A neurophenomenological description of the guided imagery and music experience

Abstract

The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) is an individual form of music psychotherapy known for facilitating profound and embodied music and imagery experiences. GIM theorists have argued that the use of music and imagery can facilitate a mind-body interaction, leading to powerful experiences that affect all facets of a person's being. But this interaction has not been directly examined in GIM, despite the need to understand its nature and risks. This gap in research is due to the inherent limitations of the two major paradigms used in this field: quantitative research cannot account for unique individual responses to phenomena, while qualitative research is not predictive in the same way as quantitative, positivistic research. This study used a new research approach, neurophenomenology, in order to link participants' descriptions of qualitative music and imagery experiences with electroencephalographic (EEG) data, providing context for the brain data while also illuminating the neurological effect of imagery experiences. The music and imagery session used a guided imagery script which focused on six different kinds of imagery experiences (Affect, Body, Interaction, Kinesthetic, Memories, Visual) and was pre-recorded over two different classical musical pieces selected from the GIM literature. Four participants each underwent individual music and imagery sessions using the pre-recorded script and music while having simultaneous EEG data collected. Afterward, participants viewed a video of their sessions with the researcher and described their imagery experiences during a phenomenological interview. The contents of the transcribed interviews were coded into phenomenological categories concerning the congruence of image with guiding cue, imagery modality, stability of imagery, awareness of guiding and music, and awareness of altered state of consciousness (ASC). Meanwhile, consultants performed coherence analyses on the EEG data, examining relationships between major regions of the brain according to both guiding condition and frequency ranges of brain waves. The researcher integrated the phenomenological and EEG data for each participant, and then across cases to determine patterns of subjective experience and brain response. Each participant demonstrated distinctive styles of reported imagery experience with brain responses, ranging from minimal emotional involvement with alertness, to drowsy, disjointed body sensory imagery, to drowsy, disconnected emotional imagery, to a deeper exploration of consciousness with a consistent ASC. Cross-case comparisons of the integrated data showed that 1) the ASC involves both physical relaxation and ongoing focus on the imagery experience; 2) imagery generates brain activity in the same regions that would process information from similar real-life experiences; 3) beta and gamma frequencies played a significant role in how participants maintained an ASC and made meaning out of the imagery. Implications of these and other conclusions from the separate examination of EEG and phenomenological data are discussed.