Today is the official launch of my new book, The Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Medicines. It is the fourth book in my psychedelics series after Psychedelic Medicine in 2017, Psychedelic Wisdom in 2022, and Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life in 2024.

I have been thinking about how to introduce a book to people who already read this newsletter.

You may have already read my commentary on Trump’s recent executive order, and the warning Rick Doblin sent the field a week and a half ago.

You may have been following my internet radio broadcast, where I have been recording the interviews that become the source material for my books.

But you have not seen is the book itself.

So I am going to do something a little different. Instead of telling you what the book is about, I am going to share most of the prologue. The two passages I have left out are personal—one on the criminalization of LSD after 1965 and one on a head-on collision I had with a Winnebago—and they deserve more space than a letter like this one gives them. The full version is in the book.

Before we get to it, I have three requests:

1. If you have a minute, a 3-question reader survey helps me understand who is reading these letters and what would be most useful to create next.

2. Subscribe to my podcast to hear my upcoming interview with award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker – launching this Thursday. The pattern he traced with antidepressants is the pattern this book is meant to keep us from repeating.

3. Lastly, order a copy of Adverse Effects, and if you enjoy it, consider leaving an honest review. I am available for interviews. Email my producer to arrange.

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And now, enjoy this excerpt.

Prologue to The Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Medicines

Many of us in psychedelic science are advocating for certain psychedelic substances to be reclassified as legitimate medicines that both heal and raise consciousness. Therefore, it is essential that we in the psychedelic community—scientists and practitioners—model elevated consciousness through practicing the highest standards of transparency about what is known, what is not known, and what remains uncertain about these substances.

This book focuses on the potential unwanted complications, often called adverse effects, of psychedelic medicines. I use the nomenclature unwanted complications to be precise because adverse effects are typically ascribed to the medicines themselves, whereas unwanted complications take into account the contributions made by factors in addition to the medicine itself, such as the administrator (a.k.a. therapist or guide), the patient’s history, the patient’s mental set at the time of administration, the setting of the administration, the sounds in the environment, and more. An unwanted complication, then, is any harmful, unintended, or undesired reaction to a substance, its administrator, and/or the environment.

Many activities in life bring with them unwanted complications or the potential for such effects. When deciding whether to take any action, we can either make a considered decision weighing the promises and the perils, or we can throw caution to the wind. How much consideration we give each decision typically relates to the potential of serious harm. While we don’t always act sensibly, it makes sense that greater risks call for deeper reflection before taking action.

One of the most severe unwanted complications is death. While most unwanted complications are less severe, they vary in severity from negligible to excruciating. For example, I once took the cardiovascular medicine spironolactone but stopped when it dramatically blistered my lips—the adverse effects outweighed any potential benefit.

My lovely wife, Jolee, is presently undergoing radiation for lobular breast cancer. She is also taking the immunosuppressant letrozole, which suppresses her body’s production of estrogen and progesterone. Both treatments bring unwanted complications including fatigue, loss of appetite, and pain. While some women bypass the treatment because of the severity of the unwanted complications, Jolee has decided that the benefit of the treatment—reduced risk of recurrence—outweighs the unwanted complications.

Anecdotal stories of unwanted complications and adverse effects are common in all cultures—they’re one of the ways that humans learn. Against today’s backdrop of sobering statistics, the data on unwanted complications and adverse effects of all substances require our close attention to make informed decisions.

In 2022, approximately 480,000 people died from the effects of smoking cigarettes and 140,000 died from the adverse effects of alcohol. The toll from pharmaceutical drugs is equally stark: 70,000 deaths from fentanyl, 17,000 from OxyContin, 27,000 from cocaine, and 14,000 from heroin. Contrary to the beliefs of many, deaths from classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and ayahuasca remain vanishingly rare.

This data informs our participation in what has become a worldwide experiment with psychedelic medicines. As research accelerates and personal experimentation grows, we must ask, What are the unwanted complications and adverse effects, the rewards, and the risks?

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A significant percentage of the American public has been misled about the relative dangers of psychedelic substances, which has allowed those substances to be kept federally illegal. At the same time, the dangerous mood- and physiology-altering substances—alcohol and cigarettes—are advertised nationally. While we should remain prudently cautious and informed about all new psychoactive compounds, the data suggests our societal fears about them are simply misplaced.

Until we collaborate as a people in placing the value of life above the value of money, we will all suffer from what I call Honest Information Deficit DisEase, or HIDDE (pronounced hiddy). We cannot trust the information we get from cigarette, alcohol, and pharmaceutical companies and even some academic institutions, as profit motives too often, reprehensibly, override public health concerns. In an effort to offer light in these murky waters, I advocate that psychedelic science set the model for radical transparency. This book represents a step toward that goal.

For nearly sixty years, when reflecting on my traditional scientific self-experimentation with psychedelic medicines, I observed growth, expansion, and creativity. These medicines helped me create a life of meaning, love, and little fear. They facilitated my living in a state of chronic gratitude, fostering an endeavor to treat every person I encounter with dignity, respect, kindness, and love. These substantial benefits I have received have led me to lobby for radical transparency and opine that secrets quite often create distance, isolation, anxiety, and depression.

…

I imagine you agree that the decision to take a medicine known to be dramatically powerful deserves our careful attention. As informed citizens, we want to understand the benefits and liabilities of such a medicine before we ingest it. We seek information from the internet, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, health professionals, media, family, and friends. We ask around to find out who might have taken this. Yet in a world where profit often trumps public health, which sources can we trust? How can we be certain of what is contained in black market substances?

This book strives to illuminate both the promises and perils of powerful psychedelic substances. To bring you up-to-date evidence-based information on psychedelic medicines and both psycholytic- and psychedelic-assisted therapy, I have interviewed prominent psychedelic scientists in the United States and England. Much of what you’ll read in this book comes from these one-on-one conversations with the researchers themselves.

Through careful examination of known risks, emerging research, and personal accounts, we can work toward more informed decisions about the use of these medicines. Only through radical transparency about the benefits, unwanted complications, and adverse effects can we hope to realize the full life-enhancing potential of psychedelic medicines while minimizing harm.

To start, how do we balance the promise of psychedelic therapy with its potential risks? How can we ensure that science, rather than hype, guides our path forward? Who are the real experts in a world where credentials don’t always align with ethical practice? And perhaps most pressingly, why is there still reluctance in some circles to openly discuss adverse effects?

Human nature hasn’t fundamentally changed with the resurgence of psychedelic interest. People are still looking for the latest panacea or the fountain of life, and thus the allure of quick fixes may still cloud our judgment. This is where our journey begins—in the space between hope and caution, promise and peril.

