A New Door
This is the wrong question for African American Bennington alumni.
!["A New Door" by Michael Pollan ’76](https://www.bennington.edu/sites/default/files/styles/story_short_300_200/public/sources/stories/pyschedelic_tunnel_1600_0.jpg.webp?itok=AaGKE7wD)
An excerpt from the introduction to Michael Pollan's bestselling book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.
![At Peace With Death](https://www.bennington.edu/sites/default/files/styles/story_short_300_200/public/sources/stories/dharma_1.jpg.webp?itok=8AoQucxa)
In my first term at Bennington, my mother died. I didn’t know it then but that was the beginning of my spiritual journey.
When I returned to teaching 10 years ago, well past retirement age, I never dreamed I would have to explain to college students...
![Failing Democracies](https://www.bennington.edu/sites/default/files/styles/story_short_300_200/public/sources/stories/i-once-thought-it-impossible-that-our-democracy-would-fail.png.webp?itok=LfP0pNl2)
I once thought it impossible that our democracy would fail. I now believe failure is not only possible, but happening.
I was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s when I became curious about everyday storytelling...