Qualitative and Quantitative Features of Music Reported to Support Peak Mystical Experiences during Psychedelic Therapy Sessions.

Frederick S Barrett,Jenine L Brown,Hollis Robbins,David Smooke,Roland R Griffiths

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01238

Frederick S Barrett, Jenine L Brown + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01238

Copy DOI

Abstract

Psilocybin is a classic (serotonergic) hallucinogen (“psychedelic” drug) that may occasion mystical experiences (characterized by a profound feeling of oneness or unity) during acute effects. Such experiences may have therapeutic value. Research and clinical applications of psychedelics usually include music listening during acute drug effects, based on the expectation that music will provide psychological support during the acute effects of psychedelic drugs, and may even facilitate the occurrence of mystical experiences. However, the features of music chosen to support the different phases of drug effects are not well-specified. As a result, there is currently neither real guidance for the selection of music nor standardization of the music used to support clinical trials with psychedelic drugs across various research groups or therapists. A description of the features of music found to be supportive of mystical experience will allow for the standardization and optimization of the delivery of psychedelic drugs in both research trials and therapeutic contexts. To this end, we conducted an anonymous survey of individuals with extensive experience administering psilocybin or psilocybin-containing mushrooms under research or therapeutic conditions, in order to identify the features of commonly used musical selections that have been found by therapists and research staff to be supportive of mystical experiences within a psilocybin session. Ten respondents yielded 24 unique recommendations of musical stimuli supportive of peak effects with psilocybin, and 24 unique recommendations of musical stimuli supportive of the period leading up to a peak experience. Qualitative analysis (expert rating of musical and music-theoretic features of the recommended stimuli) and quantitative analysis (using signal processing and music-information retrieval methods) of 22 of these stimuli yielded a description of peak period music that was characterized by regular, predictable, formulaic phrase structure and orchestration, a feeling of continuous movement and forward motion that slowly builds over time, and lower perceptual brightness when compared to pre peak music. These results provide a description of music that may be optimally supportive of peak psychedelic experiences. This description can be used to guide the selection and composition of music for future psychedelic research and therapy sessions.

Highlights

Psychedelic drugs have profound effects on perception, cognition, and states of consciousness (Nichols, 2016; Preller and Vollenweider, 2016)
We propose an initial list of features of music that may be optimally supportive during peak psychedelic experiences, though the generalizability of this list of features to experiences with psychedelics other than psilocybin remains to be established
We propose a conceptual model in which music expressing the characteristics of peak period music identified within this study, and the principal characteristics that differentiate peak and pre peak music, support the occurrence of a mystical peak experience during acute psychedelic drug effects

Summary

Introduction

Psychedelic drugs (i.e., classic hallucinogens, or serotonin 2A receptor agonists) have profound effects on perception, cognition, and states of consciousness (Nichols, 2016; Preller and Vollenweider, 2016). Research in the 1950s and 1960s on psychedelics investigated the therapeutic value of these drugs (Garcia-Romeu et al, 2016). A unique effect of hallucinogens is that they may occasion mystical or non-dual experiences (Barrett and Griffiths, 2017), and these experiences may hold therapeutic value (Garcia-Romeu et al, 2015; Griffiths et al, 2016; Ross et al, 2016). Mystical experiences are described as non-dual experiences that include a deeply felt positive mood, difficulty putting the experience into words, and an experience where traditional notions of time and space do not have meaning (Stace, 1960), and they are operationally defined and investigated in psychedelic research through the use of instruments such as the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MacLean et al, 2012; Barrett et al, 2015)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion