Promoting Delusions of Control through Music-Making

Individuals recounting intense musical encounters commonly describe a feeling of oneness with others, their surroundings and the music, sometimes speaking of losing themselves in the moment or even becoming possessed by an external force. Such experiences , interpreted by some to be supernatural phenomena, have been variously theorised in terms of music's ability to induce boundary loss, coupling, trance, entrainment and flow states. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism that contribute t o such phenomena. The aim of this project is to engineer musical situations which deliberately blur the perceptual boundaries of self/other for music-makers and listeners, drawing from perceptual psychology and collaborating with musicians and performance artists based in Stavanger, Norway. The planned outputs include a series of performances, lecture recitals, and a joint/single authored academic paper. Another legacy will be lasting professional relationships and interdisciplinary partnerships with rese archers from diverse academic and artistic backgrounds in Norway and the UK. This research is likely to be of interest to a broad audience. Apart from contributing artistically to my community of practice, it will offer insights to others interested in pe rceptually-informed approaches to music-making. Finally, the project has the potential to shed light on mechanisms of human agency and conscious experience, further serving to demonstrate and make accessible important psychological concepts to a wider pub lic.