Thoughts on How to Change Your Mind

Michael Pollan wrote a really special, thought-provoking book about hallucinogens (primarily mushrooms and LSD), with their histories, a bit of the biological effects on the brain, and the impact that they can have for certain people as well as society at large.

I think, first off, everyone should read this book because of the fascinating impacts that psychedelics can have. It’s obviously everyone’s own choice of whether to indulge or not, but this book can help you understand more about what the drugs do and their potential impact.

There were studies where ~70% of those that had taken described the experience to be the most interesting/impactful/memorable (all in positive ways) in their life. Even 20–30 years after the fact. Whether or not you decide to try it, reading the book to understand if you might want to for the potential of one of the most meaningful experiences you might ever have? I’d argue it’s worthwhile to at least consider.

Throughout the book, Pollan pulls from a variety of both new and old research as well as personal experiences and conversations that he had with others who had taken either mushrooms or LSD.

A few interesting numbers and anecdotes coming from the book (for example)

• 70% of people that took in a particular study said it was the most interesting experience of their life (as mentioned above)
• One guy named Al Hubbard introduced 6,000 people to LSD between 1951 and 1966 (400 people per year, aka >1 each day)
• The song Come Together by the Beatles was written for this guy Timothy Leary’s campaign for governor. Leary was a huge proponent of psychedelics and marijuana and his campaign was largely motivated to promote them
• There are studies that show taking mushrooms in the right set and setting can help ~70% of cigarette smokers get over their habit for good
• LSD is currently in stage 3 for medical testing to become a prescription drug for PTSD among other things.

In the book, Pollan also gets into their histories and why they became so stigmatized by society. He talks about the tangible impacts to the brain and how these drugs can help people see things in a different way.

He discusses a few hypothetical theories as well including:

• The link between psychedelics and the rise of Silicon Valley — which he has compelling evidence to support
• “Stewart Brand did 100 micrograms of LSD and sat on top of a roof in San Francisco. Perched there, he looked toward a curved horizon and imagined the spherical Earth and just how limited resources on our planet are. Out of that psychedelic drug-induced vision, he developed the Whole Earth theory. He campaigned for NASA to release satellite images of the Earth, and created the influential and generation-defining Whole Earth Catalogue” -> it, arguably, lead to the first ever images of the Earth from space.

The real impact

Pollan is 60 years old and tripped on a few different drugs as he was writing this book. He shares about his experiences doing so which was insightful.

There is huge amounts of science behind all of this, but in short, the idea is that these hallucinogens open up different regions of the brain that we typically close off in order to function better as humans in society. It allows people to see the world through different perspectives and with a greater sense of vividness. It can spark creativity both of the outside world and also shed a new perspective on internal issues. It can make the brain more flexible and open to see things from a fresh perspective — hence why it has been so successful helping smoking addicts get over their addiction.

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There is plenty more tied up in the book, but it is overall a great read with interesting insights and was a page turner for me.

Thoughts on this review/the book in general? Comment or send me a note :)

Full reading list here