Set and setting are critical factors in the outcome of any use of psychedelics, particularly for naive users unfamiliar with the effects. Practically speaking,

Set and setting are critical factors in the outcome of any use of psychedelics, particularly for naive users unfamiliar with the effects. Practically speaking, this means LSD could plausibly be used in both cult brainwashing and cult deprogramming activities. That's why the CIA thought it could be used as a mind control / interrogation tool in the early 1950s (e.g. MKULTRA), while others adopted it as a liberating creative tool for artists (indeed, I once met a classically trained flutist who reported that they found it impossible to improvise over a jazz chord progression until they tried LSD). Personally I think a great many of the problem outcomes with psychedelics is related to consumerism and the desire for quick fixes. A society blanketed with pharmaceutical advertising and indoctrinated with the notion that pills fix health problems will tend to generate individuals who think taking some drug will 'fix' them. A typical outcome for such people is that they try some psychedelic, have a great time, and then run back to the well for another taste, and then have a horrible grim experience, reliving some past personal trauma or consumed with morbid thoughts of death and darkness, etc. - the so-called 'bad trip'. Let alone people who take so much they completely dissociate with sensory reality, a very dangerous situation as they may fall off cliffs, walk into traffic, etc. More often than not, people indoctrinated into consumerist drug use will instead turn to alcohol, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, benzos, etc. - all drugs with fairly predictable feel-good effects, a variety of negative health effects, and high addiction potential - but not much risk of a 'bad trip'. In contrast, psychedelics have potential for combatting addiction to such drugs because they lead to introspection, self-reflection, and the realization that the short-term feel-good effects of addictive drugs are not worth the long-term consequences - the degradation of ones' mental and physical capabilities, degraded social relationships, loss of emotional control and so on.