Scoring the Journey Part Five: Quick Modality Notes — Soundscapes Across Medicines
Different medicines create different relationships with sound. Each alters perception of time, emotion, and body awareness in unique ways. Understanding these distinctions helps facilitators shape playlists that harmonize with the medicine’s character and the participant’s nervous system. The following notes summarize practical insights drawn from research and clinical observation, viewed through a neurodivergent lens.
Across this five-part series, we follow how music moves from philosophy to practice, from the ethics of listening to the sensory and technical craft of sound. The articles explore how playlists can mirror the phases of a journey, how texture and tone support regulation, and how facilitators develop the sensitivity to listen with the whole body. They also walk you through the practical steps of building a playlist from scratch—selecting tracks, organizing your library, and using music apps. Together, the series provides a grounded framework for creating music experiences that cater to neurodivergent nervous systems with clarity, responsiveness, and care.
Psilocybin
As we’ve explored previously, music often becomes a “co-therapist” under psilocybin. Research from Imperial College London indicates that psilocybin enhances emotional responsiveness and autobiographical recall, while increasing activation in brain regions associated with emotion and meaning-making (Kaelen, 2018). Music is processed as if it has intention or presence, something that listens back. Participants frequently describe being carried or taught by the sound itself.
Facilitators can draw from this by designing playlists that breathe: expanding and contracting like waves. The Copenhagen Music Program, developed for psilocybin-assisted therapy, models this through “Ascent, Peak, and Descent” phases that follow the natural rhythm of the medicine (Messell et al., 2022). Gradual shifts in tempo and tone help neurodivergent listeners regulate sensory intensity. Abrupt silence may feel like disconnection, and so gentle fade-outs may create a sense of continuity and safety. Organic textures—such as acoustic stringed instruments, choral voices, and soft percussion—may support trust and surrender because they echo the rhythms and tone colors of the human body. Natural timbres engage limbic and sensory-motor regions linked to safety and empathy, activating recognition circuits that process the human voice and touch (Li, 2021; Kaelen, 2018; Jerotić, Vuust, & Kringelbach, 2023).
Suggested examples: “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen for deep surrender; “An Ending (Ascent)” by Brian Eno for descent and closure; selections from East Forest’s Music for Mushrooms for grounded and possibly devotional pacing.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6QqL1JMtGAlw40kcMtBGDr?si=c9ef57c2e0f14510
LSD
Most of what was shared about Psilocybin also applies to LSD, though many experienced psychonauts on sites like Erowid have reported that LSD sharpens perception and stretches time. Every detail may become distinct, sometimes synesthetic—tones may appear as color or texture or through a visual overlay of geometric patterns. Similar to psilocybin, neuroimaging studies have shown that LSD increases the brain’s sensitivity to tone color, the harmonic nuance that conveys emotional information (Kaelen, 2022; Jerotić et al., 2023). This expanded bandwidth can make music feel vast, kaleidoscopic, and alive.
Facilitators can lean into this precision. Extended compositions with slow internal evolution may be more effective than fragmented tracks. Subtle repetition and recurring motifs provide orientation during extended periods of experience. Because LSD extends time perception and lasts longer, pacing the playlist’s energy slightly more than a psilocybin journey helps maintain grounding. For those sensitive to overload, excessive rhythmic or harmonic complexity can be disorienting; in such cases, minimal and cohesive soundscapes may be preferred.
Suggested examples: Steve Roach’s Structures from Silence for exploration, Windy & Carl’s Consciousness for droney ambience, or Stars of the Lid’s Avec Laudenum for its steady harmonic flow.
MDMA
MDMA is said to open the heart. It amplifies serotonin and oxytocin, deepening empathy, trust, and body awareness. Music feels emotionally transparent and direct, tender, unguarded. There’s a reason MDMA is so popular at music events because it often feels good in the body and makes many people feel like dancing, or at least wiggling. For autistic or highly sensitive participants, MDMA can increase comfort with touch and expression while softening social anxiety (Danforth, 2021).
