Immersion and transcendence through music making in the more-than-human world'

Introduction: This chapter explores how children from six Welsh primary schools benefitted from making music in local nature places. Children aged 7 to 10 years old, from six different primary schools, created music for a performance in various outdoor locations in Wales.

Methods: Each class of children worked in groups to create music. After the children had performed their music, a random sample undertook focus group interviews in order to understand their experiences.

Findings: Analysis of the interviews show that the children had experienced various benefits as a result of their music making in nature places. The children had heightened sensory experiences and a sense of immersion in, and with, their nature places. This immersion afforded the children an absorption in their music making that led them to experience feelings of joy and togetherness. Furthermore, the children reported feeling an augmented sense of relationship with the more-than-human world involving experiences of transcendence.

Implications: This chapter discusses how these experiences are related to so-called optimal mind states. We discuss how these mind states can be engendered by music making in nature places and how they are beneficial for children’s wellbeing and sense of connection with nature.