Michael Pollan

The grasses actually benefit from being eaten.

And then, of course, there are all the fruits and nuts that, you know, they're happy to give away to mammals.

So I don't know where I come out on that.

I don't think my plants, when I prune them, I mean, they like being pruned.

You know, they respond with more growth and new leaves.

And so I'm not too worried about that.

There are a lot of things I go through that make me grow that I don't like.

It's been a consistent experience of my life.

Well, it's a short-term, long-term thing, right?

Perhaps when you cut them with the secateurs, that bothers them, but they respond in a really constructive way.

Right, which are not exactly plants, but okay.

Fine, fine.

You'll get letters.

Yeah, that's a very common experience on psychedelics.

The world seems much more alive than it does in normal times.

Animism is very interesting because it's kind of our default as a species.

You go around the world, you look at traditional cultures, they believe that there's a spirit in infusing, especially living things, but also rocks and cliffs and sky and clouds and everything.

And most kids are animist till they go to school and then we kind of knock it out of them.

So it's interesting that we exist in this unanimous bubble of Western scientific materialism.

But you push in any direction or travel in any direction or have a psychedelic experience and suddenly questions are raised about it.