LSD: Can music really mimic an acid trip?
Since the cognitive revolution and quite probably earlier still, humans have enjoyed altering their state of consciousness. Whether utilised for escapism, recreation or therapy, psychoactive drugs have found a permanent position in most human civilisations across the planet. When abused, drugs, such as LSD, can have adverse or even life-threatening impacts, but in controlled, isolated doses, therapy and mind expansion can prove beneficial.
In the 2011 study, Hallucinogenic Drugs in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Cultures, neurologist F.J. Carod-Artal noted that peyote and other naturally hallucinogenic flora and fungi were present during ritual contexts over 5,000 years ago. Naturally occurring substances such as Ayahuasca are still used to this day in tribal communities around the world, with experiences often accompanied by rhythmic incantations or music.
On November 16th, 1938, lysergic acid diethylamide – or LSD – was synthesised for the very first time by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in the Sandoz laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. However, the compound’s psychedelic properties weren’t discovered until April 1943.
As we know, synthesised psychedelics swept the globe rapidly and became synonymous with the 1960s’ countercultural movement, as spearheaded by the hippies. Also synonymous with said hippies was psychedelic rock music. Artists including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Pink Floyd began to write somewhat oblique music inspired by and often attempting to mimic the kaleidoscopic distortion of LSD.
A question thrown around in great profusion in the 1960s and posed frequently since is: Can one simulate an LSD trip using music alone?
Of course, if you shut your eyes in a darkened room and listen to The Beatles’ Revolver track, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, you’re likely to experience a slightly nuanced state of mind. However, if you listened to the song on a large dose of LSD, I can imagine the experience would be much the same.
That said, music has been shown in past studies to have very similar effects on the mind to a psychedelic trip. All psychedelic drugs are serotonin 2A receptor agonists; this is the mechanism by which audiovisual perception is altered.
Stimulation in the serotonergic system is particularly sensitive to sound, hence why music plays an integral role in many psychotherapy practices. In some, often controversial, methods, psychoactive substances are used to enhance music-orientated therapy: an end sought by surprisingly associated means.
As Wavepaths CEO and founder Dr. Mendel Kaelen argues, music’s psychedelic effects on the brain are so similar to those of LSD that one could describe the brain’s reaction to some music as a mild psychedelic trip.
Of course, this experience is intensified dramatically when combined with a psychedelic drug. “Music under psychedelics can lead to enhanced connectivity from the parahippocampus towards the visual cortex, which is correlated with enhanced mental imagery and the recollection of autobiographical memories,” Wavepaths Community Manager Harry Simmons notes.
“Music-evoked emotions of wonder and transcendence are intensified under LSD, influenced by a musical quality known as timbre,” he added. “These emotions are core facets of the transformative mystical-type experiences that can be occasioned by psychedelics.”
In the video below, Dr. Mendel Kaelen discusses his theories and conclusions surrounding the psychedelic effect of music.
