_{This article is for entertainment purposes only and does not contain medical advice. Consult your local regulations and consult your doctor before the use of any psychedelic substance.}

In the psychedelic world, the term “set and setting” is considered the most critical factor in maximizing therapeutic benefit, maintaining ethical boundaries, and reducing harm. 

Psychedelic literature, including current clinical, scientific, anthropological, and spiritual texts, describe the importance of “set and setting” in having the best psychedelic journey possible. So why is an intentional “set and setting” such a powerful ally to the psychedelic experience and what do these terms mean? 

Though psychedelic planning by any other name would smell as sweet, let’s take a look at why “set and setting” are crucial to the psychedelic experience. 

What does “set and setting” mean?

set = internal mindset
setting = external environment

“Set” refers to the mental state of the individual ahead of and during a psychedelic journey, while “setting” refers to preparation of or intentionality surrounding the external environment for a psychedelic experience. Together, “set and setting” encompasses the inner and outer environment that impact the body, mind, and spirit. 

In his 1964 guide for taking psychedelics The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead¹, Psychologist Timothy Leary discussed the inherent risks of psychedelic use and popularized the idea of “set and setting” as a way to reduce harm and maximize benefit. However within indigenous and spiritual contexts, these concepts have existed for thousands of years². Although few studies have been done on the assumed relationship between psychedelics and their set and setting context³, psychedelic research has shown how individual external factors such as music⁴⁵, positive autobiographical memory scripts⁶, and creative imagery⁷ can enhance the psychedelic experience. While more studies on the impact of set and setting are needed, psychedelic researchers like Robin Carhart-Harris believe context plays an important role⁸, furthering the idea that  “set and setting” are the gold standard of psychedelic preparation.  
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What’s in a “set”?‍

An individual’s mindset going into a psychedelic journey may include their beliefs, hopes, fears, cultural background, social support, personality, and expectations which are shaped by the world around them. Let’s explore the five main components of “set” and how to adequately prepare the mind for psychedelic experience. 

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1. Preparation

‍The concept of “set” is not only the mental space of an individual going into a psychedelic experience, it also includes the state of mind of the individual throughout the preparation process. Using tools such as breathwork, meditation, movement, journaling, time in nature, therapy, and preparatory sessions with an individual’s psychedelic facilitator in the weeks and months prior to a psychedelic experience have been shown to result in more favorable and productive psychedelic outcomes. Practice with non-ordinary states of consciousness may additionally be helpful in familiarizing the mind with concepts of surrender, presence, euphoria, and discomfort. 
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2. Expectation

Individuals seeking a psychedelic experience may bring their own expectations about what it will be like based on movies, media, or second-hand accounts of others’ experiences. For this reason, it can be helpful to discuss session expectations with a psychedelic facilitator.⁹

Some individuals may anticipate a fully guided shamanic experience, while others might expect talk therapy or a silent, clinical session with eye shades and headphones. Discussing these expectations with a facilitator will help to establish behavioral expectations for both client and guide. 

In preparatory sessions, facilitators allow space for questions and describe common physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual experiences. For instance, psychedelic clients commonly express themselves vocally, including yelling, crying, laughing, or speaking in tongues but are also not expected to communicate, explain, or describe any experience to their facilitators while it is happening. During a session, facilitators will support the experience by taking notes, playing music, presenting thought provoking tools, providing a new scent or texture, or by utilizing therapeutic strategies.¹⁰ Facilitators may encourage clients to stay “internal” through laying down with eye shades and headphones or may support physical movement or other forms of emotional and somatic release. Individuals can expect to process the experience with their facilitator toward the end of a session or after the session is complete during integration sessions. 

In addition, clients should discuss expectations of safety, touch, and comfort with their facilitator, including safety with themselves and others. This includes outlining expectations for no sexualized touch, nudity, self harm, or harm to others. Facilitators may also discuss calming measures to ease the transition into the medicine space such as guided visualizations or breathing techniques.

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3. Intention

‍Setting intentions can be an important component of an intentional psychedelic session. Intentions are goals or ideas to explore during the experience and represent the first step in the healing dialogue between a psychedelic client and the medicine. 

While intentions are important to discuss with a facilitator prior to a psychedelic session, it is important to not cling so tightly to intentions that client’s forget to relax, stay present, and surrender to the experience. For this reason, it is important to remain open to whatever experience may come, including what the medicine or psyche have to show the client.

