🎵 Music is Medicine: Meet Matt Xavier

The Frequency of Healing

Across time and culture, humans have turned to sound when the soul needs direction.

Monks chant. Shamans sing. Monasteries echo with bowls and bells. Every tradition understands what science now confirms: music doesn’t decorate healing—it initiates it.

In psychedelic therapy, music works like breath. It steadies the nervous system, opens the heart, and helps meaning emerge where words fall short.

When the medicine takes hold, and the world begins to dissolve, music is what tells the body, you’re safe here.

It’s what says, keep going.
It’s what calls the pieces back together.

Modern research supports this deeply ancient truth:

• Music heightens mystical experience during psilocybin therapy
  

• Tracks aligned to emotional tone amplify personal insight
  

• Carefully sequenced sound supports safe navigation through peak states

In this space between silence and release, one element matters as much as dose or mindset: the mix.

And one man has spent a lifetime learning how to shape that mix—first as an acclaimed DJ, then as a psychedelic guide.

His name is Matt Xavier - author of The Psychedelic DJ: A Practical Guide to Therapeutic Music Curation and Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy.

A Life Tuned to Sound

In 2018, after years in both the nightlife and counseling worlds, Matt felt called to something more grounded and began training in harm reduction and intentional psychedelic guiding.  He recognized that his gift with sound could serve a new purpose.

He shifted into clinical and integration work, bringing with him the instincts of a seasoned artist and the steady presence of a trained counselor.

Inside psilocybin sessions, the connection between sound and healing grew unmistakable. Clients weren’t just processing the medicine. They were moving through it—carried by the sonic architecture of each journey. As Matt explains,

“A single chord can open a memory. A subtle transition can allow grief to move. A well-placed tone can guide the whole session.”

Matt crafted therapeutic mixes that matched the internal flow of the experience. Ambient washes. Emotional melodies. Percussive grounding. Each track selected not for entertainment, but for transformation.

Music held the space with precision. It followed the emotional current. It created safety, structure, and meaning where language had no foothold.

The Psychedelic DJ

Matt’s new book, The Psychedelic DJ, distills years of real-world experience into a guide for anyone working at the intersection of sound and healing.

It’s part memoir, part method—written for psychedelic facilitators, therapists, musicians, and anyone who’s felt the truth that music can change everything.

Inside, he shares how to:

• Select music that supports every stage of a psilocybin journey

• Create continuous, emotionally attuned soundscapes

• Read energy in the room and adapt in real time

• Avoid common pitfalls in therapeutic curation

• Use music as a co-therapist—not just ambiance

The book also includes access to several professionally mixed journey protocols—a series of therapeutic arcs developed from years of one-on-one sessions and field-tested with care.

One of the biggest takeaways when chatting with Matt was his explanation on how each stage of a psychedelic experience carries its own emotional rhythm. His framework helps guides match the energy of each moment with music that resonates on a deeper level:

• 🌄 Onset (Basecamp Hike): Grounding, atmospheric tones—often ambient or drone-based—to help settle the nervous system and build anticipation.
  

• 🚀 Ascent: Expansive, melodic tracks that support emotional rising and catharsis.
  

• 🏔️ Peak (Summit): Spacious, awe-inspiring soundscapes—or intentional silence—to hold moments of stillness, wonder, or dissolution.
  

• 🌊 Descent: Reflective, slower music—often melancholic or sublimative—as the system begins to process.
  

• 🔻 Landing: Cozy, familiar, and comforting tones that offer warmth and anchoring during the return.
  

• 🌀 Integration: Gentle, emotionally resonant music that reflects clarity, softness, and the deepening of insight.

This structure brings intentionality to every phase.

It creates trust. It turns sound into direction, and music into medicine.

His book launched on Amazon on June 1st, with its wider release happening at the Psychedelic Science 2025 conference in Denver. You’d be doing yourself a favor by grabbing a copy!

The Research That Supports the Sound

While Matt’s knowledge comes from lived experience, his approach mirrors what modern science is making clear:

• Johns Hopkins: Studies show that music significantly amplifies emotional insight and mystical states during psychedelic-assisted therapy
  

• Imperial College London: Found that the quality of music is one of the strongest predictors of a transformative psilocybin experience
  

• Brain imaging studies: Reveal that music under psychedelics engages emotion-processing centers across the brain, helping rewire emotional memory in real time

Music does more than just set the mood. It opens the portal. And in the right conditions, it helps bring people home.

