Q. What music do you recommend for sessions?
A. I have not kept records of the music I used in my sessions. Much of my music library then was on cassettes, which did not survive the transition to digital technology. This is a list of session music I currently have in my collection. It’s short and somewhat dated, but contains some useful pieces.
Indigenous chanting
Trance 2 (spiritual singing from 4 traditions)
Tibet: The Heart of Dharma (Tibetan monks singing)
Kecak (Monkey chant)
Upper and Lower Egypt
Camaroon: Baka Pygmy Music
Qwalli: Concert in Paris (Sufi)
The Spirit Cries: Music of the Rain Forests of South America and the Caribbean
Voices of the Rain Forest (soothing)
A mixture of different types of music
Jennifer Berezan:
In These Arms (particularly beautiful, soothing)
Returning (same)
Karl Jenkins: Adiemus (unusual, positive, evocative)
Himalaya (movie sound track)
Philip Glass: Kundun (soundtrack)
Michael Stearns: (evocative, different)
The Lost World
Singing Stones
Mickey Hart:
Around the World
Planet Drum
Global Drum
Nawang Khechog: (Tibetan flute, soothing yet demanding in sections)
Nawang (my favorite of these two)
Universal Love
Jonathan Elias: The Prayer Cycle (very evocative)
Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares
Lama Gyurme: Lama’s Chant (spacious)
Don Evangelino Murayay: El Canto Del Tiempo (ayahuasca songs)
Songs of Kuan Yin
Dechen Shak-Dagsay: Shi De
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Leopard
The Fearsome Brave: Sacred Spirit (very uplifting)
Carlos Nakai (spacious)
Desert Dance
Sundance Season
Carlos Nakai and Nawang Khechog:
Winds of Devotion
Henryk Gorecki: Symphony No. 3, movements 2 and 3. (intense, evocative)
Rachmaninov: Vespers (spacious)
Sheila Chandra: ABoneCroneDrone (drone music that can bore deep)
Babatunde Olatunji: Drums of Passion
Vicki Hansen: Earth Heart
Hildegrad van Bingen: Illumination
Rapa Iti: Tahitian Choir (unusual choral singing that can rattle your cage)
Sacred World (positive)
Paul Winter: Wolf Eyes (positive)
Johns Hopkins Playlist for Psilocybin Studies