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4. Personality

Personality can impact how an individual approaches the psychedelic experience, yet the influences of personality can be elusive¹¹. Self knowledge of personality attributes can be helpful in battling against common traits like pessimism, bias, and control, while unknown personality attributes like impatience, ego, inflexibility, and being close minded may cause an individual to resist parts of the psychedelic experience. To combat such known and unknown personality characteristics, mindset practices like meditation and breathwork may help improve an individual’s discomfort tolerance and improve the ability to surrender to the experience.

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5. Matrix

Before beginning any psychedelic journey, the context of an individual’s current physical and social environment must be considered. In his Manual for Psychedelic Guides, Adjunct Professor and Psychedelic Expert Mark Haden, describes this context as an individual’s “Matrix”¹².

Often after a transformative experience, an individual will return home to their partner, family, friends, workplace, and physical environment feeling more open and vulnerable. They may need time to process their experience alone or with others and will need to feel supported by their physical and social environment to do so. 

Entering into an experience with an appropriate set and setting is one thing, but knowing an individual will return to a threatening physical or social environment after an experience is another. 

This means to ensure an optimal mindset going into an experience an individual should prepare their physical and social environment for their return. This may mean opening their schedule to allow for solo processing time, scheduling supportive post-session integration or counseling, clearing their physical space of clutter, purchasing healthy foods, and even discussing what support will be needed with loved ones. 

However, if an individual’s social or physical space may prove threatening upon return from the psychedelic experience, it is important for the individual and their facilitator to be aware of this and help the individual make a plan to mentally, physically, and spiritually return home.

What’s in a “setting”?‍

The “setting” of a psychedelic journey can impact the felt sense of psychological safety before, during, and after a session and can have great bearing on the trajectory and depth of the experience. Location, attention to detail, and aesthetics should be considered, along with social and physical comfort, cultural familiarity, safety, and privacy. Let’s explore the four main components of “setting” and how to adequately prepare the journeying space.
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1. Physical Comfort

Feeling comfortable in your psychedelic setting can mean the difference between a positive experience or a challenging journey. 

Journeying spaces vary greatly, and may depend on the number of individuals participating, the location of the journeying space, and even the availability of indoor/outdoor space. Some journeying spaces may feel sacred to a psychedelic participant, guiding team, and even a culture¹³. For this reason, individuals should use a separate space for preparation and journeying to ensure the space feels more safe, sacred, and comfortable.

Journeying spaces can be professional, in nature, or everything in between, yet comfort should always be prioritized. If outside space is inaccessible, windows, plants, and photos of nature may bring calm and grounding to a journeying space. Indoor and outdoor aesthetics such as soft, dimmable lighting can be helpful if laying down as well¹⁴.

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These spaces should be as clean and relaxing as possible, with minimal clutter and little to no extra scents or smells. They should maintain a comfortable temperature, include soft textures, blankets, and pillows, and provide space to recline. Ideally, individuals should have freedom to move, space to rest against walls, and spaces to physically cocoon with blankets. Eye shades may aid in relaxation, limit external visual distraction, and facilitate a more inward experience, while extra pillows, foam pads, and soft blankets may facilitate comfortable movement¹⁵.  

Psychedelic rituals such as singing, chanting, drumming, bells, or working with sacred objects, may infuse added meaning and bring additional comfort to an individual before and during their journey. For instance, a tone from a singing bowl might help to signify a change or transition within a journey. Rituals may be used in times of challenge or distress, yet can be harmful if not aligned with the participant. For this reason, a proper “set” with a skilled facilitator will help determine the appropriate rituals to create physical and psychological comfort.     

For many, music can be the most important aspect of “setting” due to its impact on mood and influence on emotion. This emotional connection to music transcends language and culture and has the potential to amplify feelings during an altered state of consciousness. Provoking and gentle playlists may drive a journey forward with momentum or bring calm to moments of distress. For this reason, curated music (and headphones if preferred) should be available.

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2. Physical safety and privacy

Creating physical safety and privacy within a psychedelic experience is key to unlocking psychological safety.  

