Ruth Herbert
My work focuses on the phenomenology (subjective experience) of music in daily life, and the transformations of consciousness that may occur in conjunction with listening to music. I am particularly interested in the psychological processes present in everyday involvement in musical and non-musical activities, and the ways in which music serves to mediate experience.
My empirical research has compared everyday absorbing and dissociative experiences in a variety of naturalistic settings, with and without music. Such experiences are related to the concept of spontaneous, everyday trance.
Another project examined the subjective experiences of 10-18 year olds and the influence of age, training and personality upon music listening experience. Website: https://everydaymusiclistening.wordpress.com/about/ Recent projects have centred on multisensory experiences in the dark (in blackout or under blindfold) and musical daydreaming. I have contextualized this empirical work within a broader, theoretical examination of the impact of personal, socio-cultural and ancestral preferences upon subjective experience, drawing on perspectives from evolutionary psychology, evolutionary aesthetics and ethology.
Supervisors: Eric Clarke and Nikki Dibben
My empirical research has compared everyday absorbing and dissociative experiences in a variety of naturalistic settings, with and without music. Such experiences are related to the concept of spontaneous, everyday trance.
Another project examined the subjective experiences of 10-18 year olds and the influence of age, training and personality upon music listening experience. Website: https://everydaymusiclistening.wordpress.com/about/ Recent projects have centred on multisensory experiences in the dark (in blackout or under blindfold) and musical daydreaming. I have contextualized this empirical work within a broader, theoretical examination of the impact of personal, socio-cultural and ancestral preferences upon subjective experience, drawing on perspectives from evolutionary psychology, evolutionary aesthetics and ethology.
Supervisors: Eric Clarke and Nikki Dibben
less
InterestsView All (17)
Uploads
Books by Ruth Herbert
Everyday Music Listening is the first book to focus in depth on the detailed nature of music listening episodes as lived mental experiences. Ruth Herbert uses new empirical data to explore the psychological processes involved in everyday music listening scenarios, charting interactions between music, perceiver and environment in a diverse range of real-world contexts. Findings are integrated with insights from a broad range of literature, including consciousness studies and research into altered states of consciousness, as well as ideas from ethology and evolutionary psychology suggesting that a psychobiological capacity for trancing is linked to the origins of making and receiving of art.
The term ‘trance’ is not generally associated with music listening outside ethnomusicological studies of strong experiences, yet ‘hypnotic-like’ involvements in daily life have long been recognized by hypnotherapy researchers. The author argues that multiply distributed attention – prevalent in much contemporary listening– does not necessarily indicate superficial engagement. Music emerges as a particularly effective mediator of experience. Absorption and dissociation, as manifestations of trancing, are self-regulatory processes, often operating at the level of unconscious awareness, that support an individual perception of psychological health.
This fascinating study brings together research and theory from a wide range of fields to provide a new framework for understanding the phenomenology of music listening in a way that will appeal to both specialist academic audiences and a broad general readership.
This title has just published. Discount rates are available from Ashgate - cheaper than going through Amazon!
Papers by Ruth Herbert
Psychological and musicological literature on music listening commonly distinguishes between autonomous and heteronomous ways of listening, associating the former with unusual and the latter with mundane, habitual listening scenarios. Empirical findings from my research, which used ethnographic methods to tap qualities of subjective experience, indicate that attentive and diffused listening do not map neatly onto 'special' and 'ordinary' contexts and that a distributed, fluctuating attentional awareness and multimodal focus are central to many experiences of hearing music. CLICK ON JOURNAL OF SONIC STUDIES LINK WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO THE OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
Results suggest that dissociative experiences are a familiar occurrence in everyday life. Diary entries highlight an established practice of actively sought detachment from self, surroundings or activity, suggesting that, together with absorption, the processes of derealization (altered perception of surroundings) and depersonalization (detachment from self) constitute common means of self-regulation in daily life. Music emerges as a particularly versatile facilitator of dissociative experience because of its semantic ambiguity, portability, and the variety of ways in which it may mediate perception, so facilitating an altered relationship to self and environment.
