Songs on the Mind as Messages from the Unconscious
by Karen M. Rossie
Dissertation, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2002
Abstract
Several authors, including Jung and Freud, have noted that information from the unconscious can sometimes be found in songs on the mind. I sought to confirm their reports and explore the topic in greater depth. I recruited 40 co-researchers who already found personal meaning in songs on their minds. Using a questionnaire, I asked each of them to describe one experience, detail these experiences in general, and provide demographic data. A subset of 12 co-researchers followed songs on their minds for 3 to 6 weeks, each collecting 2-6 songs. Co-researchers worked on their own to deepen and integrate their experiences using techniques based on Jungian dream and imagery work. The songwork included immersion in the experience, singing the song, dancing to it, thinking about its meaning, and writing in a journal. I collected qualitative data from the questionnaires, journals, and subsequent interviews and subjected the data to thematic analysis. Simple quantitative data were also collected. The results revealed a profile of a typical experience and showed that songs on the mind do provide personal messages of insight and guidance. Most commonly, the experience evoked painful emotions and shifted them to less painful ones. Many experiences processed previously unconscious material such as inner conflicts and grief. Spiritual and transpersonal themes were also common. Co-researches often identified the source as the unconscious, Self, or Higher Self. Opposite themes occurred in many song messages, sometimes as a single whole. Co-researchers described similarities and differences between song messages and dreams and noted thematic relationships between the two. Songwork effectively deepened and integrated song experiences. Co-researchers reported occasional peak experiences and many song messages supported "being values." Results suggest that personal practice of songwork supports self-actualization and individuation. In conclusion, this research confirmed previous reports of unconscious material in songs on the mind and revealed further information on the process involved. Future studies might examine implications for psychotherapy.
Excerpt From Results
Common Themes of Messages in Song Dreams and Examples of Each Theme
1. Themes of Guidance (n=21)
Just be. (n=4)
Reba (I–35): I saw it as a message from my higher Self that I need to chill out and just be instead of always doing. I needed to breathe and look around and appreciate nature and realize that everything is just fine as it is and I’m creating some huge drama in my head that has very little to do with what’s actually happening in the moment.
Act on your love. Express your love. (n=3)
Kelly (II–37): It reminded me of the primacy of love in my life, the importance of expressing love–saying or singing it out loud.
Pursue what you want. (n=2)
Peter (I–4): Never be a quitter–persist.
Let go when it is appropriate. (n=2)
Diane (II–14): After working on the song by singing it, I realized that it was more about letting go of the “stuff” that happened here.
Stop avoiding what is important, even if it is unpleasant. (n = 2)
Diane (II–12): The longer I work with it the more I have a feeling of a need to accept something that isn’t particularly pleasant.
Pray. (n=1)
Be simple. (n=1)
Lighten-up. (n=1)
Accept yourself. Find peace within yourself. (n=1)
Connect with your childhood wisdom. (n=1)
Be prepared. (n=1)
Follow your heart. (n=1)
Do not hide your feelings. (n=1)
Explore a particular childhood emotional wound. (n=1)
2. Insight Themes
Co-researchers found insights in 18 song messages. Insights were most often about self-knowledge (n=10) and relationships (n = 7). Themes of the insights gained from song messages are paraphrased and summarized in Table 9.
Themes of Insight Gained from Songs on the Mind (n=18)
(With examples of repeated themes)
Self knowledge (n=10)
Justin (II–35): The lyric is, “I’ve gone to great lengths to expand my threshold of pain” (Keenan, Jones, Carey, & D'Amour, 1993). I think sometimes I’m pretty complacent and I just carry on with what I’m doing out of laziness or just afraid of putting out the effort for the change.
Garvin (II–24): I just thought it spoke to that I was in such a futile pattern.
Ida (II–33a): I think the meaning of the song was that “It’s your decision. ‘You’re the only one to say’. . . whether it’s right or it’s wrong” (Keagy, 1983).
Insight about relationships. (n=7)
Ida (II–32): [I had] an understanding of the dance between people. . . . How committed really am I? And how committed my husband is; and just saying it does not mean anything. [I want to know] what action really follows up to support the words.
