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.

The post Practical Tips for Going to Concerts on MDMA appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

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!

The post Psychedelic Compatibility: Who Are the People You Are Tripping With? appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

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.

The post Psychedelic Service Sheets appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

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

1. 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

1. 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.”

1. 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.

The post Creating Your Own Psychedelic Settings – Stations, Spaces, and Places appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Yesterday I wrote about psychedelic sessions that are focused on one specific theme. However, sometimes it’s nice to be more flexible and take an open-ended approach, without any fixed plans for the session.

That said, it can still be nice to have some options available to us, rather than going in completely empty-handed. That’s when a session menu can be helpful.

What is a session menu?

A session menu is a list of activities that are available to you during your session. At a glance, it gives you options for things you might like to do.

Remembering things can be hard when high. A menu is useful in that you don’t have to remember your options during the session. It holds them all in one place for you. The menu can act like a butler, who asks you ‘what would you like to do now? Do any of these options interest you?’.

Depending on your tastes and the day, menus might look very different to different people. 

Here is are some examples of items that might be on a menu:

• consult I Ching
• Journal (could be on pre-selected prompts)
• Nature gaze
• Listen to new Tame Impala album (I often save first album listens for sessions)
• meditate
• brainstorm dreams and goals
• draw/paint
• guitar
• watch Baraka

Other items I have seen on friends menus have included: take photos, dance, have sex, watch documentary.

Really, you can include anything. I have a friend who likes to look at profound quotes during his trips. Another likes to draw a tarot card. In both these cases, they find that they are able to connect more deeply to the meaning and message .

Creating a Menu

Writing up a menu can take as little as two minutes before starting a session, and you then have it there for your reference throughout. Depending on the items on your menu, you might need a little extra time to ready any necessary materials before the session starts. Once settled into your session, you can take a glance at the menu and see if anything takes your fancy. 

I made some menu templates for you:
Menu 1 – Menu 2
Print off or use as inspiration

You might also have menus for different purposes. Here is an example of a chill-out menu I made in the form of a deck of cards. I have it around in case I or others feel uncomfortable or agitated.

My Experience

I use menus on various kinds of sessions: both solo and with friends, introspective and recreational. I find them to be very useful and a nice reminder to check in and think: ‘what would I like to do now? Where do I want to go next?’. 

On one session with a friend, after riding the stormy come-up and settling into an LSD and MDMA session, we gathered ourselves, then sat down and looked at our menu together. We had a list of fun activities for us to explore together before our eyes. I looked at him and said;

‘Is there anything here you’d like to do? We have the whole day ahead of us’.

Smiling, he took a moment, ‘you know, this is actually quite a nice situation to be in.’

Free time, with a friend, enjoying the wonders of life, and a beautiful psychedelic menu in front of us. All that was left to do was pick one and enjoy!

The post Session Menus: Having Options for Your Altered Explorations appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Welcome to PSYJuly day 17
Today we have a guest post from Max, AKA Welsh Integration Circle, one of my favourite people in the psychedelic twitterverse.

After seeing his work creating playlists (1, 2) for members of his community, I invited him to create a post to share his experience on a topic I feel there is ample room for discovery and development in the psychedelic space: music. More specifically, playlists for inner style journeys. Over to Max…

Creating Music Playlists for Psychedelic Journeys

There are infinite ways to use psychedelics. Nobody can tell you how you should use them, but as you move through life and gain experience your psychedelic use may evolve. Many of us start off in our youth: at home, in the park, at a festival or a concert.

One thing that you can say about the way people use psychedelics is that it frequently involves music. Psychedelics and music go together like Fish and Chips or Superman and Lois Lane. The altered state of consciousness that psychedelics induce, amplifies, enhances and transforms music into a completely new experience. Some people can even smell or see colours from music in the phenomenon known as synaesthesia. Music is not only heightened by psychedelics, but it can influence the entire atmosphere and mood of those under the influence.

There are many discussions online regarding the best tunes to trip to. You can guarantee that any of these will include the likes of Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Phish, Shpongle or The Orb. Now these are great artists who were heavily influenced by psychedelics and aimed at an audience who might use them too, but this article is about creating personalised playlists that won’t include these artists or styles and the music is used in a different way.

