Psychedelics, Aging and Awakening
A Conversation with Psychedelic Elder, Bill Richards
About twice a year I make a pilgrimage to visit Bill Richards in his grand old Baltimore home. Over the years, he has guided and supported my evolving vision for writing about psychedelics in older life.
I know enough of psychedelic history to appreciate the privilege of being able to confer with one of its most important living figures - who is also a warm, kind and gracious human being. Now that he’s in his eighties and semi-retired from professional obligations, it seems like our conversations are only getting deeper.
From the LSD trials at Spring Grove in the 1960s, to the landmark studies at Johns Hopkins, and most recently in his work with cancer patients at Sunstone Therapies, Bill Richards may well have facilitated more psychedelic journeys in clinical trials than anyone on this planet. But the onetime theology student has always had one foot in the research world and one in the spiritual, a perspective that informs his classic book, Sacred Knowledge – Psychedelics and Religious Experiences.
In our recent conversation, Bill posed the question, “In theological language, when we have become so estranged from ourselves and forgotten who we are, how do we wake up safely, and evolve psychologically and spiritually?
Following are edited and condensed highlights from that conversation.
In Sacred Knowledge, you floated the idea of places where people could have legal, supervised experiences with psychedelics, specifically for spiritual deepening. What might that look like?
Once you are out of the research setting, with all its requirements and limitations, the cultural integration of these drugs could be so different. There would be more room to ask, ‘Where are you right now? What do you need? Shall we have a few low dose sessions, then some medium and some high? Shall we have the next session next week, or a year from now? Shall we go for a hike in the woods? Combine it with this meditative procedure, or this group support? Let's do some chanting. Let's listen to Bach’s Kyrie. You name it.
And that's a completely different scene, really. Where you can tailor the psychedelic – not necessarily as a treatment, but as a valuable tool in the facilitation of personal and spiritual development. And it can be done with a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, psychedelic chaplain, the leader of a sangha, a medic or within the supportive structure of an Ayahuasca or Peyote fellowship…
Like Going Skiing
For those who want to use this particular tool, you help them assess the safety of it. How big a risk is it for them? Just like going skiing, it’s not for everybody. If you do choose to go skiing, get some instructions on how to balance, how to steer, how to slow down, how to speed up, how to navigate the slope safely so you don't crash into a tree or another person or break your leg. And if you have an acute heart condition, it’s probably not a good idea to begin with.
The government does not decide who can or can’t go skiing. You are responsible for doing it safely. If you just jump on skis and crash into a tree, that was a foolish thing to do, and you are responsible.
On Working with the Terminally Ill
I’m not currently active in that line of clinical research, but I still tune in to a follow-up group of cancer patients, some of whom had their psilocybin session four to six years ago. They were supposed to die already but they just can't work it into their schedules. They’re too busy living.
It’s delightful knowing these people and seeing how they support one another. One just came back from traveling in Africa. Another from Europe.
It’s like, I might die tomorrow, but I'm alive today. I'm curious about what death might be and I might have to let go soon, but there's no rush. It'll come.
But there’s also value in grief work. Just because you know that all is well in the universe, that doesn't mean you don't need to cry and be sad and be angry and tumble through grief. That's part of life too.
Aging Gracefully
I find myself thinking of this phrase, ‘aging gracefully’. Especially when a person suddenly finds themselves with less physical energy. Maybe they can't walk as well as they used to. They used to manage their own households with their furniture and their kids, then all of a sudden, they're in assisted living with a bunch of other people, where they can't even control the menu for breakfast… They never thought it would come to this.
It's a big adjustment that many of us need to make as we age…. It’s great to trust, let go, and be open. But when do I decide to start downsizing - whatever that means for me? How do I age gracefully? Interesting terrain…
I was once a 30-year-old idealist who bought this house that was vacant for three years, saved it from destruction, renovated it and raised my kids here. Now I’m the neighborhood historian. The apartment house next door is now a vacant lot, and there’s a herd of deer there instead. The ephemeral nature of everything – changing, unfolding, developing. Just let it flow…
Choosing to Trust
The theme I keep coming back to is choosing to trust, or to entrust yourself, to these deeper levels of consciousness - whatever label on the religious-philosophical-secular continuum you want to put on them. To know with faith that there is something within us that is incredibly awesome.
And it's not just being passive and receptive. It's choosing to receive, to learn, to confront any potential conflict or new teaching or perspective on life that emerges.
It’s like going in for a new lesson from Mother Ayahuasca… You go into the mind and there’s a teaching there. It might be a pleasant one or a difficult one. But it’s in the interest of your personal and spiritual growth. And if you’re in a grounded relationship and you feel safe and you’re not running away from what’s emerging but really accepting it, diving into it, and being willing to learn, it can be profoundly meaningful.
Enlightenment, then, is not a state, it's an endless process, more and more like waking up.
As the Jesuit paleontologist and mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, said, ‘ We are all spiritual beings having physical experiences’, right? And we are all in this world together.
Wonderful interview with Bill Richards! It's my initial foray into Abbie Rosner's ELDEREVOLUTION newsletter and I'm sure I'll be back! John B., Rockville, MD
This was an enjoyable read! I am stepping onto the path of psychedelics and end-of-life care through the Ram Dass Institute of Psychedelic Studies. I endorse psychedelics as more than therapeutic medicines, for sure. For me, and many others, they have been a gateway to reconnecting with our spirit and for personal growth and creativity. Meeting people where they are at is so important. It's true that clinical research is so limiting. Cognitive liberty for all!