Music and psychedelic therapy
Psychedelic therapy is almost always done in combination with music. Some even say that psychedelic sessions are actually music therapy with psychedelics like psilocybin or MDMA as a reinforcing agent. We don’t completely disagree with that; music is indeed super important! During the introspective phase of the therapy, the music is used to help the client to connect with their inner self. psychedelic therapy No talking takes place; the music becomes the guide. The music acts as a boat in which you step into to be carried downstream on the river. There is no need to steer because the music controls everything during the introspection.
In this article you will learn why music plays a big role and which songs do well during psychedelic sessions and ceremonies. Furthermore, Marcel shares his personal experiences and describes what happened in his experience during the trip.
Top 5 psychedelic therapy music
Music is personal and not every song works as well for everyone during the psychedelic trip. The top 5 below is therefore a personal preference that happens to work for several of our clients as well. Some songs provide tranquility, depth, or just a lot of emotion. A good song can transport you into the music and from that, sometimes experiences can arise with a story or certain insights. I am giving my personal preference and experiences in the form of a top 5 below! The psychedelic experiences below are real experiences from me (Marcel).
5: Trøstesang - Gjermund Larsen
Information about the music
Trøstesang by Gjermund Larsen dates from 2019 and is a powerful Norwegian song that can be used at the end of psychedelic sessions. The music sounds Norwegian/Celtic/Irish.
Psychedelic experience
This music appears in our playlists after the peak effects have already faded. For me, this song always sounds different, but in general it feels as if the destination port is in sight. It gives me the strength to continue enjoying the music. This song doesn’t give me a lot of visuals, but I can sometimes vaguely see landscapes with grass and mountains on this song.
4: Deep in the Glowing Heart - Jon Hopkins
Information about the music
Deep in the Glowing Heart by Jon Hopkins is from 2021 and is part of his album “Music for Pschedelic Therapy”. Although the album has several beautiful songs, we choose Deep in the Glowing Heart as the best!
Psychedelic experience
Often when this song comes on quite early in the trip, warm feelings often rise up. Whether this is due to the title or the music itself, I don’t know. This song has multiple layers, and the sounds don’t seem to come from familiar instruments. During my psilocybin experience, it felt and looked like I was flying up with hundreds of birds.
3: Echo Inside - Peter Kater
Information about the music
Peter Kater's Echo Inside is from 2016 and is a calm track for psychedelic sessions. The track is quite long at 8:59 minutes and includes piano and ambient sounds.
Psychedelic experience
This song came quite early in the playlist during a truffle session. Before this song came, there was a lot of physical unrest in the form of a flu-like feeling and a lot of emotions. It was as if every piano key triggered a new feeling. The tranquility of this song caused my consciousness to spiral upward and for the body to just do what it was doing for a moment. From then on, I was above my emotions and my body, and the trip could really begin!
2: The End - Harry Gregson-Williams & Lisa Gerrard
Information about the music
The song The End was released in 2018 and was used for the film Men on Fire. The song has several different aspects with tranquility, sadness, and a bit of a meditative feel.
Psychedelic experience
During one of the first of my 170 trips, this number gave me the feeling that something was crawling on my body and trying to get inside it. I kept trying to stop it, but it kept getting stronger. Eventually, it managed to penetrate my brain through my skull and installed the emotion of sadness back into me. I hadn’t felt sadness for a while, but now there were tears streaming from my eyes without knowing why.
Even later I realized that I had forgotten the loved ones I had suppressed by suppressing the sadness and that the tears were there to remind me of them. Not long after, during the quiet middle part of the music piece, a ceremony took place in which I gave back these forgotten loved ones to the universe. The universe took them on during a breathtaking ceremony with lots of light and forms of energy in which the souls were recycled into a new, unrecognizable, part of the universe. It was a very beautiful farewell, in which the tear became a reminder of the good times we had together.
1: Standing as One - Peter Kater
Information about the music
Standing as One by Peter Kater is from 2014 and is a beautiful track for psychedelic therapy with MDMA or psilocybin. The track was composed by R. Carlos Nakai and is quite long at 8:25 minutes, just like Echo Inside.
Psychedelic experience
During my own trip on psilocybin, I was able to find a switch during this song that allowed me to switch between imagining what I thought of this song and feeling what this song did to me. The switch between imagining and feeling would always start with goosebumps and a tear. However, the feeling was very positive.
Spotify list of most-used music
Many of our clients ask if we would like to share the playlist we used during the psychedelic session. In most cases, this music is stored locally on offline devices that continue to work if there is a power outage, the internet is not working, or something goes wrong with the streaming service. This way, we can always support the psychedelic session with music. To share the music used, we created a playlist on Spotify. The following tracks are used for MDMA therapy, psilocybin therapy, and for magic dance. They are in random order, but you might be able to find some numbers from your own psychedelic session to reflect on.
New playlists of psychedelic therapy
Every year we try to create a number of new playlists for psychedelic sessions and the truffle ceremonies we organize. It’s also nice for returning customers to have variety in the music. We use barely any intelligible singing in the music to keep the experience as pure as possible. Would you like to listen to the new music tracks? Follow us on Spotify or book a session with us!
More than psychedelic music
Besides music, there are of course other important aspects such as preparation and integration. Triptherapie When spending time on this, we naturally pay great attention to them. During the psychedelic session, personal support/guidance is very valuable. During psychedelic therapy, in addition to music, we also try to influence the other senses with aromatherapy and color lights. During stronger doses of psilocybin or LSD sessions, the senses can overlap, which we call synesthesia. In the somewhat outdated blog from 2019, we explain what synesthesia means and how psychedelics can cause it.
Register at Triptherapie
Before someone starts using psychedelics, it is necessary to check whether there are any contraindications. For some people, using psychedelics is unsafe, and this applies particularly to various conditions and medication use. By completing the intake form, you can check for known contraindications.