Music, set and setting

We’ve all heard the phrase “Set and Setting” so many times that it has become a cliché, but it is still undeniably relevant. Al Hubbard was a psychedelic pioneer, who in the 1950’s, helped develop the idea that the setting could have a major influence on the psychedelic experience and even the outcomes in a therapeutic context. According to his instructions, the person taking the psychedelic lies down in a comfortable place, like a bed or sofa, puts on some eyeshades to block out all light and a pair of earphones to listen to the music. The idea is that by blocking out all other sensory input, one is directed to focus the attention inwards and be guided by the music. In combination with advice like Bill Richards’ mantra of “Trust, let go, be open”, one is encouraged to allow one’s mind in its altered state of consciousness to go wherever the music takes it. This is essentially the same format used by today’s trials at Imperial College and Johns Hopkins, and was recently the subject of a patent application by Compass Pathways, much to the anger of many a psychonaut.

First of all, ask yourself why you would consider this style of psychedelic experience. It may not be for everyone, but if you have only ever taken psychedelics recreationally, at a festival or party, then give it some consideration. It amplifies the effects and is particularly suitable for people who want to use psychedelics for personal or spiritual development, to address difficult life experiences, to change your life with regard to alcohol, tobacco or other drugs or just learn more about yourself and your consciousness. It’s also wise to have a sober tripsitter for these experiences, just someone being there will allow you to immerse deeper into your inner journey.

Now you could just pick one of many playlists on Spotify or other music providers that have been created, including the original Bill Richards playlist and those used by MAPS, Imperial and Hopkins, but I think it’s more interesting to create your own, although they can give you some good inspirations for your playlist.

So with this in mind, let’s explore the how and why of crafting a playlist.

Crafting a playlist

The aim is to relax the subject while the medicine starts to work, then to take them on a journey of inner experience which fits with their intention and their life story. The more you know about the person the better. The more you know about their music tastes, favourite movies, travels and previous psychedelic experiences, the more you can choose suitable tunes to guide them.

The first things to consider are what substance and dose are going to be used. If using LSD you will need more than 2 hours of music, but it’s unlikely that someone is going to lie still for 12 hours. For psilocybin I tend to aim for 5 hours’ worth of music. 

Use instrumental music, this allows the journeyer to focus on the sounds, rhythms and melodies, without the distraction of language. Foreign languages are fine, especially if they include chanting – non-lyrical singing also works well. I tend to avoid typical bands that have the usual pop, rock or jazz sound. Classical music can be excellent, but some people may not be used to listening to classical, so choosing a piece that is interesting is important. Electronic music can play a huge role with unusual sounds that can have dramatic effects while under the influence, but I tend to avoid dance music that one would hear at a club or rave and stick to more ambient styles. There is also great crossover between classical and electronic, sometimes called neo-classical, which includes some of my favourite artists like Max Richter, Nils Frahm and Joep Beving.

Beware of using too many floaty, unstructured tracks. As Michael Pollan explained in How to Change Your Mind, he had to listen to a lot of boring yoga and new age music for his journeys, and this is why personalised playlists can be more stimulating than generic ones.

Having said that, music that is less busy can have profound effects, as can silence. If you have ever tried meditation under the influence, you’ll know that it can be very powerful, and silence or empty tracks can provide a similar space. They can also be useful to contrast with other more energetic or dramatic tunes. It’s important not to overwhelm someone with too much noise for too long, and if you do choose tracks with drama, intensity and tension, it’s important to give them release as well. The order of the tracks can be very important, and I also insert some silent tracks of up to a minute long at crucial moments to build tension and atmosphere before a special piece, or after a particularly challenging one.

I tend to start off with some very light, relaxed music while taking the medicine and allowing it to take effect, and then slowly build the complexity and intensity of the tracks towards the end of the first hour. Knowing how long it might take your listener to start feeling the effects will help you plan.

Personalising playlists

Discover what kind of music the journeyer likes. Are they up for more complex and difficult tracks? Or are they very anxious and prefer gentler tunes and familiar styles? Try to imagine when the peak might be, and think about what kinds of atmosphere and feelings you are trying to evoke.