Tammy (I–9): I am realizing now that, my father had given me everything that I am and that he loved me very much.
Kelly (II–37): So how do you express love? Maybe you say it out loud. I grew up in an environment where nobody said it out loud. I didn’t say it out loud in my marriage, and my son didn’t hear it. I’ve started saying it and hugging and all those things that some people do all their lives because they grew up with it, but I didn’t, so I’m trying to claim that now. So I think that song sort of speaks to that.
Insight about another person (n=2)
Bonnie (II–6): He had been diagnosed with cancer a couple years ago. And hopefully it won’t come back. But maybe the [lyrics] “Help me” (Mitchell, 1974) reflect that he needs people in his life, needs support in this.
Insight about the environment.
Justin (II–36): Reflecting on the lyrics while at work, I saw what a creepy environment corporate life really is.
Insight about problems in life.
Peter (I–4): No matter how gray life’s events may seem, they’re only bumps in the highway of living, and they come along with the high points in living.
3. Unconscious Thoughts/Feelings Surfacing
The song messages often appeared to involve unconscious feelings that were coming to the surface. The co-researcher specifically commented on this in 11/41 song experiences. For example, Diane (II–13) said, “I seem to be stirring up some very deeply buried old wounds.” Justin (II–35) said, “I think it must be indicative of repressed emotions, tolerations.” The feelings co-researchers labeled as emerging from the unconscious were sorrow, anger, aggressive feelings, sentimentality, a desire to escape, rebelliousness, sadness, longing (n=2), loneliness, missing someone, “old wounds,” and a desire to be acknowledged. Co-researchers described many more emotions/feelings without specifically identifying them as coming from a deeper or less conscious part of the psyche. These other emotions/feelings are described in the appropriate remaining sections, for example, in the “Messages that described conscious thoughts/feelings,” “Message Effects,” and “Contrasting Themes” sections below.
4. Messages That Described Conscious Thoughts/Feelings
Some song experiences simply described or reflected more conscious feelings and thoughts (n=10 out of 88). These song experiences fall into a gray area, adjacent to songs triggered by external factors, which were excluded from the study. Song messages that described conscious thoughts and feelings were included because they were not directly triggered by external factors. Garvin (II–25) described a song message that reflected conscious thoughts and feelings: “I don’t think it really added anything that I didn’t already know. Maybe it was just a reflection of what I was feeling at that time.” In another example, Diane (I–40) had a song about angry people (Boublil, Kretzmer, & Nateel, 1980) come to mind while on her way to work with people who were angry. In another example, Paulette (I–34) had the lyrics: “Do you know where you’re going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to?” (Goffin & Masser, 1973) come to her mind. She explained, “Not too surprisingly, this song popped up in the middle of a retreat week for me, a time when I’ve been doing serious introspection and ‘taking stock.’” Paul (I–23) had the song “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Berlin, 1946) come to him, describing, as he interpreted it, how he was having to “act” as if everything was all right at work when in fact it was not. Emotions, states, or moods in the remaining instances of song experiences describing conscious thoughts or feelings were sorrow, melancholy, self-reflection, nostalgia, inspiration, and fondness.
5. Transpersonal and Spiritual Meanings
Song meanings had a transpersonal or spiritual connotation in 14 instances (n=14). For example, Ida (I–24) noted, “There’s a spiritual connotation,” about a particular song message. Song experiences themselves are spiritual for Garvin, who explained, “I’ve had countless experiences with songs spontaneously coming to my mind and I consider it to be part of my spirituality and an integral part of my life.” Only two of the fourteen songs were themselves spiritual or transpersonal in meaning.