growing interest in charting interactions between music, context and individual
consciousness. The phenomenon of trance is a clear example of the interaction of mind
with specific cultural contexts, and cross-disciplinary approaches would appear highly
relevant to future research. However, outside ethnomusicology and anthropology, despite
the burgeoning field of music and consciousness studies, attitudes towards the constructs
of trance and altered states of consciousness as reputable areas of scholarly enquiry are
somewhat ambivalent. One reason for this is a continued lack of academic consensus over
definitions of the terms ‘trance’ and ‘altered states’. This paper re-assesses the different
ways in which trance has been conceptualised in the literature. It argues that the
continued ethnomusicological focus on high arousal models of trance has led to the
neglect (or exclusion) of other types of trancing, particularly specific instances of
EuropeanAmerican secular trancing, and associated literature. I draw on my own UKbased
study of solitary musical involvement in daily life, which has been informed by
both psychological and ethnomusicological perspectives.
Keywords: Trance; Music; Altered States; Phenomenology; Psychology; Ethnomusicology;
Cross-cultural; Hypnosis
Talks by Ruth Herbert
Since Gabrielsson’s pioneering study of the phenomenology of strong experiences with music (2003; 2011) there has been growing interest in mapping aspects of subjective experiences of making and receiving music that fall outside the confines of emotion models. Within the fields of music psychology and ethnomusicology a relatively small but significant body of work has addressed alternative ways of framing musical experience via exploration of alternative conceptual models, including kinds of consciousness, altered states of consciousness (ASC) and trance (e.g. Becker, 2004; Clarke, 2011; Herbert, 2011).
One recent line of enquiry, prompted by previous research concerning potential connections between personality and music preferences, has focused on the relationship between personality characteristics (commonly as captured by the Big Five Inventory (BFI)) and musical involvement (e.g. Garrido & Schubert, 2011; Corrigall et al., 2013). In essence, this work has either concentrated on aspects of personality that may predict likelihood of musical training/achievement, or aspects of personality that may shape subjective experiences of music.
The current paper examines the construct of Openness (the fifth and most variably defined ‘Big 5’ dimension) and the associated sub-construct of Absorption, both of which have attracted increasing attention from researchers in the last five years. Drawing on a subset of findings from a mixed method study of 10-18 year olds involvement in music in daily life, it outlines what trait and state models can and cannot reveal about the phenomenology of musical engagement.
The concept of an 'experience economy', originally a business philosophy (Pine & Gilmore, 1999), has exerted a growing influence during the last decade across a range of industries and organisations - including the Arts, Leisure and Retail. Key is the notion that consumers (particularly in affluent societies) value multimodal experiences rather than material objects (of which they have plenty). Multimodal experiences involving music are nothing new, but advances in digital technologies have allowed for a rich interaction between processes of mind and a range of communication media. Such experiences pervade everyday life, yet have received relatively little attention within the field of music psychology.
Aims:
This paper explores and compares qualities and psychological characteristics present in three instances of technologically mediated experiences with music: solitary music listening, sound art installations, multisensory experiential marketing.
Method:
Phenomenological findings (deriving from semi-structured interviews and unstructured diaries) from an empirical nationwide study of 10-18 year olds [N=59] music listening experiences were compared with published documented accounts of the creation and reception of sound art plus uses of music in multisensory commercial contexts; specifically from the burgeoning field of Experience Design, a practice located at the intersection between the aesthetic and the mundane.
Results:
Results support an understanding of multimodal subjective experiences with music as systemic, characterised by an informal blending of selective external phenomena - auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory - with internal thoughts/imaginings. The emphasis may be on mediation of immediate 'real-world' environment or on immersion in alternative or virtual scenarios/worlds.
Conclusions:
Within the field of music psychology, music experiences in everyday life are often framed as experiences of rather than with music. If the role of music is privileged above other components of experience the contributory importance and interaction between the different components of experience (as subjectively perceived) may be indiscernible.
Keywords:
Multimodal experience - everyday life - multimedia
Dissociation and Absorption are accepted characteristics of trance in hypnotherapeutic literature. Results from the data discussed here suggest that moves away from a perceived baseline state of consciousness in conjunction with hearing music in daily life are a common phenomenon and that such experiences may facilitate freedom from emotion.
