Background

Lancellotti grew up in New England. Peter's undergraduate studies started at the Community College of Rhode Island. He pursued a bachelor degree in Communication with enough credits for a Music, English, or Philosophy minor. He chose Philosophy. He then attended Rhode Island College for the last two years to complete a four-year degree, graduating in 1984.

During his undergraduate years, he was employed as a Recreational Director at a Mental Health facility in New England. He worked with older adults and did sing-alongs to both piano and guitar. Lancellotti, a classically trained guitarist from the age of eight, was also a studio musician. He'd also been in three rock bands from the 11th grade in high school until he graduated college. He wrote original compositions and released a prog rock/New Age solo album in the mid-1980s.

Peter forged many friendships throughout his life with both younger and older adults, surrounding himself with those smarter than he was because of his innate thirst for knowledge. He understood early in life that age played a small part in the development of wisdom.

After many years of experience in the fields of sales, marketing, and telecom, which included advertising, an infomercial company, and managing a sales team at an internet start-up, that's when he found his calling and acquired over 25 years of experience in telecom and Cable TV.

In 2008 when the U.S. market crashed, Lancellotti decided to reinvent himself. His plans were to make a simple transition from marketing telecom/Cable TV into telehealth.

He attended the Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California and changed directions dramatically. He worked in scientific research for over four years. While there are many branches of "Gerontology," it is basically the study of aging across the lifespan with an emphasis on older adults.

Doing Ph.D. level work as a research assistant and guest lecturer for masters level classes, instead of pursuing a doctorate, he decided he could help older adults in a more effective capacity and opened his own homecare agency in Los Angeles County. He primarily served the LGBTQ older adult demographic, which surprisingly had never been done successfully. Peter also volunteered his time to several task forces such as: the Gerontological Society of America, SAGE, and developed a new local organization with industry professionals to help older adults maintain their independence, the LGBTQ Aging Alliance of Los Angeles.


Literary & Philosophical Influences

Of the many authors Peter has been influenced by, these are a few:

He found the works of Plato magnificent, especially The Republic as the most interesting book describing humanity's concepts of justice. Alice A. Bailey, a theosophist, not to be confused with the study of theology, is a favorite influential author of Lancellotti, along with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky who brought Theosophy, also known as the occult, to America in 1875 with Henry Steel Olcott.

Having also studied theology, Lancellotti has held the belief that no one religion has ever had all the answers to metaphysical questions. "Popular religions pigeonhole us and limit our thinking through the use of dogma about the nature of God and the universe with its hypnotic effects on human perception."

Other influential literature impacting the author's thoughts about the nature of humanity and philosophical concepts about the universe, include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and one of Peter's favorite authors, William Shakespeare. A few modern authors he's enjoyed are C.S. Lewis, and Madeleine L’Engle, as well as Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, and Arthur C. Clarke in sci-fi and fantasy. These writers created worlds which stimulated his own creativity.

An author who fascinated him in the sphere of dramatic stage and screenplay writing, as well as being the first to introduce him to gay thought, was the late great Tennessee Williams. He was a brave gay man out of the closet when he lived, born in the early part of the 20th century. He made a thorough examination about mortality in a variety of stage and screenplays. His dark view of homosexuality was colored by his own upbringing. As for Lancellotti's interest in immortality, Anne Rice examined the possibility of life as a vampire exciting his macabre side. He’s read many other vampire stories, including one of the most famous, Bram Stoker's “Dracula.”

Now retired to a secluded area of Los Angeles County, Lancellotti continues to work on his next chapter in life—writing.