Contours of Sound: Mapping Stanislav Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs) to Journey Phases and Music Choices

Music in psychedelic therapy does more than fill silence. It shapes how emotions, memories, and meanings move through the session. For some, it feels like being carried. For others, it is like being cracked open. For neurodivergent participants, whose sensory systems and emotional rhythms often run differently, the same music that soothes one person may overwhelm another. Understanding how sound interacts with inner experience is a crucial aspect of the art of facilitation.

This article examines how music can mirror the inner rhythm of a psychedelic journey through three complementary lenses: Stanislav Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs), Helen Bonny’s early music therapy frameworks, and contemporary research, including the Copenhagen Music Program. Together, they show how the emotional phases of a session—opening, struggle, breakthrough, and return—can be supported through carefully chosen soundscapes that invite safety, surrender, and integration.

Why This Framework Matters

Grof's (1975) BPMs describe recurring experiential themes rooted in the symbolic stages of birth: expansion, confinement, struggle, and release. Journey-phase models, on the other hand, represent the unfolding of a psychedelic session—onset, peak, and return—as the medicine moves through the body. Both frameworks share similar emotional patterns and symbolic arcs.

Music therapist Helen Bonny drew on these ideas to create early LSD playlist structures at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, later evolving them into her Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) method. GIM uses carefully sequenced classical programs to evoke imagery and emotion while the listener lies with eyes closed in a receptive state. The music acts as a co-therapist, guiding release and insight (Bonny, 2002).

Modern researchers, including Catharina Messell and colleagues (2022), have extended this lineage through the Copenhagen Music Program, which organizes music into Ascent, Peak, and Descent phases to match the intensity of psilocybin. These works guide the use of music as a central regulator of emotional and sensory flow.

Music and Emotional Perception Under Psychedelics

Under psychedelics, the brain devotes more resources to processing tone color—the emotional quality of sound beyond pitch or volume. Mendel Kaelen and colleagues’ neuroimaging studies (2015) showed that LSD enhances the brain’s sensitivity to timbre, especially in language-related regions, suggesting that music is experienced more like a form of communication than mere sound. Participants described the music as if it were “holding” or “listening” to them, leading Kaelen to call music the “third therapist in the room” (Kaelen, 2022).

Clinical research now confirms that the quality and sequencing of music strongly predict whether people enter peak or mystical states during therapy—states linked with lasting improvements in mood and openness (Kaelen et al., 2018; Jerotić, Vuust, & Kringelbach, 2023).

Mapping BPMs to Journey Phases

BPMs describe deep, recurring patterns of experience that can arise in expanded states of consciousness. Each matrix reflects a stage of the birth process: expansion, confinement, struggle, and release. These often reappear symbolically in psychedelic therapy.

Journey-phase models, like those used in psilocybin research (Messell et al., 2022), describe a similar arc as medicines move through the body: ascent, peak, and descent. When viewed together, Grof’s BPMs and modern phase models offer a practical map for understanding how music can accompany inner processes across a session.

BPM I — Amniotic Universe / Oceanic Unity

Before contractions begin, there is stillness, a sense of being held within a boundless, fluid field. In psychedelic therapy, this may feel like floating, safety, or oneness, or a merging with nature, love, or light.

Music: Smooth, continuous textures with minimal rhythmic change and warm tone colors that evoke calm and trust. Avoid familiar lyrics, which can pull the mind toward analysis or narrative (Kaelen, 2022).

Neurodivergent lens: Predictable patterns and gradual transitions help reduce sensory load. Clients with auditory sensitivity often relax more fully when the music’s dynamic range and brightness are previewed beforehand. A steady, breathable rhythm supports regulation for those who find unpredictability activating.

BPM II — No Exit / Cosmic Engulfment

Contractions begin, but there is no way out of the womb yet. Symbolically, this can evoke feelings of claustrophobia, dread, or existential pressure. The mind may confront despair or the limits of control.

Music: Expansive yet tense, harmonically rich, sometimes dissonant but not chaotic. The best pieces carry both containment and intensity—music that challenges without overwhelming.

Neurodivergent lens: Co-create a low-effort hand signal for volume or skip requests before the session begins. Clients with heightened sensory or emotional reactivity may need reassurance that distress is a normal part of the process and that sound levels can be adjusted without causing problems. Facilitators consider avoiding abrupt brightness spikes, sharp treble tones, or sudden tempo jumps, which can provoke startle or dysregulation.

BPM III — Death–Rebirth Struggle / Propulsion

The cervix opens, and propulsion begins. This is the archetypal struggle: chaotic, raw, and transformative. Energy builds toward catharsis. Clients may relive physical or emotional trauma, rage, or ecstatic release.

Music: High-intensity, evolving compositions that move with purpose and direction. Strong forward motion, layered textures, and gradual climaxes help sustain energy without losing containment. In Guided Imagery and Music (Bonny, 2002), this is the “working” phase where confrontation and release are possible through musical propulsion.

