The Best Music To Listen To While Taking Magic Mushrooms

Tripping and music are great companions, enhancing one another in manifold ways. Here we take a look at 7 different music artists that can really complement your magic mushroom experience.

If you’ve not tried it before, listening to music under the influence of a psychedelic substance can be a revelatory experience. So, if you like tripping, and you like music, we’d recommend it!

With that in mind, here we offer some curated suggestions of artists you could listen to the next time you trip on magic mushrooms—or anything, for that matter!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF LISTENING TO MUSIC WHEN YOU TRIP?

Listening to music while tripping can be an exceptionally profound experience, especially if you have a fairly good pair of speakers or headphones. Although, even without premium equipment, it’s still brilliant. Under the influence of psychedelics, our heightened senses experience music in infinitely richer and novel ways compared to how (most of us) experience it when sober. Indeed, music can take on a spacious quality, exhibiting all the depth and texture that those who create it hear.

Not only does it sound incredible, but settling into the experience while tripping can also clear the way for some very deep introspection and psychonautical wanderings. Close your eyes and give into an album, and you might emerge quite changed at the other end.

Generally, when listening to music while tripping, it’s best to select a singular album or curated playlist—with an album being our preferred choice. This is the case for two reasons. First, constantly trying to decide on the next song and interacting with a digital device is a sure way to remove yourself from a trip. Second, longer collections allow you to sink into places you simply wouldn’t be able to in the length of a single song.

JOHNS HOPKINS PSYCHEDELIC PLAYLIST

The Johns Hopkins medical school actually put together their own playlist specifically designed for psilocybin therapy. This is not to be confused with Jon Hopkins’ album Music for Psychedelic Therapy (see below).

The playlist is eight hours long and designed to accompany and guide individuals who have taken psilocybin through their trip. The playlist mostly includes classical music, as music without lyrics is generally considered superior when tripping, else the words and narrative have a tendency to overpower the inner voice of the person tripping.

Johns Hopkins themselves describe the arc in the following words: “The playlist is divided into segments: background music that plays as the participant arrives for his or her session; music that plays when the drug is starting to take effect, at which point he or she is lying down and wearing eyeshades and headphones; the ascent; the peak; the post-peak; and the “welcome back” music. There are usually two researchers in the room, referred to as guides, who simultaneously listen to the playlist through speakers”.

So, if you’re looking for a custom playlist designed to accompany you through your entire trip, you’ve already found it!

7 ARTISTS TO LISTEN TO WHEN TAKING MAGIC MUSHROOMS

Below, we share seven artists we’d suggest listening to when tripping. Of course, this is highly subjective, and you may well have a good idea of what you want to hear once you’re under the influence of your chosen psychedelic. But this list contains some names that should create a very powerful vibe for your trip.

JON HOPKINS

First off, let’s start with the person who makes music specifically for psychedelic experiences. Jon Hopkins is techno producer with an intimate love of psychedelic drugs, and so much of his music veers in this direction too. While his techno albums are great to listen to while tripping, the obvious choice is his album mentioned above: Music for Psychedelic Therapy.

Designed for ketamine, it works for all psychedelics and, in case you’re wondering, is not techno. It’s made up of field recordings taken in South America and Devon, UK. It takes users on a journey through ambient soundscapes and brings them comfortably back to earth with a soothing ending.

ROXANNA PANUFNIK

This is a bit of a curveball. Roxanna Panufnik makes contemporary choral music, and some of it is exceptionally beautiful. It’s certainly a specific space to inhabit while tripping, but one in which introspection will undoubtedly abound!

We’d particularly suggest the album called Love Abide, which is very left-field for choral music and becomes quite experimental at points.

THE GLOAMING

The Gloaming is a neo-classical supergroup made up of four world-class musicians. Centring around the fiddle, they rework classic Gaelic folk songs into modern masterpieces. Moving, energetic, and very thoughtful, this music will provide a consistent yet highly novel accompaniment to the psychedelic experience.

