Chapter 2: Set, Setting, and Preparation for a Trip
Preparing For Entheogenic Journeys Video Playlist
Once you have decided which entheogen is most appropriate for your desired experience, it is time to think about when and where it is best to trip. Having a proper set and setting is crucial when preparing for a journey.
Set
Your set is your headspace, mood, and psychological baggage that you bring into a trip. Everyone’s set is unique and constantly changing depending on what is going on in their lives.
Physical and Psychological Health. It is important for you to understand your health conditions, both physical and psychological, and know your limitations. If you have had a specific adverse reaction to a drug or type of drugs in the past, you need to keep this in mind. Also, people with a history of mental illness are at higher risk for having difficult trips.
Avoid Tripping in Times of Crisis. It is a good idea to avoid tripping during highly stressful times in your life, like if you have just broken up with your significant other or if you lost your job. If you go into a trip with an anxious, stressed out, or angry headspace it is very likely that this headspace will carry through with you, throughout your journey.
Relaxed, Positive Attitude. If you go into a trip with a relaxed and positive attitude it is very likely that this attitude will continue with you during your trip, just like having a negative attitude will. Because of this, it is best to be in a really happy and calm frame of mind when entering into a trip. You might even try to get yourself into a euphoric state of mind before a trip. There many things that a person can do to create euphoria. A couple of examples are: doing something that makes you really happy or pre-dosing with an entactogen (more on this in Chapter 4).
Intent of Trip. We have already touched on intent, in the sense that you can decide whether an entheogen or an entactogen best suits your particular purpose. However, intent can be taken a step further when preparing for an entheogenic journey. You can think about what you would like to attain, or experience, during your journey. Sometimes it helps to think about what your goals are before hand; this way they can be clear in your mind. Truly understanding what you want to learn from your experience can help you focus your awareness and attention. It can help push you in the direction you want to go.
Now, this is not to say that focusing on and understanding your intentions always works. Entheogenic trips are very similar to life. Sometimes we get what we hope for and dream of and sometimes we don’t. The most important thing to realize is that we never can get anything or anywhere unless we believe in ourselves and try our best to attain it.
Spiritually Center Yourself. It is also a good idea to spiritually center yourself. If you have a particular faith or spiritual belief it can be helpful to spend a few moments to pray, ask for guidance and safe passage, purify your intentions, and remind yourself why you are about to take an entheogen.
Many people accomplish this through meditation. Meditation has been used for thousands of years to enable us to experience the same transcendental realms of consciousness that we experience through the use of entheogens. The only real difference is how much practice it takes to get there. This concept is best illustrated with an analogy: if you look at consciousness like a ten story building, where each floor represents a particular developmental level. Let’s say that most of us, in our everyday consciousness, float somewhere between the fourth and sixth floors. Many of us don’t realize that there are higher floors; we often believe that we have attained all we can even though we’ve only gone halfway up. Both meditation and the use of entheogens can help us experience these higher floors. The difference is that meditation is like taking the stairs, while entheogenic experiences are like taking the elevator.
After looking at the analogy, it is easy to see that meditation can take us in the same consciousness expanding direction as an entheogen. So, by utilizing meditation before a trip you can nudge to your consciousness in the right direction before the trip even begins. You can start to focus your awareness and energy on the trip you would like to have.
Setting
The setting is all of the components that make up the environment that you choose to trip in. This includes the physical location and the people you choose to trip with.
Physical Location. It is important to trip in a location that makes you feel comfortable and safe. It is a good idea to set out pillows and blankets so that you can have something to snuggle up to. You also might try dimming the lighting a bit, since most entheogens cause you to be more sensitive to bright lights.
Clothing. A person can trip in any type of clothing or no clothes at all. The main thing to think about is comfort. I like to wear loose fitting clothing; something comparable to what I practice meditation and yoga in. I also like to avoid clothing with complex buckles, zippers, and buttons because some times it can be difficult to work with them during a really strong trip.
