Psychedelic Music and the Story of Transformation: Exploring the Mythic Dimension of Sixties Psychedelia

Abstract

Sixties psychedelic music conveys a mythic dimension to the shifting paradigm of the Aquarian age. Deep listening provides a means to access a mythopoetic layer commiserate with psychedelia. Analytical psychology foreshadowed a transformational outlook based on recognizing consciousness as a symbol for the emerging new myth. This dissertation focuses on the role of sound in producing meaningful thematic connections between emergent archetypal dominants and the complexes of the unconscious. Song analysis is harnessed to close reading and listening with the methodological goal of anamnesis informing personal myth. Jung’s work emphasizes how a living myth is paramount to wholeness in the second half of life.

This phenomenological study brackets the inquiry under the aegis of Mnemosyne via autobiographical material, a psychedelic experience, and a big dream. The lyrical analysis is engaged toward a heuristic approach to critical insights and meaningful semantic reactions. Song motifs are identified and discussed within a narrative context and then reviewed for evocative mythic representations. Charts and diagrams demonstrate the range of theoretical ideas pertinent to the research question about psychedelic music and transformation. The ego-Self axis is central to visualizing individuation, along with Neumann’s mythological stages of growth and Piagetian cognitive stages of development. The role of personification shows how myth bridges the gap between ego and archetype on the road to mythopoetic symbol formation. Return journey metaphors of the house, the Buddhist stupa, and the pagoda, along with the Rubin vase and the Tetractys, illustrate the paradox of objectivity, suggesting the concept of unity in diversity.

The conclusion is encapsulated in an imaginative reply to the author’s father as a symbolic figure. Orpheus is identified with an inner voice, poet, or singer representing a neglected part of the self, whose mythic corollary is reminiscent of the Twin Hero type. The adopted figures of Dionysus and Orpheus suggest compensatory figures associated with art, literature, and music. The mytheme of the sparagmos related to their stories contributes to an understanding of renewal and rebirth in psychotherapy, restoring consciousness to its deep psychological foundations.