According to the Czech psychiatrist and LSD researcher Stan Grof, psychedelics are “nonspecific amplifiers” of the human psyche – they amplify whatever contents exist in the mind, be they conscious or unconscious. This description of these unique substances has since become a widely accepted way of thinking about them. But is it an accurate description?…
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One of the most common pieces of advice you’ll hear when it comes to tripping is not to take psychedelics if you’re in a negative frame of mind. This is encompassed by the concept of ‘set and setting’, with the first half – ‘set’ – referring to the fact that one’s mindset can influence the…
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When different people take the same dose of any psychedelic, some will have a more subjectively intense experience than others. This is due to dose-independent factors, or what many psychonauts, psychedelic enthusiasts, and researchers call set and setting. Set is your mindset going into the experience, whereas setting refers to all the environmental factors that…
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As much as psychedelics hold great promise in alleviating all kinds of psychological distress, they are not a mental health panacea, which they are sometimes touted to be. Based on positive media stories surrounding psychedelic research and anecdotal reports of people being forever cured of chronic, severe mental illnesses, it’s easy to get the impression…
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This is a guest post from John Robertson, the owner of the blog Maps of the Mind. At the start of last year, I decided to commit to a plant-based diet. This final step came after years of being in this very strange place of being a supporter of plant-based diets and generally understanding and…
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