Methods: 30 participants (recruited via purposive sampling) completed semi-structured interviews, and recorded experiences of listening to music in an unstructured diary for a two-week period. Data was subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to gather emergent themes.
Outcomes: Analysis of diaries and interviews revealed an established if often unconsciously managed practice of musical self-regulation. Emergent themes included the use of music to dissociate from aspects of self and/or situation, to feel relaxed, to feel 'connected' to frame and support everyday routines, to articulate moods and emotions and to provide a framework through which to explore emotions vicariously. Data provided some support for the hypothesis that the ways in which music is subjectively experienced alter between pre-pubescence and early adolescence.
Implications: Understanding of the varied ways in which young people informally interact with music in daily life are highly relevant to the promotion of public health. Findings may usefully inform the practice of health professionals and teachers working with children and teenagers, notably in supporting the development of metacognitive skills necessary to engage with music across the lifespan in ways that are beneficial to a sense of wellbeing (Hallam, 2012).
Reference:
Hallam, S. (2012). The effects of background music on health and wellbeing. In R. Macdonald, G. Kreutz & L. Mitchell (Eds.), Music, Health & Wellbeing (pp. 491-501). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Everyday Music Listening is the first book to focus in depth on the detailed nature of music listening episodes as lived mental experiences. Ruth Herbert uses new empirical data to explore the psychological processes involved in everyday music listening scenarios, charting interactions between music, perceiver and environment in a diverse range of real-world contexts. Findings are integrated with insights from a broad range of literature, including consciousness studies and research into altered states of consciousness, as well as ideas from ethology and evolutionary psychology suggesting that a psychobiological capacity for trancing is linked to the origins of making and receiving of art.
The term ‘trance’ is not generally associated with music listening outside ethnomusicological studies of strong experiences, yet ‘hypnotic-like’ involvements in daily life have long been recognized by hypnotherapy researchers. The author argues that multiply distributed attention – prevalent in much contemporary listening– does not necessarily indicate superficial engagement. Music emerges as a particularly effective mediator of experience. Absorption and dissociation, as manifestations of trancing, are self-regulatory processes, often operating at the level of unconscious awareness, that support an individual perception of psychological health.
This fascinating study brings together research and theory from a wide range of fields to provide a new framework for understanding the phenomenology of music listening in a way that will appeal to both specialist academic audiences and a broad general readership.
This title has just published. Discount rates are available from Ashgate - cheaper than going through Amazon!
Psychological and musicological literature on music listening commonly distinguishes between autonomous and heteronomous ways of listening, associating the former with unusual and the latter with mundane, habitual listening scenarios. Empirical findings from my research, which used ethnographic methods to tap qualities of subjective experience, indicate that attentive and diffused listening do not map neatly onto 'special' and 'ordinary' contexts and that a distributed, fluctuating attentional awareness and multimodal focus are central to many experiences of hearing music. CLICK ON JOURNAL OF SONIC STUDIES LINK WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO THE OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE
Results suggest that dissociative experiences are a familiar occurrence in everyday life. Diary entries highlight an established practice of actively sought detachment from self, surroundings or activity, suggesting that, together with absorption, the processes of derealization (altered perception of surroundings) and depersonalization (detachment from self) constitute common means of self-regulation in daily life. Music emerges as a particularly versatile facilitator of dissociative experience because of its semantic ambiguity, portability, and the variety of ways in which it may mediate perception, so facilitating an altered relationship to self and environment.
growing interest in charting interactions between music, context and individual
consciousness. The phenomenon of trance is a clear example of the interaction of mind
with specific cultural contexts, and cross-disciplinary approaches would appear highly
relevant to future research. However, outside ethnomusicology and anthropology, despite
the burgeoning field of music and consciousness studies, attitudes towards the constructs
of trance and altered states of consciousness as reputable areas of scholarly enquiry are
somewhat ambivalent. One reason for this is a continued lack of academic consensus over
definitions of the terms ‘trance’ and ‘altered states’. This paper re-assesses the different
ways in which trance has been conceptualised in the literature. It argues that the
continued ethnomusicological focus on high arousal models of trance has led to the
neglect (or exclusion) of other types of trancing, particularly specific instances of
EuropeanAmerican secular trancing, and associated literature. I draw on my own UKbased
study of solitary musical involvement in daily life, which has been informed by
both psychological and ethnomusicological perspectives.
