Crafting Psychedelic Playlists: Music, Silence & the Flow of the Trip

Music can make or break a psychedelic experience.

It can soften the come-up, deepen the peak, or gently guide the return. In some sessions, music is performed live. In others, it’s pre-recorded playlists that shape the inner landscape.

If you’re using playlists, you’ve got two options:
1. Use a pre-made playlist.
2. Build your own.

Pre-made is easy and convenient. Crafting your own lets you have more control over the shape the mood, the message, and the medicine. In this post, I’ll break down the essential knowledge for building psychedelic playlists: how to map music to the different phases of a trip, why silence is just as powerful as sound, how to use the “pendulum effect,” and a playlist hack that saves you hours.

This is the first in a series on music and psychedelics—designed to help you create powerful soundscapes for meaningful experiences.

Let’s dive in.

The Arc and Phases

Before beginning to build a playlist for a session the first thing to know is the arc of a psychedelic experience. That is, the different phases of an experience, such as: ‘the come up’, ‘the peak’, and ‘the downslide’.

Understanding the different sections of an experience can help you to make the best musical choices for each section, supporting the trajectory and unfolding of the experience.

There have been various ways of categorizing the different sections so here I’ll share a couple.

6 phases for LSD – Bonny and Pahnke

In The Use of Music in Psychedelic (LSD) Psychotherapy, Helen Bonny and Walter Pahnke outlined 6 phases for an LSD trip.

These were:

Phase 1: Pre-onset (0 to ½ hour)
Phase 2: Onset to (½ to 1½ hours)
Phase 3: Building Toward Peak Intensity (1½, to 3½ hours)
Phase 4: Peak Intensity of Drug Action (3 to 4½ hours)
Phase 5: Re-entry (4½ to 7 hours)
Phase 6: Return to Normal Consciousness (7 to 12 hours)

In my experience, the peak comes on a bit sooner than this, more like in the one – two hour range, but this gives you an idea.

For psilocybin, I’d put the timings are shorter:

Phase 1: Pre-onset (0 to 15 mins)
Phase 2: Onset to (15 to 45 mins)
Phase 3: Building Toward Peak Intensity (45 mins to 1 hours)
Phase 4: Peak Intensity of Drug Action (1 to 3 hours)
Phase 5: Re-entry (3 to 5 hours)
Phase 6: Return to Normal Consciousness (5 to 6 hours)

As a general rule of thumb, calming music is to be played mainly during the onset, ascent, and return phases and more emotive music was deemed as better reserved for late in the building towards the peak phase and during the peak phase:

“Music with strong evocative emotional sentiments was only played during peak, on the assumption that an important pre-requisite is for the individual to first feel calm and safe and that more evocative music would enable an activation of autobiographical and therapeutically significant when played at peak.”
– Bonny and Pahnke – referenced in The Hidden Therapist

The Phases of a Psychedelic Trip: Come Up, Peak, Come Down

When it comes to planning a playlist for a session, the simplest way of breaking it down is into 3 sections following ingestion of a substance.

For example, with psilocybin:

Phase 1: Come Up (0 to 1 hour)
Phase 2: Peak (1 to 3 hours)
Phase 3: Come Down (3 to 5 hours)

Following these basic phases, musical choices would be:

Come Up: Calming music
Peak: Emotive music (or “sentimental” or “cinematic” music)
Come Down: Calming music

As before, this is designed to promote feelings of calm and relaxation at the beginning of the trip, and to establish a sense of safety to launch from. The emotive music intensifies emotions at the peak. Finally, calming music returns once more to smooth the return to normality.

Silence

When building a playlist, we can start by boiling the session down into three phases for overall simplicity. This helps us to get started and build the high-level trajectory. We can then add nuance by employing other techniques to enhance the overall flow of an experience.

The Power of Silence

Silence can be used strategically in a playlist for psychedelic sessions.

Seconds or minutes of silence in the middle of a playlist can offer a needed pause. The absence of music can lower the intensity and offer a moment of peace. It can give a sense of space, and act as a reminder to reconnect with the breath and body.

I see them almost as ‘pit stops’ on the way.

