Dunstable Free Public Library

How to change your mind, what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence, Michael Pollan

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 439-446) and index

contains biographical information

illustrations

index present

non fiction

How to change your mind

bibliography

1006811060

Michael Pollan

what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence

When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began an adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research

Prologue: A new door -- A renaissance -- Natural history: Bemushroomed -- History: The first wave -- Travelogue: Journeying underground -- Trip one: LSD -- Trip two: Psilocybin -- Trip three: 5-MeO-DMT (or, the toad) -- The neuroscience: Your brain on psychedelics -- Psychedelics in psychotherapy: Dying, Addiction, Depression -- Going to meet my default mode network -- Epilogue: In praise of neural diversity