Hacker Cinema
Altered States
1980 · Film · 103 min
Directed by Ken Russell
A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.
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12 comments on Hacker News
Made me remember the 1980 film Altered States, haha.
There is an awesome movie based on this premise called “Altered States“ but it is more sci-fi than documentary.
Lots of people must’ve already tried it, so I guess nothing extraordinary.
To put this in perspective, see Charles Tart bio on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Tart - his book "Altered States" was quite famous at the time, and inspired the book "Altered states" by Paddy Chayfesky, that in turn became an iconic movie by Ken Russell in 1980.
The "tripping" scene from "Easy Rider" comes to mind — same era though (NSFW, isn't Tony Basil in this scene? https://youtu.be/W2x20CV0EbI).
Also, this clip (NSFW) from "Altered States" is just as trippy: https://youtu.be/E1ZGEvJPQ6A
The complete Roger Corman film "The Trip" (1967) referenced in the article is on YT in the U.S.: https://youtu.be/FmZCwcGu_2I
What are the earliest examples of psychedelic video? For music everyone seems to agree that the first psychedelic song was 8 miles high, but I can't find an answer for film. The movies from 1966 and 1967 seem to just portray people tripping by projecting multicolored lights onto their mostly naked bodies. But then by 1969(?), you have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxzFUX5a3xg
Which is basically the same as Altered States, and everything after up until the era of computer graphics. But is there anything in between, before that spirit in the sky video?
See also the relevant Altered States scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40FiMy-ak0k
A typical clickbait title.
No, dolphins are not helping us hunt for aliens. Rather, researchers are putting forth the idea that dolphin intelligence might be a good model as they search for other intelligences in the universe.
As an aside, John Lilly is described as a neuroscientist who in 1961 was best known as trying to talk to dolphins (George C. Scott's character in Day of the Dolphin was based on him). He went on, however, to be equally well-known for his experimentation with LSD (which inspired a second Hollywood movie, Altered States). Lilly also developed the first sensory deprivation tank.
You would think that Lilly would appear on Wikipedia's listing of Caltech notable alumni, but he does not.
Movies like "Brainstorm": "The Final Cut" "Strange Days" "Total Recall" "Altered States" "Lawnmower Man" "Ex Machina" "The Thirteenth Floor" "The Truman Show" "Inception" "Selfless" "Flatliners"
I find it hard to imagine going 30 days without tripping bad, at which point any normal person would say stop. I bet against.
To me it's like giving away 100k and taking bath salts. Reminds me of the movie "Altered States".
Only time my tinnitus went away was probably in the 80s or it might be the 90s. I went to a place called "Altered States" in NY named after the movie. Now long defunct. They had Samahdi tanks (ie float tank aka sensory deprivation chamber). I don't normally pay attention to the tinnitus unless the air conditioner is on or the like. It seems like the background tinnitus noise increases to meet just under the level of the air conditioner. Then when the AC is turned off I hear the tinnitus loudly.
So anyway, in the tank, I thought I had the music turned off but I was hearing this really loud buzzing all of a sudden. I thought it was the speaker because they did allow music (which imo is silly, since the point is deprivation). Anywho, as I paid attention to it, the noise got louder, suddenly it hit me this was my tinnitus. And in a weird biofeedback sense my awareness affected the noise and as I paid attention to it, I just turned off the sound and it was gone for the rest of the hour.
Eventually came back and had it ever since.
Went to a similar place in Venice, CA, but was not lucky enough to have the same experience. The tank was also very different. Liked it much less than the NY place.
Sorry for rambling.
Ha, the Altered States movie instantly came to mind just by association with the headline. Read down a few paragraphs and, hey, there it is!
I saw the movie as a kid on late night TV. One fine day just a couple of years ago, I suddenly remembered it, googled for a while (not remembering its name) and watched it again.
The movie contains a Jeckyll-and-Hyde trope which is so laughably impossible that the screenwriters don't even bother trying to weave in a shred of a plausible explanation for it that a seasoned sci-fi aficionado could swallow. If you can get past that, the film as such is decent and entertaining. Certainly enough to impress a twelve-year-old kid into looking for it thirty years later to watch again.
I remember reading an account in Omni magazine from Dr. John Lily of one of his experiences with LSD and a deprivation tank. He became a point of light, racing at ever higher speed through the cosmos. He reaches the edge of the universe, and two other points of light accost him and announce that they are the "Intergalactic Thought Police" and that he's not allowed to proceed further.
Dr. Lily inspired the movies "Altered States" and "The Day of the Dolphin."
Ah, ganzfeld. It reminds me of Altered States, a movie about sensory deprivation that went horribly wrong. I was fascinated by this movie when I was a kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY (trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo (few scary scenes)