We suggest their first album as a good place to start, as it’s perhaps their strongest and most consistent work. Expect to experience a full range of emotions, without ever straying too far in any one particular direction. And also, expect to hear some of the best fiddle playing in the world—it’s really exceptional.

APHEX TWIN

This is a classic choice for tripping, and there’s little doubt that Aphex Twin himself has taken plenty of inspiration from the psychedelic realm. With a discography that’s almost gratuitously large, it can be hard to know where to begin with him. While his music varies significantly, there’s a consistent core to all of it that makes him a good choice when tripping, no matter what you choose.

But if you want to settle into something, his selected ambient works are a good place to start. Though these songs generally remain in a calm realm, be aware that some of them can become a little unsettling at points—something this artist is particularly adept at. For some, this will be tolerable, while others might become a bit uncomfortable.

HOLLY HERNDON

Holly Herndon is another composer who uses choral techniques, but in a much more modern way than Roxanna Panufnik. Herndon blends vocals with electronic music to make sounds that are at once extremely modern yet somehow evocative of classical music too.

Her latest album, PROTO, was made with the assistance of a custom-built AI model—though you wouldn’t know it from listening to it. It doesn’t have the cold, dry, and lifeless quality of most AI-made art, but actually contains some serious heart. This is testament more to her as a creator than to the power of AI, given that she meticulously designed it for this purpose.

Her music is not always comfortable, but it is exciting and provides a very large space to get lost in.

JIMI HENDRIX

We had to finish with a classic. And though there are plenty to choose from, we think Jimi Hendrix is a brilliant artist to listen to while tripping. If you don’t want to go deep and introspective, but instead want to listen to something that will enhance the psychedelic properties of the trip, anything from Hendrix’s exceptional discography will do the trick. Pick any album, or a best-of album, and settle back into some very good vibes.

Should you go deep with another album, Hendrix may be a good choice to listen to afterwards, if you want something to bring you back out of yourself and into the world.

TIPS FOR MAKING A PSYCHEDELIC PLAYLIST

Maybe you want to put together your own playlist for your next trip. If so—and we fully support your desire to do so—here are some tips to ensure you have the best experience possible.

• Make it consistent: Choose songs and song placements that maintain some kind of consistency. While the playlist can, and should, display some sort of journey, you don’t want jarring differences when songs change, as this will disturb your inner world. This goes for genre, tempo, and overall mood.

• Opt for longer songs: Generally, you’ll probably appreciate songs that are a little longer than standard radio length. A barrage of pieces that are all 3–4 minutes may well become quite overwhelming. Songs that last between 5–10 minutes can create much more room to enjoy.

• Choose songs without lyrics: This isn’t a hard rule, but on the whole it’s probably best to listen to wordless music. Human voices are great, but words with obvious meaning can be distracting and influence the quality of the experience too much.

• Try to sketch the arc of a trip: This will take some tinkering and a dose of familiarity with the psychedelic experience, but it can help to mirror the natural arc of a trip in your playlist. The experience starts subtle, then builds to a peak, then stays at the heights (or depths) for a time, until gradually descending to a place of calm and tiredness.

• Slow things down: While fast-paced music can be great when tripping, especially if you’re dancing, if you’re looking for a more therapeutic experience where you just sit with some music, then slower tempo choices are probably better. This will give you more space to think and will avoid agitating you.

• Make it mostly positive: Though some darkness might be welcome in the playlist, the overall mood should be positive. Now, it doesn’t need to be unduly happy or joyous, but you should probably avoid a wealth of songs that are sad, angry, or otherwise negative.

WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO WHEN TRIPPING?

If you’ve not indulged in music while tripping before, you’re in for a real treat! We hope that this article can give you some interesting ideas of artists to listen to the next time you trip. Over time, if you experiment with these drugs, you’ll come to find your own favourite artists for this purpose, and can make your own playlists to accompany you through various states of consciousness. Why not share them with the world?