The therapeutic impact of the absence of music is significant; the choice not to play music can serve as a potent intervention. Silence, in this context, is more than just an absence of sound—it can act as a pause in stimulation, influencing the subjective experience. Moreover, silence sets the stage for a desensitizing contrast when music resumes, enhancing the freshness of the new musical experiences.

In some cases, in a private or 1-1 session, silence may even be used for extended periods of the session, up to 30 minutes, or even hours. This may be just what the journeyer needs and wishes for. These intervals of quietness may also create an opportunity for meaningful interaction between the facilitator or tripsitter and the journeyer.

When incorporating silent intervals into your sessions, it’s crucial to inform all journeyers beforehand about the planned periods of silence. This pre-session briefing is essential to prevent potential confusion, as silence may otherwise be interpreted as something being amiss or a technical glitch.

It’s also important to note that, as with music, not everyone responds to silence in the same way. I’ve known a couple of people who found that it didn’t help or have the intended effect. In those cases, it dropped them out of their journey or reduced their overall experience in a way that they didn’t much care for.

Gongs and Bells

An alternate method to silence, that may also be used with silence is the use of bells and gongs in a playlist. These may also be used as a reminder to return to the breath and to recentre in a journey, or to recall an intention or inner resource to mind.

The Pendulum Effect

I first learned the ‘pendulum effect’ from psychedelic musicologist and Wavepaths founder Mendel Kaelen. They were utilized in his playlists for the groundbreaking psychedelic studies on treatment-resistant depression.

The idea of the pendulum effect is that music will move between different levels of intensity within the peak phase of a psychedelic experience.

So for example, the peak of a psilocybin experience lasts approximately two hours. Using the pendulum effect, music will not be at high intensity, or highly emotive, for the full two-hour period of this phase. Rather, music will go between some high-intensity and lower-intensity music in this period.

The high-intensity tracks may help to bring about deeper emotions, and autobiographical content, which can provide the necessary material and experience for catharsis.

The lower-intensity tracks, which might be calmer or a little more mellow, can offer respite from the intense emotional work that is being carried by the more emotional music. They can act similarly to silence and offer somewhat of a break.

I once heard someone use the analogy of burning coals to describe this process. They stated that after a significant release or an energetic series of songs, the downshift in intensity can be particularly useful. The intense tracks are like blowing on a fire to make it hot and get the flames roaring, and then silence or calmer tracks serve as a time for the embers to burn slowly.

The Template Approach

If you’ve ever tried making a psychedelic playlist from scratch, you will know that it takes a lot of time.

There is, however, a way to have the customized aspect of a self-created playlist with the convenience of a pre-made playlist. This is to use a pre-made playlist as a template.

Most pre-made playlists will follow the phases of a psychedelic trip so the basic structure is already in place.

You can then swap out tracks with your personal choices as you see fit. So if you would really like to include just a few specific pieces of music in your playlist, you needn’t build a whole playlist from scratch. You can start with a pre-made playlist and then simply swap your choices into the sections of the playlist where you think they will best fit. You can put them in the place of tracks that have a similar intensity so that the overall flow of the playlist will remain intact.

Conversely, if you find a playlist that looks good overall but has one or two tracks that you would rather not listen to during your session, you can swap them out for your own choices.

If you want to find tracks of a similar vibe you can do this by using the ‘suggested tracks’ feature on a playlist on music platforms such as Spotify. The algorithm will look at a playlist and offer suggestions for similar tracks based on the music it contains.

Final Thoughts on Playlist Creation

Crafting the ideal playlist for a psychedelic journey is an art that hinges on understanding the nuances of the experience. Whether live or recorded, music plays a pivotal role in shaping these journeys. When creating playlists, it’s important to bear in mind the three key phases of a journey: Come Up, Peak, and Come Down, and to accompany each with specific musical choices. Calming tunes bookend the journey, while emotive music enhances the peak.

Silence, strategically integrated, emerges as a powerful tool, offering breaks, reducing intensity, and creating space for reconnection. Alternative approaches, like bells and the Pendulum Effect, provide additional layers to the experience. If you’re seeking efficiency, the template approach allows personalization within a pre-made structure.

