thinking about the ‘set and setting’ idea at a societal level
Yes.
I started reading this book by Jan Fries at the moment, 'Visual Magick: a manual of freestyle shamanism' last night.
(This is related to the Austin Osman Spare thread as well, but I'll put it in here).
"How do we open the gates to the deep? Austin Spare emphasised the use of vacuity and exhaustion for this purpose. Under certain conditions of consciousness, our armour of habit and self-assurance acquires gaps, cracks and holes through which the unknown may be reached. We have to exhaust or suspend our conscious identity."
He goes on to list strategies useful for getting into this place:
"Physical exhaustion is very useful. Good practices are: long walks in the wilderness, dancing, chanting, sex, martial arts practice etc., - anything that makes you forget your civilised personality, makes you sweat heavily and raises body consciousness."
Made me think of how a riot, or a protest, it's immediately a psychedelic setting.
He then talks about the use of crisis, but cautions that whilst it's useful, it shouldn't be depended upon or cultivated:
"Disappointment, pain, doubt, morbidity and disease all tend to create holes in the fabric of our personality, to take the meaning out of necessity, and to dissolve the restrictions acquired through stagnant belief."
He also talks about how a bigger ego will struggle to open up, cos the whole point is ego dissolution. And also cautions about drugs (dosage issue and can affect concentration).
I mean, what's currently going on in the USA (Corona + Trump + wider already existing crises of economy and climate), it's very open to the void right now.