The song experience was part of a connection with the divine for six co-researchers (n=6). For example, Maude (I–16) heard Hindu devotional chants in her mind when she awoke in the morning. She explained her experience, “I felt very comforted when this would happen, and interpreted it to mean that I was having darshan in the sleeping state, that I was still connected.” Agnes wrote that while singing and dancing she experienced “an overwhelming feeling of openness and strength–via connection with a Power much bigger than me and on my side!” Shelly (I–26) heard the song “Let It Be” (Lennon & McCartney, 1970/87) as part of an experience she described as mystical and derived the following message from it: “It is a total acceptance of the Divine’s presence and acceptance of ‘Thy will and not mine’ in human life.” Tina (I–27) wrote that her song message was “an emphasis of the wisdom and guidance of Spirit in my life.” Mary (I–30) wrote about a song experience, “It reminded me of my connection with the Divine and the support I can draw upon in that connection.” Ruth (I–25) came to a greater understanding of the divine through her song message. The above song experiences have elements of what Maslow (1970, p. 164) called transcendent peak experiences.
Transpersonal themes were present in five song experiences (n = 5). For example, Kelly (I–6) concluded as a result of a song experience that “we are one.” Four of these song experiences could be classified as transcendent peak experiences. Bonnie (II–5) wrote that the effect of one of her song experiences was to “join others in a positive spirit/ positive experience. Escape from the cares of the world. Remind me of optimism. . . . A core experience.” Hannah (II–27) felt “a keener sense of the ‘circle of life’ and my place in it.” She had the following experience while singing and dancing another song experience (II–28): “Feeling integrated and formless, as if the borders of my physical self were blurred with the molecules in the air. All in balance. All right with the world.” Garvin (I–20) wrote that an effect of one of his song experiences was “contact with the transpersonal.”
Song Dreams Vary in Significance
Five of the co-researchers volunteered that some of their song experiences were more significant than others were (n=6). Examples of what they observed were the following:
Cindy: I think some songs probably have more significance than others. . . . I’ve experienced, at least in the four songs, a range, one having deep significance, one not knowing what it’s talking about, and not getting too upset about it. I think they had different . . . It’s a little bit like a meditation. Sometimes you have a really profound meditation and other times . . .
Diane: The first thing I look for is what I call my “click,” the feeling that this one has significance, because I don’t think that they always have significance.
Bonnie: It’s sometimes hard to tell whether a song is there because of some significant message or if it’s just because I happen to like the song. I think both things happen.
Two co-researchers, Agnes and Diane, discussed several songs that they felt were insignificant with me. Interestingly, in each case they discovered significance as they talked about them.
How Much of the Song Meaning Is New Information
The song messages revealed little new information, but instead brought information known at some less conscious level forward in consciousness for seven co-researchers (n=7). Examples are the following:
Diane: I never say, “Oh, where did that come from?” But it’s like, “Oh-h.” . . . Kind of a mixture of . . . things that I do and I don’t want to deal with and definitely the “aha.” But not like, “Wow! I never thought of that!” It’s something I kind of knew but hadn’t addressed, something that’s kind of lurking back there.
Justin: I don’t think it was new, but it was maybe emphasizing things that I didn’t think were as important before. Or maybe something that I hadn’t been thinking about very much before or enough and it kind of emphasized it and made me think about it more. Nothing that startling.
Evan (II–16): But I knew that. . . . Then of course the tie in . . . was a little bit revelatory but not enormously. And then that small “aha” experience.
The messages often presented new information, but sometimes they did not (n=2). A typical description was the following:
Hannah: One I was already feeling that way (II–27). And it just popped in like confirming, “This is kind of how you’re feeling.” And [song II–26] came with new information [and] actually changed my feeling for the better. It helped me. It came in and kind of put things in perspective for me and made me feel less anxious and more comfortable.
Garvin commented on how he obtained new information during a song experience:
I think it added in a non-intellectual sort of way, a different way of knowing. . . . It kind of came together for me. And it all happened under kind of non-verbal or non-thematic level. So it’s sort of hard to put it in words.
In summary, the meanings found in songs on the mind were described in terms of how the meaning was recognized; whether the meaning was based on words, memory, or music; issues covered by song messages; themes of guidance and insight found in songs on the mind; unconscious thoughts and feelings surfacing with the songs; songs on the mind that describe more conscious thoughts or feelings; transpersonal and spiritual meanings found in songs on the mind; the varied significance of song experiences; and the degree to which the message in the song supplies new information.