What is Psych Folk?
To me, folk music is anything that could more or less be sung in the shower with a waterproof guitar.
The “psych” part of Psych Folk is short for psychedelic, which Wikipedia defines as “soul-manifesting,” or “the perception of aspects of one’s mind previously unknown, the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ordinary fetters.” Psych Folk is music which contacts & expresses our inner, subjective world, or- as I like to think of it- the world of plants.
Our conscious mind is our human self. It controls our thoughts, ideas, choices, opinions, religions and all the mental constructs that we use to define ourselves in the world and make some sense of our experience. Our subconscious mind is our plant self. It stores our feelings and our memories-even those that are repressed and forgotten. It is the place where our soul resides, and where we interact with the plants of others- even when no interactions appear to be taking place in the human world. Our plant self speaks to us through desires, urges, compulsions, dreams, images, feelings, intuitions, and also through music. Sometimes just listening to music can help a person get in touch with their inner plant. Getting in touch with our plant is important, because that is ultimately where our power is. Without help from the plant world, any progress in the human world is hard won & temporary, at best.
When dreaming we experience the world of plants. This dream world, which can feel strange, senseless, overwhelming, terrifying, or euphoric to us, is the world that plants experience on a day to day basis. Our world, in which they rest in a pot on our nightstand, is only a dream to them.