Psychedelic Therapy Music
Key Takeaways:
Test out music ahead of the journey, during preparation.
Be mindful of lyrics and the key of the music.
Choose music you like and customize pre-existing playlists.
The two most important factors that influence a psychedelic experience are:
#1 the journeyer’s mindset (“set”)
#2 environment where the journey occurs (“setting”)
Setting includes things like location, indoors vs outdoors, eyeshades vs activity, and sound.
During a psychedelic therapy journey, most people will lie down, wear eyeshades, and listen to music.
Hearing sound is a core perception that is amplified via psychedelics. With closed eyes, the journeyer has a limited perceptual field, making music even more important.
The sounds or music you hear can greatly impact the experience. We’ve written this article to help people curious about how music shapes the psychedelic experience and what music they might use for a therapeutic journey.
Tips for Selecting Music for Psychedelic Therapy
Here are some of our recommendations for choosing music for psychedelic therapy:
#1 Decide on music ahead of time.
As with all things psychedelics, it’s important to prepare before you journey, and selecting music is no exception.
There are many psychedelic therapy playlists that already exist, and you can try listening to some of them to see what you like.
Do not save your music selection for the last minute. Explore options and decide on (or create) a playlist during preparation.
#2 Limit lyrics.
Language shapes our thoughts. Psychedelics have a way of disrupting our regular cognitive processes, and this disruption can be quite therapeutic.
However, words and song lyrics can inject unnecessary thoughts, memories, or associations with words and usually this alters the psychedelic experience in an unhelpful way.
The solution is to choose music that is purely instrumental or has lyrics in a language you do not know. If you are keen on using music with words, use it towards the end of the journey.
#3 Use major and/or minor keys.
Put simply, major keys sound happy, while minor keys sound sad or dramatic.
Most preset playlists will include both major and minor key songs.
In our experience, the combination of major and minor keys can facilitate a meaningful, cathartic experience. However, if you are new to psychedelics, you may want to remove (or have a friend remove) some minor key songs from a playlist, so that things stay on the brighter side.
As you gain experience with psychedelics, you may introduce more minor key songs.
#4 Do what feels right.
Chose the music that feels right for you. What works for one person, may not work for another.
Check out some of the recommended psychedelic therapy playlists below, but know that they are just a few suggestions out of thousands of possibilities.
Also, know that most of the common psychedelic therapy playlists are built around classical Western music.
Recommended Psychedelic Therapy Music
Music plays a key role in psychedelic therapy, and there are several possibilities for how one can use music in a journey.
Like most things in the vastness of cyberspace, there are unlimited options for healing conducive music, from crystal bowls to classical piano.
When we educate prospective journeyers, we recommend they start with these follow the recommendations above and consider some of the most common psychedelic therapy playlists.
#1 Music Used At The Imperial College of London
There is a playlist available on Spotify that is reported to be used at the Imperial College of London during psychedelic journeys in research settings.
It follows a nice three step arc: spacious ambient music, dramatic music with energy, and soothing music with natural sounds and basic instruments like piano. There are no songs with English words.
Following our recommended steps 3 (Use major and/or minor keys) and 4 (Do what feels right), you might test out this playlist by listening to the first bit of each song and customizing the playlist as you wish.
#2 Music Used At Johns Hopkins
Another playlist from psychedelic therapy research comes from Johns Hopkins and is also available on Spotify. Psychologist and researcher Bill Richards - who has worked in psychedelics in 1963 - created the playlist.
This playlist primarily uses classical, Western music. It’s broken into four parts:
General, ambient music for starting the journey.
Music with some slow energy, yet movement as the psychedelic effects take shape.
Active music during the “peak” of the journey.
Calming, de-escalating music for the return to ordinary consciousness.
Similarly, you might want to test out a few songs. For example, put the playlist on shuffle, and listen to the first 30 seconds of 4-6 songs.
#3 Philip Glass
Philip Glass is a renowned present-day composer. He’s made music for dozens of films, including Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Candyman (1992), The Truman Show (1999), and Leviathan (2014).
His music is known for its repetition, dynamic piano, and structural layering, all of which contributes to beautiful sounds that evokes emotion.
This pairs well with psychedelic therapy, as the music facilitates a deep state of reflection and a sense of rhythmic flow. And almost all of his music is without lyrics.
A Final Note on Music
(We couldn’t resist the “note” pun!)
What we write in this article is informed by our experience, which is rooted in clinical uses of psychedelics in therapy. Our tips and ideas come from a Western perspective because that is our background.
However, other traditions have different approaches to using music with psychedelics, and there’s a wealth of knowledge and beauty there.
We hope you found this work helpful as you consider music for a psychedelic journey.
