Set And Setting
More Tales From The Psychedelic Trail
Nearly 25% of the 21st century is gone and everywhere you turn these days you see an article about psychedelics. Whether it be microdosing or macro, MDMA therapy, or funghi to help depression or to assist people in palliative care, the stories and podcasts are hard to miss.
Back in the early 70’s for me and my friends, it was about the counterculture that we had missed and trying to tag onto that freak flag and be a ‘head’. We were free-form experimenting with very little to guide us. Let me share some advice that may help you out down the track if you decide to walk this way.
We did not think much about set and setting while in our trial-and-error period of life. I learned many things that way. Please tell my younger readers that it is not the BEST way to learn about life, but it happens often when you are younger. Why would you listen to anyone when you are a teenager when you know everything?
If you have had the joy of raising children you would understand that teens know everything and your advice was not even heard. It may be recalled later, but after they have done whatever they please.
I tell you it can be pretty confronting when your face begins to melt and all the people around you look like, well, damn, what do they look like. You can’t even make some things out when you are dealing with a freaked-out LSD journey.
Enough of unsolicited advice from me, your elder, let me tell you a story about set and setting. If I only teach you this one thing you will not have to figure it out like I did. We had some books but most of our psychedelic guides were people like Hunter S Thompson. Terrence Mckenna was not known to me back in the early 70’s and the internet did not exist.
We were kids at the tail end of the 60’s and our teenage years were in the transitional 70’s. We still wanted to live a dream that had truly flown by our turn to turn on, drop out tune in, and get higher than we could imagine. We did not have lofty spiritual goals as teenagers. We had no ceremonies around dropping acid or chomping on mushrooms. This was all an experiment that we decided we needed to take part in, and it was combined, in the early days, with recreation.
We had visions of driving through the desert in a convertible with the roof down and a bag with too many drugs and a bottle of ether. Those were fantasies. The reality was that we smoked weed if we had it, and we always had it, and a lot of our other time was spent sourcing molecules that would take us to other planets without leaving the lounge room of the family home. There was a group of us who were good students, we stayed out of trouble, I played high school basketball (idolising Bill Walton and The New York Knicks), and we all loved getting high. Outside of the high school walls we were pushing all our boundaries.
We also had NYC in our backyard when we wanted to see how we could handle the 2 hits of LSD we took 30 minutes before we arrived at Penn Station. We would jump off the Long Island Railroad, hit the streets, and wander with our pupils dilated. Sometimes we would have a destination, other times it was just the ability to walk around NYC as a theme park and take it all in. Did you SEE that? Sometimes it was only you that SAW that.
I do have some stories. Let me tell you how I learned about how to take psychedelics properly. It is all about set and setting. Are you listening dear reader, take heed of my words. Set and Setting make the experience. Even if you are experienced and know you can handle the streets of NYC or a deserted beach on Long Island, you should always take a breath and think about where, when, how, who, and what the actual fuck am I thinking before that sugar cube or piece of paper hits your tongue.
You always knew it was LSD when it hit your tongue. There was a special spark. A knowing in that slightly bitter taste that things were going to change drastically over the next 30-60 minutes, and you had boarded the bus for a good ½ day of some sort of experience. You just did not know if it was going to be the Wild Toad or It’s A Small World ride. That was part of the adventure.
I loved The Academy of Music, the old theatre on West 14th Street in NYC, and saw many concerts there. It was sort of my rock and roll home through the 70’s. Seeing acts like Framptons Camel, Foghat, Slade, Hot Tuna, Roy Buchanan, David Bromberg, Dave Mason, Joe Walsh, Rory Gallagher, and more. My teenage tastes were rock and roll, blues, and cosmic country. I never saw The Grateful Dead or The Band there. I was just a little too young for those nights.
Let me take you on a little journey where things went haywire because I had no real idea about Set. Setting I was pretty good at, I could handle most places and The Academy was a place I went to many times. From its amazingly sticky floor to the ornate walls this aging movie house accommodated about 4,000 punters, and it was very familiar to me.
2 nights in 1974 gave me some serious learning.
October 5, 1974, Blue Oyster Cult Academy of Music, New York City, NY (supported by Triumvirat)
My mate Bill and I were hanging around and we decided we needed to get some psychedelics for the winter holidays. I don’t think we had a plan for when we wanted them. We knew where we could get them and no one on Long Island could help these 16-year-old heads. We decided to head into Manhattan and go to The Academy. You could score there.
