This is Your Mind on Plants

Locations
Call Number: 581.6 Po, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	581.6 Po	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	581.6 Po	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	581.6 Po	4-week checkout	Due 05-10-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Health & Fitness / Alternative Treatments / Pollan, Michael	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024

Introduction -- Opium. Prologue ; :Opium, made easy" ; Epilogue -- Caffeine -- Mescaline. The door in the wall ; The orphan psychedelic ; In which we meet the cacti ; The birth of a new religion ; Peeking inside the tepee ; An interlude: on mescaline ; Learning from San Pedro ; Drunk at the wheel ; Plan C.
Of all the things humans rely on plants for-- sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber-- surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs-- opium, caffeine, and mescaline-- and explores the cultures that have grown up around these drugs. He examines the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. The result is a unique blend of history, science, memoir-- and participatory journalism. -- adapted from jacket

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Satisfyingly relevant submitted by kkjammers on December 20, 2021, 10:38am Pollan's book was a welcome adventure into the history, legality, importance, and revelations mind-altering substances can offer humankind. Through masterful writing and diligent research, the book provides unique perspectives and poses critical questions on a micro and macro scale. I particularly appreciated many of Pollan's viewpoints about the current time, for example, in a section about using Wachuma, a cactus that can assist in healing: "These words--indeed the whole contemporary vocabulary of healing--sit awkwardly on my tongue. But after the fires came, I lost some of the mental energies and momentum that had propelled me through the first months of the pandemic without the friction of despair I now began to feel." Pollan offers a ray of hope through his discussion of his experiences.

Coffee and Tea Drinkers should read this book! submitted by Tracey Baetzel on July 15, 2022, 12:00am If you can't get through the day without your morning cuppa, you'll enjoy the middle section of this book on the history, biology, social and economic story of your favorite caffeine beverage. The author writes engagingly for a diverse lay audience. I didn't read the sections on mescaline and opium, but assume that they were equally entertaining. And check out the sign at RoosRoast on Rosewodd next time you're there: Coffee, making you do stupid things faster and with more energy! Widsom and exploitation of the working class lurks underneath this humor.