When creating your playlists, it’s important to remember that it can be a process of refinement over time. I would recommend that you don’t over-obsess over having the ‘perfect’ playlist the first time. Allow yourself to try musical choices, learn from experience what works well and what doesn’t, and use those to inform and adjust musical choices going forward.

It’s also important to consider the journeyer’s musical preferences in terms of genre and instrumentation. This is something I’ll explore in the next blog post, so be sure to check back soon.

Stay safe, journey well.

21/06/2025/by John Robertson

mdma concert gig live music how to guide

MDMA, Music, Preparation, Setting

Practical Tips for Going to Concerts on MDMA

MDMA and music: Magical combo.

MDMA and live music: Now we’re talking.

Concerts, gigs, shows. Whatever you call them. MDMA can heighten the experience beautifully.

The combo is a popular choice because it goes down so so well.

As the psychedelic revival continues to grow, much talk on the use and application focuses on the idea of using psychedelics in a medical or clinical context. While some argue that psychedelics are only good when used for treatment or healing, I believe in cognitive liberty.

Citizens should have the freedom to alter their minds as they choose. That includes taking MDMA for enjoyment, fun, therapy, and mental health interventions.

I am a huge believer in using both classic and non-classic psychedelics for healing and therapeutic purposes, and at the same time, going to gigs on drugs has been one of my greatest joys in life.

So I wanted to write a blog post to help others have some amazing and memorable experiences. This post will contain some tips to help you make the most of your experience. Of course, many drugs can be enjoyed with live music, and most of the tips here will apply across the board. I’m just keeping on theme for MDMA month on the blog.

We’ll go in three sections, in chronological order: 1. Pre-show, 2. During, and 3. After.

Let’s ago!

1: Pre-Concert

Before getting into concert specifics, follow these standard MDMA best practices to help ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience.

1.1: Prepare Doses

Save yourself the hassle of fumbling with tiny crystals while you’re out and about. Pre-weigh your doses and have them ready to go in capsules. I generally like to dose before entering the venue if I can so I don’t have to think about any security checks, but in my experience, those are usually pretty lax.

1.2: Create a Basic Schedule

Timing the dose well is key. This prevents the need for redosing, or not being high when the band plays.

To time well, knowing the stage times is crucial.

Reach out to the band on Instagram or Twitter, contact the venue, or arrive early to find out, where stage times might be posted around. Otherwise, you might ask the sound guy or whoever is at the merch stand, as they’re usually wise to this info. If you can’t get this info before, you can make a best guess. Based on doors opening, how many bands are playing and recent gigs at the venue.

Once you have the stage time, you can work backward to create a basic schedule and plan your time of dose accordingly.

I typically aim to be up and feeling the effects about 15-30 minutes before the band I am there to see steps on stage.

For example, say I’m seeing the Oh Sees, and they’re on at 9:00pm.

I like to dose on a more or less empty stomach, and MDMA takes about 80 minutes to kick in on said empty stomach. So I’d make a basic schedule that looks like this:

5:00 Dinner
7:15 Dose / Leave
8:00 Arrive venue
8:00 Opening band
9:00 Oh Sees

1.3: Essential Packing List

Make sure you have any important items with you. Here’s my standard packing list:

Wallet
Keys
Phone
Earplugs (I’ll usually use these for opening acts to save my ears)
Chewing Gum
Water (note that some venues won’t allow you to take this in)
Weed vape

Make your own with items you’ll need or want and know where you’re keeping them for the show.

1.4: Scouting the Venue

It can help to get familiar with the venue before the concert.

You might find out if sections are standing, or if seating is unreserved or reserved and choose your ticket type accordingly. This can help avoid the stress of searching for seats while under the influence.

1.5 Cloakroom and Jacket Considerations

To ensure maximum comfort during the concert, consider the cloakroom options. Some venues offer cloakrooms or garderobe where you can store your belongings for a small fee. Some don’t. Again, you might try and find this out before, but if you can’t you’ll need to be prepared for both scenarios.

If it’s not available or practical, you might wear lightweight clothing and keep your valuables on you.

I’ve just placed my jacket in a corner or on the stage at some shows and picked it up after. If you do this you might take an old jacket so that you won’t be too worried if it disappears (it has happened to me once!).

