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GOOD CHEMISTRY

Name: GOOD CHEMISTRY
Author: Julie Holland
ISBN: 978-0-06-286288-4

THE SCIENCE OF CONNECTION, FROM SOUL TO PSYCHEDELICS

by Julie Holland ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

An intriguing invitation to tune into the therapeutic experience of psychedelic connectivity.

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It’s hard to argue the fact that we are losing our human-to-human connection. One way back, suggests Holland, a psychiatrist who specializes in psychopharmacology, is via psychedelic medicines.

To reproduce, nurture, and survive, humans are hard-wired for connection, but our current state is one of disconnection and isolation. However, as the author writes in this enthusiastic foray into the possibilities of igniting the “pharmacological fireworks in our brains,” we have the potential “to bring us back into alignment with our true purpose, which is connection.” Social isolation “has a lethality on par with being obese, or with smoking about fifteen cigarettes a day.” One expression of it is our obsession with screens; another is the opioid epidemic. Via her personal experience, interviews with experts, and a sturdy grasp of the medical literature, Holland explains the monitored use of MDMA, LSD, THC, and psilocybin mushrooms to “light a path out of chronic loneliness and toward connectedness.” The author, who edited The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis (2010) and Ecstasy: The Complete Guide (2001), ranges among connections with the self, a partner, family, community, Earth, and the cosmos. One of Holland’s most important aims—and one that will ring true for many readers—is to tap into the parasympathetic nervous system, the flip side of the fight-or-flight state, the mode when we feel relaxed, safe, loving, and loved. There are many states of chronic stress, loneliness, addiction, and alienation that can be addressed by using the best drugs available for orchestrating the process of attachment, and they are already in your brain—e.g., oxytocin, vasopressin, serotonin, endorphins, endocannabinoids, and dopamine. Holland explores a number of avenues to access this feel-good chemistry—conscious breathing, sex, meditation, group activities—and she conveys great excitement and marvelous anecdotes about the prospects of the psychedelic pharmacopeia.

An intriguing invitation to tune into the therapeutic experience of psychedelic connectivity.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-06-286288-4

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Harper Wave

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
MOODY BITCHES
by Julie Holland

- BOOK REVIEW
WEEKENDS AT BELLEVUE
by Julie Holland

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HOW THINGS ARE

A SCIENCE TOOL-KIT FOR THE MIND

edited by John Brockman & Katinka Matson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

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An eclectic survey of contemporary scientific thought and attitudes. Brockman (Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Wittgenstein and Frankenstein, 1986, etc.) and Matson (Short Lives, 1980, etc.) liken reading this collection of essays to being in a room full of scientists and posing one question to each of them. Forget asking questions, these thinkers are out to tell you the issues that are resonant in their lives. Thirty-four essays elucidate some important scientific concepts like evolution and quantum theory. But more significantly, these writings show us how scientists think: how their methodology tackles both the grandiose and the particular and how following the side streets of traditional theory can lead to unexpected conclusions. Authored by British and American academics, the collection is divided into six sections; Thinking About Science, Origins, Evolution, Mind, Cosmos, and the Future. While some authors demonstrate the scientific community's inclination to speak to laypeople as if they were talking to children (Marian Stamp Dawkins writes that ``understanding how things work, even your own brain, has a grandeur and a glory that no nonscientific explanation can come anywhere near''), most of the writers resist oversimplification. Some works are notable for their clarity. Stephen Jay Gould's humbling explanation of evolutionary theory, which concludes that we are ``a small, late-blooming, and ultimately transient twig on the copiously arborescent tree of life.'' Michael S. Gazzaniga discusses the misguided reliance on averages and statistical information in the effort to ``find relationships in an otherwise noisy set of data.'' Others are strikingly original: Ann Fausto-Sterling describes same-sex couplings in animals, and David Gelernter brings together disparate arguments on computer science and reading the Talmud to support his lucid critique of multiculturalism. Varied and invigorating, these essays are a light, but not insubstantial, read.

Pub Date: May 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-688-13356-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

Categories:

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
POSSIBLE MINDS
edited by John Brockman

- BOOK REVIEW
KNOW THIS
edited by John Brockman

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK
edited by John Brockman

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THE ALCHEMY OF THE HEAVENS

SEARCHING FOR MEANING IN THE MILKY WAY

by Ken Croswell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1995

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Though well-informed, this history of astronomy caters to the insider rather than the intrigued novice. Science journalist Croswell presents a history of the Milky Way focusing on the changing theories about its origin, age, size, and shape. He explains why some stars are more luminous than others and describes the discovery that key elements like helium, lithium, and hydrogen were formed ``in the fiery aftermath of the big bang.'' In early chapters he offers simple, elucidating metaphors to make his sophisticated material more familiar. But this kind of translation is quickly abandoned, and the book contains too much math and physics and too little explanation of how the theories connect and what's at stake to appeal to readers with little background in astronomy. It becomes clear that, as he writes, the story of the Milky Way is a ``deeply human story, full of colorful and controversial characters,'' but Croswell takes the stance of an insider rather than a journalist, providing only snippets and sketchy portraits. Some stories are fleshed out, like the collaboration of astronomers E. Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler, and Fred Hoyle (commonly known as BÞFH) on the theory that the elements originated in the stars; the Nobel Prize that went to Fowler alone for this work; and the obstacles women faced breaking down the sexist barriers in astronomy. Croswell's narrative of these events provides a rare and welcome balance to his zeal for technical detail. This work will leave readers feeling as though they are looking at the heavens through the wrong end of a telescope.