Participants must feel free to yell, sing, dance, cry, scream, and emote. Individuals may feel uncomfortable exhibiting their full expression if concerned about being interrupted or disturbing others. For this reason, a private environment where sound is of no concern is preferable¹⁶. In addition, softly lit and easily accessible bathrooms can increase comfort and safety. While some may choose to journey in nature, meeting this basic bodily need and providing privacy can give a client a greater sense of ease and autonomy, particularly if they are feeling nauseous or nervous. If ingesting a psychedelic substance that commonly brings about vomit (such as Ayahuasca), planning ahead for physical needs will be crucial. Having a bucket, wipes, gloves, sealable bags, and an extra change of clothes readily available will make the experience more comfortable for clients and facilitators¹⁷.

Meeting other basic bodily needs is important as well. For instance, feeling safe during the journey may largely depend on the location. Clients with access to freely move indoors or outdoors with minimized risk of bodily harm and little to no access to physical hazards may feel increased psychological safety resulting in a deeper experience¹⁸. Although clients may be encouraged to limit food or water intake before or during a psychedelic experience (for instance, to minimize nausea or vomiting), facilitators should give food and water during and/or after the experience to avoid dehydration, blood sugar drops, or other potential medical issues¹⁹.
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When considering safety, it is arguably most important to know an individual's medical and mental health history, what substance is being administered, and the exact dosing used. Appropriate substance and dosage will depend on a variety of bio/psycho/social factors including age, weight, prior psychedelic experience, health history, mental health history, medications, and even the client’s readiness on the session day. Dosing should be discussed ahead of the session, and clients should be informed of the affects at varying levels to provide appropriate informed consent.

Arguably though, the biggest factor in the physical safety of the client within a psychedelic session is the facilitator. In a psychedelic experience, the demographics of a guide (age, gender, background, etc.) may consciously or unconsciously influence the experience through transference and countertransference²⁰. This means a facilitator has the potential to bring out different feelings in the client during the session. For instance, a young woman with an older male facilitator might bring out experiences of a father wound from childhood. Similarly, a guide who has lost a brother may unknowingly project feelings onto a similarly aged male participant that may influence the experience. Although these examples are not inherently negative, both the facilitator and client should be aware of the client’s history and the potential of these dynamics. In addition, facilitators will be more effective if knowledgeable and experienced with both the medicine and with facilitation. Otherwise, clients may pick up on a facilitator’s anxieties or lack of presence, which may influence the experience. To minimize risk, clients should select licensed facilitators (ideally with trauma-informed and culturally competent backgrounds), and who engage in ongoing training, deep reflection, and skillful supervision. 

Finally, creating a safety plan surrounding getting home safely after a session and having adequate emotional support can help clients feel more at ease during the psychedelic experience. Individuals should ideally plan to get a ride home from a trusted friend or family member and facilitators should hold keys until the session is complete.

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3. Social safety

‍Feeling safe with those around during a psychedelic experience can make (or break) the experience. As outlined above, the skill of an individual’s psychedelic facilitator, including their attunement, stability, plant medicine knowledge, and ability to create and maintain groundedness, may influence an individual’s depth of experience. This means trust between facilitator and client within the journeying space is crucial for creating social safety. Not only must a facilitator attend to a client’s physical, personal, and interpersonal needs, but they must create a safe container that avoids fixing, labeling, psychoanalyzing, diagnosing, or distracting. 

A knowledgeable facilitator will strike a balance between an inactive sitter and an overactive guide and will maintain professional boundaries at all times²¹. Understanding the inherent power dynamics and the vulnerability of individuals in non-ordinary states of consciousness, skilled facilitators will avoid manipulating or exploiting their clients, will have awareness of the transference and countertransference, and will only intervene when necessary, allowing the participant’s journey to unfold organically and letting them assign their own meaning to the experience. 

Additionally, social comfort and safety can be compromised within shared psychedelic spaces, particularly in group ceremonies. Trauma-informed facilitators would be best suited in this circumstance to ensure clients with specific trauma histories are not paired with inappropriate facilitators or with other clients that may be activating²². 
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4. Familiarity

‍Familiarity with a journeying space can help to orient the client. In fact, experiencing psychedelics away from home, in a different environment, different country, or different cultural context, may cause anxiety. For this reason, familiarizing clients with local customs and rituals can ensure a more physically, psychologically, and socially comfortable psychedelic journey. 

If it is not possible to see a journeying space ahead of a psychedelic experience, looking at photographs or videos of the space ahead of time may provide additional psychological comfort. 




If you have experienced non-ordinary states of consciousness before, consider how the set and setting may have impacted your experience. How might you improve your set and setting next time?