2: Navigating the Concert Environment

2.1: Scouting the Venue on Arrival

When you arrive, familiarize yourself with the venue. Knowing the layout and key locations will help you feel more at ease and in control of your surroundings, help allow you to fully immerse yourself in the concert experience.

Here’s a few basics:

Locate the toilets: Knowing their location will save you time and prevent any unnecessary wandering around in search of them. Also good to have this knowledge when MDMA might increase your need to use the facilities.
Identify water sources: Staying hydrated is obviously important, especially if you’re going to be dancing or sweating. However, sometimes the bar queues are a joke. So you might like to keep a small bottle on you. One trick I use is hydrating from the bathroom taps if they’re accessible and clean. If you’ve been able to bring in an empty water bottle you can top this up there. It can also be nice to splash water over yourself to cool down.
Explore the outdoor area: Fresh air and a change of scenery can enhance your experience and provide a brief respite from the crowded concert environment. Also can be a good spot to meet up with friends or take a breather between sets.
Other places: Places to sit down: Good to know in case you need it.

Also good to familiarize yourself with the entrances, exits, and any other noteworthy features or spaces.

2.2: Empty Your Bladder

I like to do this directly before the band I wanna see cause y’know, I don’t wanna go in the middle of their set.

2.3 Finding Your Spot In The Crowd

If standing, where are you gonna stand for the show?

This is entirely up to you, but if you’re with friends you might like to briefly discuss it before.

Will you attempt to stay together? Will you maybe lose each other in the crowd? Some people like to be closer to the action, some people prefer to be in spots where its less crowded. You may also split up and reconvene later. Some clarity on this can be useful though.

For most gigs I like free reign and then to catch up with friends again after. If you like to be close to the front, one trick I’ve found that works well is to wait until the band starts playing, and then just move forward to the pit. It helps prevent the old sliding past people and then just stopping awkwardly infront of someone.

If you’re close to someone in the crowd who’s bothering you for whatever reason, I’d suggest moving to another spot sooner rather than later.

If you’re in unreserved seating, you might like arrive early and claim your spot.

When choosing or booking seats, you might consider if you’d like to be close to the aisle for easy access and not having to trample and squeeze past people when you wanna get out.

2.4 Placing Your Attention

Where you put your attention can massively change your experience. It’s consciously filtering the intake of your setting.

This might be from watching the band, closing your eyes and tuning in to the sounds of the music, taking a panoramic of the light show, or watching a particular band member. If there is a band member whose energy you’re vibing with, try and get in a spot where you have a good clear view of them. Or just remember to keep your eyes on them.

3 After The Show

3.1: Establishing a Meeting Place

Designate a meeting spot for easy reunions with friends. Make sure it’s a location that everyone can find without difficulty. You might choose somewhere inside or outside the venue.

3.2: Planning Transportation

Don’t leave yourself stranded in an unfamiliar city late at night and high. Figure out your transportation options before, then plan your transportation to the degree that you’d like to., considering timings and availability of options.

3.3: Preparing for After the Concert

If you’re heading home after the concert, have your preferred food, drinks or whatever else you’d like ready and waiting for you.

Final Thoughts

Some of my favorite and most memorable life experiences have been at concerts, with substances, and in a combination of both. That includes being obliterated in a tornado of Ty Segall’s guitars (2-CB+MDMA), feeling universal love with Sigur Ros (1p-LSD), and rocking out to the Oh Sees (MDMA – yes that example was from last month).

I hope this guide will help you to have some incredible and joyful experiences, too.

Remember basic safety, plan your schedule, pack the essentials, and navigate the concert environment like a pro. With these tips, you’ll be well-prepared to have an awesome time.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out. I’m here to help you have an amazing concert experience!

Stay safe, and best wishes out there.

16/06/2023/by John Robertson

Setting

Psychedelic Compatibility: Who Are the People You Are Tripping With?

The cast of characters you trip with is one of the biggest parts of the setting. It’s certainly the most alive, and in some ways, unpredictable.

A helpful metric to consider when choosing your company is psychedelic compatibility.

I define psychedelic compatibility as:
The level at which two or more people are able to trip together without problems or conflict.

