i’ve been told that the sounds of psy trance is designed to trigger the dmt chemical in our brains, and that meditation to psy trance will release the dmt and cause a natural trip.
idk about you but psy trance and goa trance makes me trip out. not like i feel like i’m on dmt trip but i’m sure you know what i mean.
I have many Psytrance producer mates…and I can safely say that they do NOT create this music or design it to have an chemical effect on your body.
Its just music … It does what it does by itself…and effects each person in their own way they perceive it.
But I do get what you saying.
Like…scary music in thriller movies…its not designed to make your hair stand up…it just does…its the frequencies and the fact that its a ‘shock’ to your system when you hear a new type of sound.
This is also why you get the shivers down your spine or goosebumps from certain types of music.
Nothing to do with the way its designed really.
There is a basic formula for Psytrance (given that there are many little styles of Psy too) but each has their own likes.
But the Psy does work well with Psychedelics…thats just fact.
It’s not really a “high” … it’s called being fully present. We spend so little time doing that in our everyday lives that we feel high when we do get there. Hallucinogens may give you a glimpse of what it feels like but the way to really experience it is a lot more work than eating a piece of paper or a pill.
As for music, yeah, it’s another way to get there more easily; it’s a great tool for meditation, esp intense repetitive music combined with dance – shaman have known this for millennia, and it has been practiced by many tribes throughout the ages long before electronic music ever existed. I’ve never done DMT but if it’s anything like other hallucinogens then I would say, yeah, psytrance can probably help you achieve that feeling under the right conditions, just like any other repetitive music. But it’s nothing about frequencies that mimic a drug experience; it’s more about facilitating a state where you can let go of your ego and simply experience the world as it is. It’s more the other way around – drugs can help mimic the experience that you can achieve through meditation, music, or dance.
Alt Daber military base, north east germany on the goa highway. (Highway 24 if i remember correctly)
It was my girlfriends first festival (like my 30th lol) and it was absolutely amazing, such a good vibe and an amazing location, words can barely put across how awesome it is.
It goes on for 7 days and nights of 24hr music. All for 80 euros!
The whole site is full of overgrown aircraft hangars with trees growing out of them, surrounded by old soviet military buildings for miles, they kit it out with awesome light shows and other trippy stuff.
The people are wicked too, according to our german friend it’s the most internationally attended psy event, loads of dealers with amazing gear too if that’s your thing. (We barely slept for 7 days).
Very loud bass at the right BPM does have a psychological effect, but it’s barely measurable and the level of what effect there is varies greatly between people.
Also, the scientific literature contradicts your claim that hallucinogens give “a glimpse of what [meditation] feels like.” The effects of psychedelics and meditation are qualitatively different, though they can compliment each other.
Researchers have used–in the most related studies–psilocybin mushrooms or MDMA with volunteers who were extremely religious or in at least one case an actual ‘up in the mountains for 30 years’ Hindu shaman. In each case, the effect of the drugs was seen to aid, augment, or change a meditative experience, but in isolation they don’t mimic each other very much except at very low doses of the drug.
In my own experience–with meditation only, never taken a psychedelic–I’ve seen and felt some very interesting things. I’ve had great experiences while meditating as well as some extremely terrifying afternoons. But the effects as described in scientific and nonscientific literature on the effects of actual hallucinogen or entactogen experiences are wholly different.
At very low doses–as in, not low enough to produce actual hallucinations–psychedelics can help one to enter a meditative state, but that too is qualitatively different than actually hallucinating.
I can find citations if I need to, but I’d rather not spend time on it. Music is an amazing meditative tool, and it’s obvious that we all enjoy whatever it does to us. But if you feel psychological effects, you’re in a minority. If you think that they mimic hallucinogens, then you’ve never had a full-on hallucination.
Then again, a lot of people think that Salvia (salvia divinorum, aka Salvinorin A) is a hallucinogen, which it’s not in any behavioral assay. Salvia, I have done (legal at the time; might still be legal here). It’s interesting. It causes some perceptual disturbances, but it’s not a hallucinogen. Perhaps the issue here is that most people have no idea what a real hallucination (as defined in psychopharmacological literature) actually is.
Good post, i’ve actually used black and white breathing for a number of years to help with my insomnia and occaisionally to attempt meditation, i’ve also taken hallucinogens for a number of years.
I can say from my own personal experience that the only hallucinogen i would liken to or would agree could enhance a meditative state would be Mushrooms, especially Aztecs for me.
As far as LSD goes i find it impossible to focus my mind even under the influence of a small dosage.
I’ve never tried DMT but if it can be likened to Mescaline then i imagine it would cause disjointed thought patterns like LSD does, making it almost the opposite of meditation.
I went through a phase of taking Salvia before i slept, had some interesting effects on my dreams as the after-effect of salvia seems to be more hallucinogenic than the actual (short) trip for me.
Had to stop taking Salvia though, due to reverse tolerance i had some very bad trips on it.
Back on topic:
I used to listen to a lot of Shpongle and such, even when meditating unaided, and it definitely allows the mind to wander more than any other type of music, but as for the music alone having DMT-like effects i highly doubt it.
sphongle and infected mushrooms OLD stuff, is some really amazing music to meditate to.
i’ve never listened to it on psychedelics but i plan to at sacred earth this year. its going to be an amazing festival.
back to topic.
i enjoy the posts you guys made, in a sense it can cause a natural trip with meditation but not an chemical trip. just a intense state of mind.
correct?
Interesting thoughts here. Just to be clear though, I never said that “hallucinogens give “a glimpse of what [meditation] feels like.”” I said they may give a glimpse of what the ego-loss experience that one achieves through meditation feels like. Meditation itself is a practice that does take the ability to focus and be still – not things you can do easily on acid, for example. But all that sitting still is supposed to (among other things) lead to experiences of clarity, presence, and oneness with the world – it is those experiences that can be (poorly, perhaps) mimicked with certain drugs. And, frankly, it’s not about “hallucinating” in the sense of seeing and hearing things that aren’t there. Even if you’re talking about subtle effects of light and sound – things that actually are there that you don’t normally pay attention to – these are not the aspects of the psychedelic experience that are relevant to question here. (Also, drugs have been part of the shamanic and spiritual experience I was describing in relation to music, for centuries.)