Through my own self-assay, empirical knowledge, anecdotes, and so forth music becomes only tedious background noise when experienced under the effects of a sufficiently large dosage of a psychedelic drug.
Try this experiment: >750 μg LSD whilst listening to music, taking notes. Now, >750 μg LSD whilst motionlessly meditating in a silent darkness, taking notes.
Compare the two sets of notes afterward, noting the stark contrast between the systemic euphoria and the corporeal nature accompanying the drug coupled with the music and the deeply introspective, transcendental, and intellectually concentrated nature of the drug sans music.
Music becomes a cacophonous, tintinnabular distraction from the totality of the psychedelic experience. It only seems entertaining to listen to tunes whilst tripping because, I surmise, the music functions as an anchor, allowing one to ascend only so high before being snagged back down—like an inflated balloon's string being tied around a fixed object, so that every time it floats upward it gets stopped at a certain altitude.
In my opinion, extrinsic sensory stimuli in the presence of psychedelic experiences becomes like a tweaked-out, tenacious little fly that won't quit capriciously zipping about the ambient light emanating from one's TV monitor. The fly is the exogenous diversion, while the TV is the medium through which the psychedelic is experienced (that is, oneself and their percepts and sensoria), the ambient light is the effulgent sublimity one is meant to be observing if not for the attention-grabbing buzz of the nettlesome fly.
Language is inadequate here. But the gist of my comment is that there are but three modes through which to experience psychedelic phenomena, in order from least puissant to most profound:
1.) With a puerile demeanor, ready and set diversions, and all the lively, ostentatious trimmings a gala would require. This is the least fruitful of the three modes, but is also the most popular. It is the psychedelic mise en scène for anybody using psychedelics with the impression of having a wonderfully mirthful moment of bliss.
2.) Without all the superfluous amusements and ignorantly flippant fun of the former, but with a serious-minded set and an austere, sensory-deprived setting.
3.) With the dispassionate and thoughtful disposition as well as the austere and barren setting of the former, but with the purposeful introduction of meditation (not the terribly imprecise Westernised cultural appropriations of meditation, as typified by the absurdity that is this embarrassing New Age trite—I mean the according-to-Holye meditative praxis and doctrine, practiced since time immemorial on at least the Indian subcontinent), where emphasis is placed not on lithe bodily contortions or performing convoluted, tauten flexions of the extremities, but is placed onto the theory that underlay and inform the practice.) As Yogibera once asserted,
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
राजयोगः समाधिश्छ उन्मनी छ मनोन्मनी | अमरत्वं लयस्तत्त्वं शून्याशून्यं परं पदम || ३ ||
अमनस्कं तथाद्वैतं निरालम्बं निरञ्जनम | जीवन्मुक्तिश्छ सहजा तुर्या छेत्येक-वाछकाः || ४ ||
सलिले सैन्धवं यद्वत्साम्यं भजति योगतः | तथात्म-मनसोरैक्यं समाधिरभिधीयते || ५ ||
यदा संक्ष्हीयते पराणो मानसं छ परलीयते | तदा समरसत्वं छ समाधिरभिधीयते || ६ ||
तत-समं छ दवयोरैक्यं जीवात्म-परमात्मनोः | परनष्ह्ट-सर्व-सङ्कल्पः समाधिः सोअभिधीयते || ७ ||
(English: Raja yoga, samadhi, unmani, manonmani, amaratva, laya, tatva, sunya, asunya, parama pada,
amanaska, advaita, niralamba, niranjana, jivanmukti, sahaja and turiya denote the same state of being.
Just as with salt dissolved in water becomes one with it, so the union of Atman and Manas (mind) is denominated samadhi,
When the breath becomes exhausted, and mind becomes Praliyate (still, reabsorbed), they fuse into union called samadhi.
This equality, this oneness of the two, the living self and the absolute self, when all Samkalpa (desire, cravings) end is called samadhi.
—Hath Yoga Pradipika, 4.3 - 4.7, )
योग: चित्त-वृत्ति निरोध:
(English: Yoga is the inhibition (nirodhaḥ) of the modifications (vṛtti) of the mind (citta)".
—Yoga Sutras 1.2
यदा पञ्चावतिष्ठन्ते ज्ञानानि मनसा सह ।
बुद्धिश्च न विचेष्टते तामाहुः परमां गतिम् ॥ १० ॥
तां योगमिति मन्यन्ते स्थिरामिन्द्रियधारणाम् ।
अप्रमत्तस्तदा भवति योगो हि प्रभवाप्ययौ ॥ ११ ॥[24]
(English: Only when Manas (mind) with thoughts and the five senses stand still,
and when Buddhi (intellect, power to reason) does not waver, that they call the highest path.
That is what one calls Yoga, the stillness of the senses, concentration of the mind,
It is not thoughtless heedless sluggishness, Yoga is creation and dissolution.)
—Katha Upanishad, 2.6.10-11
A psychedelic trip through a totally uncalmed mind is like a road trip through the Darién Gap—the destination is seldom reached, the journey is stalled and turbulent, the time it takes to arrive is incredibly protracted, and the entirety of what was meant to be an ambitious and adventurous expedition ends up an annoying and abortive inconvenience.