I also use my knowledge of them to add highly personalised music. One friend has Native American heritage which is important to them and they have partaken in ceremonies before. I added a short piece of pow wow chanting which had a very dramatic effect and still does to this day. The experiences that people have during their journeys become strongly associated with the music, so that they often listen to their playlists in the weeks after and have strong emotional connections to certain tracks for years to come.

Foreign music is also a great place to look. You can create a great atmosphere, transporting someone to a place of previous travels or residence, and help to bring up some of the memories and emotions from that period of their life. However, one should be aware not to overly manipulate someone’s emotions and journey. 

If they are very knowledgeable about a certain style that is relevant to their life or ancestry, choosing a track that is not stereotyping them or the music could be a challenge. Many cultures have beautiful and diverse music which is very different to Western styles and on my playlists I have used classical Indian, west African, South American icaros, Tibetan chanting, Mongolian and Armenian music, all with great effect. 

You can use music from important films from their life. Film soundtracks make great fodder for playlists and I have included tunes from Bladerunner, Black Hawk Down, Ad Astra, Twin Peaks and even Star Wars or The Omen. I’ve also asked their friends and family to give me some tips on favourite music and experiences. This needs to be done cautiously as not everyone can afford to be open about their psychedelic use, but music choice can be asked about in tactful ways.

I have given journeyers the option of a particular one or two tunes that they really want to hear on their playlist, and I ask why. Having listened to the tracks myself, I interpret how it might make them feel and decide on where in their journey it should appear and how to lead into it and follow on. Having a few key tunes as marker points in the playlist provides a structure to build the playlist around and helps you navigate what can become a tense and frantic process. It always feels like a big responsibility, knowing that the playlist is going to have a significant effect on their experience. The music truly drives the entire inner experience.

Collecting and Test Driving Tunes

To select tunes, I find that using cannabis whilst listening to music is a great way to get a sense of which tunes will be interesting during a journey. I tend to put them in a depositary playlist in the weeks before, so whenever I hear a tune I want to use, I have easy access to it when it comes to the final creation. Once you have selected all your tunes then ordering and editing can still take a long time. I often listen to the end of a track to try and work out how the transition between it and the next tune will work, to get it as smooth as possible and so that it isn’t a jarring change. A very soft and gentle track, silence, or some sounds of nature like cicadas or rain can also be a good way to give them some space between.

Try to let people relax into longer tunes, but perhaps not so long it gets boring. A variety of styles, pace and intensity is good and challenging them with unusual styles and sounds can provide opportunities for the imagination to run wild. Rhythmic tunes can be dramatic, and driving intense visuals, this is a perfect use of electronic music like some Steve Roach tracks, and artists like Philip Glass and Estas Tonne can create similar effects. 

Know your audience, their tastes and their level of challenge, and have some fun making a personalised psychedelic playlist for your friends and community.

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About Max

Max is a member of a small community of psychedelic users in Wales, who started with recreational use and have moved on to help each other with mental health issues as well as  personal and spiritual development, through solo and group journeys, and support each other through informal discussions and integration work.

The post Creating Music Playlists for Psychedelic Journeys appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Welcome back to PSYJuly, day 12
Today we’re looking at an aspect of psychedelic setting and how in preparing that, we prepare ourselves for a richer experience.

Going Offline for Psychedelic Journeys

Going offline is a foundation to doing deep work.

There is a reason why you are not allowed access to your phone at any serious meditation retreat. At Vipassana, for example, you have to put it in a locker for the 10 days of a standard retreat. If you’re doing Deep Work, a la Cal Newport, your phone is off, or in another room.

Why?

You want to be fully immersed in your experience, without distraction. 

If we want to make the most of our psychedelic experiences, the same goes for them.

What greater source of distraction in our lives these days than our phones and our inboxes? 

These are the things that fall onto the urgent but not important section of our task matrix and should definitely not be attended to in the midst of a deep psychedelic experience. Just as if you are travelling and at a beautiful location, you don’t want to be looking at your phone. You want to be immersed in the beautiful landscape that you’re in, experiencing the experience. 

Sending Important Messages

Maybe you will have a realisation in your session about a personal relationship. With that may come a deep desire to send a message. You may feel there is something you need to say, or a conversation you need to have. 