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The twelve chapters that follow cover the acute mental and somatic effects, the prolonged perceptual and existential effects, the abuses of patient trust by individual practitioners, and the harm-reduction practices that have taken sixty years to build.

Before I let you go, I would be grateful for your answers to a short reader survey. It’s just 3 questions. I read every response, and they tell me what to write next.

Take the survey

On Thursday I am publishing my conversation with Robert Whitaker on Mind, Body, Health and Politics. Bob has spent twenty years documenting how Honest Information Deficit DisEase actually played out inside American psychiatry—the chemical-imbalance story the public was sold for thirty years and quietly retired in 1998, the largest antidepressant trial we ever ran and what its real one-year numbers were (3 percent, not the 70 percent you have read), and the disability rates that have followed every wave of expanded prescribing.

The pattern he traced with antidepressants is the pattern this book is meant to keep us from repeating with psychedelics. If you have ever taken an SSRI, or you have someone in your life who has, the conversation will be worth your time.

Watch for it Thursday morning.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one sessions.

Book a Session

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

My Other Books:

• Master Your Mind: Practical Tools to Calm Anxiety, Silence Your Inner Critic and Stop Overthinking

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

On April 18, the President signed an executive order fast-tracking federal review of psychedelic medicines for serious mental illness. By Monday morning, shares of one publicly traded psychedelic drug company had jumped more than 50% in a single trading day.

The Executive order is narrower than the headlines suggest. It directs the Food and Drug Administration to fast-track review for psychedelic compounds with breakthrough therapy designation, opens a Right-to-Try pathway for the terminally ill, and routes $50 million through ARPA-H to match state research programs. It is a meaningful step. It deserves a measure of celebration. And it also deserves a closer look, for it is difficult to trust a government that has normalized lying to such an extent that the public has lost trust and does not know what to believe.

For the past three years, I have been writing a book about what could go wrong at exactly this moment. It is called The Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Medicines (Park Street Press), and it comes out on May 5.

Pre-Order

The title has two halves for a reason. The therapeutic potential and the adverse effects belong together. We cannot lose sight of one when we focus on the other.

What I want to share with you today is what I am watching as the book nears publication.

What I am hearing this week

The cheers in the field are loud. Veterans groups, who have been the most effective advocates for ibogaine research, are calling this a turning point. Biotech executives are calling it validation. Researchers I respect are calling it a threshold moment.

In addition to the cheers there are other voices, and these are the ones I want to draw your attention to.

Rick Doblin, who founded MAPS and has spent forty years advocating for psychedelic medicine legitimacy, immediately reminded the field that the results we have been celebrating came from drug access combined with psychotherapy access.

Drug access alone is a different model. Lineage holders are warning that a rush to FDA-approved pharmaceuticals could strip these medicines of the contexts that made them medicines in the first place. Researchers are cautioning against politicized science driven by influencer advocacy and veteran testimony, against the slow, careful work of safety and efficacy data being skipped. The field’s critics are pointing at industry connections in the funded research and asking who benefits.

The community is unanimous on very little. We should be honest about that.

When the money arrives

I have lived through every phase of this story since 1965. What I am watching now is the money arriving. The medicines have been here for thousands of years. The money is what is new.

Some of the companies whose stocks jumped 20 to 50 percent on Monday morning are doing real science. What concerns me, as someone who has watched a great many medical revolutions arrive and depart, is the pattern that surrounds the money. Several of the companies at the front of the line have already begun stripping psychotherapy out of their psychedelic protocols. Therapy is expensive. Therapy is hard to scale. Therapy is impossible to patent. A pill is cheaper to make, easier to deliver, simpler to sell.

The outcomes that brought us to this moment came from a trained guide, an integration practice, and a setting that supported the work. A pill alone has never produced them.

I am old enough to remember when Merck was the most admired company in America. Fortune gave them that title for seven straight years. Their founder said in 1950 that medicine was for the people, not for the profits, and for most of a century the company lived by that line. Then came Vioxx. Doctors wrote 107 million prescriptions for the drug between 1999 and 2004. When the internal data showed it raised the risk of heart attack, the company did not tell doctors. When academic researchers raised concerns, their universities were pressured to quiet them.

A century of trust was destroyed in five years.

The pattern is the risk.

A reckoning for the field

For sixty years, the people who advocated for these medicines did so with little, if any, institutional support, with minimal funding, often at risk to their careers and sometimes their very freedom. I include myself among them. We were a small community holding a small flame. I wrote about many of these courageous scientists in my book Psychedelic Medicine.

A lot has changed since the 2010s when I wrote that book and conducted those interviews. At the time, it was actually possible to speak to every single researcher in the United States who had been allowed to do clinical trials with psychedelics.

That community has grown. And it is about to be very large, very well-funded, and very visible. The work of the next five years will look very different from the work of the last fifty. The people who arrive in this field over the next decade will outnumber the people who built it.

Here is what I think the psychedelic community has to do, now that the tide is turning.

Let us be honest about the unwanted complications of these medicines, including the prolonged perceptual disturbances, the existential crises, the somatic challenges, and the abuses of patient trust by individual practitioners. The information will surface anyway. If we are not the ones telling the truth about it, someone less careful will be.

Let us set the standard for transparency that we have spent decades accusing other industries of failing to set. Let’s hold ourselves to the standard we have asked Big Pharma to meet.

And let us refuse to look away when bad actors in our own field exploit vulnerable people. There are practitioners operating right now who attach prestigious academic credentials to mass emails, charge a fee through PayPal, and promise to heal cancer, depression, addiction, and trauma in a weekend retreat. People have died at those retreats. I write about one of them, by name, in chapter 12 of my book. Every field has people like this. Ours is no exception. The next five years will sort the field into people who confront that and people who do not.

Why I wrote this book

I wrote Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential to contribute to how we, as a community, handle a moment of unprecedented attention and capital.

Will psychedelic medicines be another drug dispensed in 15-minute sessions with psychiatrists, or will they be used properly as facilitators of psychotherapy?

A few early readers of my book have written kind words. From Dr. Dennis McKenna, ethnopharmacologist and author of The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss:

Dr. Richard Louis Miller is a true elder and wisdom keeper of the psychedelic community, and his credentials come honestly, through hard-won experience. In this book, he continues his role as an educator by sharing his knowledge of both the perils and the promise of psychedelic substances. The reader will find valuable advice on how to avoid pitfalls while realizing the maximum benefits from the thoughtful and safe use of these remarkable medicines.

And from Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco:

Putting forth the adverse effects of these substances in readable form contributes to their understanding and separates psychedelic scientists from those who would cover over, or even hide, negative effects of pharmaceuticals.