Keywords: Trance; Music; Altered States; Phenomenology; Psychology; Ethnomusicology;
Cross-cultural; Hypnosis
Since Gabrielsson’s pioneering study of the phenomenology of strong experiences with music (2003; 2011) there has been growing interest in mapping aspects of subjective experiences of making and receiving music that fall outside the confines of emotion models. Within the fields of music psychology and ethnomusicology a relatively small but significant body of work has addressed alternative ways of framing musical experience via exploration of alternative conceptual models, including kinds of consciousness, altered states of consciousness (ASC) and trance (e.g. Becker, 2004; Clarke, 2011; Herbert, 2011).
One recent line of enquiry, prompted by previous research concerning potential connections between personality and music preferences, has focused on the relationship between personality characteristics (commonly as captured by the Big Five Inventory (BFI)) and musical involvement (e.g. Garrido & Schubert, 2011; Corrigall et al., 2013). In essence, this work has either concentrated on aspects of personality that may predict likelihood of musical training/achievement, or aspects of personality that may shape subjective experiences of music.
The current paper examines the construct of Openness (the fifth and most variably defined ‘Big 5’ dimension) and the associated sub-construct of Absorption, both of which have attracted increasing attention from researchers in the last five years. Drawing on a subset of findings from a mixed method study of 10-18 year olds involvement in music in daily life, it outlines what trait and state models can and cannot reveal about the phenomenology of musical engagement.
The concept of an 'experience economy', originally a business philosophy (Pine & Gilmore, 1999), has exerted a growing influence during the last decade across a range of industries and organisations - including the Arts, Leisure and Retail. Key is the notion that consumers (particularly in affluent societies) value multimodal experiences rather than material objects (of which they have plenty). Multimodal experiences involving music are nothing new, but advances in digital technologies have allowed for a rich interaction between processes of mind and a range of communication media. Such experiences pervade everyday life, yet have received relatively little attention within the field of music psychology.
Aims:
This paper explores and compares qualities and psychological characteristics present in three instances of technologically mediated experiences with music: solitary music listening, sound art installations, multisensory experiential marketing.
Method:
Phenomenological findings (deriving from semi-structured interviews and unstructured diaries) from an empirical nationwide study of 10-18 year olds [N=59] music listening experiences were compared with published documented accounts of the creation and reception of sound art plus uses of music in multisensory commercial contexts; specifically from the burgeoning field of Experience Design, a practice located at the intersection between the aesthetic and the mundane.
Results:
Results support an understanding of multimodal subjective experiences with music as systemic, characterised by an informal blending of selective external phenomena - auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, gustatory - with internal thoughts/imaginings. The emphasis may be on mediation of immediate 'real-world' environment or on immersion in alternative or virtual scenarios/worlds.
Conclusions:
Within the field of music psychology, music experiences in everyday life are often framed as experiences of rather than with music. If the role of music is privileged above other components of experience the contributory importance and interaction between the different components of experience (as subjectively perceived) may be indiscernible.
Keywords:
Multimodal experience - everyday life - multimedia
Dissociation and Absorption are accepted characteristics of trance in hypnotherapeutic literature. Results from the data discussed here suggest that moves away from a perceived baseline state of consciousness in conjunction with hearing music in daily life are a common phenomenon and that such experiences may facilitate freedom from emotion.
Methods: 30 participants (recruited via purposive sampling) completed semi-structured interviews, and recorded experiences of listening to music in an unstructured diary for a two-week period. Data was subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to gather emergent themes.
Outcomes: Analysis of diaries and interviews revealed an established if often unconsciously managed practice of musical self-regulation. Emergent themes included the use of music to dissociate from aspects of self and/or situation, to feel relaxed, to feel 'connected' to frame and support everyday routines, to articulate moods and emotions and to provide a framework through which to explore emotions vicariously. Data provided some support for the hypothesis that the ways in which music is subjectively experienced alter between pre-pubescence and early adolescence.