It might also be understood as the ability for multiple people to successfully journey together.

This can be thought of in the same way that you might consider which friends you travel well with, work well with, or could live with. You might have friends who you love, but wouldn’t want to live with. You might have a friend who’s a bestie and hanging out is awesome, but you don’t travel well together. These are all types of compatibility. This is the same for psychedelic trips.

Contributing factors to psychedelic compatibility include like mindedness, alignment of intentions, expectations, and flexibility or openness.

If there is low compatibility, it may result in mismatched experience and some disappointment from people in the group. I’ll give an example to illustrate how this might occur.

Low Psychedelic Compatibility

Dave and Lisa are friends. They both want to trip and decide it might be nice to do it together. However, they are some differences in how they approach the session…

Dave is looking for an introspective experience. He’s at a bit of a crossroads in his life and would like some clarity on how to move forward.
Lisa is up for a more recreational experience. She’s just moved to a new city, started a new job and generally things are going pretty well. She’s up for letting loose and having fun.

Dave wants to create a setting that lends itself to an introspective experience; soft lighting and music. He wants to use a psychedelic therapy approach, listening to a preset playlist which brings him through emotions, and includes flowing music for reflection.
Lisa wants doesn’t want to choose all the music up front. She wants to be able to choose and change music as she feels like it.

Lisa wants to dance around the room.
Dave finds that distracting.

Dave wants to lie down with his eyes closed.
Lisa finds that boring.

Lisa wants to talk and interact with Dave. Make jokes, silly sounds, explore philosophical topics and look at art.
Dave wants to lie down with his eyes closed.

Dave wants to journal, Lisa wants to cuddle.

Clearly, Dave and Lisa have a low psychedelically compatibility.

Psychedelic Compatibility Can Change

It’s useful to bear in mind that psychedelic compatibility between people isn’t fixed permanently. Whilst Dave and Lisa are not very compatible for their next session, that doesn’t mean that can’t change at a later date. Maybe in the future Dave would like to have a fun session. Or, Lisa will be more open to trying an introspective experience. It can depend on the time of life, so it’s useful for parties to talk before, to check their level of compatibility before going ahead for a session.

Compatibility can be increased if parties talk about potential scenarios in advance that could prove to be a problem. This can improve the ability to successfully navigate differences that come up.

For example:
What if one of us wants to go outside for a walk, and the other/s wants to stay inside?
What if someone really can’t stand the music that is playing?
What if, in a dyad, one person wants to be left alone and the other wants to talk?

Finding High Compatibility

If intentions and expectations are aligned, there is a much higher possibility that groups will be psychedelically compatible.

To reach a high level of psychedelic compatibility, everyone has to be more or less on the same page. This can include things such as intention, expectation, session style, agreements. Here are a few examples:

Intentions:
What are everyone’s intentions for the session? Do they align? Intentions might include: fun, exploration, introspection, emotional release, partying, spiritual exploration.

Expectations:
Is there an expectation that the group will be spending the whole trip together, or that each person will have time to themselves? Is there an expectation that you remain in one place for the session, or that you may be on the move?

Style:
Is the session formal or casual? It is highly structured, ritualised even? Is it free flowing? It is inner journey style? Are you doing any activities together? Will you be making art or music? Watching a movie? Will you prepare for any of these? Will you just flow into it and see how it goes?

Music:
Will you listen to a collaborative playlist? Will you select songs as a group together? Does one person play DJ, taking requests? Or will you just wing it? Is everyone cool with that?

How to Assess Psychedelic Compatibility

The way to assess psychedelic compatibility is through honest communication and conversation. If you’re planning to share a trip with friends, you can simply share what are your intentions and expectations for the experience. How does each person envision it going? What is the setting? What is the level of interaction? Are you all in the same room? Is talk to be kept to a minimum? Is communication limited and only use for practical purposes (e.g. things like the level of music, water and tea, blankets, opening windows for air flow etc.). Are you aiming to avoid getting into conversations?

If you’d like a list of questions to run through with a friend before a trip, check out my guide, which you can get by signing up to my newsletter.

I hope you can find high compatibility with your next journey buddy or crew. Best wishes and safe travels!

