though unguided use carries real risks.
Published2018
Pages480
ISBN9780241294222
ReadMay 2023

Connected to 8 other books

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