If any of this speaks to you, you can pre-order the book here.

In the meantime, if you want to, celebrate the executive order. Celebrating is always fun. And keep your eyes, heads and hearts open as big money changes the psychedelic medicine landscape.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one sessions.

Book a Session

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

My Other Books:

• Master Your Mind: Practical Tools to Calm Anxiety, Silence Your Inner Critic and Stop Overthinking

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

I then asked him about the people in between: the ones who do not work there and are not currently on the retreat. He said there weren’t really any.

I don’t remember thinking it was a particularly important moment. That was the whole exchange.

But when Sam came onto my podcast, Mind, Body, Health and Politics, this week, the first thing he wanted to tell me was that he had spent the ten days since our last conversation drafting a permanent community for the people who already pass through LaWayra. It has ten founding members and a financial structure. Three people had signed up before the plan was complete.

I have been broadcasting for twenty-one years to find out whether the work travels. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it travels ten days and shows up as three founding members of something that was not there before.

I hope you’ll enjoy our conversation.

We talked about:

• the 3,000 ayahuasca ceremonies Sam has hosted without a single hospital transfer

• the pattern he calls “bastardization,” and

• what 65 years in clinical practice tells me about the executive order signed two weeks ago.

You’ll find the detailed summary below.

But first, I want to tell you about my latest book on the adverse effects and therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines comes out May 5. You can pre-order it here.

A few of my distinguished colleagues wrote kind endorsements:

Dr. Richard Louis Miller is a true elder and wisdom keeper of the psychedelic community, and his credentials come honestly, through hard-won experience. In this book, he continues his role as an educator by sharing his knowledge of both the perils and the promise of psychedelic substances. The reader will find valuable advice on how to avoid pitfalls while realizing the maximum benefits from the thoughtful and safe use of these remarkable medicines.
– Dr. Dennis McKenna, ethnopharmacologist and author of The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss:

Putting forth the adverse effects of these substances in readable form contributes to their understanding and separates psychedelic scientists from those who would cover over, or even hide, negative effects of pharmaceuticals.
– Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco

Pre-Order the Book

Show notes / Summary

Welcome and the Epidemic of Isolation [00:00]

• Richard opens with a thesis he has carried for two decades: humans are tribal animals, and we are healthiest in small groups where you know everyone by face if not by name.

• The current American condition is an epidemic of alienation, isolation, and loneliness. The antidote is connection, and connection is easier inside tribe-scale community.

• He introduces Sam, coming in from roughly an hour south of Medellín, Colombia.

Tribal scale is a health variable, not a lifestyle preference

Richard’s 21-year body of work puts community density in the same category as sleep, nutrition, and movement. The retreat context about to unfold is, in his framing, a case study in rebuilt tribal scale.

Sam’s Origin Story: From Latvia to Colombia [01:40]

• Sam grew up in Latvia under Soviet rule. His birth certificate carries a hammer and sickle. He worked as a marine mechanical engineer in offshore oil and gas, made around $500 a day tax-free when the Latvian minimum wage was $350 a month, and was clinically depressed.

• He quit his job and his relationship, took a year off, and traveled South America to learn Spanish. He cycled Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, went home to refill his savings, and kept returning to Medellín until he stopped leaving.

• Ayahuasca found him in an “echo chamber” of friends and podcasts. He tried it once and thought he was finished with it. He was not.

• During the COVID era he moved to the countryside. A stranger found him online and asked to rent his space to run a ceremony. The partnership did not last, but the retreat did.

• In his seventh ceremony, Sam says ayahuasca told him his purpose was to work with ayahuasca. He has followed that directive since.

“I quickly bought myself everything that society tells you you need to buy when happiness comes, and happiness never came.” — Sam Believ

Building LaWayra and the Community Spark [06:02]

• Richard asks what occupies Sam’s mind when it is quiet. The honest answer: how to fill the next retreat. The business side of a healing container is, like any business, stressful.

• Sam credits Richard’s last appearance on Sam’s own Ayahuasca Podcast with seeding a plan he had somehow never considered: a permanent community of the people who already pass through LaWayra.

• In the ten days between that conversation and this one, Sam drafted a plan for 10 founding members and a financial structure. Three signed up before the plan was complete.

• Running the retreat is running four businesses at once: hotel, restaurant, media company, and what Sam calls a “crazy house” where guests temporarily lose their minds by design. Team of 37 staff.

• Sam first came to ayahuasca for his own depression, then abandoned his own work to facilitate others’ healing, then returned to the medicine six months ago. A maloka sits 100 meters from his office.

Richard’s community prompt traveled ten days and hit ground

The episode captures an unusual proof point: the ideas this show transmits are not only consumed but acted on inside a recognizable timeline.

“Since we last spoke, about 10 days ago, I have created a full plan of how I’m going to start my own community.” — Sam Believ

Frequency: Indigenous Lineage vs. Western Protocol [14:08]

• Richard frames the frequency debate. His daughter did roughly 20 to 30 ceremonies in three months at a Peruvian retreat. American clinicians often recommend three, six, or even nine months between sessions. What does Sam see on the ground?

• Sam’s position is a middle ground. 20 in three months is a shamanic deep dive, useful for a narrow profile. LaWayra’s standard program is one week, four ceremonies.

• On the other extreme, single-session protocols drew the episode’s most quotable line.

• Sam’s reasoning rests on lineage. His Taita comes from seven generations of shamans inside a thousand-year-old tradition. If forced to pick between that lineage and “some doctor from a United States hospital,” he trusts the lineage.

• LaWayra has served close to 3,000 people. Sam considers one to two weeks, with up to 10 or 12 ceremonies a month, safe for the average guest. He does not recommend three months of continuous ceremony for anyone without a shamanic training path.

Reverse tolerance is the pharmacological anomaly behind his frequency stance

Sam’s dosing math only works because ayahuasca behaves differently from classical serotonergic psychedelics.

• Psilocybin and LSD build tolerance fast. Take five grams of mushrooms today, you need 10 tomorrow.

• Ayahuasca inverts that curve. Take one cup today, tomorrow you may need half a cup. Sam calls this reverse tolerance, attributed in the pharmacology literature to the harmala alkaloids in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine.

• The same property enables titration. One cup, wait, add half a cup, and the effect combines.

“One ceremony every nine months is, unfortunately, total bullshit.” — Sam Believ

Dosing: Why You Trust the Shaman, Not a Scale [21:53]

• Richard asks how strength is measured. With LSD it is micrograms. With psilocybin it is grams. With ayahuasca there is no standard recipe.