This should be done as part of the integration, not as part of the session.

You’re probably going to need to review your message. To get clarity on what it is you’d like to express, and how you’d like to express it. If it’s a written message, you’re probably going to want to read it over again, in the sober light of day. Or you might want to get a second opinion on it from a close friend. 

If you have something to say, learning to say it when you’re sober is an important step of long term integration and growth.

The Challenge of Using Tech Whilst Staying Disconnected

The tricky bit is that tech is awesome and we may have much use for it during our sessions. We might actually be using our phone or computer to play music. If it’s a lower dose session, we might want to keep that access to the internet for exploring a theme or topic. After an intense experience, watching a film or nature documentary can be soothing on the glide down. A phone can also be very useful as a Spotify remote for a more relaxed session.

This tech dilemma is something that is not easy to navigate. Having access to all of these things enhances psychedelic sessions. But a message, phone call or email can really throw off the mood, depending on what is being delivered. A challenge for a psychonaut in the modern world is being able to use the benefits of technology whilst staying disconnected from the day-to-day back and forth messages of daily life.

You can find your own solution for this. Here I will share what I do.

How I Disconnect Whilst Still Using Tech

For my psychedelic therapy style sessions I will download the playlist offline on both my phone and my laptop. I will also download some other music that I might want to listen to afterwards or the day after. I’ve found that it’s a good idea to have a good selection for different moods.

That enables me to disconnect completely, putting my phone on airplane mode and disconnecting from the wifi on the computer. I can still connect to the sound system via bluetooth and use that technology without any possibility of receiving a message or phone call. 

I also keep a rule that I will not come off airplane mode until the playlist is finished. Usually, until the day after.I have this agreement with myself to rule out any possibility that I may get sucked back into the super addictive device that is a smart phone.

For lower dose or more relaxed sessions, I find having my phone as a Spotify remote for music playing from my computer to be very useful. Downloading music beforehand doesn’t really work because I don’t really know exactly what I’m going to want to listen to, and I like to be able to just go with the flow. I enjoy following the feeling of a song and diving into that a little bit.

For these sessions I put my phone onto airplane mode but leave my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections on. I keep all notifications switched off on my messaging apps so there’s never a problem getting a ping from whatsapp, telegram or whatever. I have to actually go into those apps to see new messages.

This allows me to keep that connectivity and access to control music without any potential texts or phone calls coming in. I also just have as a rule and agreement with myself that I will not enter email during those sessions. I’m not working, it is not the time. No email cannot wait til the next day.

Another option is keeping a separate device which has nearly all the benefits of a phone (music, podcasts, internet browser, watch, timers, voice memo recorder) but is not something through which anyone can reach or contact you. This can be an old phone simply with the SIM removed and all messaging and email apps removed.  I actually just got a new phone to have as a separate offline device as part of my evolving practice of digital minimalism (read: ongoing battle against the addictions of tech), attempting to follow Deep Work and Digital Minimalism author Cal Newport’s principle of maximising the benefits of technology whilst minimising the downsides. 

Side note: I love applying Newport’s ideas to psychedelic work, something about that just makes me happy.

Final Thoughts

If you really wanna be able to dive deep within yourself and look inside, then respect the meeting with your inner healer and make sure that you’re offline. Doing digital clearing as a preparation can help to relax into this.

Awesome travels, happy exploring. 

Stay in, stay deep, and stay offline.

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How To Set Up Music for Psychedelic Sessions (+ 6 More Playlists for Psilocybin)

Prepare to be Offline

Download the playlist so it is available for offline use. Then for the session, put your phone on flight mode.

If using your computer to play the tracks, close all applications other than the music player. If you need to leave anything open, make sure there are no applications other than the audio player that can make a noise (like dings from messages received or calls coming in. Like with a phone, I suggest downloading the playlist offline and then disconnecting from the wifi. If you have a mac, make sure your Facetime is disconnected and there won’t be any calls coming through.

I also recommend downloading 1-3 hours of pre/post session music so you have something to put on before/after and can be offline for the entire day. I have found it is nice to put on some music beforehand whilst preparing the space, to set the mood and begin the process of entering. It can be helpful to have a short period of silent meditation between setup and dosing to centre before the journey begins. Once everything is ready and you’ve checked in, you can start the playlist and take your dose. 

