A cutting-edge exploration of the role of psychedelics in the end-of-life experience - Outlines 10 steps for dying gracefully with the help of psychedelics, including how to navigate the complex legal landscape and find the right guide and therapy
- Looks at clinical studies of psychedelics from UCLA, Johns Hopkins, and NYU School of Medicine that show dramatic lessening of end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill patients
- Shares wisdom from experts on psychedelic research and palliative care, including Roland Griffiths, Katherine MacLean, Ira Byock, and Anthony Bossis
Examining the evolving landscape around end-of-life psychedelic care, Dr. Richard Louis Miller, a clinical psychologist for over half a century, looks at how substances like LSD, MDMA, psilocybin, and others can be vital tools in allowing individuals in all stages of life to confront fears of dying, and in so doing, lead richer lives.
Miller shares wisdom from experts on the frontiers of psychedelic research and palliative care--including Roland Griffiths, Katherine MacLean, Ira Byock, and Anthony Bossis--and examines cutting-edge studies from Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and NYU School of Medicine that show dramatically decreased anxiety in terminally ill patients through the use of psychedelics. He explores different substances, including MDMA, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and LSD, looking at how they can help the dying overcome their end-of-life distress. He also shares testimony from researchers and patients participating in psychedelic-assisted end-of-life therapy that help convey the experience of ego death at the heart of the psychedelic experience.
Miller outlines 10 steps for dying gracefully, without fear, with the help of psychedelics. He examines how to navigate the complex legal landscape and find the right guide, dose, and therapy. He also includes reflections from key figures in the psychedelic community as well as some of his own psychedelically informed mystical and near-death experiences.
Revealing psychedelics as a portal of transformation, Dr. Miller shows how they are singularly valuable in helping individuals face the end of life with courage and serenity.
Industry Reviews
“Miller writes personally, emotionally, wisely—unafraid to talk about dark and difficult parts of his own life and enthusiastic about every day remaining. Thoroughly grounded in his own close-to-death experiences and insights gained from his and others’ psychedelic journeys, his refreshing understanding of what dying brings to living is healthy and sane. He has given us a needed alternative to our current death-phobic and deathdenying usual narrative. He makes a strong case for benefitting from different psychedelic plants and fungi, most of which can reconnect people to the underlying unity in which some parts are being born and some dying but none are ever lost. This is a deeply uplifting, clear, and compassionate guide to dying and how psychedelics, used correctly, diminish our fears about approaching the door that opens at the end of our life.”