27/06/2022/by John Robertson

Preparation, Ritual, Setting

Psychedelic Service Sheets

Taking a high dose of a psychedelic still scares me. This is true even after having embarked upon many high dose sessions. One thing that I’ve found helps me to find a sense of calm is having some kind of structure to the session.

Sometimes for my trips I will have a very minimal structure. Usually, with low or medium doses, I’d be more on the recreational tip; more loose and informal. On the other hand, for higher dose formal sessions, what I might call ceremonies, I tend towards a more formal and structured approach. For these more ritualistic high-dose experiences, I create a service sheet.

Psychedelic Service Sheet

Much like you might find at a ceremony such as a wedding, funeral or other church service, a psychedelic service sheet contains the order of proceedings. It may also include the words of any prayers, songs or readings that are part of the service.

I usually only create a service sheet for inner journeys. As I’ll be lying down with my eyes closed for these sessions, my service sheet is mostly just an order for opening and closing the session.

I really like having a service sheet because it makes the occasion feel special. It is also very practical. It gives me a clear step-by-step run through. Having this clear to do list, or, order of service, helps me to go through specific steps in order to bring about a sense of ease, order, and structure. This helps to create something of a container for the experience. When I’m a little anxious or fidgety before a high dose session, having this clear and simple run through helps me to follow steps one by one and sets me up nicely for my session. It’s similar to some athletes or musicians’ pre-show rituals.

Contents of a Service Sheet

My service sheet will typically contain the steps for my opening and closing rituals, and the prayer that I read aloud as part of my opening. There is also space for me to write my intention, as well as other key details like the location, style of the session, the people present, and the date. It may include some navigation reminders or guidelines, and/or a couple of lines to help me connect to my inner resources. It also has a section for me to fill in the dosage, substance, and start time.

Helps Create the Desired Set

On my service sheet I include things which help to move me into a desired state: feeling safe, relaxed, humble, and open. Here is a quick summary of items that I include and what they help connect me to.

Resources: safety, strength
Meditation: calm, open
Prayer: humble, open
Gratitude: heart opening

They are all, in some form or another, centering practices.

How & What I Use for my Service Sheets

Sometimes I have the sheet printed off on a sheet of A4 paper. More often I will use the double page of a notepad, which I lie open on a flat surface in a designated place. Depending on the setup and space, it may be part of or next to an altar. The pad then remains open there for the duration of the session, and is only put away once the ceremony has been closed.

I typically like to include a sound, such as ringing a bell or making an OM, to both open and close. I also like to light and then blow out a candle as bookends, with the flame symbolizing the journey. When I blow it out at the end I can make a wish and do a little candle magic. The type of magic that is performed every day when children blow out little flames on their birthday cakes.

My Influences

I think the ayahuasca ceremonies I attended in the Amazon were a large influence on me adopting service sheets into my practice. They were easily the most formalized ceremonies that I’d attended. They had a very clear structure to them, with distinct stages, or rounds, of the service. They also included many preselected readings and prayers. I really appreciated that approach and how special it felt. It also added to a sense of containment and made the whole thing feel more safe. I also think the Japanese tea ceremony has influenced my adoption of service sheets, as well as using to-do lists and practicing productivity concepts like ‘masterpiece days‘ and deep work.

Record of Doses and Journeys

Service sheets also work as a handy record. They can be used to look back on previous trips. For practical considerations, having things like doses noted can be helpful for calibrating and titrating your dosage over time. So if you think like ‘oh yeah, that time we tripped at Lisa’s place, that was a good level, how much did we take?’. You’ve got it there in your written records.

It’s a large part of ritualizing use which has many benefits of its own, and is also kind of like Taking Drugs Like a Nerd.

Making Your Own Service Sheet

If this idea interests you, I would recommend trying to create your own service sheet. If you find it’s not for you, you can go ditch it and go back to your usual approach. Here I will include a few examples of orders that might be included. You can consider them a starting point and take this idea wherever you like. Your service sheet might look totally different to mine.

