Dear Friends,
Abbie Rosner is a journalist who spent the last several years interviewing thirty-six older adults — most in their sixties, seventies, and eighties — about psychedelic experiences they had quietly, on their own, outside any clinic. Her book, Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging, is published now by Park Street Press, and I admired her work enough to write its endorsement back in January, before we ever met. When we finally sat down on the program, what we talked about was not really psychedelics at all. It was aging.
I am 87. When I sit down or lie down, I do not feel any different than I did at 19. My spirit does not seem to have aged; my body certainly has. That is the puzzle I put to Abbie.
I have all of me in me
The culture tells us to refuse aging: stay young, buy the next serum. Abbie’s elders were doing something the longevity industry cannot sell. They were turning the other way and going inward. What I have been calling inner space travel for sixty-five years. For a long time I told people at parties I was a travel agent, because the word psychologist made them back away.
When Abbie Rosner asked her thirty-six elders what these experiences gave them, the same discovery kept surfacing: they still contained every age they had ever been.
"It's not like, I was a child and now I'm old. It's, I have all of me in me. I can access my child. I can access my groovy, movement-loving teenager."
The body had aged. The person inside it had not been left behind. Abbie is careful about who this work is for, and so am I because not everyone is a candidate, and as she put it, “if it’s not calling you, it’s not for you.”
Abbie and I had one honest disagreement. Her foreword, by my longtime friend Dr. Julie Holland, refers to herself near 60 as an elder. I wrote to Julie: I loved the foreword, but I think 60 is middle age. She wrote back, “If 60 is middle age, that means I’m going for 120, and I think that’s a bit of a stretch.” I laughed, and I held my ground. I do not consider myself elderly at 87. The number matters less than your relationship to your own inner life.
We’re going to need each other as we age
We return often on this program to one idea: the antidote to the loneliness of later life is connection. Abbie brought me something concrete for it - Elder Vision Circles, small cohorts of eight or ten older adults who spend four months together reading, meditating, and doing service in their community, then keep meeting and caring for one another through the end of their days.
"We've created the antidote to the alienation and the loneliness, because we're going to need each other as we age."
I told her on the air that I want to see somebody build it. The medicines Abbie writes about, used well, only open a door. Connection is what walks you through it.
Please listen to our conversation, and just below, I have a small practice for you this week, the smallest version of that same idea.
Today’s Practice: The Phone Call Revolution
A simple thing to take with you from this week’s conversation.
Once a week, call someone you do not ordinarily call — someone whose voice you have not heard in a while, maybe an old friend now in their seventies or eighties. You are not calling for a reason. You are calling to say hello. “Hi. I just wanted to say hello. How are you?” Then listen long enough that they tell you the true answer.
Imagine hundreds of millions of us doing that once a week. I get excited just thinking about it. It is available to every one of us today, for the price of a phone call. Try it for a month and if you do, write back and tell me who you called.
Golden light,
Dr. Richard Louis Miller
In this episode — Journalist Abbie Rosner spent several years interviewing thirty-six older adults about psychedelic experiences they had quietly, outside the clinic. She and Richard talk about elderhood, conscious aging, what changes when these medicines meet a long life rather than a young one, a disagreement over when “elder” begins, and her pilot vision for small, committed cohorts of older adults. Her book, Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging, is published (July 7, 2026) by Park Street Press.
Guest: Abbie Rosner - journalist; author of Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging (Park Street Press, July 7, 2026, foreword by Dr. Julie Holland). Writes The ELDEREVOLUTION on Substack and a Next Avenue column.
Chapters
00:00 — The epidemic of isolation
01:45 — Conscious aging: what’s on Abbie’s mind
05:28 — What aging actually is: body vs. spirit
10:14 — The opportunity of older life: going inward
12:24 — The fragility question: screening older adults
15:34 — How older adults approach psychedelics today
20:00 — Who is drawn to this work: seekers
21:20 — “Am I an elder at 60?”: the Julie Holland exchange
27:04 — Inside the book: 36 interviews and a book tour
33:11 — Elder Vision Circles
38:44 — Close
Resources mentioned
Abbie Rosner, Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging (Park Street Press, July 7, 2026) | Amazon | abbierosner.com |The ELDEREVOLUTION (Substack)
Julie Holland, Good Chemistry (HarperWave, 2020) | drholland.com
Further reading
Richard's recent conversation with Dr. Ellen Langer, Your Mind Creates Your Reality, speaks to the same territory from the mind-body side—how attention and expectation shape aging.
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.
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 New Book
The Adverse Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Medicines was recently reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies. I was honored by it. Read the review here.
A few words from the front of the book:
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 AbyssPutting 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
It’s the fifth book in my series on psychedelic medicine. You can find it on Amazon.
My Other Books
Master Your Mind: Practical Tools to Calm Anxiety, Silence Your Inner Critic and Stop Overthinking
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)