• Ayahuasca varies by vine, by admixture plant, by cook time, by tradition. Each shaman has his own recipe, his own extraction window, his own dose ladder.

• The dose is not a number. It is the shaman’s read of the person in front of him. Sam says guests are sometimes disappointed by a half cup, then grateful at hour three that the shaman gave them exactly that.

• Sam is explicit: this is not a home medicine. Set, setting, and facilitation are structural requirements.

The Bastardization Triad: Tobacco, Cacao, Coca [24:10]

This is the sharpest rhetorical passage in the episode. Sam lays out a pattern the West repeats.

• Tobacco. Indigenous people used it for peace treaties, social bonding, and healing. Industrial processing made it a “death stick that gives you lung cancer.”

• Cacao. A heart-opening ceremonial medicine. Add milk and sugar and it drives diabetes.

• Coca. A traditional superfood leaf, “much better than coffee.” Process it and you get cocaine.

• Sam’s concern: the same extraction logic is circling ayahuasca. Pull the medicine from the tradition, and the tradition dies or zombifies.

The framework is the argument against overly clinical psychedelic medicine

Sam is not anti-regulation. He is anti-extraction. The clip carries without needing Richard in frame, which is exactly why it travels.

“The beautiful medicine became a death stick that gives you lung cancer.” — Sam Believ

Adverse Effects: 3,000 Ceremonies, Zero Hospitalizations [26:17]

• Richard introduces the book directly. He has been studying adverse effects of psychedelics and has a new title coming out the following month. He wants to know what Sam has seen across 3,000 people.

• Sam’s framing: ayahuasca is a very strong plant medicine, not a joke. Adverse effects arise in specific conditions, not at random.

• Risk drivers Sam names: pre-existing medical conditions, drug-drug contraindications, excessive dose, and unsafe settings.

• Short-term: purging, vomiting, diarrhea. Sam classifies these as integral to the healing rather than side effects, and dos Santos et al.’s pharmacology review of ayahuasca supports the somatic-release framing.

• Post-retreat: if the dose is wrong, emotional destabilization. Dose discipline is the control variable.

Zero hospital transfers, zero psychiatric transfers across 3,000 guests

Sam is precise about what the worst cases looked like.

• No one has required hospitalization.

• No one has required a psychiatric transfer.

• The hardest cases involved childhood sexual abuse memories surfacing mid-ceremony and overwhelming the guest. Those required extended follow-up with the integration team, and the guests reported improvement over time.

• Sam is honest that malpractice exists in the broader field. Stories of guests being overdosed, running, falling, or entering psychotic states come from settings with thin screening and weak facilitation.

• At LaWayra, the container is designed to suppress those failure modes. A pre-arrival questionnaire, training workshops, and 26 hours of on-site onboarding before the first cup.

“We’ve given ayahuasca now to close to 3,000 people... We’ve never really had anyone with such an adverse effect that we needed to take them to the hospital or where they needed to be taken to a psychiatrist.” — Sam Believ

This is self-reported field data. It is not peer-reviewed outcome data. It is the largest single retreat-operator dataset Richard has on tape, and the book’s chapter on ayahuasca needs exactly this kind of input.

Age range: 18 to 84

Sam’s oldest guest to date was 84. He has served roughly 30 guests aged 70 and older. Average age is 35 to 40. When Richard, 87, mentions the book, Sam extends an open invitation: come to LaWayra and be the oldest guest on record.

The Facility and Why Colombia Is Safer Than the Headlines [30:58]

• 12 cabins, 20 beds, a pool, a sauna, a gym, massage, and a QEEG brain lab that scans guests before and after the retreat. Kitchen team of four. Ayahuasca-friendly menu.

• Hospital is 10 minutes away in a town of roughly 20,000 people.

• Richard asks whether Colombia is safe for American visitors, the Pablo Escobar question. Sam’s reframe: Medellín was the most dangerous city in the world 50 years ago. Today at least seven U.S. cities rank higher on global homicide lists and Medellín is not in the top hundred.

• Ayahuasca was historically popularized in Colombia. The Yajé Letters by Burroughs and Ginsberg, and Richard Evans Schultes‘s ethnobotanical expeditions, put it on the map. Dennis and Terence McKenna came through as well. The narco era pushed psychedelic tourism to Peru and Costa Rica, and Sam argues most Costa Rican ayahuasca is sourced from Colombia anyway.

• Colombian regulation is tight. Only indigenous people with an official council permit can serve ayahuasca. Sam’s shaman operates under that permit.

• Sam is producing a documentary with Sam Lipman-Stern (of VICE’s Telemarketers) pitched as a “cocaine to ayahuasca” rebrand of Colombia.

From Oil and Gas to Purpose [39:43]

• The wealth arrived early and hollow. $500 a day tax-free bought everything society advertises and delivered no happiness.

• Sam’s baseline was a traumatic childhood that taught him emotions were painful. He had, in his words, tuned his emotional dial to zero.

• Travel did not fix it. Ayahuasca did.

• The depression lifted. Purpose emerged. Sam dedicated his life to the medicine that rescued him.

• He does not universalize. Some guests leave LaWayra with a new vocation. Others leave with a new relationship to the one they already had.

Marxism, AI Unemployment, and Finland’s Housing Answer [43:56]

• Richard asks Sam what he thinks of “from each according to his ability, to each according to their need.”

• Sam grew up inside the Soviet aftermath. He knows the slogan’s failure mode: resentment at unequal contribution destroys motivation.

• He floats that AI, blockchain, and a post-scarcity planning layer might change the calculus, and asks Richard how motivation works without extrinsic reward.

• Richard’s answer is the teaching moment of the episode. People are already motivated. The engine is purpose. The purpose does not have to be large. Winston Churchill built a brick wall in his backyard. JFK put a man on the moon. The structure is the same.

• Richard then pivots to the political implication. Autonomous driving alone will eliminate every truck and cab driver. Millions of jobs collapse in one wave. If working society does not plan for the displaced, the unrest will dwarf any unemployment check.

• The pragmatic template exists. Finland has largely ended homelessness by housing people without charging rent, on the basis that ER and fire-department costs for the unhoused exceed the cost of housing. Washington state’s 1811 Eastlake program showed the same math in the U.S.

Purpose is the floor of any functioning political economy

Richard’s through-line from psychedelic healing to housing-first policy is the same argument in two registers.

“What matters is having purpose. I think people are motivated towards purpose.” — Dr. Richard Louis Miller

Psychedelics, Hydration, and the Closing Invitation [52:44]

• Hydration during ceremony is non-trivial. Purging drains fluids. LaWayra keeps electrolyte drinks on hand.