Facilitators may choose music that supports this open, heart-centered quality. Warm harmonies, slow tempos, and acoustic or human voices can evoke a sense of safety and connection. Familiar songs can evoke a sense of belonging, while wordless vocals often provide a more emotional space. Tracks with an upbeat rhythm tend to be more welcome. Because MDMA heightens tactile and vibrational sensitivity, monitor bass frequencies and adjust volume for comfort. Silence or ambient transitions between pieces can help integrate strong emotion and restore balance.
Suggested examples: “Weightless” by Marconi Union for gentle regulation; “Open” by Rhye for embodied warmth; Rasa’s Devotion album for emotional integration; Sessa’s album Estrela Acesa for movement and joy.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1DVpgo1ffBCQWwWI3FV3Fo?si=611cb906838a4c65
Ketamine
Ketamine tends to alter spatial perception and blur the boundaries of self. Sound may feel distant, non-linear, or abstract. At lower doses, music retains emotional power; at higher doses, it becomes an anchor in an otherwise formless landscape. Some clients may barely notice the music while others may become highly engaged with it.
Composer Jon Hopkins, who created Music for Psychedelic Therapy for ketamine sessions, describes using sustained tones and harmonic textures to evoke spaciousness and trust rather than propulsion (Hopkins, 2022). In this dissociative state, complex rhythm may feel intrusive or overwhelming. Ambient drones, evolving chords, or breath-like pulses provide orientation without demand.
Suggested examples: Jon Hopkins’ Music for Psychedelic Therapy (entire album), Hammock’s Mysterium (album), or Max Richter’s “Dream 3 (In the Midst of My Life)” for soft return.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7HmOZZWaljBzTG6m8J7IPl?si=91cb6e6a98834569
DMT and 5-MeO-DMT
These medicines unfold rapidly, with overwhelming intensity. The REBUS model of psychedelic neuroscience describes how serotonergic psychedelics flatten the brain’s predictive hierarchy, allowing sensory information to flood in with little top-down filtering (Jerotić et al., 2023). During these brief, powerful experiences, complex music may overwhelm the system.
Minimal sound may be best—such as chimes, sound bowls, or a single resonant drone. Silence may provide the most supportive container for many neurodivergent people. Simple, spacious tones can frame re-entry, helping participants reorganize perception as they return to embodied awareness.
Suggested examples: recordings of Tibetan singing bowls, shamanic flutes or didgeridoos, or the opening track from Music for Psychedelic Therapy, which features soft tonal emergence.
Integrating Across Modalities
Each medicine reshapes the landscape of perception, yet the facilitator’s task remains constant: to listen. Kaelen’s metaphor of the mind as a snow-covered hill applies here. Psychedelics flatten the ruts of habit, allowing new tracks to form in the snow (Kaelen, 2018). Music helps guide those tracks toward meaning.
For neurodivergent participants, whose sensory gating and associative networks differ from those of neurotypical individuals, these pathways may open in unpredictable directions. Facilitators can attune by tracking both external intensity and internal pacing, listening for shifts in breath, posture, or nonverbal expressions that signal a need for regulation or indicate a state of overwhelm.
Music’s relationship to psychedelics is more than accompaniment. Both act on the serotonergic system, heightening emotional salience, imagery, and connection (Jerotić et al., 2023). Together, music and psychedelics form a bridge between the brain and body, the inner world and outer sound. When chosen and delivered with sensitivity, music becomes the voice of the journey.
References
Danforth, A. (2021). Psychedelic-assisted therapy for social adaptability in autistic adults. In F. S. Barrett & K. H. Preller (Eds.), Disruptive Psychopharmacology (pp. 71–92). Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 56. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2021_269
Hopkins, J. (2022). Jon Hopkins on Music for psychedelic therapy [Podcast interview]. The Mindspace Podcast #41.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8KDV9CHxhw
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. (2018). The role of music, set and setting in psychedelic therapy [Conference presentation]. Psychedelic Science Sweden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rAgNmUJ0zk&t=5s
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
Li, D. (2021). Musical neuroanatomy | Neuroscience for musicians [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKcgheBmu28
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