How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018)

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018) was written by Michael Pollan after curiosity and a personal desire to experience psychedelics for himself prompted exploration into psychedelic research. Pollan uses multiple forms of narrative to weave a story that’s part history, part memoir, part biomedical nonfiction, and part travelogue. The book follows the history of LSD and psilocybin as well as Pollan’s own personal experiences with LSD, psilocybin, and The Toad; these anecdotes supplement the historical and scientific content within the chapters.

How to Change Your Mind begins with a detailed history of the first wave of psychedelic research and its subsequent fall. It then looks into how psychedelics were discovered and came to be a cultural phenomenon, highlighting important figures who made the molecules so far-reaching that they came to be considered as medical treatments. Pollan then gives us insight into his first few psychedelic experiences, in as vivid detail as he can provide. He closes the book with a primer on the neuroscience behind psychedelics and how they are being used in medical treatment as recent as 2017, one year before the book was published. Pollan also provides thorough descriptions of people’s experiences using psychedelics to treat depression and addiction, and end-of-life anxiety in terminal cancer patients.

How to Change Your Mind is a book about the importance of the reemergence of psychedelic research and the many passionate people who seek the betterment of others through use of psychedelic substances. Pollan’s investigation into psychedelics leads him to conclude that ego, specifically ego death, is central to the spiritual experience and that psychedelics can combat the rigidity that ego keeps us in.