Don't you just love Goodreads? I certainly do. Months ago, while looking at a book, I noticed it had been read and reviewed by Bill Gates. Since he qualifies as a person whose reading list I would love to see, I pushed the "follow" button, and now I get to be able to say: Have you read Educated? I loved it, and so did my Goodreads friend Bill Gates. While this alone would have been worth following him, there does also seem to be a good sized chunk of overlap on the Venn diagram of my friend Bill's and my reading interests.
Consequently, when one day my Goodreads feed said he was reading How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, I was intrigued. The rest of the title is: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. This piqued enough interest for me to pick it up and start reading. My expectations were incorrect in that there was more about psychedelics and less about the lessons about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression and transcendence than I assumed and hoped. Even though this reduced personal relevance, Pollan's talent as a writer and the interesting history of psychedelic research kept me intrigued enough to keep reading.
I have personally never used a psychedelic substance, and did not know any more about them than your average rule following thirty something. Though The Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is one of my favorite classics, I have never read The Doors of Perception. As a literature major, it was fascinating to read about Huxley's role in the history of psychedelics in America.
Pollan gives a fairly in depth history of each of the major psychedelic compound, which was interesting from both a scientific and anthropological standpoint. He writes about key characters and their contributions in his well honed literary voice which made me see them as real people that I had feelings about. I wanted to hang out with Paul Stamets, and throw things at Al Hubbard, both probably bad ideas. His analysis and conclusions are both enthusiastic and sceptical. He does his best to examine issues from multiple perspectives, which gives the impression of coming from not so much a desire to be an impartial investigator as an innate tendency toward critical thinking. This disposition to look for the whole truth, even the parts of it that don't fit neatly into the narrative, makes him come across as a valid reporter. At the same time, I would not in any way guarantee Pollan's reporting to be perfectly objective, but I will be the first to tell you that entirely unbiased thinking is an unachievable, though worthy goal.
Conclusions from recent studies, science behind how the substances actually work and potential and obstacles for future therapeutic use are the least entertaining, yet probably the most useful part of the book. Some of the lessons are actually valuable in our understanding of consciousness, depression and brain function even without any future use of psychedelics. This last information was exactly what I was hoping to gain and what the title promised, though it was ultimately a small part of the overall result. I would not be surprised if I learned that the title was given before the book was finished and that the final product is significantly different from the original objective.
The biggest things that have changed for me after reading this book: I have an increased understanding of the hippie movement and the drug hysteria that ensued, a renewed interest in meditation, a curiosity about shamanism (religion being an enduring interest), and a budding fascination with mushrooms in general (you guys, they're really cool).
