Every song creates a world. Are you choosing the right ones?
"Mental Realms" is the first practical guide to music curation in psychedelic ceremony
THE PROBLEM:
Music is the one sensory input participants can't shut off during a psychedelic journey. Yet sometimes its importance isn't truly understood — tossed aside as an afterthought, a playlist assembled the night before and left to run on autopilot.
Here's what most people don't realize: the right sound at the right moment can unlock something that's been stuck for decades, while the wrong sound can keep someone feeling trapped in a mental loop.
This isn't fear-based, it's about getting through ceremony as smoothly as possible — increasing the moments of breakthrough and minimizing any potential discomfort along the way.
THE PROMISE:
Mental Realms reveals what actually works when curating sound for psychedelic healing. Based on real experience supporting veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors through ceremony, this book offers frameworks you can apply immediately.
You'll learn:
- Why each song creates a "mental realm" that consciousness inhabits — and how to use this knowledge intentionally
- The six-folder system for organizing ceremony music so you can respond in seconds at the perfect moment (the windows of opportunity are usually quite small)
- How to read a room's energy and shift the sonic landscape in real time
- When silence becomes more powerful than any song
- Why song length might be the most underestimated element of ceremony curation
- Musical approaches for supporting someone through crisis in the smoothest way possible
BONUS: The book includes a portion of Steve's actual six-folder playlists to get you started immediately.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR:
- Facilitators and practitioners who want to elevate their sonic approach beyond playlists
- Retreat centers developing protocols for music curation
- Musicians and DJs curious about applying their skills in healing contexts
- Anyone considering psychedelic healing who wants to understand what ceremony actually feels like from the inside
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steve Tirpak has spent decades as a professional musician — touring internationally with John Legend, orchestrating for Bruno Mars and Kirk Franklin and performing at the Academy Awards.
Then in 2021, plant medicine changed his whole outlook on life!
While continuing to work in the music industry, he also now serves as music curator at a Colorado retreat center, providing real-time sonic support for psychedelic ceremonies — primarily serving veterans and first responders. In ceremony, Steve is 100% devoted to the music. He's guided groups through breakthrough and crisis, learning when to build intensity, when to soften, and when silence itself becomes the medicine.
"Mental Realms" is everything he's learned from the DJ booth AND personal experience from the mat.