Psychedelics and The Spring of Resistance

Spring in Washington, DC is always glorious. But this year, the blooming cherry trees and azaleas are an especially welcome contrast to the grim atmosphere in our beleaguered nation’s capital.

I recently attended a protest at the Washington Monument along with thousands of my demographic peers. Evidently, a lot of older adults still find showing up with a sign to be a meaningful way to express one’s discontent.

Regardless of the impact these demonstrations may or may not have, I have another takeaway from all this. I see today’s elders as a sleeping giant just beginning to flex its muscles.  Given appropriate direction, vision and leadership, I believe we have the power to move mountains.

Already, older adults are organizing to take on environmental, social and political challenges.  Another way we are stepping into our power is through the intentional use of psychedelics. These consciousness-expanding experiences in older age are helping us realize our potential for healing, growth and mutual care. And in the process, they are pointing the way to a new model of elderhood as a time of meaning, purpose, activism and community.

This spring, after years of hard work, I finally submitted the manuscript for my book, ELDEREVOLUTION – Psychedelics and the New Counterculture of Aging. The timing, just as this nation faces one of the deepest moral crises since the Viet Nam War, could not have been more fortuitous.

If there’s anything I’ve learned over my sixty-something years, it’s the inevitability of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. But I’ve also been shown in my experiences with psychedelics that love and connection are the forces that move this human enterprise forward. And like Martin Luther King, I believe that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. So when it comes to the battle between hate and divisiveness over love and shared humanity, I know where I’m placing my bets.

In the meantime, if all goes according to plan, ELDEREVOLUTION will be in bookstores by Spring 2026!