Divergent States
Divergent States
Podcast Description
The Divergent States Podcast, hosted by "3L1T3"—founder of the Psychonaut subreddit with nearly 500k members—and co-hosted by Bryan, a USMC veteran passionate about psychedelics for therapeutic healing, explores the intersection of psychedelics, science, spirituality, and culture. Featuring guests like Hamilton Morris, Dr. Rick Strassman, and Dr. Rick Doblin, we blend cutting-edge research with personal stories to showcase how psychedelics transform mental health, creativity, and culture. Join us as we navigate the frontier of consciousness.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on psychedelics, mental health, spirituality, and cultural implications, with episodes detailing topics such as the therapeutic use of MDMA for veterans, the legacy of the Shulgin family, and the evolution of the r/Psychonaut subreddit. Specific focus areas include community support, harm reduction in psychedelic use, and the intersection of science and spirituality in therapeutic contexts.
Divergent States cuts through psychedelic hype with grounded, curious conversations about what these substances actually do.
Hosted by 3L1T3, founder of r/Psychonaut, the world’s largest psychedelic harm-reduction community, and co-hosted by Bryan, a USMC veteran and advocate for psychedelic healing, the show brings together lived experience, science, and culture without losing its sense of humor.
This isn’t a spiritual podcast.
This isn’t a marketing platform.
No mysticism. No sales pitch. Just real conversations, harm reduction, and honest questions.
We explore how psychedelics shape mental health, creativity, and society, from underground use and peer-support communities to clinical trials, therapy rooms, and shifting public attitudes. Some episodes get serious. Some get weird. All of them are grounded in respect for the people actually taking these substances and living with the outcomes.
Guests include Rick Doblin, Reggie Watts, Leonard Pickard, Anne Wagner, Hamilton Morris, and Rick Strassman.
Divergent States is built on the same principles that made r/Psychonaut work at scale: curiosity without gullibility, openness without losing your footing, and safety without killing the joy.
If you’re looking for guru worship, this isn’t your show.
If you’re looking for thoughtful, funny, and grounded conversations about psychedelics and the lives they touch, welcome to Divergent States.
New episodes every two weeks.
What can psychedelics offer when the question is no longer “Who am I becoming?” but “What do I do with the life I’ve already lived?”
Abbie Rosner, author of Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging, joins 3L1T3 and Bryan for a grounded conversation about psychedelic use among older adults and the possibility of reimagining later life as a period of healing, meaning, creativity, intimacy, and renewed purpose.
Drawing on conversations with 36 older psychonauts, Abbie discusses how maturity and life experience can change a psychedelic journey. They explore psilocybin and aging, mortality and the fear of death, unresolved trauma and shame, grief, spirituality, cognitive liberty, community, and what it means to consciously become an elder.
The conversation also examines the practical realities often missing from discussions about psychedelics and seniors: medication interactions, heart health, medical screening, choosing a trustworthy facilitator, underground ceremonies, state-regulated psilocybin programs, commercialization, informed consent, and the limits of current research.
Abbie also shares her vision for Elder Vision Circles, communities where older adults could prepare, journey, integrate, and support one another through the challenges of aging.
This is not a conversation about finding a fountain of youth. It is about confronting mortality without surrendering curiosity, connection, or the right to explore your own mind.
This episode is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Psychedelics carry psychological, physical, legal, and social risks, particularly for older adults managing medications or existing health conditions.
- Psychedelic use among older adults is not simply nostalgia or an attempt to relive the 1960s.
- Maturity, therapy, meditation, loss, and accumulated life experience can fundamentally change a person’s relationship with altered states.
- Psychedelics may help older adults examine mortality before they are actively approaching the end of life.
- Later-life journeys can create opportunities to process grief, childhood trauma, shame, regret, and relationships that have remained unresolved for decades.
- Several older adults Abbie interviewed described their later years as the happiest and most authentic period of their lives.
- Conscious elderhood reframes aging as a stage of growth, creativity, activism, service, intimacy, and community rather than inevitable decline.
- Older adults face specific risks involving prescription medications, cardiovascular health, medical conditions, mobility, and psychological vulnerability.
- Trust, screening, preparation, and integration are essential when selecting a psychedelic facilitator or ceremonial setting.
- The distinction between psychedelic therapy, wellness, spirituality, and ordinary human meaning is often much less clear than institutions suggest.
- Abbie’s proposed Elder Vision Circles would combine education, community service, psychedelic preparation, group experience, and long-term integration.
Music by Dyl👽Alien – Four Twenty Three
Chapters
00:00 – Why Psychedelic Culture Overlooks Older Adults
02:36 – Aging, Harm Reduction, and Today’s Guest
06:17 – Abbie Rosner Joins the Conversation
06:24 – Returning to Psychedelics Later in Life
09:23 – Why Wait Until Death’s Door?
10:18 – 36 Older Psychonauts and a New Counterculture
13:44 – Psychedelics After 65 and the Questions of Later Life
17:23 – Maturity, Intention, and Conscious Elderhood
20:44 – Psychedelics and the Fear of Aging
24:27 – Letting Go, Mortality, and Living in the Present
28:22 – Love, Shame, and Reclaiming Life at 70
32:03 – Medical Risks, Medications, and Facilitator Screening
36:34 – Legal Access, Underground Ceremonies, and Commercialization
42:37 – Psychedelic Therapy Versus Psychedelic Wellness
45:26 – Integration and Becoming a Better Elder
47:12 – Alzheimer’s, Consent, and Ethical Limits
49:48 – Advice for Psychedelic-Curious Older Adults
51:17 – Reimagining the Meaning of Old Age
53:30 – Public Episode Close and Patreon Preview
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