Aging from Role to Soul with Connie Zweig (4K Reboot)

Summary

Psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove talks with retired psychotherapist Connie Zweig about facing old age through Jungian shadow work and spiritual practice. Zweig argues that internalized ageism and denial of death live in our unconscious as 'shadow characters' that quietly shape our health and identity. Her central idea is a shift from 'role to soul': letting go of career and ego identities in late life to discover a deeper spiritual self.

Key takeaways

• 1Zweig's latest book is 'The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul'; she also co-wrote 'Romancing the Shadow' with Steve Wolf and co-edited 'Meeting the Shadow' with Jeremiah Abrams
• 2Yale psychologist Becca Levy's research on 'embodied stereotypes' found that negative unconscious beliefs about aging harm memory, health and longevity, and that ageist words flashed subliminally lowered people's task performance
• 3Zweig is teaming up with anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite to combine outer activism with inner work on the 'inner ageist'
• 4Zweig completed a year-long elder training with Sage-ing International and found that a life review revealed one purpose, or dharma, running through her four careers
• 5Ram Dass is held up as a model for accepting helplessness after his stroke, treating it as 'grist for the mill'
• 6Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' is used as a metaphor for people who cannot let go of their work identity

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

And it's not that we don't suffer the declines of age because we all will. It's more that it changes our relationship to it. So the more I cultivate that inner silence over a long time now, the more I can observe my mind and the stories that I'm telling about what's happening. The more I can change my relationship to those stories and not identify with them. Remember, that's not who I am. If something happens, if I forget something, I know people say they have senior moments and they put themselves down and they feel self-hate. If I can say to myself, gee, that slip of memory is not who I am. And really know that deeply. Then meditation has achieved its goal. Keep watching to learn more. New Thinking Allowed is presented by the California Institute for Human Science. A fully accredited university offering distant learning graduate degrees that focus on mind, body, and spirit. The topics that we cover here. We are particularly excited to announce new degrees emphasizing parapsychology and the paranormal. Visit their website at cihs.edu. The new Thinking Allowed magazine issue 10 on UFOs and UAP is now ready for free download. And you can also order beautiful printed copies. Go to newthinkingallowed.org. Book 4 in the New Thinking Allowed Dialogue Series is Charles T. Tartt, 70 Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology. Now available on Amazon. Thinking Allowed, conversations on the leading edge of knowledge and discovery with psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove. Hello and welcome. I'm Jeffrey Mishlove. Today we'll be exploring the topic of facing old age. ...

Excerpt from New Thinking Allowed, Oct 13, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.