Mental Realms: How Music Shapes the Psychedelic Journey

By Steve Tirpak

What if the music playing during your healing journey could mean the difference between breakthrough and breakdown?

In psychedelic ceremony, participants enter profoundly vulnerable states of consciousness. During these hours-long journeys, music becomes far more than background-it actively shapes the inner landscape, guiding people through trauma, revelation, and release... or trapping them in emotional loops they can't escape.

Steve Tirpak-performing as The Pakman-discovered this after years working with legends like John Legend and Bruno Mars. When his own ayahuasca experience in 2021 changed everything, he redirected his craft toward something far more meaningful: providing live musical guidance in psychedelic healing ceremonies in Colorado, working primarily with veterans, first responders, and others for whom ceremony represents a last resort.

Mental Realms documents the birth of an entirely new profession: psychedelic music curation.

Inside, you'll discover:

Why music functions as literal medicine in expanded states

How each song becomes a "mental realm" the mind inhabits

The eight categories of healing music-from indigenous to electronic

Steve's six-folder system for real-time crisis response

Why song length creates "mental exit points" during ceremony

When silence becomes the most powerful medicine

Real stories from the field, including veterans processing combat trauma

This isn't theory. It's lived experience from inside real ceremonies with real people.

Whether you're a facilitator, musician, therapist, or simply curious about the intersection of sound and consciousness, Mental Realms reveals how music doesn't just accompany healing-it is the medicine.

A weekend read that could change how you understand sound, trauma, and transformation.

This isn't just a book about playlists.
It's about saving lives-one frequency at a time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GKNW6FCC
• ISBN13: 9798245742434
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"