tetra said:
I only listen to music on a pharma journey, and for that it's the pod on shuffle. When smoking, I prefer to listen to the music of what we call -- for some reason I've never been clear on -- hyperspace. Tones and ringing, high pitched sounds, all change depending on where I direct my attention. One time I found myself in a beam of purest white light and the light was singing like angels must: I don't want external music to interrupt such amazing, if rare, concerts of hyperspace.
I can definitely empathize with this. I love music in hyperspace, but sometimes the audio of hyperspace can be so beautiful, and in the event that I'm treated to a rare, but special moment in hyperspace such as a God encounter or whatnot, I'd like to be able to hear all the sounds going on, and not have the music overpower things. Music also can veer the experience off its initially intended course. I now listen to music more on pharma journeys as well. What I'll do is once the MAOIs have kicked in, I'll see if anything particularly exciting or special is going to happen. If things aren't headed in an especially promising direction, I'll turn on the music which is usually ecstatic.
I too had a white light encounter and the audio of the rocket engine carrier wave and the golden angels singing by my side would be a pity to miss had I been listening to music. A couple weeks after that experience, I dropped some acid. When I got home a couple hours later, I was still tripping pretty hard, and none of my roommates were home, so I decided to put on some music. My instant thought was, "to smoke DMT, or not smoke DMT?" Obviously, I decided to smoke DMT 8) I sat down on the couch, the music was going (my iPod was across the room connected to the surround sound). I took my rips, and let me tell you, I was being escorted straight to heaven. I started off in this stained glass temple, and I was being cradled up into the corner of the room, up into the clouds where there were the brilliant pinks, purples and golds of a perfect sunset, and I experienced the most peaceful, loving, angelic feeling in the world when I noticed that the music was starting to "pull" on my visions a bit. I could tell that they might be being prevented from running their intended course, and if I were to see God again, I'd want to hear if he had anything to say. In a movement of utter stupidity, I opened my eyes, quickly got up, stepped across the room to turn off the iPod. By the time I had sat back down, I had completely screwed up the entire trip. I was experiencing the rest of the trip inside-out, upside down and backwards. There were these deep, dark, twisted purples and blacks just undulating in bizarre machinery (even bizarre by DMT breakthrough standards). I was devastated. I began to receive a similar afterglow as the experience when I actually had met except it was hollow and empty-feeling because I hadn't actually gone through the actual experience of doing so. It was like going to see God, cutting out the middle man and coming back. I was flipping out and it tortured me for months. Not only that, but had I let the song actually run, it may have been one of the most appropriate songs for the experience I was having.
Fast-forward a few months, and I'm once again listening to music going into a DMT experience (no acid this time). I've got my music going and I take my rips. I find myself in a lush, high frequency environment of ultra-purples and I once again feel that same peaceful, motherly, angelic feeling in my core. I see a Goddess buzzing ecstatically in front of me. I now realize I have a decision to make. To turn off the music or keep it on? I felt like I was being tested, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna fail this time, so I resisted all my urges and let the music play out. It resulted in being a fantastic experience, and I felt at peace and resolved at the end because I let the music play out and everything still went really well. Typically nowadays, I'll have my iPod on standby in the event that the trip is going absolutely no where (there are some that can be so boring that you wonder why you're taking the time to even sit through them), and music can usually salvage those experiences in the blink of the eye. Also after I'm done with the main part of my experience, where "forward-progress" in the "plot" of the experience slows to a stop, and I'm in the very psychedelic afterglow part where I'm clearly still seeing DMT patterns everywhere, but all the energy behind the experience and the sense of a developing story have stopped, I'll cue the music to ride out the afterglow.