Andrew Weil travels around the world taking conscious-altering drugs or participating in mind-altering experiences (like a solar eclipse) to see what happens.

And to think, I assumed this book would be about meditation. 🙂

I recently read Weil’s Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing and I really liked the way he presented Eastern teachings and techniques for a Western audience. I also like his mind-set, that practical knowledge is better than mere theory.

“I must emphasize at the outset my prejudice that the experience of an altered state of consciousness is intrinsically more valuable than any amount of theorizing about it, unless the theory helps individuals to make more and better use of the states available to them.” pg 241

Andrew Weil

Similar to Tim Ferriss (the self help/improvement guru who brought us such works as The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman), Weil is focused on collecting actual experiences and he uses his own body and mind as a test subject.

This book is a collection of newsletters that Weil wrote for the Institute of Current World Affairs. They offered him a fellowship after the publication of his book The Natural Mind: A Revolutionary Approach to the Drug Problem, to further test his theories about consciousness in the real world. I think his results are fascinating.

All of the chapters converge toward the idea of unifying consciousness. pg 5

The dual consciousness Weil is talking about is the active mind, represented in ancient alchemy by the sun, and the subconscious mind, represented by the moon. Within each of us, both minds operate more or less in balance. Though many of his studies involve the conscious use of drugs to achieve that balance, Weil promotes natural methods above all else. He believes that though drugs may be used ritualistically and responsibly, that any state they reveal was already a latent potential in the mind.

Basically, you can get there without the drug.

The highs of altered states of consciousness such as those of trance and meditation are similarly related to the focusing of awareness. When we learn to bring about this kind of concentration at will, we can be independent of external triggers for highs, whether drugs, sex or mangoes. pg 26

Yes, according to Weil, mangoes, the fruit, have been used by mystics for millennia to unify the conscious and subconscious minds through a type of ecstasy of the mouth. Who knew?

Weil exposes himself some far out stuff. He has three different chapters about his experiences with mushrooms.

“In other words, there is no line between poisonous and psychedelic mushrooms. Mushrooms are a pharmacological continuum, from the white cultivated variety that has no action as a drug to species like the Death Cup that can easily kill. If one likes to get high by eating mushrooms, he can choose species over a wide range of toxicity.” pg 47

In addition to all kinds of drugs, there’s consciousness altering through purposeful vomiting in Mexico, chili eating, personally observing Uri Geller doing his metal-bending thing and more.

This book is perfect for readers who are interested in varying states of consciousness but, for whatever reason, aren’t able to make the trips or take the risks themselves. And there are risks because not everything that Weil tries is safe. At one point, he’s riding waves of nausea in the rain in the middle of the jungle while his friend vomits again and again an arm’s length away and there’s nothing he can do about it. Certainly doesn’t sound like something I’d want to attempt.

Though these newsletters were written in the ’70s and this book was published in 1980, I feel that it still has applicable uses for today. Just look at all of the states that are legalizing marijuana (and our Canadian friends!). Questions about altered states of consciousness and addiction are going to crop up that society, after decades of avoidance, is going to have to answer.

“Sooner or later we will learn that plants with effects on the body and mind, such as marijuana, are what we make of them. Used intelligently and carefully they can help us. Used irresponsibly they can harm us.” pg 98

Good thing we have trailblazers like Weil showing us a middle way.

Thanks for reading!

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• Archetypes on the Tree of Life: The Tarot as Pathwork by Madonna Compton
• The Goddess and the Shaman: The Art & Science of Magical Healing by J.A. Kent