Neurodivergent lens: Containment and pacing are essential. Explore tone preferences before the session, as some clients find sharp brass or distorted frequencies unbearable, while others resonate deeply with low strings or drums. Facilitators can anchor clients through voice tone, breath synchrony, or touch cues (if previously agreed upon) when the music feels overwhelming. Welcoming movement or stimming during this stage may serve as a self-regulating mechanism for the client. 

BPM IV — Release / Emergence

After the struggle comes light. Expansion, tears, and a sense of birth into new awareness. For some, this is a moment of transcendence or gratitude; for others, a quiet recognition of having survived.

Music: Spacious, luminous pieces that convey openness and heart. Choral or string works often support this state, shifting gradually toward warmth and simplicity as the medicine’s intensity wanes (Hopkins Medicine, 2020).

Neurodivergent lens: Returning to sensory complexity can be disorienting after peak intensity. Choose slower, familiar-feeling music that eases re-entry and avoids cognitive overload. Some clients benefit from silence between tracks to gently reorient themselves back to the body.

Bringing It Together

Across these matrices, music serves as a bridge between physiology and meaning-making, supporting the nervous system while symbolically marking transitions. For facilitators, the art lies in sequencing sound with sensitivity to both the universal and the personal. Grof’s birth metaphors, Bonny’s musical arcs, and modern psilocybin phase models illuminate a different facet of the same truth: the journey unfolds in waves, and music helps us navigate them safely.

Risks, Ethics, and Sensory Sensitivity

Music as influence, not instruction.
No song holds universal power. Messell et al. (2022) emphasize that what feels transcendent to one person may feel intrusive to another. For neurodivergent participants who process sound and emotion differently, the wrong track can shift the entire experience. Treat music as an invitation, not an intervention, responsive to each person’s unfolding process rather than imposing direction.

Predictability and sensory safety.
Many autistic and otherwise neurodivergent listeners experience heightened auditory sensitivity or intolerance of uncertainty. Clear contours, gradual transitions, and fewer abrupt shifts reduce sensory load and support nervous system regulation. Previewing timbres or brightness levels before a session can help titrate intensity and prevent startle responses.

Culture, language, and meaning.
Western or Christian-centric playlists risk alienating participants with different cultural or trauma histories. Avoiding familiar language lyrics, overtly religious content, or narrow stylistic cues allows for openness and inclusion. Co-create playlists that reflect the client’s sensory preferences, heritage, or special interests—these can serve as stabilizing anchors for meaning-making.

Transparency and framing.
Frameworks like Grof’s BPMs or Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (2014) are interpretive tools, not required paths. Explain them as optional maps that may or may not resonate with you. For neurodivergent clients, explicit framing reduces anxiety about “doing it right” and supports autonomy throughout the journey.

Closing Reflection

Across all these models, the pattern is clear: music doesn’t direct the experience; it listens with you. There is no perfect playlist, only a living dialogue between sound and psyche. As Mendel Kaelen notes, music only becomes meaningful when it resonates with the listener’s state and story (Kaelen, 2022).

For facilitators, this means treating each track as an offering rather than an instruction. Attend to tone-color and texture as much as melody. Let predictability and space support regulation for those with sensory sensitivity. And when a song evokes something unexpected—grief, rage, awe—trust that it might be the psyche speaking through sound.

When the final note fades, the nervous system regulation that music made possible remains. Breath slows. The body reorients. The listener returns carrying fragments of melody that may echo for weeks, a reminder that transformation has its own tempo and that music, like birth, unfolds by listening first.

References

Bonny, H. L. (2002). Music consciousness: The evolution of guided imagery and music. Barcelona Publishers. https://barcelonapublishers.com/music-consciousness-the-evolution-guided-imagery-music

Campbell, J. (2014). The hero’s journey. New World Library. https://www.jcf.org/learn/joseph-campbell-heros-journey

Grof, S. (1975). Realms of the human unconscious: Observations from LSD research. New York, NY: Viking Press.  https://tinyurl.com/GrofRealms

Jerotić, K., Vuust, P., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2023). Psychedelia: The interplay of music and psychedelics. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1531(1), 12–28.  https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15082

Kaelen, M., Barrett, F. S., Roseman, L., Lorenz, R., Family, N., Bolstridge, M., Curran, H. V., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2015). LSD enhances the emotional response to music. Psychopharmacology, 232(19), 3607–3614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4014-y

Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Raine, J., Evans, L., Timmerman, C., Rodriguez, N., Roseman, L., Feilding, A., Nutt, D., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2018). The hidden therapist: Evidence for a central role of music in psychedelic therapy. Psychopharmacology, 235, 505–519.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4820-5

Kaelen, M. (2022). Music for Psychedelic Therapy – Mendel Kaelen, Founder and CEO of Wavepaths [Podcast interview with Brom Rector, Human 3 with Brom and Sam]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcHe8LZ99uk

Hopkins Medicine. (2020). Psilocybin playlist used in Johns Hopkins clinical studies [Spotify playlist]. Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5KWf8H2pM0tlVd7niMtqeU

Messell, C., Summer, L., Bonde, L. O., Beck, B. D., & Stenbæk, D. S. (2022). Music programming for psilocybin-assisted therapy: Guided imagery and music-informed perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.873455