Set and setting
Set and setting, when referring to a psychedelic drug experience or the use of other psychoactive substances, means one's mindset (shortened to "set") and the physical and social environment (the "setting") in which the user has the experience.[1] Set and setting are factors that can condition the effects of psychoactive substances: "Set" refers to the mental state a person brings to the experience, like thoughts, mood and expectations; "setting" to the physical and social environment.[2] This is especially relevant for psychedelic experiences in either a therapeutic or recreational context.
History
According to the 2018 book How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, the concept of set and setting was observed by the "Johnny Appleseed" of LSD, Al Hubbard, visiting mushroom ceremonies in Mexico. The terms were used at least as early as 1958 by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and popularized by Timothy Leary in 1961, and became widely accepted by researchers in psychedelic therapy.[1][3] Norman Zinberg also extensively discussed this in Drug, Set, and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use (1984).
Due to the importance of setting in early psychedelic therapy, Hubbard introduced a "treatment space decorated to feel more like a home than a hospital", which came to be known as a "Hubbard Room".[4]
In 1966, Timothy Leary conducted a series of experiments with
Set and setting has also been investigated from a religious perspective.[6]
The concept of set and setting has more recently been extended beyond psychedelics. Zinberg "sought to integrate the ideas of set and setting into a theory of harm reduction which examined not only psychedelic use but also drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, and heroin"[1] and, more recently, the concept has been used to understand the circumstances of opioid overdoses.[7]
Practice
Social support networks have shown to be particularly important in the outcome of the psychedelic experience.[8] They are able to control or guide the course of the experience, both consciously and subconsciously. Stress, fear, or a disagreeable material, social, cultural environment, including situations of racism or discrimination,[9][10] may result in an unpleasant experience (bad trip). Conversely, a relaxed, curious person in a warm, comfortable and safe place is more likely to have a pleasant experience.
Of course, the
chemical key — it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures. The nature of the experience depends almost entirely on set and setting. Set denotes the preparation of the individual, including his personality structure and his mood at the time. Setting is physical — the weather, the room's atmosphere; social — feelings of persons present towards one another; and cultural — prevailing views as to what is real. It is for this reason that manuals or guide-books are necessary. Their purpose is to enable a person to understand the new realities of the expanded consciousness, to serve as road maps for new interior territories which modern science has made accessible.
Research has shown that a curated music playlist can be part of a favourable setting.[11][12][13] Set and setting are critical in the design of psychiatric facilities and modalities of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies.[14]
See also
- Altered state of consciousness
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- Responsible drug use
- Sensory deprivation
- Trip sitter
- Out-of-body experience
References
- ^ S2CID 53373205.
- ISBN 978-0-300-03110-2.
- ^ "Ataractic and Hallucinogenic Drugs in Psychiatry: Report of a Study Group" (PDF). World Health Organization Technical Report Series (152). 1958.
- ISBN 9780525558941.
But though this mode of therapy would become closely identified with Osmond and Hoffer, they themselves credited someone else for critical elements of its design, a man of considerable mystery with no formal training as a scientist or therapist: Al Hubbard. A treatment space decorated to feel more like a home than a hospital came to be known as a Hubbard Room, and at least one early psychedelic researcher told me that this whole therapeutic regime, which is now the norm, should by all rights be known as "the Hubbard method." Yet Al Hubbard, a.k.a. "Captain Trips" and "the Johnny Appleseed of LSD," is not the kind of intellectual forebear anyone doing serious psychedelic science today is eager to acknowledge, much less celebrate.
- ^ Leary, T. (1966). "Programmed Communication During Experiences With DMT". The Psychedelic Review. 1 (8): 83–95. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07.
- JSTOR 1385633.
- PMID 32086154.
- .
- S2CID 204363168.
- PMID 33827588.
- ^ Naftulin, Julia (2020-11-06). "Listen: The playlist scientists used to unlock 'elevated states of consciousness' in people tripping on 'magic' mushrooms for a research study". Insider. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- PMID 33860177.
- ^ Lhooq, Michelle (2021-10-22). "Countdown to ecstasy: how music is being used in healing psychedelic trips". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- S2CID 240529037.
Further reading
- Metzner, R. (1989). "Molecular Mysticism: The Role of Psychoactive Substances in the Transformation of Consciousness". The Gateway to Inner Space.
- Leary, T.; Metzner, R.; Alpert, R. (1969). The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. London: Academic Press. ISBN 9780806516523.
- Zinberg, N. E. (1984). Drug, Set, and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-03110-2.
- Hartogsohn, Ido (July 17, 2013). "The American Trip". Alternet.
One group of scientists regarded psychedelics as "psychosis-inducing" drugs, another described them as consciousness-expanding