Ready to begin or deepen your meditation practice? Join Dan Harris and world-class meditation teachers on the 10% with Dan Harris app here: https://app.danharris.com/membership ——— Your phone isn’t just distracting you — it’s colonizing your consciousness. Michael Pollan has spent years investigating how we lose access to our own minds, and what it actually takes to get them back. Michael Pollan is the author of ten New York Times bestselling books, including How to Change Your Mind, his landmark exploration of psychedelics and consciousness. His latest book is A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness. In this conversation, Michael shares: - Why rumination is so hard to stop — and the practices that actually interrupt it - How Big Tech has become what he calls the “colonizers of consciousness” — and how to reclaim your attention - Why lowering the ego’s walls is the key to genuine connection and change - What MDMA-assisted therapy can teach us about dissolving psychological defenses - How to make mundane tasks sacred — and why that shift matters more than most meditation techniques - What meditating in a cave revealed about the nature of the mind - The value of “don’t know mind” — and why certainty is the enemy of curiosity Michael also reflects on what a decade of writing about consciousness has done to his own — and what he’s still working on. ——— Subscribe to watch more 10% Happier videos: https://www.youtube.com/tenpercenthappier Follow Dan Harris on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/danharris/ https://www.tiktok.com/@danbharris https://www.facebook.com/DanHarrisABC https://twitter.com/danbharris https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-harris-91ba5716b/ ——— Timestamps: 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:00 Why Pollan wrote a book about consciousness 0:04:00 Defining consciousness — and why it matters now 0:07:00 The colonizers of consciousness: Big Tech and AI 0:13:00 How to reclaim your consciousness in daily life 0:16:00 What meditation is really doing to your mind 0:18:00 Is the self an illusion? Hume, Ricard, and a hypnosis experiment 0:23:00 What ego dissolution feels like — and what it reveals 0:29:00 How to loosen self-identification and stop taking thoughts personally 0:37:00 Rumination as the root of anxiety, depression, and addiction 0:42:00 Meditating in a cave: what total isolation taught Pollan 0:47:00 How to make everyday tasks sacred 0:55:00 AI, anthropomorphism, and the attention economy 0:58:00 Don’t know mind and lantern consciousness 1:03:00 MDMA-assisted therapy: how it works and why Dan is trying it ——— #psychology #mindfulness #meditation ——— LinkedIn: Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to http://linkedin.com/happier. Tonal: Go to http://tonal.com and use the promo code Happier for $200 off your purchase. Paleovalley: Head to http://Paleovalley.com/HAPPIER for 15% off your first purchase.