This Is Your Mind on Plants

Michael Pollan takes a further journey into the affects of substances on one's body and mind in This is Your Mind on Plants. The author's writing has morphed from food culture to natural drug culture to some extent and this book is a look at three more substances of interest, Opium, Caffeine and Mescaline. One of those is a bit of an odd man out but the overall book does each topic some justice. Each topic is an essay on a personal experience/experiment with the subject and is a look at both cultivation and preparation as well as the effects it has on the body and mind. Overall a quick and interesting read on both the culture of enforcement and how it has changed in the country in the last 20 years as well as a scientific perspective on the substances being discussed. One remarkable thing about the book is that it illustrates the intrinsic accessibility of opium and mescaline to the motivated horticulturist. In particular the trade of seeds is significant and the use of the plants is broad enough that the ability to extract mind altering components from plants is rarely their large demand base. The poppy is a gardener's favorite for its beautiful flowers and trade in poppy seeds is not a criminal offence. The author describes the fine line between cultivation and preparation and how the law is both clear and ambiguous as to how it should be interpreted. One thing that comes out is that enforcement is a matter of the political climate rather than consistent application. The author goes through his journey on preparing poppy's his discussion of some cases where a subject became the target of law enforcement to their extreme regret and how the author put himself at risk by even approaching the subject as a journalist. Overall the use of opium through human history is quite vast and it has soothing attributes, though obviously heroin and oxycodone are clear examples of the extreme danger that comes from opiate addiction. The storytelling is solid and the common sense approach the author brings is refreshing. The author moves on to caffeine which is a bit out of place with the other two topics but the author approaches the topic scientifically and historically by giving a historical account and doing a study on himself where he deprives himself of coffee after decades of dependence. Its entertaining and the account is informative though the conclusions are unclear as to whether coffee is detrimental to sleep to a degree that it is long term damaging relative to the benefits one gets from its alertness properties. The author also tackles mescaline and in particular looks into the culture of peyote and its ceremonial use in native American culture. The account is interesting and the challenges he was faced with in witnessing peyote being used in ceremonial terms is a reminder of how hippie culture can clash with the cultural desires of the original users. The preparation and complexity to preparing peyote is discussed so one gets a sense of its feasibility and difficulty but the experience is described well and definitely sounds like something worthy of trying. Overall this is in line with the style of how to change your mind where the author takes a subject which is a bit taboo (certainly less so these days) and does a study of it for a middle aged audience perspective. He does another good job and with it brings in the culture of enforcement and its changes over the last 20 years with his personal story of opium as a prime example. It is easy to read and entertaining though less informative than his previous books. Its enjoyable and the author does a good job, though i think further mileage out of examining how your mind is altered by substances is probably limited.

Mr Pollan has a writing style that is accessible and informative. He is a good writer of scientific material.

The section on opium I'd mostly read before in an earlier publication, but it was pretty appalling how the Clinton administration and DEA hounded Hogshire over telling the truth about poppy plants. The caffeine section was historical and also gave accounts of his own experiences trying to quit using caffeine, one of the most addictive drugs but one approved by the power structure for increasing labor productivity. The mescaline section was to me the best, describing the political situation with the peyote-using Native American Church, some insights into the Peruvian San Pedro cactus, and his own experience with synthetic mescaline. The mescaline effects he describes are pretty accurate based on my own experiences 50 years ago with the drug--less overwhelming and disorienting than LSD with a warmer, clearer trip. Although a self-absorbed and privileged Pollan shines through in all the autobiographical descriptions, it's worth reading in my view.

Such a FUN book -- and we need fun! great science and history

I am a fan of Michael Pollan anyway. This new book is also fantastic, as are so many of his. Very informative and enlightening.

've really enjoyed all of Michael Pollan's nonfiction books that research botany, food, our brains, and how they influence each other. The first I read was The Botany of Desire, which was quite amusing in a fascinating way, but his latest book, This is Your Mind on Plants, reads like a rehash of that former book. I actually became impatient and skipped half of the first section and some of the third. His last book, How to Change Your Mind, was fascinating too, but I was hoping for something different with this new book. It felt like more of the same. There's nothing wrong, of course, with digging into a topic for the innards, but I don't quite share Pollan's fanaticism with the mysteries of mostly inaccessible plants. Here he has three sections, for poppies that make opium, coffee and tea beans, and peyote cacti that has mescaline. I began the section on his illegal growing of poppies in his 1990s' garden, shared via a 20 some year old essay he'd found and fully restored, with some amusement. Then it just dragged and I saw no reason to keep reading. I'm sure the entire experience with the DEA was amusing to him, though. The same thing with the last section where he desperately sought a psychedelic experience during the stress of the pandemic and California fires. He was told by a Native American friend that the best way to respect something out of your culture is to leave it alone. He found another teacher who had a little Native American in her. I'm not saying that nothing good came out of his healing ceremony with peyote, but he wasn't much affected by it and only his wife felt a breakthrough in a spiritual burden she carried. For him it was little more than doing something cool, in my opinion. The most compelling of the sections was the middle one about caffeinated plants. Some flowers even draw more bees by adding caffeine to their nectar. This was great stuff. He abstained from coffee and green tea for three months to be able to write about caffeine's \effects on our brains. It was not only interesting research, but amusing to read of his caffeine withdrawal, despair, and maniacal reaction to his first cup again. To put it briefly, he convinced me to try coffee again and make it an acquired taste s I can get my friggin' editing done... It'll all be amusing to a new Pollan reader, no doubt and some fans. Middle section was great, though.

Accounts of experiences from Pollan, Stamets, Morris, traditional practitioners, researchers and numerous others help us to understand what the effects of these organisms are when administered in various physical, emotional and spiritual contexts. But in my mind, each also provides a piece of the answer to the question, “Why do these plants exist at all?” My knowledge of the psychedelic experience is limited. But I also know that the molecules responsible for these experiences fit very specific receptors in the brain. So why do these organisms, which have been around longer than humans, contain the very specific compounds that allow users to experience the world in such an expanded way? Were they waiting for us to find them and figure out how to use them correctly? Michael Pollan provides important pieces to the possible answers to that question.

I would have given this 5 stars until the last chapter, a disappointing hodgepodge of pop spiritualism. The first two sections of the book, on Opium and Caffeine, are informative and humorous. It was the third section on Mescaline that disappointed.

Lúcida e autêntica reflexão sobre drogas que nos tornam dependentes, cada uma com seu nível de comprometimento do organismo humano. O autor é valente a ponto de servir de cobaia para desmames e referir as consequências num testemunho convincente e alarmante.

This book strikes a great balance between being really accessable and readable, but also really interesting and informative. I quite liked it.

Excellent overview

Love this book, a fabulous reed

Primero, el físico me importa, y creí que la pasta dura era tal cual en la imagen, pero no, es solo una cubierta que tiene pocos días y ya se estropeó, y sin ella el libro, al menos físicamente no me agradó. En cuánto al contenido creo que el título es engañoso. Habla de opio, cafeína y mescalina, pero por el título, esperaba más.