S.R. Kiley PhD.

Extended Biography

Music

My musical journey began on the guitar on Long Island, New York. From there I have learned and gathered a vast array of instruments including piano, percussion, bass, voice, hammered dulcimer, saxophone, and the ancient greek aulos. My undergraduate degree from DePaul University in Chicago was in music composition and sound engineering where I learned production, arranging, engraving, mixing, and mastering. Over the years, I have composed for many ensembles ranging from orchestra to rock bands. As a performer, I have played guitar, bass, drums, saxophone, and hammered dulcimer in classical groups, ambient projects, and folk-rock bands. As an engineer, I have recorded, produced, and mixed for classical ensembles, traditional music groups, and rock bands in New York, Chicago, and Victoria.

More recently, I perform, write, engineer, arrange, and produce music for the Victoria-based band ‘Two Moon’. I also compose and perform a combination of ambient and classical music as S.R. Kiley. This project explores music designed for a variety of altered states of awareness. The first release 'Music for Trance States Vol. I' is an ambient album traversing the realm of parasympathetic (or restful) altered states. This will be followed by a series of albums intended for a variety of altered states including flow states and dreaming.

Neuroscience

My work with altered states of awareness is directly informed by my doctoral research on how sound can influence and help us reach cognitively beneficial conscious states different from that of our normal day-to-day. My PhD. from the University of Victoria in Music Composition and Cognitive Psychology allowed me to explore how sound directly influences the brain via EEG measurements. Through the experiments I conducted during this time, I discovered and deepened the scientific understanding of the beneficial effects for a variety of sound therapy practices including binaural beats and the use of Tibetan singing bowls. 

I also carried out extensive comparative ethnographic research to understand the role that music plays in a multitude of cultures that traditionally employ trance ritual to evoke altered states. From these analyses I have designed further neuroscientific experiments to better understand the aspects of sound that are actively working on altering our conscious state of mind. My dissertation demonstrates the vast cognitive benefits available as a result of entering into altered states as well as the ways in which these can be optimized and explored safely.

Sound Therapy

From these experiments and analyses I have developed my own approach to using sound as a therapeutic tool. In my sessions, I often use traditional sound healing instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls and the Greek aulos combined with more modern approaches like binaural or monaural beats generated electronically. I have often collaborated in groups settings with a variety of practitioners offering modalities such as breathwork, acupuncture, yin yoga, and reiki. I've also produced and recorded backing music for guided meditations comprised of these sound therapy methods.

My methods blend neuroscientic understandings of sound with a somatic approach. Research has shown how sounds directly interacts with the body to be a direct source for resetting the nervous system or encouraging and elucidating a deeper understanding of one's personal trauma. To further facilitate this type of discovering, I integrate transpersonal psychology or symbolic interpretation, which can help to contextualize and externalize our experiences. I also offer traditional divination methods, such as the 'I Ching' cast with yarrow sticks, as a way to more deeply explore the new understandings of ourselves that often come to light in the process of these practices.