Tripping Toward the Mainstream
Psychedelics are having more than a Moment. Michael Pollan’s
new book – about how science is harnessing the power of a trip – hit No. 1 on
the New York Times bestseller list this weekend, a flashing sign that the
altered-state substance psilocybin (found in psychoactive mushrooms) is going
Mainstream.
The turning point is a pending Stage III clinical trial of
psilocybin-assisted therapy for anxiety in terminal cancer patients. Yes,
that’s a mouthful of a story, but not when told by a master of weaving facts
and experience together like Michael Pollan. He achieves this heady blend in How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches
Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.
Pollan blends history, current research, and immersive
journalism in his own vivid trip reports – the interactive how-to heart of the
book. One incident involves taking mushrooms on his own, another time he ingests
LSD, then on a separate occasion he downs bits of a psychoactive Sonoran
Dessert Toad, and finally in a group gathering he is introduced to the
Amazonian plant brew ayahuasca.
True to the sweep of the topic, he credits trailblazers like
LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann, renegade researcher Timothy Leary, and Doors of Perception author Aldous Huxley,
the literary godfather of psychedelics and the subject of my own recent book, Aldous Huxley’s Hands: His Quest for
Perception and the Origin and Return of Psychedelic Science.
Those three and others like Stan Grof were active prior to
the 1970s ban. Bridging to the present, Pollan interviews key figures in the
science of psychedelics (which some prefer to call entheogens or hallucinogens),
including Stephen Ross of NYU, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins, Charles Grob
of Harbor-UCLA, Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College, London, and others.
Pollan’s is not the first book to pull all this together but clearly the most accessible
and timely.
One big takeaway is his lucid account of how psychedelic-assisted
therapy works: In a clinical setting, after taking a dose of psilocybin, the
subject experiences a radical disruption of habitual thinking, the latter known
as the default mode network (DMN), and this disruption allows a change of mind.
Patients often report undergoing a spiritual experience. Multiple studies are showing
how a marked percentage of patients break through mental constraints of
depression or obsession or alcoholism. On the other hand, legalization of wellness
applications such as for enhancing creativity remains on the far horizon, while
recreational use thrives underground.
Which brings me back to the immersive part of the book. Except
for his first mild solo trip, Pollan is shepherded by underground guides of
good repute. This is another important takeaway. I’d compare it to any risk
sport (here, risky not in terms of addiction but behavior) because, especially
if you are a novice, it’s important to trek with an experienced guide.
Speaking personally, I am a veteran of the first-wave of
psychedelic users, having taken LSD several times in the early ‘60s during
college in San Francisco. Usually I tripped with a friend who was an
experienced guide, but one time I took a dubious dose alone with an almost
disastrous result when I ended behind the wheel of a car. Luckily, I went on to
indulge in other acid trips without incident.
Reading How to Change
Your Mind, I found Pollan (who has written several bestsellers about food
and the botanical world) most excellent company. I came away with new insights about
a field I covered in my own book published three years ago, Aldous Huxley’s Hands. Above all, I was
struck by how, in the hands of an author like Pollan, the subject of
psychedelics is roaring into the mainstream.
