Music as a trigger for peak experiences among a college staff population

Peak experiences, as described by Maslow (1962) and others, can be triggered by a variety of activities. This study surveyed 102 college staff members, 93% of whom had previously admitted to one or more peak experiences, with the most frequently cited antecedent being music. Significant and positive correlations were obtained between scores on a measure of musical involvement and the reported trigger of either playing an instrument (rs = .2462, p = .013) or listening to music (rs = .2880, p = .003). Participants measuring high on musical involvement tended to select items from a list of 41 possible reactions to music that combined strong (actualized) emotions as well as cognitive (distanced) evaluation. This suggested a dual-hemisphere involvement in musical processing, which might not be the case with naïve listening. The demographic variables of age, gender, and educational level were not shown to have significant relationships with musical involvement. Brief comments are offered to explain why music should have such profound effects on some listener