Drugs and Consciousness

Drugs and Consciousness

Drugs and the Public, by Norman E. Zinberg and John A. Robertson. New York: Simon and Schuster. 288 pp.

The Natural Mind: Another Way of Looking at Drugs and the Higher Consciousness, by Andrew Weil. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 229 pp.

A key issue in looking at science sociologically is the way research findings become disseminated beyond the tiny band of specialists who generate them. This process of dissemination operates through a highly selective filter. What is known or believed at the researcher level is usually quite different from what is known or believed at the level of popularization—which is, in turn, usually quite different from what is known or believed by the public. Findings accept...