Music Selection in Psychedelic Sessions: The Dynamics of Choosing What's Played

Music is featured as a central element across diverse psychedelic practices. It has been named “the hidden therapist” in a scientific article on psychedelic therapy, and came as one of the most important elements for safe and beneficial practice of psychedelics in my own research. During my interviews with facilitators of ayahuasca ceremonies, retreat guides, and producers of (counter) cultural events, all of them discussed the significance of music for psychedelic experiences and the relation between their musical choices and their role and responsibility as facilitators.

Indeed, choosing what is played can have a dramatic effect. When music and psychedelics come together, they influence, enhance, complement, and complicate each other. As part of the set and setting, music may become a scenery to walk in, an anchor to hold on to, or a safe place to relax in, but it can also bring in challenging feelings and memories, and become triggering or overwhelming. 

While almost everyone agrees that music is important, practitioners disagree on which music is best suited for psychedelic experiences and why. In the 1960s and 1970s, “psychedelic music” was the business of musicians like Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane, while headliners in contemporary psychedelic festivals range from Astrix and Ajja to Desert Dwellers and Ott. In the therapeutic circle, John Hopkins’ psilocybin playlist is made of classical music, and East Forest’s Music for Mushrooms mixes indigenous and classical musical instruments with natural sounds, like crickets and birds chirping, into an ambient and somewhat melodic soundtrack.

Next to indigenous instruments, ayahuasca ceremonies may include icaros, and in some communities and churches, songs are sung together. More often than not, such songs include lyrics, which westerners tend to avoid. The variety in choices goes beyond content as well: should the music be featured as the main event or take a background role? Does electronically played music supply the same advantages as live music? Are certain vibrations, rhythms, and tones more beneficial than others? 

In order to choose the best music to accompany your trip, it is good to reflect on the complex ways through which music exerts its influence. Its personal, social, and cultural dimensions operate simultaneously, and are partially unconscious. Personally, each of us has a more or less pronounced musical taste, with a preference for certain artists and musical genres. Some tracks become significant to us due to memory and context, and carry a built-in emotional value: the song that was played at the funeral of someone you love, a song from the soundtrack of your favorite film, or the song you chose to play as your morning alarm clock. Personal taste develops over the years, memories keep getting stacked, and all of this is affected by factors like lifestyle, fashion, and commercial dynamics. 

Going one level up from the personal to the social, music connects people. Couples sometimes have “their song”, and strangers may feel connected as members of an audience during a live concert. Another level up, and we are building communities and collective narratives through the use of music: national anthems, folk music, campfire songs, football chants, protest songs, and church music are only a few examples. 

We use music to direct our emotional state throughout our lives. We sing lullabies to babies to calm them down, play jumpy music to get ourselves energized, marches to go to war, and requiems to mourn the dead. If we look at commonalities between music and psychedelics, we can already note a few: they both convey information and meaning non-verbally, they are emotional amplifiers, and can work as mood changers (think of how a movie scene can become stressful, funny, or cheesy, depending on the soundtrack that accompanies it). 

In addition to emotional qualities, music can carry a spiritual dimension. It is most pronounced in church and gospel music, and musical practices like Tuvan throat singing and mantra chanting. Drumming, singing, humming, and chanting were harnessed to induce altered states throughout history. As music is personal and collective at the same time, it blurs the distinction between self and other, between inner experience and outer world – another quality it shares with psychedelics.

The focus of this article is on music selection, which is preparation for a passive musical experience. Yet psychedelic journeys may also lean toward creativity and active participation. The cultural history of psychedelics is filled with examples from literature, art, cinema, design, technology, and more. Across spiritual traditions, practices like collective humming, singing, and rhythmic prayer point to their power in aiding transcendence. Making music, whether it is playing an instrument, singing, or humming, has positive psychological effects as well. Singing proves to have quite some health benefits, and according to Bessel van der Kolk, collective singing can help to deal with trauma through the creation of connection, hope, and courage. 

Considering the fact that music is such a multilayered phenomenon, creating an “ideal” playlist for psychedelic experiences seems to me like an impossible mission. Indeed, facilitators whom I interviewed spoke about adapting the music to the needs and energies of each group and to the various stages of the trip, moving between instances of music and silence. Some of them embrace a more directive style, using highly emotionally-charged music, and others stray from pianos and violins, feeling that they bring an emotional quality from without. Some choose variations of darker and lighter music, others prefer to stay in more neutral zones, and of course, all facilitators come with their own musical taste, cultural background, and upbringing.

If you are going to be the DJ of your experience, there are a few things worth considering. The first is the setting: are you going to be home or outside? Are you alone or with others? What are you planning to do? Would you like to move around? Take a walk? Dance? Are you going to lie down and stay still? The answers to these questions already give your playlist a certain direction.

The next thing to consider is the set. You may choose to make use of music’s directive and emotion-enhancing character to visit difficult emotions or deal with trauma and grief. Since music is associative, you can even make a playlist that would potentially send you to past events or moments in your life. That is, literally take a trip down memory lane. Or maybe this is precisely the kind of experience you want to avoid. Perhaps it’s a good idea to plant a song or two that makes you laugh somewhere along the playlist, as a sort of relief and a reminder to take things lightly. People sometimes describe the music as the guide or container of their psychedelic experience, so you can ask yourself: which kind of guide would I like to have? 

Your needs may change as the trip unfolds due to different stages and levels of experiential intensity. If you are making a long playlist to accompany a full trip, these variations should be taken into account. Otherwise, instead of trying to anticipate your whole trip, you can create multiple playlists with different moods to choose from. One way or the other, it is nice to have some options ready in advance so you can turn on, off, or change the music with a click. Typing song names can get complicated when the letters keep moving around.

Mendel Kaelan writes in his blog about how different qualities of music carry different psychological effects with them. We have already touched on some, like the degree to which the music is directive. Another quality he highlights is whether the music is familiar or novel to us. It is not that one is better than the other, but this quality can support different aspects and stages of the experience, and makes us feel differently about a track. A former study participant at Johns Hopkins, who wasn’t familiar with most of the music on their playlist, described it as “more supportive than directive” because he felt “that it didn’t ‘preload any experience’”. At the same time, he was happy to hear a familiar Beatles’ song towards the end of the session.

Some aspects, which appear a bit technical, may matter more than you think. For example, if you construct a playlist from scratch, you actively select tracks that are mostly familiar. If you start from an existing playlist or let an algorithm make a selection based on a track or genre, you will probably come across music that is novel to you. Playing with variation can help you understand the effects and choose the right balance and composition for you. Structure plays a role as well: think of listening to an album or to an eclectic playlist. The same song has a different vibe to it if you choose the radio edit, an unplugged version, or a live performance accompanied by an orchestra. 

Qualities like tempo, harmony, and dissonance may have a common effect on the human psyche, but the emotions and associations that music brings along depend on familiarity, cultural background, religious affiliation, and personal history. Music selection becomes richer and safer when its various qualities are reflected upon – much like with psychedelics.