If you had been to this place during the 70’s you knew the downstairs lounge area was a place to take, buy/sell and share drugs. It was quite the narcotics marketplace. All you had to do was ask and someone would point you to the right person who you could score from. There were usually several people selling different spices so you had to shop around.
What have ya got? How much?? That looks great.
On this night Blue Oyster Cult, a Long Island band just about to break big, were headlining. Bill and I found some inexpensive tickets outside and headed for the lounge to procure some magic. We found some blotter and windowpane acid and we must have bought about 10 hits each. That would have set us back around 20 bucks.
We wandered around, smoked a joint, and then I made a mistake. Bill was a little curious about BOC and wanted to catch some of their show. We got to our seats and Bill, and I decided to test-run the LSD we had purchased. Within an hour I was having one of the worst nights of my life. I had trouble communicating my distress to Bill as the walls closed around me. The music almost made me feel sick and I was just hunkered down in my seat.
We did not stay until the show was over and once I was back on the street things commenced to get better. Bill and I went to Tad’s Steaks as he was hungry. I sat down and ordered a steak and salad and when it came out to me the food was doing the boogaloo across the plate. From then on I called it Tad’s-Where The Food Moves. I think back then the steak was 1.99 with a salad. I can still see it breathing on my plate if I close my eyes.
We went back to Long Island and Bill wanted to hang out, but I was deep in some psychosis and just wanted to get in bed and hold onto a pillow. My soul was shattered. There was quite a bit going on in my home life at this time. Checking my pockets the next day most of the tabs had survived but I think a couple may have passed through my jeans into my bloodstream. Anything was possible…..
Let me fill you in on why i knew nothing about “Set”.
My Mom had had a cerebral hemorrhage and a failed operation. She was still alive, but she was no longer able to communicate or feed herself etc. Life as I knew it at home had changed forever. I did think about the ‘bad trip’ and marked it down as one for the annals. Sometimes these things happen. I did not draw a conclusion that was certainly the elephant in the room in 1974. Call me dumb or just young.
8 weeks later I found myself at The Academy of Music. With a trio of friends, we had gone to see 3 bands that I adored:
November 29, 1974, NRPS/Commander Cody/Ozark Mtn Daredevils
I can’t recall what LSD we did that night but I found myself in an even worse situation than I was for Blue Oyster Cult. I felt as if there was a riot happening and that there were police everywhere in the venue. My paranoia had reached a peak and then gone past it. The walls were melting and evil faces came peering out at me. Was that a dragon coming for me? Or some sort of dinosaur? I would have left the concert but I was more scared about being on the streets without my friends.
This show commenced at 1130PM and with 3 acts I knew I was there for the long haul. I told my friends to have a good time and I would ride this out without interfering with their fabulous night. I can recall The Ozark Mountain Daredevils doing a fun set. After that, I recall bits and pieces of two of my all-time favorite bands from that era playing until about 530AM. I could hardly focus on the visions going on within my consciousness. Trial by fucking fire.
It was getting light when I burst out the doors of The Academy and nearly fell into the arms of 2 NYC police officers as I gasped for freedom and air. They asked me what was going on and I have no idea what I said to them. I am not even sure if I had words to use. They had probably seen much worse in their duties on the streets of the Apple.
My friends and I traveled home, and I was a bit of a bummer I am sure. I probably looked like someone who had just done too much acid. It was not the amount of acid that I did, it was the fact that I was playing with this type of drug at this point in my life.
Over the next couple of weeks, I talked to my friends about these 2 trips, and we all agreed that I should not be playing with psychedelics while my Mom was hanging on for dear life. That is how I learned about Set. At 17 I worked out that if your head was not in the right space, if anything felt wrong, messing with any drugs is going to quite possibly amplify the demons in your soul.
Never again did I walk that road or have a bad trip. Some people say there is not a bad trip and that you get the trip you need at the time. Maybe that was so, and I needed to learn this way because I must be a slow learner. I do know it was a lesson I have never forgotten and from that moment on I treated my decisions about ‘tripping’ with much more respect and care.
So, if you want to take some kind of mushroom or place a droplet on your tongue, take a moment and address how you feel. I guarantee you it will be worth your while.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head-White Rabbit-Grace Slick
Did I mention that set and setting are vitally important?
Sage words