Summary
Roland Griffiths, PhD was one of the world's leading psychedelic researchers at Johns Hopkins. In this profound episode, recorded after his stage IV cancer diagnosis, he shares his perspective on facing mortality, how meditation and psychedelics can help with death anxiety, and the art of living a life of gratitude.
Key Points
- Roland's personal journey with terminal cancer and what it taught him about living
- Psilocybin research at Johns Hopkins showed profound effects on death anxiety in cancer patients
- Meditation and psychedelics as complementary tools for understanding consciousness
- The "ultimate glide path" - approaching death with equanimity and gratitude
- How facing mortality can transform one's relationship to daily life
- The importance of presence and gratitude regardless of circumstances
- Scientific findings on psychedelic-assisted therapy for end-of-life distress
- Roland's personal practice of gratitude and meditation
Key Moments
Griffiths tried meditation in 1970, hated it, quit for decades -- then a girlfriend brought him back
Griffiths first tried meditation in 1970, found it aversive, and abandoned it for over two decades. In 1992-93, a girlfriend's involvement with Siddha Yoga rekindled his interest. Meanwhile, he was studying nicotine self-administration and becoming one of the most credentialed psychopharmacologists in the field.
"I was very impatient for something to happen. And very quickly concluded I had better things to do and that there wasn't any value in this for me."
Bob Jesse's group recruited Griffiths to restart psychedelic research at Johns Hopkins in the late 90s
The Council on Spiritual Practices, led by Bob Jesse, wanted to reinitiate research with classic psychedelics. Bob Schuster recommended Griffiths because of his meditation involvement and impeccable credentials. Griffiths decided he would not personally try psilocybin until after his first study was complete.
"Jesse's group was interested in what it would take to reinitiate research with the classic psychedelics. Bob Schuster suggested they reach out to me."
Griffiths's first psilocybin experience opened familiar meditation territory at a low dose
After decades of administering psychoactive compounds to others, Griffiths tried a low dose of psilocybin and found it opened familiar territory from meditation. Psychedelic experiences informed his meditation practice, but he emphasizes it's called meditation practice -- the daily discipline produces its own lasting transformation.
"It was a low dose, and it started opening up very familiar territory within meditation. And there was a sense of opening."
Griffiths's response to his cancer diagnosis: gratitude for the preciousness of human life
Diagnosed with cancer, Griffiths refused to go to war with the disease or roll over and accept death. Instead, he immediately landed on gratitude for the preciousness of human life. He tried to undergo a liver embolization without anesthesia to practice pure awareness meditation during the procedure.
"I wasn't about to roll over and be dead. It quickly came to me that the practice should be gratitude for the preciousness of human life."
Ineffability of the deepest experiences: Griffiths can't give you even a droplet of narrative
Griffiths describes his deepest experiences as beautiful but completely ineffable -- no story, no narrative, not even a droplet to share. He notes breathwork and tuning forks can produce similar changes in some people. The endowment for secular spirituality and well-being aims to study these phenomena more rigorously.
"It was a beautiful experience, but I could not give you any new story, any rewriting, any narrative. I can't give you even a droplet of that."