Implications: Understanding of the varied ways in which young people informally interact with music in daily life are highly relevant to the promotion of public health. Findings may usefully inform the practice of health professionals and teachers working with children and teenagers, notably in supporting the development of metacognitive skills necessary to engage with music across the lifespan in ways that are beneficial to a sense of wellbeing (Hallam, 2012).
Reference:
Hallam, S. (2012). The effects of background music on health and wellbeing. In R. Macdonald, G. Kreutz & L. Mitchell (Eds.), Music, Health & Wellbeing (pp. 491-501). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heteronomous, multimodal listening is a common model of listening in daily life, yet one that is often dismissed by scholars as superficial. This paper further develops a central theme of my book Everyday Music Listening, that synthesis of different components of experience in multimodal everyday listening episodes affords consciousness transformation in a manner similar to that of a formal hypnotherapeutic induction. Moreover, the phenomenology of such episodes corresponds with what the influential 20th century clinical psychologist Milton Erickson identified as the "common everyday trance."
I draw on recent findings from my ongoing empirical studies of the psychological processes present in real-world, technologically mediated solitary experiences of music. Phenomenological report (free description and interview data) supports a model of consciousness during everyday music listening as a dynamic system, made up of a series of interacting variables. If music is privileged above other components of experience (by framing everyday music listening episodes primarily as experiences of music) the contributory importance and interaction between the different components of experience (as subjectively perceived) is skewed and the totality of experience obscured.
Music is a versatile, non-prescriptive multifaceted stimulus. It provides a diverse range of potential entry points for consciousness transformation via the multiple foci for attention that it affords and is frequently present in what Erickson recognized as instances of spontaneous trance in everyday life.
Keywords: Multimodal Listening; Trance; Erickson; Everyday.
The study reported here is part of a mixed method three year empirical enquiry, designed to explore psychological characteristics of the subjective experience of young people hearing music in everyday, 'real world’ scenarios in the UK. The aims were to identify varied modes of listening, to pinpoint whether these are age-related, to explore the extent to which young people use music as a form of escape (dissociation) from self, activity, or situation, to assess the effect of digital technologies on ways in which music is experienced, and to examine whether a high level of involvement in making music affects the subjective experience of listening to music. 25 participants (aged 10-18) were interviewed and subsequently kept diaries of their music-listening experiences for two weeks. Data was subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Key themes identified include the use of music to create a sense of momentum and excitement to mundane scenarios, to detach or 'zone out' from aspects of self and/or situation, to feel energized, relaxed or 'connected’, to articulate moods, to aid daydreams/imaginative fantasies and to provide a framework through which to explore emotions vicariously, using music as a template for modelling future emotional experience. Subjective experience was frequently characterised by a fusion of modalities.
Children and young adolescents are less consciously aware than older teenagers of the ways in which they engage with music. Research concerning the informal listening practices of this age group can enrich understanding of the role of music in subjective experience within daily life and has particular relevance for professionals in music education, music therapy and those involved in the health and wellbeing of young people.
Keywords: Everyday Life, subjective experience, music, young people, self-regulation
Empirical studies of everyday listening often frame the way individuals experience music primarily in terms of emotion and mood. Yet emotions - at least as represented by categorical and dimensional models of emotion - do not account for the entirety of subjective experience. The term 'musical affect' may equally relate to aesthetic, spiritual, and 'flow' experiences, in addition to a range of altered states of consciousness (Juslin & Sloboda, 2010), including the construct of trance.
Aims and Main Contribution
Alternative ways of conceptualising and mapping experience suggest new understandings of the subjective, frequently multimodal, experience of music in daily life. This poster explores categorizations of aspects of conscious experience, such as checklists of basic dimensions of characteristics of transformations of consciousness (e.g. Pekala's Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), or Gabrielsson and Lindström Wik's descriptive system for strong experiences with music (SEM-DSM), together with the potential impact of specific kinds of consciousness upon experience (e.g. the notion of present centred (core or primary), and autobiographical (extended/higher order) forms of consciousness (Damasio, 1999, Edelman, 1989).Three recent empirical studies (Herbert, 2011) which used unstructured diaries and semi-structured interviews to explore the psychological processes of everyday involving experiences with music in a range of 'real-world' UK scenarios are discussed.
