Music & Your Mind: Listening With a New Consciousness

by Helen L. Bonny, Louis M. Savary

This updated and expanded edition offers step-by-step descriptions of 25 music-listening experiences for individuals, groups, music appreciation classes, and religious gatherings, all designed to open new doors to creativity, insight, and self-understanding.

Genres: Music

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Tero Parviainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about using music to induce “altered states” for the purpose of relaxation, self-exploration, and healing. It gives a set of exercises and instructions to follow, as well as some case studies, experience reports, and brief theoretical groundwork.

I get the sense that much of this work was born out of the psychedelic 1960s, and acts as a framework for using music as a non-pharamacological psychedelic intervention. This is reflected in the perennial, archetypal imagery evoked in the exercises. I was also more than a little reminded of the Deep Listening theory nurtured by Pauline Oliveros.

The music suggestions given in the exercises mostly draw from the Euro-classical canon, with a bit of spiritual jazz mixed in. I look forward to exploring them more with contemporary ambient and electronic flavours too - keeping in mind the book suggests avoiding music you already know well.