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This Is Your Mind On Plants

Opium—Caffeine—Mescaline
3.87 goodreads logo

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( 32,972 ratings, 3,319 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
This Is Your Mind On Plants by Michael Pollan explores the powerful effects of three plant-based substances: opium, caffeine, and mescaline. Pollan delves into the cultural, historical, and personal impacts these plants have had on human consciousness and our relationship with nature. This thought-provoking book blends science, history, and personal stories to examine how these mind-altering plants influence our lives.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by the relationship between humans and plants. It delves into how various plants have influenced culture, health, and consciousness, offering a thought-provoking exploration of nature and our ties to it.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From bestselling author Michael Pollan comes a radical challenge to how we think about drugs.

Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness—to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs—opium, caffeine, and mescaline—and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief.

Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants and the equally powerful taboos.

In a unique blend of history, science, memoir, and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can.

This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan is praised for its engaging and thought-provoking exploration of mind-altering substances. Reviewers commend Pollan's entertaining writing style, deep thinking, and masterful storytelling. The book offers a fascinating insight into our relationship with such plants, blending personal experimentation with cultural and historical context, often leading readers to reconsider their views on drugs and plants.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780141997339

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 July 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 213g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Michael Pollan is an award-winning author, activist and journalist. His international bestselling books about the way we live today - including How to Change Your Mind, In Defence of Food and Food Rules -- combine meticulous reporting with anthropology, philosophy, culture, health and natural history. Time magazine has named him one of the hundred most influential people in the world. He lives in the Bay Area of California with his wife.

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