Set and setting: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Mindset and ___location of a drug experience}}

{{use dmy dates |date=November 2024}}

{{for|the Bardo Pond album|Set and Setting (album)}}

[[File:Day 020.jpg|thumb|The "set" and "setting" are critical to avoid a "[[bad trip]]"]]

'''Set and setting''', when referring to a [[Psychedelic experience|psychedelic drug experience]] or the use of other [[Psychoactive drug|psychoactive substances]], means one's mindset (shortened to "set") and the physical and social environment (the "setting") in which the user has the experience.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Hartogsohn |first=Ido |date=2017 |title=Constructing drug effects: A history of set and setting |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2050324516683325 |journal=Drug Science, Policy and Law |language=en |volume=3 |pages=205032451668332 |doi=10.1177/2050324516683325 |s2cid=53373205 |issn=2050-3245|doi-access=free }}</ref> 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 (narrative)|setting]]" to the physical and social environment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zinberg |first=N. E. |url=https://archive.org/details/drugsetsettingba0000zinb |title=Drug, Set, and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use |date=1984 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-03110-2 |___location=New Haven |url-access=registration}}</ref> This is especially relevant for [[Psychedelic drug|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, [[Alfred Matthew Hubbard|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]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1958 |title=Ataractic and Hallucinogenic Drugs in Psychiatry: Report of a Study Group |url=https://appsiris.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/40410/WHO_TRS_152.pdf |journal=World Health Organization Technical Report Series |publisher=[[World Health Organization]] |number=152}}</ref> [[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".<ref>{{Cite book |title=How to Change Your Mind |first=Michael |last=Pollan |date=15 May 2018 |authorlink=Michael Pollan |isbn=9780525558941 |page=164 |publisher=Penguin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vk5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA164 |quote=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.}}</ref>

In 1966, Timothy Leary conducted a series of experiments with [[dimethyltryptamine]] (DMT) with controlled set and setting. The aim was to see whether DMT, which had then been mostly thought of as a terror-inducing drug, could produce pleasant experiences under a supportive set and setting. It was found that it could.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1author-link=Timothy Leary |first1last1=Leary |first1=T. |date= 1966 |url= http://deoxy.org/h_leary.htm |title= Programmed Communication During Experiences With DMT |journal= The Psychedelic Review |volume= 1 |issue= 8 |pages= 83&ndash;95 |url-status= deadusurped |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170107010902/http://deoxy.org/h_leary.htm |archivedate= 2017-01-07 }}</ref>

Set and setting has also been investigated from a religious perspective.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Rosegrant |first1= John |date= 1976 |title= The Impact of Set and Setting on Religious Experience in Nature |journal= Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |volume= 15 |issue= 4 |pages= 301&ndash;310 |doi= 10.2307/1385633 |url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272579916 |jstor= 1385633 }}</ref>

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 (drug)|alcohol]], [[cocaine]], and [[heroin]]"<ref name=":0" /> and, more recently, the concept has been used to understand the circumstances of [[Opioid overdose|opioid overdoses]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ataiants |first1=Janna |last2=Roth |first2=Alexis M. |last3=Mazzella |first3=Silvana |last4=Lankenau |first4=Stephen E. |date=2020 |title=Circumstances of overdose among street-involved, opioid-injecting women: Drug, set, and setting |journal=International Journal of Drug Policy |language=en |volume=78 |pages=102691 |doi=10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102691 |pmc=7302961 |pmid=32086154}}</ref>

== Practice ==

Social support networks have shown to be particularly important in the outcome of the psychedelic experience.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shewan |first1=David |last2=Dalgarno |first2=Phil |last3=Reith |first3=Gerda |date=2000 |title=Perceived risk and risk reduction among ecstasy users: the role of drug, set, and setting |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0955395999000389 |journal=International Journal of Drug Policy |language=en |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=431–453 |doi=10.1016/S0955-3959(99)00038-9|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They are able to control or guide the course of the experience, both consciously and subconsciously. Stress, fear, or a disagreeable material, social, and cultural environment, including situations of racism or discrimination,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neitzke-Spruill |first=Logan |date=2019-09-19 |title=Race as a component of set and setting: How experiences of race can influence psychedelic experiences |url=https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/4/1/article-p51.xml |journal=Journal of Psychedelic Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=51–60 |doi=10.1556/2054.2019.022 |s2cid=204363168 |issn=2559-9283|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pilecki |first1=Brian |last2=Luoma |first2=Jason B. |last3=Bathje |first3=Geoff J. |last4=Rhea |first4=Joseph |last5=Narloch |first5=Vilmarie Fraguada |date=2021 |title=Ethical and legal issues in psychedelic harm reduction and integration therapy |journal=[[Harm Reduction Journal]] |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=40 |doi=10.1186/s12954-021-00489-1 |issn=1477-7517 |pmc=8028769 |pmid=33827588 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 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.

