Education / Research

Does Music Matter in Psychedelic Therapy? What the Research Says

Last reviewed

In psychedelic therapy trials, music is not background. People are usually given eyeshades and headphones and a carefully chosen, mostly instrumental playlist that plays for hours. It is one of the most common questions people ask when they prepare for an experience.

The research is small and mostly descriptive, so this page is short on certainties. It goes through what three studies found and what nobody has tested yet.

What the studies found

Small or open-label trials

Music and outcomes in a depression trial

Researchers studied how music affected 19 people with treatment-resistant depression who had psilocybin therapy, using interviews and rating scales. Music helped in some ways, by bringing up meaningful emotions and giving a sense of safety, and got in the way in others, through unpleasant imagery or resistance. How much people liked the music and how well it matched their state went with mystical-type experiences and insight, and with a bigger drop in depression scores one week after the session, while the overall intensity of the drug experience did not.

Worth knowing

Nineteen people who all got the same treatment, so the study shows what went with better outcomes and cannot show that music caused them. These are correlations, and the authors conclude music plays a central role, which is their reading of a small group.

Case reports and surveys

What experienced guides recommend

Ten people with substantial experience guiding psilocybin sessions recommended music for the peak of a session and for the lead-up. Analysis of 22 of the pieces found that peak-phase music tended to have regular, predictable structure and a steady sense of forward motion that builds gradually, and was lower in perceptual brightness than the music before the peak.

Worth knowing

Ten respondents from a specialized community, giving their opinions. The study measured the music, not what it did for anyone.

Small or open-label trials

Classical against overtone-based music

In a smoking-cessation study, 10 people had psilocybin sessions with two different kinds of music, Western classical and overtone-based, in randomized order, then chose one for a third session. Mystical-experience scores tended to be higher with the overtone-based music, though the difference was not statistically significant, and six of the ten chose it. Smoking abstinence was similar across the groups.

Worth knowing

Ten people and a difference that was not statistically significant, so it is a hint, not a finding. The authors use it to question whether Western classical music has a special benefit, and call for more experiments on the parts of a session.

A trial that is testing it

One registered study is looking directly at the role of music in the setting of a psilocybin session. We found no results yet.

What this means

Taken together, the research suggests that music matters to how an experience feels and that people notice it. It does not show that any particular playlist, genre, or album works better than another, and nobody has shown that music changes outcomes on its own.

The one practical point we would draw from it is that music is worth choosing on purpose, not leaving to shuffle, and that it should suit the person having the experience. This is our suggestion, not a study finding.

Keep reading

This page is for adults 21 and older. It summarizes published research for education only. It is not medical or legal advice, and it makes no claim that any product sold by Luna treats, cures, prevents, or helps any condition. Laws about these mushrooms vary by place, and you are responsible for knowing yours.

Research moves quickly. We last checked this page against its sources on , and we will correct it if we get something wrong.