Your body temperature can change drastically during an experience. One minute you’ll have the shivers and the next minute you’ll be burning up. Because of this, it is a good idea to layer your clothing. Otherwise you can wear something light and have blankets around to wrap yourself up in, if needed.
People in the Group. Group tripping is a beautiful and very important part of the entheogenic experience. It can be helpful to beginning trippers because of the support and guidance of the more experienced group members; and it can be helpful to more advanced trippers because of the level of bonding and sharing that often occurs among group members. It can be one of the greatest learning tools; although, if it is not structured properly, it can be one of the many catalysts for a difficult experience.
It is a good idea to put some thought into which people you will be tripping with. Choosing the right people to trip with will help you get the most out of a group trip and it will help you avoid having a difficult experience. Being discerning over those you choose to trip with is a responsibility that not only rests on your shoulders, but also rests on the shoulders of everyone else in the group.
Now, I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, which people are the right people? Aren’t all of us connected to the same Deep Source within ourselves? And if so, isn’t tripping with anyone simply a way to experience true self reflectivity? This is partly correct and, as with the nature of all things, it is paradoxical. We all share the same Universal Existence deep down inside, or outside, however you want to conceptualize it. At the same time, we all share different existences. These differences in personality, goals, educational level, spiritual beliefs, family history, cultural background, and too many more to describe here contribute to the novelty of the one Soul we all share. This is the reason, as one human family and individually, we are all always constantly evolving and changing in novel and diverse ways.
Because of this, it is important to trip with people that you trust and feel comfortable with. Being self conscious and feeling worried about what others think of you are the last things that you want to happen to you during a group entheogenic experience. Worrying about what the group is thinking of you can cause you to become nervous and then nudge you in the direction of a difficult trip. Because of this, it is important to trip with people that will help you feel comfortable and loved.
I’ve always had the best experiences with people that I knew really well and thought of as family before the trip. This is because it is easier to cry or throw up in front of someone that loves you. It is also easier to show your true self to people you trust. You can let your guard down and just open up to them, without worrying about what they think of you.
Sober Driver and/or Trip Sitter. If you are tripping in a group, it can be helpful to have someone become the trip sitter. It is this person’s responsibility to assist the group by maintaining a rational and responsible frame of mind. Having a sober person around can be very good if the group is taking a risky concoction or if the group needs a sober driver. (More can be read on this topic in Chapter 3.)
Food and Beverages. It is good to have beverages available, like juice and water, prepared ahead of time. It is easy to forget that you need to keep hydrated. Because of this, you should try to remind yourself to drink periodically throughout the experience. Placing some bottles of water in the area that you’re tripping will make it easier to remember.
When you start to come down, you may also start to feel hungry. Since you may not have eaten anything in twelve or more hours and since you have used a lot of energy, you may also feel weak. My favorite food to eat after a trip is ice cream, so before I begin my trip, I make sure to have some of it in the freezer.
Music. It is good to have a few easily accessible CD’s with calming music that you can listen to throughout the experience. If you, or a member of the group, start to experience anxiety, it can really help to play the music and create a peaceful vibe. I’ve always found that listening to tribal music, with drums beats and people singing beautiful melodies from other cultures, can nudge a trip into a new direction that has a more universal focus.
Another really grounding aspect to music is actually making it during a trip. All of the shamans throughout history played music during their ceremonies. Most of them would keep a constant beat throughout the entire experience. This is because it can have a very grounding in stabilizing effect. If you’re tripping in a group, it can help bind you together because it is another shared aspect of the experience.
It also can be fun to play an instrument or sing along with your favorite song. And because your creative abilities are heightened, you can come up with some very interesting musical ideas. Also, if you’re tripping in a group, playing music during this type of experience can enable you to come together in a whole new way.
