Author: Erin Elizabeth

In the video below, Tim Ferriss interviews Michael Pollan, author of seven books, primarily related to food. In his latest book, “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence,” he delves into the potential benefits of hallucinogenic drugs. The interview took place at the recent South by Southwest event. As noted by Pollan, the term “psychedelics” was coined in 1957 by Humphry Osmond, a psychiatrist who explored the use of hallucinogenic drugs in the treatment of mental illness. A paper by Janice Hopkins Tanne describes how Osmond investigated the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on alcoholics. In the 1950s, psychiatrists working with drugs would often use them on themselves, and hallucinogenics such as LSD were thought to mimic the mind of the mentally ill, allowing the therapist to experience what a psychotic patient might be going through. However, Pollan notes, they realized that the experiences they were having “felt far too good” to be pure psychosis. RELATED STORY: Magic Mushroom Drug Lifted Depression/Anxiety in Cancer Patients Hence Osmond came up with the term psychedelic, which is made up of the two words “psyche” (mind) and “delos,” a Greek word meaning to manifest or reveal. In essence, the drugs “reveal the mind.” “It suggests these drugs bring the mind into a kind of observable space,” Pollan says....