Michael Pollan – Psychedelics – How To Change Your Mind

Michael Pollan is an award winning author, activist and journalist, named by Time magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world.

For 25 years he has been writing about the intersection of nature and culture, selling millions of copies with his best-sellers The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defence of Food and Cooked, which is now successful Netflix series.

Pollan’s new book How to Change Your Mind, dives deep into the world of psychedelics, through meetings with shamans, magic mushroom hunts, and using yourself as a guinea-pig, he takes the readers on a journey to the frontiers of the human mind.

Chapters:
00:00 Trailer.
03:58 Brian’s thoughts on the episode.
06:41 Brian’s introduction.
07:19 Getting to know the diverse community of people in London interested in research into psychedelics.
09:02 London Real’s virtual introduction into ayahuasca for Michael.
12:28 Why Michael decided to have his own ayahuasca experience despite cautionary voices.
18:53 Guidance before psychedelic experience, influence of music during and integration afterwards.
26:40 Having a bad or challenging trip.
28:15 Make intelligent decisions about set and setting. Legalisation for medicinal use but not recreational.
33:20 America’s legalisation for medical marijuana is not the path being taken for psilocybin
36:35 The use of psilocybin for the dying.
45:10 How Michael came to understand what deep spiritual connections are.
50:55 The ego is not what we think it is; how he is incorporating what he has learnt into his daily practise.
55:51 The effect on society of the use of psychedelics.
1:02:11 The investigative elements he brings together to get a whole picture in How to Change Your Mind.
1:03:16 Surprising reaction to his book: he thinks we are in an inflection point now.
1:09:30 Did he consider the big pharmaceutical companies reaction to his book?
1:14:40 Why Michael thinks people like his writing.
1:18:40 How he writes.
1:25:11 Great writers he admires.
1:27:26 What scares Michael.
1:29:06 What we would be surprised to learn about Michael.
1:31:00 Two big concerns that keep Michael awake at night.
1:35:01 Phone call to the twenty-year old Michael.
1:36:54 Success secrets.
1:37:37 Brian’s summing up.

Notes:
Michael Pollan website
https://michaelpollan.com/
Michael Pollan on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/michael.pollan/?hl=en
Michael Pollan on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Michael-Pollan-125708780820038/
Michael Pollan TED talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view
Netflix – Cooked
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80022456
Michael Pollan on Wikip1 dia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan

Books:
How to Change Your Mind
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Change-Your-Mind-Psychedelics/dp/0241294223
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Omnivores-Dilemma-Perfect-Fast-Food-reissued/dp/1408812185
In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating: An Eater’s Manifesto
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Defence-Food-Nutrition-Pleasures-Manifesto/dp/0141034726
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooked-Natural-Transformation-Michael-Pollan/dp/0141975628
Tomorrow Never Knows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjvdZm-Tu8
The Botany of Desire
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Botany-Desire-Plants-eye-View-World/dp/0747563004

Topics discussed:
Burning Man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man
Ahahuasca – ready to die
https://londonreal.tv/e/ayahuasca-ready-to-die/
DMT Before and After
https://l https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_U.S._jurisdictionondonreal.tv/e/dmt-dimethyltryptamine-before-after/
Psilocybin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin
Paper Lion by George Plimpton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Lion
Johns Hopkins University
https://www.jhu.edu/
5-MeO-DMT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-MeO-DMT
The Psilocybin Solution
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psilocybin-Solution-Sacred-Mushrooms-Meaning/dp/1594774056
Legality of Cannabis in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_U.S._jurisdiction
The Denial of Death
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0285638971
Psilocybin: A Journey Beyond Death
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/psilocybin-a-journey-beyond-the-fear-of-death/
Michael Pollan on CBS News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSJyE1EC1_M
Michael Pollan on the late show with Stephen Colbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhC3L1ZKxHU
Compass
http://www.compass-uk.org/
USANA Health Sciences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USANA_Health_Sciences
Medicine Adaptive Pathways to Patients
http://efpiamapps.eu/

People mentioned in this episode:
Dr Robin Carhart Harris
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.carhart-harris
Professor David Nutt
https://londonreal.tv/e/professor-david-nutt-the-truth-about-drugs/
Amanda Feilding
https://londonreal.tv/e/amanda-feilding-drug-policy-reform/
Rick Doblin
https://londonreal.tv/e/rick-doblin-mdma-therapy/
https://londonreal.tv/e/rick-doblin-fighting-the-good-fight/
Neil Degrasse Tyson
https://londonreal.tv/e/neil-degrasse-tyson-cosmos/
Eddie Izzard
https://londonreal.tv/e/eddie-izzard-force-majeure/
Philip Glass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass
Simon Powell
https://londonreal.tv/e/simon-powell-the-psilocybin-solution/
Timothy Leary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
R Gordon Wasson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson
Katherine Maclean
https://www.katherinemaclean.org/
Bertrand Russell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
Henri Bergson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Bergson
Terence McKenna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna
Ken Kesey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey
Alfred Matthew Hubbard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Matthew_Hubbard
Gayle King
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_King
Peter Thiel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
Roland Griffiths
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/1311852/roland-griffiths
Philip Roth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Roth
Joan Didion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion
Ernest Hemingway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway
William Faulkner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner
Wilhelm Reich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich
Donald Trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
Thomas Jefferson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
Steve Jobs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs