Musician Trevor Oswalt, aka East Forest, will be at the Sedona International Film Festival on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 10 and 11, for a Q&A prior to two screenings of his documentary film “Music for Mushrooms,” which addresses the psychological effects of music and psychedelics in combination.

“It does follow along with what’s gone on in my life the last few years, but we do highlight a lot of other people’s stories that essentially I ran into or was crossing paths with over that time,” Forest said. “I’d say it’s a little more about how I’m exploring myself … and how it might be relevant to all the problems we’re facing today. I’m asking questions and experimenting, kind of showing my own struggles as I’m trying to do that investigation, but then also showing other people who are sharing vulnerably what they’re struggling with as well, and how this has helped them or not.”

Forest is primarily a keyboardist and singer who picks up a woodwind on occasion.

“I’ve been playing music since I was a little kid, but I got into writing my own music when I was just getting out of college,” Forest recalled. “I was in New York City and had bands and was in other people’s bands, doing all the things you do in your 20s in New York, really hustling, playing shows at all the venues. And then I had a real awakening with the true power and potential of music when it was aligned with psychedelic ceremonies and therapy, and that’s what really started me on this path 15 years ago that I’m on now of continuing to see how we can amplify music and its potential.”

The effects of both music appreciation and participation and the use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms are underpinned by the action of both types of stimuli on the human body’s monoamine neurotransmitter system. Psilocybin acts primarily as a serotonin receptor agonist but also stimulates production of melatonin and, at high doses, norepinephrine, while listening to or performing music triggers the release of serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins. Performing music has been shown to be more effective at releasing neurotransmitters than merely listening to it, especially synchronized music involving multiple performers.

The monoamines have similar and reinforcing effects on human behavior, promoting cognition, egalitarianism and social bonding, as well as enhancing musical aptitude and perception.

“I tend to think that when people work with tryptamines or psilocybin, that it tends to make them more loving and less violent people. It tends to show us our connection to one another,” Forest said. “In a more metaphysical sense it shows us the oneness of all things, and we truly feel that … it’s sort of absurd not to be of service to others, because there’s only one game in town at that point … Psychedelics can really help open you up to that. Gives people a doorway to potentially make changes that are more inclusive and cooperative versus dogmatic or violent.”

A 2022 summary review by Grant Jones and Matthew Nock similarly found that psilocybin use was associated with lowered odds of violent or criminal behavior.

“We’re even kind of touching on that in this idea of a theatrical release,” Forest said of the way music and mushrooms jointly facilitate social bonding. “Hopefully show it versus tallking about it … There’s value in sharing, witnessing emotional experiences together … Things are amplified together. It’s fun to go out and experience the film as a group, not to mention to meet like-minded folks.”

“Combine art, music and dance, throw in an intoxicating beverage, and they cannot get enough of the awesome experience,” anthropologists Kent Flanders and Joyce Marcus wrote in “The Creation of Inequality.” “[These] evolved as a package that committed sacred lore to memory more effectively than any lecture. The truth is that in early human society, everyone was an artist, a singer and a dancer.”

Forest stressed, however, that the film’s emphasis is social rather than technical.

“We touch on that, but one thing the film is not trying to do is — it’s not a highly intellectual film that’s trying to tell you the history of psychedelics, nor is it trying to explore all the corners scientifically,” Forest said. “We talk to some scientists, we talk to indigenous elders, but the goal is to inspire people emotionally. It’s very much an emotional, human story. We’re letting other films cover those sorts of bases. What I thought as a whole was missing in the psychedelic conversations, and then this renaissance, was more of that shared humanity emotional component of psychedelic medicines.”

The shared emotional experience of music and mushrooms captured in the film has spawned some of Forest’s own music, including a series of albums, elements of which make up the documentary’s soundtrack.

“Some of that is from live mushroom ceremonies, so that music was improvised live,” Forest said. “There’s a couple new tracks that are in collaboration with Ram Dass, who I did an album with in 2019, sort of reworks of those songs from the live space. That comes out this week, on Friday [Oct. 4].”

“I love improvising,” Forest said of his compositional style. “I like having limits, so it’s sort of like saying something like, I have this particular piano, what can I make with that in the next 30 minutes, or something. I just love being open to ideas that kind of flow out of a particular space and time. Most of my music starts from the improvisational space.”

“They’ve been fantastic,” was how Forest described audience responses to “Music for Mushrooms.” “We’ve got a ton of testimonials from folks, coming out of particularly New York. I think the biggest surprise for people is how much emotion they feel. They feel really touched, they feel inspired. There’s a lot of tears.”

Negative responses have so far been confined to those who might be categorized as old fogies.

“Lately I’d say the only resistance is just those who on face value, there’s still judgment against psychedelics,” Forest added. “Basically we’re fighting against an education campaign from the Nixon era, the Controlled Substances Act. It’s been going on a long time, and you still hear tropes that are not true or crazy. That stuff’s still alive.”

“I think that’s a lot of what this film is about, a new tide of information saying we’re sharing people’s stories,” Forest said. “That is easier to get behind when it becomes more personalized, when you see a person and hear about, their father died, they’re dealing with grief, or the depression they’ve been working with. You can really feel it and see how real it is for them. So it’s less of an abstract idea and it gets more humanized.”

“We’re going to do this theatrical run for the rest of the fall, and we’re really just getting started,” Forest said. “Then we look forward to doing some screenings overseas. Hopefully eventually doing some online events, just to get the most people we can to see the film and hopefully engage in conversation.”

“Music for Mushrooms” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher and Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatres from Oct. 10 through 17. Showtimes will be Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 11, at 4 and 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 12 and 13, at 6:30 p.m.; and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 14, 15, 16 and 17, at 4 p.m.