• Richard thanks Sam and gives him space to say anything he wished he had said. Sam uses it to thank Richard for continuing to broadcast at 87 and to reinforce that older voices matter in a world without elders.

• Sam’s two closing asks to listeners: consider visiting Colombia, and if ayahuasca interests you, come to LaWayra. If you are not ready to drink, listen to his podcast.

• He extends the invitation to Richard himself: come be the oldest guest on record.

“I appreciate that in your very old age you’re still creating content and educating people... We have modern-day elders, or grandfluencers as you said, and I appreciate that you continue doing that work.” — Sam Believ

Resources mentioned

• LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat — Sam’s retreat, also reachable at lawayra.com

• Ayahuasca Podcast with Sam Believ — long-form conversations on plant medicine, available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, and Amazon Music

• The Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Medicines by Dr. Richard Louis Miller (Park Street Press / Inner Traditions, May 5, 2026) — [pre-order link]

• Psychedelic Medicine (2017) and Psychedelic Wisdom (2022), Richard’s prior two psychedelics titles

• Master Your Mind, Richard’s most recent book

• Rick Doblin — founder of MAPS, upcoming guest on Sam’s podcast

• Dennis McKenna — ethnopharmacologist, past guest on Sam’s podcast

• Gabor Maté — physician and author, past guest on Sam’s podcast

• Richard Evans Schultes — Harvard ethnobotanist whose Colombian expeditions helped introduce ayahuasca to the West

• The Yajé Letters — Burroughs and Ginsberg, 1963

• Mind, Body, Health and Politics archive at mindbodyhealthpolitics.org — 21 years, open source

• Housing First Finland via the Y-Foundation and Washington state’s 1811 Eastlake project

I grew up in Manhattan. I lived in an eleven story building and rode the elevator every day to school.

In all those years, the people in that elevator never talked to each other. Everybody faced forward. Maybe a small hello. I didn’t know the people living on my own floor.

This is how many of us live now. Close together and completely alone.

This week, I spoke with Dr. Ellen Vora, a psychiatrist in Greenwich Village, about anxiety, grief, and something that stopped me in my tracks.

She and her family live what she calls an urban commune.

Two families, a short walk apart, sharing life together. They take the children to school together. They cook and eat together four nights a week. They shop together. They clean up together.

I asked her what those dinners feel like.

She said, “It’s the best.”

Ellen also shared a practice I’ve been thinking about since our conversation.

She takes thirty seconds, many times a day, to pause and set an intention to be of service. Not asking for something. Just a quiet moment of direction.

Ten times a day.

That’s thousands of moments over time.

A little something over time is a lot of something.

That is the same principle I teach with conscious breathing.

We also talked about anxiety.

She makes a distinction I find very useful. There is false anxiety and there is true anxiety.

False anxiety comes from the body being out of balance. Poor sleep. Blood sugar swings. Inflammation. Too much stimulation.

True anxiety is a signal. It is your system telling you that something in your life needs attention.

Most people treat all anxiety the same. She does not.

She said something simple that stayed with me.

“You’re never stuck. It is not hopeless. Sometimes you need to find a different path.”

In our conversation we explore:

• why anxiety is not a fixed condition
• how the body plays a larger role than most people realize
• the urban commune and what it offers for connection
• small daily practices that change how we feel
• and the importance of staying open to different ways of healing

If there is one thing I would leave you with this week, it is this.

Try one small act of connection.

Call someone. Say hello. Sit quietly for a moment and set an intention.

Connection is medicine.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

About the guest

Dr. Ellen Vora is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher based in Greenwich Village, New York City. She is the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety and her second book, Season of the Witch: A Psychiatrist's Case for Magic, comes out in October 2026.

Links & Resources:

Website: ellenvora.com
Instagram: instagram.com/ellenvora

1-minute mind control

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

The mind is a powerful tool.

And if we’re not careful, it can work against us.

It can criticize.
It can replay the past.
It can create stories that make us feel worse than we need to.

But we can learn to work with it.

What follows is a short do-list.
5 ways I keep my mind working for me.

1. I take responsibility for what goes on inside me.
   Thoughts and moods don’t come from the room around me. They arise within. Once I understood that, I stopped waiting for the world to change and began working with what was happening inside.

2. I change the channel when my mind turns negative.
   If the mind starts criticizing, I don’t stay there. I shift it. I think of something supportive. A memory I enjoy. A moment that brings ease. The mind will talk — I decide what it talks about.

3. I let failure move me forward.
   Failure is part of succeeding. We try, we miss, we learn, and we try again. Staying in motion matters more than getting it right the first time.

   

4. I give myself something to feel grateful for.
   Gratitude changes the tone of a day. I take a moment to recognize something I have, something I experienced, or someone in my life. Feeling it, even briefly, makes life feel more complete.

5. I make small choices that support my life.
   Sometimes it’s as simple as parking further away and taking the walk. Small decisions, repeated over time, support the body and the mind in quiet ways.

There is something important to remember:

You are the boss of your mind.

It is your tool — not your master.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Today, notice what your mind is doing —
and gently guide it in a better direction.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and share what you’re working on.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At eighty-seven, I’ve come to trust something simple:

Change does not come from intensity.

It comes from repetition.

What looks like a breakthrough is usually something much quieter — a small action, returned to again and again, until it becomes part of you.

What follows is a short do-list.
5 ways I change my life without overwhelming myself

1. I make the first step small enough to begin.
   When something feels difficult, I reduce the size of the task. A short walk. A few minutes. One small action. Beginning matters more than the size of the effort, because starting is what creates movement.

2. I return to the same action again and again.
   The value is not in doing something once. It is in coming back to it. Repetition builds familiarity, and familiarity turns effort into something natural

   

   A photo of me at the Empress by Boon in SF, celebrating my birthday the night before surgery at UCSF Medical.

3. I practice on myself first.
   Before sharing anything with others, I live it. What works in real life is what I trust. This keeps things grounded and practical.

4. I give change time to accumulate.
   Results are often quiet at first. Days layer into weeks, and weeks into something noticeable. Change builds gradually, even when it feels like nothing is happening.

5. I keep things simple enough to continue.
   When something is simple, I can return to it. When it is complicated, I avoid it. Simplicity supports consistency, and consistency carries change forward.

There is something important to remember:

A little over time is a lot.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Choose one small action today —
and return to it again tomorrow.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and share what you’re working on.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

This week’s conversation brought together two issues that concern me deeply.

The first is the growing epidemic of loneliness, isolation, and mental suffering.
The second is the urgent need for better treatments.

I spoke with Tania De Jong, who joined me from Australia, where she and her colleagues have helped bring psychedelic assisted therapies into legal clinical practice for treatment resistant depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

What moved me most was not just the science.

