How Michael Pollan Expanded His Consciousness

"One of the things I noticed when I started working on my book is that scientists don't often focus on the contents of consciousness. I think they just assume that it's completely beyond them. But I thought, Well, I'm not limited by the kinds of things scientists are limited by, so I decided that I wanted to talk to an author who had worked in this mode."

""Ducks, Newburyport" is a thousand pages long, and is essentially made up of just one sentence. Ellmann goes deep into the internal monologue of a middle-class, middle-aged woman from Ohio who has a baking business and four kids. You stay in her head the entire time, learning more about her thought process than you ever thought possible."

"It sounds impossible to read, but in fact it's incredibly readable and great fun. I don't even think you have to read it beginning to end. You can just jump in at any point—it's like getting into a warm bath of consciousness."

Michael Pollan's book "A World Appears" investigates fundamental questions about consciousness: how neural activity generates the sense of self, why consciousness exists if most brain functions occur unconsciously, and when it emerged evolutionarily. Pollan approaches these questions by integrating insights from neuroscience, philosophy, literature, and psychedelic research. Unlike scientists who often avoid studying consciousness contents, Pollan draws on diverse fields including literary works. Lucy Ellmann's "Ducks, Newburyport" exemplifies this approach—a thousand-page novel consisting of a single sentence depicting a woman's internal monologue. The work provides deep insight into thought processes and consciousness by immersing readers in continuous mental activity, demonstrating how literature can illuminate subjective experience and consciousness in ways scientific methodology alone cannot.

Read at The New Yorker