Effects of Live Music and Set & Setting on Awe, Mystical Experience, and Aesthetic Chills

Abstract

This project investigates how the context of a live concert — including prior expectations, personality, and acute psychoactive substance use — shapes intense emotional and altered-state responses to music, specifically feelings of awe and wonder, mystical-type experiences, and aesthetic chills. The study is part of an ongoing programme of research at the Leiden University PRSM Lab into peak experiences and altered states in naturalistic, real-world settings. Participants complete a short pre-concert survey (~5 min) before the Lonelinoise – Sofia's Trip concert and a short post-concert survey (~5 min) immediately after, linked via an anonymous session code. Pre-concert measures include personality (BFI-10), awe-proneness (DPES), absorption, prior expectations, and optional self-reported substance use. Post-concert measures include awe (AWE-SF), mystical experience (MEQ-4), aesthetic chills, challenging experience (CEQ-7), and a brief open-text reflection analysed using sentence-embedding methods to quantify semantic distance across participants. No data have been collected for this study yet. Data collection begins on Sunday 5 July 2026 at Down the Rabbit Hole Festival (Beuningen, Netherlands). All hypotheses, measures, and analysis decisions were specified in advance, on the basis of the finalised Qualtrics questionnaire and approved Ethics Protocol (ECP Leiden University, ref. 2026-06-17-M. van Elk-V3-6830). This preregistration covers the initial data collection event. Follow-up data collection is planned at subsequent performances of the same concert in different settings, including the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE). Data from all events will be merged, and a robustness analysis will assess whether setting moderated the main effects.