Item: This Is Your Mind on Plants
Rating: 3.50
Author: quirkycat

by Michael Pollan

The instant New York Times bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year

“Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways.” —New York Times Book Review

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants—and the equally powerful taboos.

Of all the things humans rely on plants for—sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber—surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a “drug”? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime?

In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs—opium, caffeine, and mescaline—and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, 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. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings?

In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively—as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, 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. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.

Michael Pollan is back with another book! And you know what that means; it is time for me to dive into a rare (for me) nonfiction read. His books are always worth it, as they are so informative. His latest novel, This Is Your Mind on Plants, delves into plant drugs and their effect on our bodies.

The three plants mentioned above drugs are opium, caffeine, and mescaline. I'm not afraid to admit that reading This Is Your Mind on Plants made me realize how little I know about these plants (especially the last one, which I had to google to know what it meant).

I'll also confess that it was absolutely the title that drew me into this book. However, I was expecting it to be a book all about the benefits of plants. Still, this made for an interesting, if surprising, read.

As per usual, I love Michael Pollan's writing style. While it is full to the brim of information and research, it is always presented in a digestible way. Part of this is because he always includes his personal experiences, making it easier to relate to the subject at hand.

Interestingly, This Is Your Mind on Plants seemed to be a bit of a cross between an informational novel and a memoir. More so than any of his other books that I've read. I think I liked that, but then again, I tend to like his writing, so take that with a grain of salt.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

This Is Your Mind on Plants

by Michael Pollan

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Dec 31, 2021

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