It was the sense of real hope.

Tania spoke about people who have suffered for years, sometimes decades, trying antidepressants, psychotherapy, and every other available treatment, only to find little or no relief. And now, at last, some of those same people are beginning to experience genuine healing.

As she put it,

It’s our birthright to have the experience of being on this planet and experience the magical beauty that is here rather than the immense suffering that so many people experience every single day of their lives.

In our conversation we discuss:

• Why Australia has become a leader in psychedelic assisted therapies
• the striking difference between current remission rates and what these new treatments are making possible
• why the medicine and the therapy must work together
• the dangers created when healing is forced underground
• the importance of trained guides, clean medicine, and proper integration
• what indigenous wisdom still has to teach us about healing and consciousness
• why singing together, like healing together, can reconnect us to tribe
• and why isolation may be one of the deepest illnesses of our time

What stayed with me after the interview was something larger.

Healing is not only about chemistry.
It is also about connection.

Connection to self.
Connection to others.
Connection to meaning.
Connection to life itself.

If this episode interests you, I think you’ll find it both encouraging and thought-provoking.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

About the guest

Tania De Jong AM is one of Australia’s leading social entrepreneurs and innovators. She is a co-founder of Mind Medicine Australia, an international speaker on wellbeing, creativity, leadership, and psychedelic assisted therapies, and a multi award winning singer whose work centers on healing, connection, and human flourishing.

Links & Resources:

Website: taniadejong.com
Facebook: facebook.com/taniadejongam
Instagram: instagram.com/taniadejongam
LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/taniadejong
X: twitter.com/TaniadeJong
YouTube: youtube.com/@taniadejong.creativeuniverse

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At eighty-seven, one realization has changed my life more than almost anything else:

Mood is not something that happens to me.

It is something I practice creating.

For much of my life I believed my mood came from the world around me —
from circumstances, from people, from events.

But over time I learned something different.

Much of a day’s emotional tone comes from within.

What follows is a short do-list.
Five ways I work with my mood when the day begins to go sideways.

1. I decide on my mood before the day begins.
   When I wake up, I pause for a moment and ask myself: What mood would I like to live in today?
   Then I begin the day with that tone in mind.

2. I reset my mood during the day.
   Moods drift. That’s natural. When I notice myself slipping into a state I don’t enjoy, I close my eyes for a moment, breathe, and choose again.

3. I watch what I say to myself.
   The mind records everything it hears.
   If I criticize myself repeatedly, those words accumulate.
   If I speak with encouragement and kindness, those words accumulate as well.

   

4. I pause before responding.
   Reacting happens quickly. Responding happens thoughtfully.
   A short pause often allows a calmer and wiser response to emerge.

5. I stabilize my body before I change my mood.
   When emotions rise, I start with the body.
   A few slow breaths from the abdomen calm the nervous system and steady the mind. Once the body settles, choosing a different mood becomes much easier.

There is something remarkable about being human:

We have influence over the tone of our inner life.

Not perfect control. But real influence.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Today, take one moment to notice your mood.

If you wish, choose the one you would like to live in — and step into it.

If you feel inclined, you’re welcome to write back and share how it goes.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

Dear friends,

This week, I had the pleasure of joining Jock Putney on The Pathway to Peak Performance podcast for a conversation about health, resilience, and the simple ideas that have guided my work for decades.

In the episode I talk about:

• The motorcycle accident in which I was run over by a 6,000-pound Winnebago and how conscious breathing helped save my life and my legs

• Why our culture’s approach to health is failing and the simple “gasoline” analogy I use to explain metabolism and nutrition

• How tiny increments can take someone from a sedentary lifestyle to walking, jogging, and even running marathons

• The importance of learning to treat the brain as a tool rather than letting every thought run your life

• The emerging role of psychedelic medicines like MDMA and psilocybin in modern therapy

• My thoughts on where human intelligence may be heading as technology and consciousness continue to evolve together

One of the central themes of our conversation was conscious breathing.

It is one of the simplest tools we have, and one of the most powerful. It helped save my life during a traumatic accident, and it remains a practice I teach to anyone seeking greater calm, resilience, and clarity.

If there is one lesson that runs through this entire conversation, it is this:

A little something, practiced consistently, even something as simple as conscious breathing, can change the course of a life.

Golden light,
Richard

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

I recently read something that saddened me.

A professor posted that exercise may increase lifespan. But many of the comments underneath said:

“Why would I want to live longer?”
“The world is terrible.”
“What’s the point?”

I’m 87 years old, and I see it differently.

The gift of being here is the gift.

None of us are guaranteed a perfect hand. Some inherit comfort, others difficulty. But what we do with the hand we’re dealt still matters.

For over fifty years I’ve been advocating some simple practices that make life feel better:

• exercise that lifts mood through endorphins
• clean food, clean water, and clean air
• good sleep and conscious breathing
• friendship, family, and community

Exercise alone can change the entire tone of a day. Thirty minutes can create hours of endorphin release — a natural lift that makes the world look more manageable.

Life isn’t perfect.

But it can still be deeply worthwhile.

And as Cicero reminded us two thousand years ago:

“If you see a stranger on the road, be kind to him — he is going through what you are going through.”

We’re all in this together.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn More

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn More

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At eighty-seven, one of my deepest concerns is this:

Loneliness has become a quiet epidemic.

We live closer together than ever.
We communicate faster than ever.
And yet many people feel alone.

Isolation. Alienation. Disconnection.

These affect the body and the spirit.

What follows is a short do-list.
5 ways I work with loneliness to stay connected and alive.

1. I make one phone call each week.
   No agenda. No request. Just, “I wanted to say hello.”
   One call can dissolve a surprising amount of distance.

2. I introduce myself wherever I go.
   The person at the market. The pharmacist. A neighbor. “Hi, my name is Richard.”
   Names matter. A name exchanged brings two human beings slightly closer.

3. I treat daily life as tribal life.
   For many of us, work is where we spend most of our waking hours. Those people are our social circle. When we engage there — when we show warmth there — loneliness shrinks.

   

4. I schedule what makes me happy.
   I ask myself: What three things truly make me happy?
   A cuddle time with my dog. A long conversation with a friend. Listening to music I love.
   Then I make sure I do them. Happiness grows when it is acted upon.

5. I remember that connection is medicine.
   We are designed for proximity, conversation, shared meals, and shared laughter. Human contact strengthens the nervous system and steadies the mind.

There is something simple underneath all of this:

The difference between doing nothing and taking one small action
is the difference between night and day.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

This week, make one call.
Introduce yourself once.
Do one thing that brings you genuine happiness.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and tell me what you chose.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

Most people are chasing a future moment when they’ll finally feel okay.

