Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: At Burning Man 2023, the Cloud-9 Camp’s night-long ceremony with the psychedelic 2C-B (4-bromo-2, 5-dimethoxyphenethylamine) began with one question: “Would anyone like to speak a word of intention? Just one word—for yourself, for this journey.” This question marked the start of their intention-setting ritual and their entrance into the psychedelically altered state of consciousness. Intention setting is a ubiquitous practice among psychedelic users and frequently precedes psychedelic experiences in clinical, spiritual, and personal use settings.i To understand the ubiquity of this practice and its role in the psychedelic experience, this chapter analyzes the form and function of Cloud-9's intention-setting ritual, drawing from ethnographic observation and interviews with the 14 camp members who participated in the ceremony.
DOI: 10.70423/0001.02
Author: Jeffrey Breau
Institution: Harvard University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4406320912