Examples

Example 1: Group Inner Journeys Style

Once everyone is ready:

Opening Circle (A stick goes round the circle, and everyone shares how they feel)
3 minutes silent meditation
Pass doses round in circle and bless them
Music begins (Inwards, by Tommi)
Take doses
Journey
Playlist Ends
Closing circle

Example 2: Group Dynamic Session

Opening

Ring Bell
Opening Circle
Eye gazing in pairs
Take Dose

Session (modeled on Osho Dynamic Meditation)

Playlist begins

Section 1: Loosening
Shaking
Section 2: Activation
Free flowing movement & dance
Section 3: Calm
Standing or seated meditation
Section 4: Stillness
Seated or lying meditation

Playlist Ends

(When participants feel ready to re-engage, they may move to the reintegration room)

Closing

Closing Circle
Give Thanks
Ring Bell

Example 3: MVO (Minimum Viable Order of Service)

Cheers
Take dose

[Session]

Closing joint

Would you ever use a service sheet? Is it too formal for you? Would you prefer a more relaxed approach? For high-dose sessions where things can get a little more out of control, I find a service sheet helps to make myself feel more grounded and ready to embark upon a journey. I believe it might help you, too.

Safe travels and best wishes.

17/06/2022/by John Robertson

Setting

Creating Your Own Psychedelic Settings – Stations, Spaces, and Places

Welcome to day 28, PSYJuly 🙂 Sorry today’s post comes late, this one took longer to edit than I anticipated. Today we’re talking psychedelic setting…

Set and setting, yada yada. You’ve heard it. But what to do about setting? How to craft it?

Beyond ambience, one thing is to make the space as practical as possible.

Careful preparation of the setting for a psychedelic session can help to make the experience more seamless and smooth. By removing friction before the start of a session, you can make the most of your trip and the time available. Setting up the space is a way of being a kind and considerate sitter for yourself ahead of time. It’s giving a gift to your future self and building a friendly relationship with your shamanic persona.

To illustrate, I’d like to introduce three terms to the world of psychedelic setting. These are: stations, spaces, and places.

Stations

A station is a designated and prepared place for doing a specific action that requires tools.

“I just got an idea! I’m heading to the writing station”
“Hey man, can you set up the dosing station whilst I prepare the food? Nice one.”

Some examples:

Dosing station
Writing station
Music station
Painting station
Tea station
Rolling station

A station, by its nature, has equipment. It should be practical and comfortable. All the tools needed for the task assigned to that station should be located there. It should suit the purpose of its existence.

Each station should be:

Sufficiently lit
Prepared for action
Laid out for optimised used (see places, below)
Considered (it suits the area)

The station should be sufficiently lit for the action that is to be performed there. For example, if you are writing, you need to be able to clearly see the pad or paper you are using. So, lamps or candles are set up or nearby.

The station should be prepared for action. For example, at a tea station: mugs and a thermos of prepared tea. If it’s a music station, the guitar should be tuned, the picks laid out. If using digital equipment, all audio cables are connected, headphones readied and sound levels set. At a dosing station you should have all the tools needed to prepare and consume doses and boosters. If using ketamine for example, this would include: the substance, a set of scales, an item to crush the substance, a steady hard flat smooth surface to crush it on, a thin item to create lines, and straws for ingestion. It also makes sense for a dosing station to include a logging station. This would include: a log book, a pen, and a watch.

Each station should be laid out and optimised for use. This is covered in places, below.

The location of each station should be considered. What are the possible areas it could be? It should be considered within the entire space and the larger geography in mind. That includes what happens in each station, the implications of that, and its neighbouring stations and spaces.

When placing a station, ask: what’s the upshot of it being here?

If the action is a noisy one, such as singing, or loading up a gas, consider if it is adjacent to neighbours. On a recent weekend in an airbnb, I went to work on a music track where I would be recording vocals (loud ones!). I put the vocal station in the kitchen, as it was a room in the middle of the apartment and only neighboured the bathroom and the living room. It was distanced from neighbours so I could let rip.

If you might be dancing or walking around, consider if there are people on the floor below. You might make an extra padding on the floor by laying down an extra yoga mat or blanket. If you’re using paints, they might get messy. Consider where doors are and where people will be coming in and out of rooms. If you’re gonna be smoking joints, note the smell and smoke. Overall, aim for harmony with the surrounding environment. Take spaces into account.

