• Image  So, first of all please forgive my off topic ramblings yesterday, I was preoccupied and I would like to let you know that a second surgery will be upcoming. I am fine…….Now back to it.  Have you seen the film “Altered States”  with William Hurt and Blair Brown? On a side note  I actually had the opportunity to meet William Hurt as he, John Cusack, and Kenny James had stopped by mother’s home to pick me up on their way to a Sugar Ray Leonard fight, unfortunately I wasn’t home~ Drats!!!! ~ always regretted missing that amazing opportunity.  Anyway, I prepared for this film under the influence of psilocybin because I knew that the film dealt with the hallucinogen. But I had to be sure that my impressions of the film were not clouded by the drug so I saw it four more times within days of its debut. My attraction to the film, in the first place, came to be because of what I had observed in a friend of mine.  In those days I was reading the Carlos Castaneda books (some of the most influential books of my life) and in them “Mushrooms” were the power and “peyote” the wisdom according to the holy men of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico and the America’s.  So we had experimented with brewing a mushroom tea, reminiscent of that which I had learned from the Castaneda books.  One night he had ingested a cup of this tea and when I arrived I found him in front of the television.  “Watch this” he exclaimed as soon as I entered the room. Joe Theisman (the football player) was doing the sports live on the news.  My friend told me that he could contact Theisman through the television because of this new found “power” he was experiencing through the mushroom tea. As I sat down to watch I had no idea that my entire belief system was about to be completely shattered. “Watch” he whispered.  He focused on the TV and I noticed that Theisman was beginning to feel uncomfortable in his seat and (now remember this is live) he began avoiding eye contact with the camera. After about a minute of this squirming he simply blurted out, “Who is that behind the camera?” my mouth dropped down to the floor.  “See!” my friend began laughing.  So I got up and raced to the next room where I grabbed my sister and hurried her into the  TV room.  When I got there my friend was rolling in laughter because he knew that I was a true skeptic because of my background in magic.  Secrets (the unknown) had always been attractive to me so of course he was gloating and extremely high, which goes hand in hand with laughter when you’re dosing yourself with psilocybin.  But the most conclusive proof was when the screen went blank and the sign on the screen read “We are experiencing technical difficulties”.  When the show came back on Joe Theisman was gone and his cohorts explained  that he was called away suddenly.  Well, needless to say I took this display completely to heart while my friend and everyone else, for that matter, simply dismissed it all as “tripping their balls off”.  I went out the next day and bought the entire series of Castaneda books and read them all three times, while taking detailed notes on them and planning a trip to Pima Arizona which is where the books began.  My point is that I had become shockingly aware that energy was the only explanation for what happened and that I was going to find out how to duplicate my friends confounding display.  I even went as far as calling the TV station to see if I could talk with Mr. Theisman but he was no longer working there after that broadcast.  No explanation, just gone.  Peculiar don’t you think?  (Much more on this to follow, needless to say, it was the beginning)  Now back to this film.  William Hurt plays a psychologist who specializes in the “Out of the ordinary” and becomes intrigued with some of the rituals of the Indians of central Mexico.  He learns that they have a special hallucinogenic brew made from the Ayahuasca plant which is probably the most powerful of all the medicinal and hallucinogenic plants known to man.  After experiencing what can only be called “the most powerful experience of his life” he returns to his college to begin incorporating his knew found insights into his current understanding of scientific principle.  Well, this being “the movies”, he discovers an old broken down sensory deprivation chamber down in the basement of one of the campus buildings and see’s the perfect opportunity to put his new found ideas to the test.  He ingests some of the brew he had smuggled back from Mexico and uses it in his newly refurbished sensory deprivation chamber or “Think Tank” as it is commonly referred to.  The results of which are astounding and will be left for you to enjoy when you see the film.
    But my point in all of this is that it reconfirmed for me that it is pure energy that runs through these ideas and religious miracles the world over.  It began with Joe Theisman receiving energy through the television camera and lead me to religious and power sights all over the world.  Places where this same energy has been accepted as religious miracle or scientific endeavor for 100’s and even thousands of years.  The kiss, that I mentioned a couple of blogs back, is still very much alive in the intimate details of people in love everywhere.  Have you ever asked someone how they know if they are in love and most often the response will be along these lines….”It’s like a warm feeling you get in your stomach” or “Its like energy is lighting me up from the inside when I kiss him” and so on.  But it always has something to do with energy in some form or another.  I actually went to the mountains of Oaxaca where I found a guide to take me up into the furthest habitable areas and introduced me to a small village of 53 persons.  They welcomed me because, as my guide had instructed me, I had come bearing gifts of Coca-Cola.  Apparently, they loved it and had gone as far as having a coke machine delivered to them to keep the sodas cold and to experience the miracle of pushing a button and waiting for one to pop out.  They had a gasoline generator to keep the machine working and they had it displayed right in the middle of the cul-de-sac that was surrounded by their huts.  It was one of the most bizarre sights I had ever encountered,  I mean this was a nomadic tribe and they toted that coke machine wherever they moved to and they moved three times a year. Each move was dictated to the tribe by the elders (or medicine men) who were the only one’s allowed to participate in the mushroom ceremonies.  It was understood that one had to be of a certain age and experience to be able to have a vision and then still have control of their faculties enough to be able to relate what they had “seen” to the others in the tribe.  It was on the basis of these visions that the tribe would determine where their next migratory destination would be. My first night there would be my only opportunity to join in the ceremony and so I reluctantly agreed because, frankly, I was the only outsider there and I was worried about what they might do to me when I was no longer in control of my faculties.  We sat in a circle around a large, brown, cauldron-like pot.  One by one a cup with a long handle on it was dipped into the pot and handed to each person as they stared to be sure that everything in the cup was swallowed.  The correct dose I assumed. .In about twenty minutes or so I began to have a feeling of warmth and joy pass through me which led me to get to my feet and begin to stretch like a cat who has just awakened from a nap.  The scene in front of me began to disappear and I (to my astonishment) was not afraid.  I embraced it. I remember thinking I was observing the face of God.  I was fascinated by colors as they washed over me and at one point found myself speaking with a bird that I could not identify.  We spoke for hours and then he was gone.  The scene changed and I was on a rock looking out over a valley so beautiful that I wept.  Then I was floating above my body and seeing myself as I never understood other people saw me.  It was the real me.  From every angle, and how I loathed what I saw.  I felt that I was unclean somehow and I turned my head away and wept again.  When I awoke from my experience it was 2 days later and I was lying on the rocks just outside the Indians camp.  Apparently I had just wandered off for two days.  My guide was there waiting patiently for me to awaken.  Everyone else was gone.  They had moved the entire camp, coke machine and all.  Later, after gathering my wits I wrote down what I could remember and then proceeded back down the mountain where I was berated for not paying my guide what I still owed him.  Of course I had forgotten but managed to convince him to take some travelers checks.  Anyway, my friends, I have related this experience to you because it was a film that motivated me to continue on this path.  A path that I continue to this day. And you have only heard the tip of the iceberg.  Now whether or not you actually get to see the film “ALTERED STATES” you will, at the very least, have a point of reference to help you make your decision.  You never know where a film can lead you, and in my case it took me to the mountains of Oaxaca in central Mexico and one the most incredible experiences of my life.  Maybe, just maybe, there is something for you in this Movie too.  In my book, it’s a MUST SEE film.  So much more to cover, and so many films and metaphysical experiences to relate.  Until then,,,I am Dartanion2…..cheers!