A different job.
More money.
Less stress.
A quieter mind.

But as Light Watkins reminds us in this week’s episode, the internal state rarely changes just because the external circumstances do.

It changes when we learn to regulate the nervous system and cultivate presence.

As Light put it,

“The only Zen you’ll find at the top of the mountain is the Zen you bring up there with you.”

In this conversation, we explore what presence actually looks like in real life and why inner work is less mystical and more practical than most people imagine.

We talk about:

• why stress chemistry pulls us out of the moment
• how rest regulates the nervous system
• why some people sleep eight hours and still wake up exhausted
• how stress thinking differs from creative thinking
• why stress can sabotage intimacy and connection
• why meditation is not about forcing focus
• how to begin with one minute and build consistency
• how simple walking habits compound over time
• why happiness has best practices, just like physical fitness

If you’ve been feeling scattered, fatigued, or trapped in your own thoughts, this episode may help you understand why.

You don’t need a different life.

You may simply need a different internal state.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

Links & Resources:

• About Light Watkins

• Light Watkins Latest Book

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At eighty-seven, I’ve lived long enough to know this:

The world does not calm down.
We calm ourselves down.

There is always a new reason to worry.
A new headline.
A new prediction.

And yet, there is also always a choice.

What follows is a short do-list.
5 things I do when the world feels overwhelming

1. I remember that external events do not control my inner life.
   Marcus Aurelius taught this two thousand years ago. Circumstances may shift, but feelings arise inside. Thoughts arise inside. I work on the inner computer. That is where my power lives.

2. I lower fear in order to protect my health.
   Fear spreads quickly. It turns people against one another. It clouds judgment. I ask myself a simple question: What good does walking around afraid do for me today? Then I return to what I can do right now with clarity.

3. I strengthen the connection to make the day good.
   Old friendships are gold in the bank. Family ties matter. A phone call can restore warmth. When we gather, eat together, laugh together, the day improves regardless of what is happening in the larger world.

A photo of me and my daughter, Evacheska.

4. I invest in the fundamentals in order to support longevity.
   Movement. Mostly plants. Enough sleep. A sense of purpose. Upbeat company. These are not glamorous ideas. They are powerful ones. The basics build resilience.

5. I take 60-second resets in order to stabilize the mind.
   Several times a day, I pause. I close my eyes. I breathe consciously. Sixty or ninety seconds. The investment is small. The return is immediate. Every time I do it, I feel steadier.

There is one more thing.

We are given a remarkable birthright as human beings:

The ability to influence our thoughts.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Today, choose one of these and put it into action.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and share which one you’re working with.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

Psychedelics are not going away.

Millions of people are using them, whether the medical establishment approves or not. So the real question is no longer if people will experiment. The real question is simple:

As Dr. Daniel Kruger puts it,

“Abstinence doesn’t work for everyone. If people are going to do this, we have an obligation to help keep them as safe as possible.”

In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Kruger from the University of Michigan to discuss new research on adverse psychedelic experiences and what practical safety actually looks like.

We talked about:

• how common adverse experiences really are

• why fear, sadness, or anxiety may arise during a journey

• the difference between temporary discomfort and serious distress

• why set and setting are safeguards, not slogans

• the difference between self-experimentation and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy

• how a challenging experience can become therapeutic with proper guidance

• why testing powders and pills matters

• why ketamine without therapy often misses the point

My position is straightforward.

If people are going to explore these substances, and many are, they deserve honest information. Not scare tactics. Not hype.

Safety. Preparation. Responsibility.

That is how we get this right.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Daniel Kruger’s Website

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

Happy Valentine’s Day.

At eighty-seven, I’ve come to understand a profound truth about love:

It grows through action.

Not through grand gestures or a single holiday, but through small, steady expressions.

What follows is a short do-list.
3 ways I practice love in order to feel more connected and alive.

1. I perform one small loving act each day in order to strengthen the heart.
   One gesture. One kind word. One thoughtful action.
   A smile in the supermarket. A brief phone call. A moment of patience.
   The difference between doing nothing and doing something is immense. One act shifts the tone of a day.

2. I include myself in the circle of love in order to stay balanced.
   Love is not only outward. It also turns inward.
   A gentle touch on the arm. A few kind words spoken privately. A pause to breathe.
   Taking a moment to comfort yourself isn’t selfish. It’s the same care you would offer a dear friend.

   

   3. I reach out in order to build connection.
   A simple call. A short message. A note that says, “I was thinking of you.”
   Connection does not require romance. It requires sincerity.
   A small effort restores warmth in places that may have grown quiet.

There is one more truth that has become clearer to me with age:

Love given helps the giver as much as the one who receives it.

When we act with love, we feel it too.
A small loving act can gently change the way we feel inside.

I don’t claim mastery of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Today, choose one small act of love and carry it out before the day ends.

I’d love to hear from you—reply and share the small act of love you chose today.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

After more than sixty years of clinical work, I’ve learned that burnout doesn’t come from caring too little — it comes from caring without limits.

People in the helping professions often give until there is nothing left. We put patients, clients, students, families, and communities first, and quietly move ourselves to the bottom of the list. We tell ourselves we’ll rest later. We tell ourselves it’s selfish to stop.

Early in my career, a very old woman said something to me that I never forgot:

“The better you take care of yourself, the more you’ll have to give us.”

She was right.

Burnout is not a personal weakness. It’s what happens when care flows in only one direction for too long.

In this reflection, I speak about a few essential reminders — especially for those who give for a living:

• Why caretakers must practice what they teach, or eventually burn out

• The paradox of energy: when rest helps, and when movement restores more

• How exercise creates energy rather than depleting it

• Why fatigue often calls for connection, not isolation

• The role of friends, family, and community in recovery from burnout

• Why learning to say no protects your ability to say yes in the long run

• How boundaries are an act of responsibility, not selfishness

I share examples from my own life, including walking alongside my wife during cancer treatment, where exercise, connection, and structure became essential tools — not optional extras.

When we’re burned out, the instinct is often to withdraw. But that is precisely when reaching out matters most. Human contact is health-enhancing. We are not meant to do this work — or this life — alone.

Taking care of yourself does not mean caring less about others.
It means ensuring there is something left to give.

If this reflection resonates with you, I invite you to sit with one question:

Where might you need a stronger boundary — so you can stay well enough to keep showing up?

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email, and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At almost eighty-seven, I’ve come to trust something simple:

The mind responds to practice.

Not force. Not pressure.

Practice.