{{quote|text=Of course, the [[Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants|drug]] dose does not produce the [[transcendence (philosophy)|transcendent]] experience. It merely acts as a [[chemical]] key &mdash; {{snd}}it opens the mind, frees the [[Central nervous system|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 &mdash; {{snd}}the weather, the room's atmosphere; social &mdash; {{snd}}feelings of persons present towards one another; and cultural &mdash; {{snd}}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.|sign=[[Timothy Leary]]|source=''[[The Psychedelic Experience|The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead]]''}}

Research has shown that a curated [[Playlist|music playlist]] can be part of a favourable setting.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Naftulin |first=Julia |date=2020-11-06 |title=Listen: The playlist scientists used to unlock 'elevated states of consciousness' in people tripping on 'magic' mushrooms for a research study |url=https://www.insider.com/listen-psychedelic-playlist-researchers-use-to-reach-elevated-state-2020-11 |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2020-12-02 |website=Insider}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Strickland |first1=Justin C. |last2=Garcia-Romeu |first2=Albert |last3=Johnson |first3=Matthew W. |date=2020-12-29 |title=Set and Setting: A Randomized Study of Different Musical Genres in Supporting Psychedelic Therapy |journal=ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science |publisher=[[American Chemical Society]] |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=472–478 |doi=10.1021/acsptsci.0c00187 |pmc=8033606 |pmid=33860177 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lhooq |first=Michelle |date=2021-10-22 |title=Countdown to ecstasy: how music is being used in healing psychedelic trips |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/22/countdown-to-ecstasy-how-music-is-being-used-in-healing-psychedelic-trips |url-status=live |access-date=2021-10-28 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> Set and setting are critical in the design of psychiatric facilities and modalities of [[Psychedelic therapy|psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Noorani |first=Tehseen |date=2021 |title=Containment Matters: Set and Setting in Contemporary Psychedelic Psychiatry |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/806099 |journal=Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology |language=en |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=201–216 |doi=10.1353/ppp.2021.0032 |s2cid=240529037 |issn=1086-3303}}</ref>

== See also ==

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== Further reading ==

* {{cite journal |last1= Metzner |first1= R. |date= 1989 |title= Molecular Mysticism: The Role of Psychoactive Substances in the Transformation of Consciousness |journal= The Gateway to Inner Space |url= http://www.psychedelic-library.org/metzner.htm }}

* {{cite book |last1= Leary |first1= T. |author-link=Timothy Leary |last2= Metzner |first2= R. |last3= Alpert |first3= R. |date= 1969 |title= The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead |___location= London |publisher= Academic Press |isbn= 9780806516523 |url= https://archive.org/details/psychedelicexper00leary |url-access= registration }}

* {{cite book |last= Zinberg |first= N. E. |date= 1984 |url= https://archive.org/details/drugsetsettingba0000zinb |title= Drug, Set, and Setting: The Basis for Controlled Intoxicant Use |___location= New Haven |publisher= Yale University Press |isbn= 978-0-300-03110-2 |url-access= registration }}

* {{cite web |url= http://www.alternet.org/drugs/why-scientific-and-medical-establishments-have-such-schizoid-understandings-about-psychedelics?paging=off |title= The American Trip |quote= One group of scientists regarded psychedelics as "'psychosis-inducing"' drugs, another described them as consciousness-expanding |first= Ido |last= Hartogsohn |publisher= Alternet |date= July 17, 2013 }}

{{Timothy Leary|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants]]

[[Category:Drug culture]]

[[Category:Timothy Leary]]