Pre-Dosing with Vitamins
Antioxidants and Phenethylamines. Some of the substances that we discussed earlier as entactogens, like MDMA and MDA, are also phenethylamines. Studies have suggested that, when phenethylamines are metabolized, they can produce oxygen free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive substances because of their extra, unpaired electrons. Free radical damage within cells has been linked to a range of disorders including cancer, arthritis, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and other neurological disorders. While our body has mechanisms to protect against the normal levels of radicals, excessive amounts overwhelm the protective systems and then damage occurs.
According to Brian Leibovitz (1993), “Phenethylamines are stored in highest concentrations in the brain and nervous system. Not surprisingly, these tissues are at the greatest risk for being harmed by free radicals (and associated oxidants) formed during the redox cycling of phenethylamines… The key, as always, is protection, and knowing the mechanism of action can only yield one conclusion: those who take phenethylamines should also take antioxidant supplements. All phenethylamines are prooxidants by nature, and can redox cycle. This means that there will be a dose-dependent increase in free radical production, so even at a low dose there will be free radical generation to some extent. Therefore, if one takes phenethylamines, it would be prudent to take supplemental antioxidants as well. This includes both the water-soluble (e.g., vitamin C and glutathione) as well as fat-soluble (e.g., vitamin E) antioxidants. Other important antioxidants include: selenium (the coordinating mineral for the enzyme glutathione peroxidase) and beta-carotene (a quencher of singlet oxygen - - a non-radical form of activated oxygen). Bioflavonoids are also indicated, not only for their direct antioxidant effects, but because they are good metal- chelating agents (and so prevent iron from catalyzing reactions that generate free radicals). Studies in both animals and (to a lesser extent) humans document the protective effects of antioxidants against the radical-mediated, untoward side-effects of phenethylamines.”
I always take a multivitamin with large amounts of antioxidants about an hour before I go on entheogenic trip. Not only does it help protect me from free radical damage, it helps me have more energy throughout my trip. More information can be found on this topic in the MDMA Main Page.)
Drug Factors
Quality. The worse the quality is of the drug, the more likely it is that you will have a difficult trip. Drug dealing is a business and many drug dealers are very profit oriented. To increase their profits, they often cut the drugs they’re selling with all sorts of different things. Sometimes this “cut” can be harmful to your health. This is why it is very important to obtain your entheogen from a source that you trust.
When in doubt, grow the entheogenic plants yourself. This way you don’t have to worry about anyone else contaminating your entheogen. Many entheogenic plants are completely legal to grow and possess. The only aspect of the whole process that is illegal is actually being in possession of the plant’s extract – if that plant contains an illegal substance. Also, caring for the entheogenic plant, before you take it, adds another aspect to the experience.
Quantity. As the size of your dose increases, the difficulty of your trip also increases. If you’re nervous about taking a large dose of an entheogen, it is probably best to follow your intuition and take a smaller dose. In other words, there’s no reason to take a heroic dose when you still can learn a lot from a threshold dose.
Another thing to keep in mind is reverse tolerance. Charles Tart (1975) discussed this concept in his book, States of Consciousness. He said that “the fact that a naïve user can smoke enormous amounts of marijuana the first several times without getting stoned, and than easily get stoned with at tenth as much drug once he has learned how, is paradoxical to pharmacologists. They call it the reverse tolerance effect… it simply means that the physiological disrupting and patterning effects of the drug per se are generally not sufficient to destabilize the b-SoC [base state of consciousness]. Once the user knows how to deploy his attention/awareness properly, however, this deployment needs only a small boost from the physiological effects of the drug to finally destabilize the b-SoC [base state of consciousness] and pattern the d-ASC [discrete altered state of consciousness] – being stoned.”
I have experienced the effects of reverse tolerance first hand. When I first started tripping and took 250 micrograms of LSD, I didn’t get nearly as high as I did later on when took that same 250 micrograms of LSD. Now it takes me a fraction of the dose I once took, to get the same effect. An entheogen is merely a catalyst. And once you know how to work with It, you can go further without any catalyst at all.
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