Implications
Free phenomenological report is highlighted as a valuable, if partial means of charting subjective experience. Importantly, it constitutes a method that provides insight into the totality of experience, so enabling researchers to move beyond the confines of emotion.
References
Damasio, A. (1999). The Feeling Of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the
Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co.
Edelman, G. (1989). The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness. New York: Basic Books.
Gabrielsson, A. (2011). Strong Experiences with Music. Trans R. Bradbury
(Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Herbert, R. (2011). Everyday Music Listening: Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Juslin, P.N., & Sloboda, J.A. (eds) (2010). Handbook of Music and Emotion:
Theory, Research, Applications. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Pekala, R.J. (1991) Quantifying Consciousness: An Empirical Approach. New York: Plenum Press.
Keywords: Phenomenology, Emotion, Consciousness, Everyday Life, Listening
This paper analyses the phenomenology of everyday 'lay-therapeutic' uses of music, and the ways in which music facilitates a sense of wellbeing. It draws on data from recent and ongoing empirical research projects concerning the psychological nature of musical and non-musical involvement. Findings are linked to psychobiological perspectives relating to consciousness transformation and ultradian studies.
Understanding of the varied ways in which individuals informally interact with music in daily life may usefully inform therapeutic uses of music across a range of health and social care settings.
Design: The study employed free phenomenological report to access the subjective perception of unfolding experience in conjunction with listening to music in a variety of 'real world' settings.
Methods: 24 adults recruited via purposive sampling (age range 16-85 years) kept unstructured diaries for two weeks, recording descriptions of involving experiences of listening to music. Data was subsequently analysed idiographically using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Results: Free written descriptions highlighted an established if 'hidden' practice of self-regulation, often appearing to operate at the level of unconscious perception. Episodes displayed a subtle move away from ordinary modes of experiencing, occurring spontaneously or volitionally. Two phenomenological categories of experience emerged: 1. Episodes in which experience felt primarily integrative. 2. Episodes featuring benign depersonalization and /or derealization.
Conclusions: Everyday listening experiences, in common with strong experiences of music, feature transformations in consciousness that demonstrate changes in attentional focus, sensory awareness, arousal, experience of time, thought processes and sense of self. Music emerges as a versatile mediator of absorbed and dissociative experience, its semantic malleability, variety of attentional loci and portability making it a particularly effective means of effecting shifts of consciousness that support an individual’s sense of daily psychological balance.
This paper focuses on the subjective experience of listening to music in daily life, drawing on findings from three new empirical studies that examine the psychological processes present in everyday involvement. It chart interactions between music, perceiver and environment in a range of ‘real-world’ UK scenarios, illustrating how music is used to mediate individual experience, making it more pleasurable (absorbing) on the one hand, and more bearable (detached/dissociative) on the other. Although everyday absorption may be strongly emotionally arousing and intense, more common is a low arousal type of absorbed experience which is often multi-modal in nature; the listener spontaneously engages in a performative blending of sights, sounds and activities. In this way music becomes one of several impacts which, when combined, afford experiences which are potentially richly pleasurable.
Although music is not intrinsically more pleasurable or engaging than other art forms (or everyday objects and activities), as a semantically malleable, embedded, temporal and portable medium it is easily customized by individual listeners. I end by considering whether music can function as a particularly effective site of pleasurable involvement in daily life.
Following its forebear Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological and Cultural Perspectives (OUP, 2011), this volume argues that music can provide a valuable route to understanding consciousness, and also that consciousness opens up new perspectives for the study of music. It argues that consciousness extends beyond the brain, and is fundamentally related to selves engaged in the world, culture, and society.
The book brings together an interdisciplinary line up of authors covering topics as wide ranging as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, philosophy and phenomenology, aesthetics, sociology, ethnography, and performance studies and musical styles from classic to rock, trance to Daoism, jazz to tabla, and deep listening to free improvisation. Music and Consciousness 2 will be fascinating reading for those studying or working in the field of musicology, those researching consciousness as well as cultural theorists, psychologists, and philosophers.