Sound Set up

Check and set your sound levels before the start of the session so it is ready to go. Check both loud and quiet sections of the playlist. Ideally the music should be at a comfortably loud volume at the loudest sections. It should not be overbearing or too strong, but loud enough to be immersive.

I would recommend high quality over ear headphones for immersion in the experience, especially if you are in a location where there might be background noise or distracting sounds. You might consider noise cancelling headphones.

If possible, have the music playing simultaneously through headphones and speakers from the same signal. This is a tip I picked up from Mendel Kaelen back in 2017 and still use to this day.  This allows for continuity of experience if/when the headphones are taken off and also allows the opportunity to remove the headphones if one prefers. 

Group Sessions

When in groups or with friends, decide the playlist together beforehand. For a group session, I advise having a quiet room. This means that if anyone has a very strong aversion to a track, they can leave the room for a bit. If you don’t have the possibility of a second room, you might all use your own pair headphones. Another option if using speakers would be making an agreement beforehand that anyone can veto any track at any time and it will be skipped forward without discussion. 

In the case of someone having a feeling of aversion to a track, I would suggest that they try to sit with it for a short time before leaving the room or requesting a skip. They can look at and explore the feeling of discomfort inside themselves that the track is provoking, and see if there is anything to learn from it. If the feeling persists and the track is unbearable, they can leave the room or use their veto.

Spotify Settings (or other audio player)

Make sure your play queue is cleared. 

Make sure the tracks will play in order and not on shuffle.

Check your audio player settings for how the tracks will transition. Decide if you want a fade between songs or a standard transition with one track fully ending before the next one beginning. On spotify you can find this in settings > playback.

If doing a manual sync with two or more devices, make sure the playback settings are the same on each device.

6 More Playlists For Psilocybin Sessions

Here are links to 6 more playlists for use with psilocybin with some info on them and their creators below.

1. Music For Mushrooms– East Forest
2. Inner Peace – Tommi
3. Trust – Tommi
4. Gratitude – Tommi
5. Release – Tommi
6. Opening – Tommi

East Forest

• Music For Mushrooms: A Soundtrack for the Psychedelic Practitioner: Spotify

East Forest is an American musician who created this album live in underground ceremonies across the US. It’s a kinda neo ambient vibe with influences and instruments from world indigenous music. What I like about this as a soundtrack is its cohesion. Because this playlist is an album by one musician, it has the added bonus of it being curated as such and put together as an album specifically for mushrooms.

“Its compositional shape guides, and is guided by, the arch of the experience.”
– East Forest

In this article, East Forest talks about how he feels the other therapy playlists out there miss the mark as they are compilations of lots of shorter tracks. By comparison, this album is just 13 tracks. Incidentally, East Forest is now one of the musicians working with Wavepaths, an organisation founded by Mendel Kaelen that is focused on creating music for psychedelic sessions.

I personally had a very beneficial session using this playlist for a medium dose journey last year. During the journey I was taken through people in my life, shown what I needed to say to them, able to appreciate recent personal achievements, and then given a directive on what I needed to do in my life (spoiler; it was clearing).

You can hear East Forest on the Psychedelics Today podcast here.

And, as an extra aside, Ram Dass was East Forest’s guru, and East Forest has used samples of his talks on his album, ‘Ram Dass’.

Tommi

• Inner Peace: Spotify
• Trust: Spotify
• Gratitude: Spotify
• Release: Spotify
• Opening: Spotify

Mysterious spotify user Tommi has created 5 playlists on different themes: gratitude, opening, release, trust, and inner peace.

They are generally a mix of styles and include ambient, neo classical, and classical music as well as more tribal and traditional music from distant cultures. 

Use of Silence

One thing that I really like about these playlists that is missing from the others is that Tommi has put short periods of silence into the playlists. I find these are good moments to re-centre and breathe during the journey, acting as ‘pit stops’. Interestingly, Mendel Kaelen inserted silence into the playlists on the original psilocybin studies at Imperial. Rather than Spotify playlists, they were actually mixed as one master audio file, with some tracks even faded out or mixed in to each other. These nuances and sections of silence were lost when it was converted to a Spotify playlist. So it is nice to see that Tommi has found a way to create a playlist with silence built in.

