A new music program, the Copenhagen Music Program, has been developed to accompany the 4–6 hour sessions of medium/high dose psilocybin therapy. The program uses the Guided Imagery and Music framework to choose and sequence music, and the Taxonomy of Therapeutic Music to rate each piece's psychological intensity. Detailed procedural steps and examples are provided to guide others in creating music programs for psychedelic interventions, with the aim that informed music selection can support therapeutic dynamics during the drug's acute effects.
A single 25 mg dose of psilocybin, combined with preparation and integration sessions, was safely administered to ten terminally ill home hospice patients. No serious adverse events occurred. Demoralization scores dropped by an average of 8.8 points three weeks after the session, despite patients' ongoing physical decline. Grief and peace themes were common during the drug sessions. Although most participants rated the treatment favorably, some found the emotional intensity challenging. The results suggest that psilocybin-assisted therapy can be feasibly and safely integrated into hospice care, but larger studies are needed to confirm its benefits.
Music therapy can be understood as a healthy re-enactment of the parent-child dyad, where music stimulates both familiar "me" experiences and unfamiliar "not-me" experiences. The Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) process begins with a "me" experience and moves beyond it to the "not-me." Classical music in GIM creates a transpersonal experience through altered states of consciousness and the transcendence of time, loosening the client's boundaries so they become "one" with the music and its healthful structures.