Frequencies of Healing: Music, Psychedelics & the Brain with Dr. AZA Allsop

What if the most powerful therapeutic tool in psychedelic medicine isn't a molecule, it's a melody?

About

Music has always been medicine. Across cultures and centuries, sound has been used to heal, to connect, and to carry people across the threshold of ordinary experience. Now, neuroscience is beginning to explain what our ancestors instinctively knew  and psychedelic research is revealing just how deep that relationship goes.

Music is not a backdrop to the psychedelic experience. It is, for many people, the experience itself, shaping the emotional landscape of a session, guiding the dissolution of the self, and determining whether what emerges is integration or overwhelm. Yet the science of exactly how and why this happens is still being written.

This talk brings together two fields rarely explored in the same breath: the neuroscience of music and the science of psychedelic healing. Drawing on his unique background as a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and jazz musician, Dr. AZA Allsop will explore how sound, rhythm, and collective experience interact with the brain under psychedelics and what this means for the future of mental health care.

The talk will be followed by a live audience Q&A.

What we’ll explore

• The neuroscience of music: how sound shapes emotion, memory, and the sense of self
• What music and psychedelics have in common  and why they work so powerfully together
• How music is used in psychedelic-assisted therapy settings, and the evidence behind it
• The default mode network, ego dissolution, and the role of sound in facilitating both
• Collective healing: what happens in the brain when we heal together rather than alone
• Dr. AZA's own research at the intersection of music, psychiatry, and psychedelic science
• The future of music-assisted psychedelic therapy and what it might mean for mental health care

⚠️ Please note: This is an educational event. No medical or clinical advice can be given during this session.

Can’t attend the live event? No problem -  all ticket holders will get access to the recording within 48h of the event.

Your Speaker

Dr. AZA Allsop is an artist, neuroscientist, and psychiatrist whose work integrates neuroscience, music mindfulness, and psychedelic science to explore the foundations of social connection and collective healing. Dr. AZA studied Biology, Jazz, and Philosophy at North Carolina Central University, received his graduate training from the Harvard-MIT MD PhD program, and was an Emerson scholar at Berklee College of Music. He completed clinical training in psychiatry at Yale with a certification in psychedelic assisted therapy and research. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Yale and Howard University and Director of the Center for Collective Healing. He is also Medical Director of the REST Crisis Center and Head of Research at Beckley Retreats. Dr. AZA has been nationally recognized as a Renee Fleming NeuroArts Investigator and a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader. Dr. AZA has co-founded several companies that combine arts, science, spirituality, and community building to facilitate the healing process and drive social change.

Your Organiser 

Ryan is the Online Events Coordinator for The Psychedelic Society and a life-long psychedelic enthusiast. He is completing his MSc in Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine & Culture at The University of Exeter where he specialised in the extra-pharmacological factors affecting psychedelic assisted therapy. Ryan also sits at the intersection of psychedelic research, education and therapy. He works as a Research Associate at Pneuma Science, Consultant at Psilonautica and Communications & Partnerships Associate at Beautiful Space. 

Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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