My Experience

I have tried Opening, Release and Trust and my sessions to these playlists have been very helpful.

I journeyed to Trust on the third and final psilocybin session of a 15 week course last year that was a study replica of a John Hopkins clinical study with psilocybin. The session was a beautiful rounding out to what turned out to be a somehow cohesive trilogy, and was one of the best psychedelic experiments I’ve ever done. During this final session I was able to grieve and cry in the first half, and as the cleansing section ended I was given a refreshed clarity and renewed inspiration, and a clear path forward. 

Tommi has also created banks of music based on different themes, so you can put together your own playlist too. You can find these on his Spotify user profile.

Do you know of any more good playlists for psychedelic journeys? If so, please get in contact!

Safe Journeys!

.

The post How To Set Up Music for Psychedelic Sessions (+ 6 More Playlists for Psilocybin) appeared first on Maps of the Mind.

Set refers to mindset; the persons inner state when they take the drug; their frame of mind, attitude and mood.

Setting refers to the physical environment of the experience. This includes for example; the location or room, the company or trip sitter, and the music.

Setting: The Environment for a Psychedelic Experience

This post will look at setting and why it should be considered carefully when planning a psychedelic experience.

Setting is part of the experience

The environment for any experience is the vehicle in which it is received and can actually be considered a part of the experience itself.  As such, it should not be underestimated in terms of how much influence it can have.

Consider how a frame is used to change the experience of viewing a piece of art. Does it change the piece of art itself? Whether it has a frame around it or not, it is the same piece of visual information hanging on the wall. However, it changes how it is viewed and received. It is part of the experience.

Consider some other experiences and how much the environment or method of delivery influences the experience as a whole:

• The experience of being in a fancy fine dining restaurant vs. eating in as fast food joint. Consider how the experience is different before you’ve even eaten any food.
• Seeing a band play at a huge festival with thousands of people singing along, dancing and enjoying themselves vs. seeing a band play in a small half-empty room with a handful of disinterested people
• Taking a drink from a nice glass vs. from a cheap plastic bottle

Setting changes set

Setting can also influence the internal state of someone and their ability to do certain things. Imagine you have some work to do that requires your full focus and concentration.

Now imagine trying to do that work in a hot, noisy and crowded environment. Imagine trying to do it outside on a busy street on a hot day with direct sunlight pounding down on you.

Now imagine doing that work in a cool, quiet, and distraction-free room. Imagine being at home with an air fan to keep you cool, some noise-cancelling headphones playing brain.fm, and an accountability partner to check in with at the end of an hour of work.

Do you think you would have the same level of focus in each scenario? Would the results of the work be the same?

In the scenario of a psychedelic session, the setting can be considered to help one navigate their journey more successfully. It is like the difference between trying to steer a ship alone and being heavily distracted vs. trying to navigate a ship in peace with someone by your side to support you. Which is more likely to get you to your destination?

Setting & Mood

Setting can have a big influence on how one feels. Taking a psychedelic in a club surrounded by many strangers with loud music and flashing lights is going to be a very different experience to being in a room with soft soothing music, low lighting, a comfortable place to lay down, and a trusted friend. The second one will promote feelings of relaxation. In the context of a high-dose psychedelic experience, this can be very beneficial to help someone let go more fully.

Creating the setting can be considered as creating the atmosphere or the ambience for a session.

Factors to consider when creating a setting

• Sound
• Music
• Lighting
• Art
• Items/Decoration
• Altar
• Clothes
• Comfort
• Heat
• Airflow
• Smell
• Company
• Tripsitter

Themes to consider

• Comfort
• Privacy
• Peace
• Security
• Safety
• Simplicity
• Space

Cultural Context

The setting can also include the city or country in which you have your psychedelic experience. Factors include the legal status; could you go to prison or worse for taking a psychedelic substance, or is it totally legal? Also, what is the cultural context; the public opinion and media representation of psychedelics? An experience in New York will be very different to that of one in Peru and again likewise different to that of one in Amsterdam.

