The lost art of deep listening

Returning to our human essence in the age of distraction

Feb 21, 2025

Apologies for the little break, but I have a good excuse I promise! I’ve been working on something BIG which I’ll share more about very soon. For the next few weeks, we’ll explore one of my favorite topics — the power of music. I’m also sharing more music from Sam today (and throughout this series), for all of you who have asked (I’ve stopped counting)! Enjoy 🎶

Since the dawn of humanity, music has been a portal into our deepest inner self. A bridge to feel deeply, to remember who we are, and to touch things beyond ourselves. Tolstoy called music the “shorthand of emotion”.

In many ways, music does what psychedelics do, but in a more manageable matter (which is why the two work together so perfectly).

Music can reach those places within where words fail, the ineffable territories of the heart that are too nuanced for the mind to conceptualize. Music can also help us touch mystery, the most beautiful thing we can experience, according to Einstein.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."

Across cultures and eras, music has been woven into the fabric of human experience.

But over the recent years, something has shifted.

As dopamine culture robs us of our focus, it has also stripped music of its essence. What was once a sacred act, listening with presence, has become disrupted. Music has faded into the background, chopped into short, bite-size clips, passively scrolled past on a screen, or only ever listened to while we’re doing something else.

Yet some music deserves — demands — our full attention. It’s more than a quick bite. It’s multi-course meal. Why are we only eating fast food, barely chewing properly, when we can savor the most divine, indulgent soul food on a daily basis?

Everyone who works in the music industry will tell you what a lost cause it is. Spotify is ripping off artists and profiting off of the fake artists it creates. Music has gotten objectively worse. A mere 1% of the Rolling Stones 500 Best Albums of All Time were made in the past five years. All new pop music sounds the same.

As the art of deep listening is disappearing (also because, quite frankly, most popular new music isn’t made for it), we lose a profound source of connection—to ourselves, to each other, and to something greater.

Yet, music holds the key to our return.

Throughout history, music has been our most direct means to connect with self and spirit. In Ancient Greece, music was used to develop mind and soul. In Medieval Europe, Gregorian chants were sung as prayers to the divine. Over the course of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic epochs, music became more sophisticated and expressive. It was consumed in hour-long concerts, operas, and in ballet — which, depending on which generation you belong to, still may be a part of your life today.

Come to the concert, but for goodness sake sit still! – The Cross-Eyed Pianist

The 20th century brought about diversity and innovation, as new genres such as Jazz and Hip Hop emerged. We swapped 40-minute symphonies for 3-minute songs, which at first were organized into albums, and then increasingly shared stand-alone.

Amid the rise of dopamine culture, even three minutes became too much for our throttled popcorn brains to handle. We now now live in a world where 15-second TikTok clips drive how we consume and create music.

We still go to concerts, but instead of being immersed, we experience them through the screen.

Is It OK To Use Your Smartphone At A Concert? – WRVU Nashville

Instead of having our own embodied reaction to the music, we now have viral “reaction videos” where we watch someone else having an emotional reaction to music. This is what it takes to touch us. This is how disembodied we’ve become.

Somewhere along the way, we lost touch with the essence of music.

Ted Gioia, author of the viral essay on The State of the Culture, shares five ways to break free from dopamine culture. Immersive music journeys are third on his list.

Immersive music journeys rely on the practice of deep listening. Deep listening means you listen with the intention to give the music your undivided attention so you can be fully absorbed and present with your embodied experience.

Deep listening is now more important than ever.

The human attention span has fallen below that of goldfish due to the rise of modern tech and the commodification of our attention. Phones have become ‘adult pacifiers’ , undermining our capacity for deep work, emotional connection, and creativity.

Meditation, a proven modality to train the mind’s capacity to focus, remains inaccessible in its traditional format for many: 80%+ of US adults do not have a meditation practice. How many people in your orbit know they should meditate but don’t, because they simply can’t stick to it? I know many. Sometimes I’m one of them.

Digital escapism is even more compelling in a society that’s emotionally disconnected at scale. Emotional suppression is not only linked to the two leading mental illnesses in the country, it also makes us feel empty. We become numb, a sad existence which we try to compensate for with more consumption.

To tackle these problems, we may turn to talk therapy. Despite the good intentions, the results often aren’t sufficient. Therapy can help us intellectualize the emotional experience, but it can’t help us feel more. Talking about feelings rather than feeling them in a twisted way even perpetuates disembodiment.

The deeper interventions that we know to evoke emotions, such as psychedelic journeys, are still niche, illegal, and not suitable for everybody.

We need mass medicine. We need music.

Music is for everyone. It’s the most human expression we have. Returning to music that’s composed with spirit and listening to it with presence is the key to return to our hearts and connect with the essence of our being. It’s one of the most important tools we have to preserve our humanity.

But, of course, we’ll need the right kind of music.

At which point, as you may have guessed, I will suggest another special composition.

An immersive, 8-minute music journey into the mystical realms of your heart

The instructions are simple:

Make sure you’re in a quiet, comfortable spot. Close your eyes and listen with headphones (a must!).
For this piece, simply listen with open awareness and allow your attention to drift to the various melodies and instruments. Stay present with what’s emerging, and pay close attention to any body sensations you may observe.

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