How to Change Your Mind (2019)
What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
Michael Pollan
rating fantastic
type nonfiction/journalism audiobook
concepts
psychology public-health
- Psychedelics (focus on LSD and Psilocybin) first discovered in 1940s, became really popular in the 60s, condemned in the 70s, then experienced/experiencing a renaissance since the 90s
- May disrupt neural pathways involved in perception, so allow people to experience a more "childlike" and raw version of the world
- Dependent on set (mindset) and setting (environment)
- Have been used to treat all sorts of things... even eating disorders
- Both derived from MUSHROOMS
- Mushrooms = "apples" of a fungus (seeding organ)
- Why would fungi produce chemicals like this? What is the evolutionary reason? Probably not defence mechanism, because not in mycelium but fruiting body, which is less likely to be defended. May actually offer some perceptual or cognitive advantage or source of variation to certain animals!
- Romantic scientists (Humboldt, Goethe, etc.) look at nature as more interaction, reciprocal, co-evolution; from POV of the organism, which requires imagination and subjectivity; vs. the specialised professional scientists today.
- Time under psychedelics can be interpreted as simply the result of drugs, but also a valid experience that you have...
- Seems to induce lots of the "genius" thought modalities: observing, pattern forming and recognising (fractals), empathising, abstracting, transforming...
- Induces sensation beyond language
- Common thread between most people's experiences is disillusion of ego
- All psychedelics are tryptamines (endols, five and six-carbon rings joined together, common in nature as signalling molecules like serotonin)
- Serotonin reacts with several receptors all over body; including brain and digestive tract -> different responses depending on context
- Relevant receptor to psychedelics is 5-HT2A, common in cortex; LSD is more attracted to it than serotonin!
- How is this all connected to consciousness? How to explain mind in terms of material?
- Surprisingly, psilocybin decreases brain activity (blood flow), especially default mode network (= DMN), which is active when there is no mental task at hand (stream of consciousness?, theory of mind, self reflection and such — even when we get likes on social media!)
- Repression of DMN -> increased "entropy" in brain, which is also a more childlike state (Alison Gopnik -> kids are basically tripping all the time); less expectation to go on; more "high temperature" searches (take more energy, but source of "variation," also a concept in machine learning)
- Treatment with psychedelics interrupts the DMN, which can be overactive and lead to rigid thought and behavior patterns (depression, OCD, eating disorders, addiction), so it can "reset" this and introduce flexibility!
- Dissolves boundaries between self and others
- Ascribes more meaning to everything - perhaps because DMN repression allows new connections between neurons to take place
- Important to note that this is all psychedelic-ASSISTED psychotherapy, not just the psychedelic (because importance of set and setting)
- Posterior singular cortex = node in middle of DMN, links prefrontal cortex with centres of memory and emotion in hippocampus
- Generates narratives of who we are
- Psychedelics expand the repertoire of available states of consciousness