As Matt emphasizes, music doesn’t direct the experience—it supports it. The right track becomes a mirror, not a script.

Why It Matters

Matt now supports other practitioners through consulting, trainings, and custom sound journey development.

What he offers isn’t a formula for becoming a DJ.

It’s an invitation to become a listener—to frequency, to energy, to the deep patterns unfolding beneath the surface of someone’s healing.

The psychedelic field is evolving quickly. New laws. New therapies. New centers opening every month.

But through all of it, one timeless truth remains:

Sound holds the experience.

Music steadies the chaos.
Music brings the light.
Music helps the soul remember what it came here to learn.

Matt Xavier has lived this truth in clubs, in clinics, and in ceremonies. His work is a bridge between worlds—art and science, sound and spirit, rhythm and recovery.

Follow His Journey

📘 The Psychedelic DJ by Matt Xavier is available now! We can personally attest to how enjoyable this read was and how much we truly took away.

A fascinating guide to music curation for psilocybin-assisted therapy, The Psychedelic DJ blends practical insight with therapeutic intention. This book includes access to multiple 4-hour mixes designed to support deep, transformational journeys.

🎧 Curated for healing.
🎶 Built for expanded states.

🔗 Explore more:

Website: integratedpsychedelics.com
Book: thepsychedelicdj.com
Amazon: Buy on Amazon
SoundCloud: Matt Xavier

If you’re heading to Psychedelic Science 2025 in Denver (June 16–20), don’t miss the chance to experience him live!

Matt will be performing at some of the week’s most sought-after events. He’ll also be doing a book signing at the official MAPS bookstore on Wednesday, June 18 at 1 PM MDT, held on-site at the Colorado Convention Center. Swing by to connect with him!

Below is where you can catch him live 👇

🔬 Shulgin 100: A Centennial Celebration

📅 Tuesday, June 16 | 6pm - 11pm MDT
📍 Presented by the Shulgin Foundation

Join Matt and Öona Dahl for a night honoring the legendary chemist Sasha Shulgin. This centennial celebration blends reverence with rhythm—featuring live DJ sets designed to elevate the mind, move the body, and honor the legacy of one of psychedelic science’s founding figures.

🎟️ View Event Details

🌀 PORTAL Late-Night Takeover at Meow Wolf

📅 Thursday, June 19 | 10PM – 2AM
📍 Convergence Station, Meow Wolf Denver (21+)

Matt will be performing live inside Meow Wolf Denver’s multiversal playground as part of PORTAL’s late-night takeover—a psychedelic celebration unfolding across the entire Convergence Station exhibit.

He’ll be joined by visionary artists like East Forest, Liquid Bloom, Oona Dahl, and Swayló, with immersive sound journeys, guided meditations, roaming performers, and surreal art experiences around every corner.

From ambient waves to ceremonial beats, this night is built for exploration and integration—and it’s one of the most unique experiences happening during Psychedelic Science Week.

🎟️ Access requires a PORTAL membership
🌐 Learn more here!

🌌 TRANSCΞND: An After-Hours for Ambient-Techno Psychonauts

📅 Friday, June 20 | 11pm - 5am MDT
📍 Secret Warehouse Location — Denver, CO (21+)

TRANSCΞND is basically a post-conference ritual. Designed for integration and exploration, this late-night event features ambient-techno and downtempo frequencies paired with immersive visuals. With no alcohol, a no-phone dancefloor policy, and high-quality sonic curation, it’s a space made for those walking between worlds.

Performances by:

• Matt Xavier (Integrated Psychedelics)

• Öona Dahl (Hallucienda, Hallucination)

• Den of Snakes (NERVOUS, _NRV)

📕 Book Signing: Matt will also be signing copies of The Psychedelic DJ and sharing access to his therapeutic mixes.

🎟️ Get Tickets

✅ No one can stop you from seeing what’s delivered directly to your email. 

You’re already subscribed - congratulations!

You beat the algorithm 😉 

Thank you for joining us as we continue to navigate this ever-changing landscape.

P.S. Explore what they don’t want you to see - check us out on X (Twitter) and Instagram, and dive deeper into all things psychedelic on our website. 🌐✨