When planning a psychedelic experience consider not just the substance and dose but also think carefully about the setting. It is possible to have a meaningful experience on a lower dose if the set and setting are prepared accordingly and the experience infused with a kind of meaning. The effect of setting on an experience is magnified on psychedelics, and as such is worth careful consideration.

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The quiet room is something I picked up from friend and New Moon colleague Tuk a few years ago and is something I always try to arrange for group sessions whether it’s in a house or an apartment.

The Quiet Room

The quiet room is basically a designated room in which there is no talking and no music playing. It functions as a place anyone can go to for some quiet or solo time and is normally used as a secondary room to the main room where people will be together.

Quiet space is very useful when:

• Being in a group or in a sociable setting is too much or becomes uncomfortable
• If someone doesn’t want to or is finding it very difficult to talk
• Anyone wants some time to themselves
• Just want some peace

What I love about the quiet room is that you can still have a recreational style trip with friends and still have an opportunity to get introspective. At any time you can head to the quiet space and find some time in the session to do that.

For example, if you are taking truffles with friends then you could at some point head to the quiet room to spend half an hour journaling answers to some questions you have prepared for yourself. In this way you can still get some good introspective and reflective work done without having to devote a whole session to it and without having to choose between either a solo inner work style journey or a recreational style journey with friends.

Setting Up & Guidelines for a Quiet Room

To set up a quiet room all you need to do is suggest the idea to your friends and make sure everyone agrees on it beforehand. I would say its a good idea to agree that there is no talking in the quiet room and have this clear from the outset. This helps to prevent someone coming in and disturbing another while they are wanting some peace and quiet. This type of innocent mistake can happen for different reasons whilst tripping; it could be that someone is extremely excited and wants to share that with everyone, or that someone is worrying about another person who has been quiet for a while. Both scenarios can lead to someone unintentionally bothering another who is fine but just wants to be on their own for a while.

Having the quiet room clearly defined makes it clear that anyone who is in there will not be spoken to and it is fine for two or three people to be in there at the same time, each minding their own business and doing their own thing. It’s useful to remember to keep the door closed to stop noise from spilling in.

Creating Setting

Once you’ve decided which room you will use then the first thing you need is some comfortable places for people to lie down. Mattresses on the floor work perfectly, but otherwise any mats or even floor space for people to lie down and get comfortable. Cozify with blankets and pillows. Creating a cozy space with your fellow journeyers can be a fun activity in itself and building the set together is a great way to begin connecting before journey.

It’s also nice to leave a couple of music players and pairs of headphones in there. Load the music players up with a nice selection of music beforehand and if they are phones, make sure they are on airplane mode or even better, with SIM removed. It can also be nice to leave some pens, papers and art supplies in there for people to use for journaling or getting creative. Finally, equip with some basic supplies like water and snacks.

As with general setting space I would recommend a low lighting and cozy ambience. I would not recommend any open flames such as candles, but rather some nice lamps. With lamps, be careful not to use ones that heat up if they are left on a long time as these can also start flames if certain materials are left on them.

Allowing Space to Check in

The quiet room acts as a kind of designated safe space for group sessions. It can promote feelings of safety and relaxation for everyone involved, knowing that they can retreat if at any time they feel anxiety, social or otherwise. It can give you a chance to step out from the group dynamic, a chance to check in with yourself and really take a look at and see how you’re feeling. It can also be used to step out and actively investigate some things going on in your life that you don’t want to share with the group but would like some time to think about and reflect on. It can also be useful to maybe do some problem-solving by yourself.

A quiet room is definitely a key aspect to creating the setting and I would say it’s useful even if the group session is not a recreational or sociable one. For example, even if the main room is used as a formal ceremony room where journeyers are not speaking to each other, the quiet room can still be very useful because the energy of a group ceremony can be quite intense. Although being in a group ceremony can be enlightening and a great way to learn about how we relate to others and our own social insecurities, it can still be quite a lot to take in and it can be nice to have the option of stepping away from that. It is something we arrange for retreats with New Moon and it was also nice to see a quiet room put in place when I worked on retreat with Truffles Therapy.

If you are unsure of whether you would like to do a group trip with friends I encourage you to suggest having a quiet room and ask them what they think about that.

Viel Glück!

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