What follows is a short do-list.
Five ways I work with my own mind in order to live with more steadiness and ease.

1. I speak to myself with care.
   A few kind words each day leave a mark. The mind remembers them. Over time, they soften the inner landscape.

1. I tend what enters my awareness.
   Thoughts, images, and conversations all settle somewhere inside. What I allow in quietly shapes what I live with.

2. I return to the present moment.
   When the mind moves ahead, I bring it back. Attention placed here steadies the nervous system and opens some breathing room.

1. I let learning continue.
   Every attempt teaches something. Progress unfolds through experience, not perfection.

2. I lift myself rather than weigh myself down.
   Energy used for growth brings relief. Energy spent elsewhere drains the day.

There is a rhythm underneath all of this:

The mind learns slowly.
And steadily.

I don’t claim mastery.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Begin with one practice and let it guide your day.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and share which one you’re working with.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

A note on working together

For those who feel drawn to working together more directly, I offer a limited number of one-on-one conversations.

These are not traditional therapy sessions. They are quiet, practical conversations focused on calming the mind, easing anxiety, and working with simple tools that support steadiness in daily life.

We move at a thoughtful pace. We work with what’s present. We focus on what helps.

If you’d like to learn more about working together one-on-one, you’re welcome to reply to this email and my team will share additional details.

Learn more

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At nearly 87 years old, I’ve learned something simple and dependable:

When the body moves, the mind follows.

This week, I speak plainly about exercise — not as fitness, performance, or self-improvement — but as one of the most reliable tools we have for emotional stability, clarity, and resilience.

I did not grow up exercising. I discovered it later in life, and it changed everything.

What matters is not intensity or ambition.
What matters is beginning — and continuing.

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why aerobic movement is one of the fastest ways to lift mood and reduce anxiety

• How even short periods of exercise can create hours of emotional uplift

• Why starting small works better than waiting for motivation

• How consistency trains the nervous system to expect steadiness

• The connection between movement, confidence, and self-trust

• Why exercise supports recovery during illness, depression, and fatigue

• How movement adapts to every age, body, and circumstance

• Why five minutes counts — and always has

This is not about pushing harder.
It is about supporting yourself more wisely.

If exercise has felt overwhelming, discouraging, or out of reach, I invite you to listen with fresh ears. You may find that the path forward is far simpler than you imagined.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

If you sit with enough people over enough years, certain truths repeat themselves.

The mind can understand a great deal.
But it is the tools we practice that carry us through stress, illness, fear, and change.

In this conversation, I return to something simple but often overlooked: a personal tool bag for living well. Not ideas to admire, but practices to use. Tools that support balance in the nervous system, clarity in the mind, and steadiness in daily life.

We talk about tools such as:

1. breathing as a way to calm the body quickly

2. learning to guide the mind rather than be driven by it

3. listening to the body before it has to speak through symptoms

4. sleep as a form of restoration, not indulgence

5. movement as medicine

6. nourishment as fuel

7. impulse control as a quiet form of strength

8. persistence when progress feels slow

9. purpose as something found in small, meaningful acts

10. rest and stepping away before burnout forces the issue

These are not ideals to perfect.

They are skills to revisit — again and again — as life changes.

None of this is about doing everything at once.
It’s about remembering that we already have more capacity than we often realize.

Think of this episode as an invitation to notice which tools you already use, which ones you’ve set aside, and which might be worth picking up again.

If even one of them feels supportive right now, that’s enough.

Golden light,
Dr. Richard L. Miller

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Buy the book

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

Work with Me

After six decades as a practicing psychotherapist, I'm offering limited opportunities to work directly with me. I bring extensive experience addressing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship challenges, addiction, and psychedelic integration.

Book a Session Here

1. One-to-one sessions - Individual therapy tailored to your specific needs and goals. To request an appointment, book a session here.

2. Group Therapy (waitlist) - Join a small, curated group dedicated to personal growth. You’ll tap into community support, learn from others’ experiences, and develop practical tools for lasting transformation. Reserve your spot.

3. Support my work with a founding subscription ($295) and get a complimentary 30-minute consultation, in addition to a hardback copy of Master Your Mind and full access to my premium content. Sign-up here:

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)

At eighty-seven, the questions people ask me have changed — and so have my answers.

What follows is a short do-list.
Three ways I work with the realities of aging in order to stay engaged with life.

1. I work with the body I have in order to keep moving forward.
   My spine carries significant compression, and some days include strong back pain. Other days feel easier. I meet this by listening closely, pacing myself, and moving with care. Attention to the body allows me to remain mobile, present, and engaged with life.

2. I stay oriented toward contribution in order to give my days direction.
   Aging sharpens the question of usefulness. I hold a clear intention to support unity, kindness, and shared ground. I look for ways — modest and meaningful — to encourage connection, cooperation, and respect. Contribution keeps life oriented forward.

3. I practice self-care in order to have more to give.
   Care begins with words and continues through action. Each day, I speak kind and encouraging language to myself. I also choose actions that nourish me — movement, nature, rest, enjoyment. Caring for myself expands my capacity to care for others.

There is one more practice that ties all of this together:

I use the past as a teacher to move ahead with skill.
Looking back with curiosity reveals how to act with greater wisdom next time. Learning completes the loop. Forward motion follows.
Regret is what remains when the lesson goes unused.

I don’t claim mastery of any of this.
I practice.
I forget.
I begin again.

Begin with one practice and let it guide your day.

If you wish, you’re welcome to write back and share which one you’re working with.

Golden Light,

Dr. Richard Louis Miller

1-minute mind control (my latest book)

Traditional mindfulness and meditation techniques often require a huge investment of your most precious resource (time) without guarantees of results.

My own version of mindfulness—what I sometimes refer to as “mind control”—can be mastered in much less time if you commit to regular 60-90 second practice throughout the day.

Learn more

Breathing. Witnessing. Changing the channel on negative thoughts.

I’ve honed these techniques over a lifetime of personal and professional practice, and now I’m sharing them with the world.

Get my new book Master Your Mind, and as a thank you for your support, I’ll give you a free 30-day subscription to our premium newsletter and exclusive content. Just reply to this email after you buy it to confirm your purchase.

My Other Books:

• Psychedelic Medicine at the End of Life: Dying Without Fear (release date: November 5)

• Freeing Sexuality: Psychologists, Consent Teachers, Polyamory Experts, and Sex Workers Speak Out

• Psychedelic Wisdom: The Astonishing Rewards of Mind-Altering Substances

• Psychedelic Medicine: The Healing Powers of LSD, MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ayahuasca

• Integral Psychedelic Therapy (co-edited with Jason A. Butler & Genesee Herzberg)