Spaces

A space is an area of a session setting.

Spaces are more about the ambience of a region, rather than its practicality for a specific action. Setting space can be thought of as set design. It takes into account the intended atmosphere. A space might be decorated or lit in a certain way.

The benefit of spaces beyond practicality is more opaque. It is more about eliciting certain feelings in certain spaces. Our brains make associations with certain areas. This is why it’s nice to have a room for work and a room for sleep as separate spaces. One is a work space, one is a sleep space, and we set them up to be conducive to their purpose.

In terms of psychedelic setting, examples might be a journey space, or a chill out space.

An example of this would be the quiet room, which when I’ve used it, acts as a chill out space. It would be prepared to be cosy and calm, setting the appropriate tone. If you’re wanting some level of sensory stimulation, you might have some fairy lights blinking, pieces of art hanging up, or engaging music playing.

I was once on a long weekend with friends in the Dutch countryside, where the hosts set up an insanity room for our session. There was a shrine to deity The Hord Lord, and some questions hung up on pieces of paper around the room to challenge visitors. If someone wanted a bit of madness, they just headed to the insanity room. It was pretty funny.

When setting up a space, take into account are the intended atmosphere of the space. What feelings do you want to promote in each space? Relaxation? Stimulation? Fun?

Places

“A place for everything, everything in its place.”

A place is a designated location for a specific tool or instrument.

Having places for things brings systems thinking to the level of psychedelic setting. It makes tools easy to locate and actions easier to perform.

Firstly, this saves confusion and avoids wasting time looking for things.

You know the situation where you walk into a room to get something, then your mind goes blank and you think ‘what did I come in here for?’. Well when you’re high, this type of misdirection can be heightened and you might even forget that you were even looking for anything at all. This can turn into aimless wandering, which can lead to disorientation, feelings of ungroundedness, confusion and anxiety. You may even come round to the point of asking, ‘what am I doing?’. The answer to which, you may or may not remember.

Another benefit to having set places is that it streamlines actions. For example, imagine the scenario:

A great idea comes to you on that project you’ve been working on for a while. Naturally, you want to note it down. Because you were rushed, you haven’t set up, and because of your altered state, you can’t easily locate your pen. So you begin your search for it, wandering from room to room. You finally locate your pen, which was on the counter in the kitchen, but by then, ten long time-dilated minutes later, you’ve not only lost that precious session time, but even worse, you’ve forgotten the idea you had in the first place.

Let’s contrast that with a prepared station with items in their places:

A great idea comes to you. You walk over to the writing station. You pick up one of your pens from the pile laid beside your open pad of paper, and jot the idea down. Seeing it written down causes other ideas to begin sprouting from it and you see it beginning to grow. You want to see where this goes, so you pick up a larger piece of paper from the pile on the shelf beside you, and place it down to begin a brainstorm. As you get into it, you decide to add images and drawings. You reach over to your left, to the pot of coloured pens, and add some different colours to connect ideas by theme. You run with the ideas until the train loses steam, and then head to the chill space to smoke a joint and wind down.

When choosing places for tools, be like a surgeon laying out their tools on their tray. Consider how and when they will be used. If it’s part of a multi step process, what other tools will you need to use? In what order will you need to use them?

Final thoughts

How you set up and utilise stations, spaces and places will depend on the intention and type of the session.

The concept of stations and places might seem more relevant for sessions where you will be actively doing things which require using tools or instruments, like a creative session, as opposed to a typical psychedelic therapy style session. However, being precise and mindful in preparation shows respect for the session and can help to focus the mind. It’s taking drugs like a nerd. The sense of ‘everything in its right place’, and being fully prepared can help to promote feelings of relaxation. It’s also useful when you come out of journey space to hydrate or go to the bathroom.

This level of preparation is also especially useful for journeys without a sitter, be they solo or with others. It shows love, caring and consideration to your future tripping selves, and in some way it is pro-actively tripsitting for your future self. Your tripping self should appreciate that in your heightened state.

By utilising stations, spaces and places into your setting design, you set up to make the most of your session. You optimise your session and increase flow. You allow your mind to focus on what’s important, the content of your mind, rather than logistical considerations.

28/07/2021/by John Robertson