Music and psychedelics are powerful therapies in themselves — but when combined, their effects can stack for impressive outcomes.
But that is news as old as psychedelics, as countless cultures have used music to induce and enhance altered states. From ayahuasceros potent icaros, chaotic Bwiti music used with ibogaine, peyote songs guiding Huichol ceremonies, or the mushrooms songs of Maria Sabina. Music is medicine, and this isn’t lost on modern practitioners, researchers, or recreational users.
Modern research shows music can amplify people’s emotions under the influence of psychedelics. Now researchers and practitioners are studying this relationship to facilitate the potential transformation brought on by “mystical experiences.”
Institutions like John Hopkins share psychedelic Spotify playlists, microdose coaches use their sound journeys in marketing funnels, and professional musicians are building careers around a new genre with gentle yet provocative albums designed to be the length of ketamine or psilocybin trips.
Many still journey to the Amazon, seeking healing from ancient songs. Yet, for those who can’t make the trek, various new options are emerging. Startups are creating apps that utilize AI-generated soundscapes in combination with biofeedback, to create the optimal music for tripping.
Research into Music for Psychedelic Therapy
Music and psychedelics might conjure up thoughts about The Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix. While there is little doubt psychedelics influenced 1960s classics, these tracks aren’t the music most of us would choose for therapy.
Which begs the question of what the best music for psychedelic therapy is. Much research confirms that music alone can trigger emotions, religious ecstasy, and even flow. Few would doubt music’s influence, but the trick is using it properly.
In 2018 researcher Frederick S Barrett published evidence that, when combined with psychedelics, music can “support meaning-making, emotionality, and mental imagery.” The paper explains that the meaning of individual subjective experience is connected to the outcomes psychedelics can produce.
Barrett also explains in his Ted Talk how music can stimulate areas of the brain responsible for emotion, reward, and memory. All of this creates a powerful cascade of feelings that can alter someone’s mood. Psychedelics may even reduce typical regulation of emotions making it even easier to trigger emotional, autobiographical, or even mystical experiences.
What is the Best Music For Psychedelic Therapy?
The power of music is clear, but using it properly is the real trick. Psychedelic researcher Mendel Kaelen published a small study showing music that is effective therapeutically could be what is familiar and already meaningful. The study even suggested musical influence predicted the lasting effects of psychedelic therapy more than the intensity of the drug.
Kellen’s paper also outlined how musical style, and if the music resonated in the moment, might create an optimal environment for working with psychedelics. Music can also be calming during stressful moments and, in essence, “guide” the psychedelic session, leading Kaelen to dub music “The Hidden Therapist.
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We all know the feeling of hearing a classic tune and being transported back to a moment in life the song is associated with. And often attached to the memories are often emotions or autobiographical details. Even if the effect is challenging emotions we tend to avoid, Kaelen points out this still potential fuel a therapy session.
Research into Psychedelics and Music for the 60s
Investigation of music for psychedelic therapy was done in the 60s as well. A therapist named Helen Bonny also created a framework for bringing music and psychedelics together. She suspected that “as a structured envelope of sound, (music) is probably the most effective and safe opener to the doors of the psyche.”
Bonny understood and worked with sound to evoke emotion by using music and guided imagery. Alongside another researcher, Pahnke, Bonny developed the first selections of music designed to follow the arch of a psychedelic trip.
Her work remains influential, as practitioners are still trying to understand how to curate or even compose music for the specific stages of a psychedelic experience. For example, what to play for an easy intro, ecstatic peak, and a “back down to earth” section.
Recent research began with therapists using classical music. But while some studies and people still favour it, evidence that it resonates with everyone is waning. What you find profound might irritate me, and presents a big challenge as playing the wrong song at the wrong moment can greatly affect someone’s journey.
The Future of Music for Psychedelic Therapy
As psychedelics approach widespread availability, creating scalable musical programming designed for psychedelics is a challenge. While in the past musical training was part of shamanic initiation, the average therapist lacks the skill of intuitively choosing the right song for each moment.
Mendel Kaelen has in fact left psychedelic research to form a project called Wavepaths addressing this. Kaelen is a musician and has transferred his skillset into a collaboration between musicians and AI. The Wavepaths software will be an automated program to save therapists from fiddling with Spotify while their patient is peaking on LSD. Featuring tracks recorded only for use with the app, which, conversely to nostalgic memories, these new tracks can generate novel experiences for users.
Other apps like Lucid and Mindcure are also exploring research-backed digital therapeutics that create personalized experiences using biometrics. As biofeedback devices become more common, along with the possibilities of VR, the opportunities for creating psychedelic experiences are expanding into new territory.
Yet, the future will not only be dominated by AI. Talented musicians are explicitly creating soundscapes for psychedelics. Jon Hopkins’s Music for Psychedelic Therapy leaves no room for guessing, along with East Forest’s 6 hour long Music for Mushrooms. The genre is destined to expand with psychedelic use, as the flexibility of live music between humans in setting like ceremonies and sound healings is yet to be matched.
Psychedelics and music have always been partners, a synergy impossible to ignore. Research and experimentation still has much to explore and likely learn from traditions still alive today. And while psychedelic use is evolving rapidly from its ceremonial roots, there is no doubt that music will remain an essential pillar of psychedelic exploration in all its forms.