Altered StatesThe purpose of science has been discovery--the nature of our universe and a way to understand the rules which govern our lives; so, too, is religion. Both give us insight as to where we came from and where we are going. They are not mutually exclusive, but both of them leave the adventurous psychology professor, Edward "Eddie" Jessup (William Hurt) wanting for something more...answers which have eluded him on both fronts. It is after his personal experiment with a sensory deprivation tank--during which he hallucinates--that he is pulled into the widening gyre of this existential mystery.
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Altered States asks a multitude of "big" questions, answered through hyper-real imagery--a trademark of director Ken Russell--in visions and transformations. Questions like, "is God real?", "where did we come from and how did we get here?", and "do our perceptions dictate reality?" are all explored and even perhaps answered. Eddie becomes obsessed with the idea of altering his consciousness. He has been working with schizophrenics, intrigued by their visions of a religious nature. In the tank-- with a solitary portal to look in on Eddie--he makes a connection with his youth that he may have long forgotten. In a moment following Eddie's first intimate encounter with Emily (Blair Brown)--a colleague and, later, his wife--he recalls that when he was a child, he would see visions--religious iconography, principally from the Book of Revelation--something which Emily finds unusual when he also tells her his parents were not religious in the least; he even confesses mid-coitus that he is experiencing visions of God and Jesus Christ. He tells Emily of a moment when his father was dying of cancer, he whispered something barely audible, which Eddie heard him say: "horrible". He claims he discarded his fascination with God after that in light of the abject terror which befell his father on his deathbed. This is the sensation which comes back to Eddie in the tank, which he chases down the rabbit hole. As Eddie persists in his quest, he pursues more radical methods to invoke this hyper-reality to answer the big questions he feels slipping after he first dipped his toes into that primordial pool of collective unconsciousness. For Eddie, the only truth that can exist is the one within. For him, the mind is the only undiscovered country and the secrets that are dormant within. He expresses such fervor at his pursuit that he appears to be struck with a kind of mania, or even a schizophrenic delusion himself. His friends doubt him, with varying levels of skepticism, from the initially detached Arthur Rosenberg (Bob Balaban) to the hard-nosed Mason Parrish (Charles Haid), who we sense doubt their friend not out of animosity, but quite the opposite--out of genuine concern for him, afraid that he is suffering a breakdown and/or destroying himself. Emily is also worried, quite aware that although she consistently shows and tells Eddie how much she loves him, he seems oblivious and ambivalent to her affections--that the only love Eddie can feel is that of a shattering understanding of the universe.
Altered States begins in the late Sixties; the "Age of Aquarius" is in swing, and while it might surprise no one that Eddie would indulge in mind-altering experimentation, he claims to abhor the idea of a drug-fueled descent into pseudo-science. But as the Sixties give way to the Seventies, that new age daydream transitions into the chill of an awakened shock. Eddie distances himself from his complacent life as a Harvard professor--and his marriage--to pursue a lead on a barely documented ritual and psychedelic mushroom harvested in Mexico by a reclusive tribe of natives. As he consumes the mysterious solution, he experiences more visions of apocalyptic doom, although now accompanied by visions of Emily. All of Eddie's friends tell him that he should find happiness with his better half, but his perceptions are so skewed that he can no longer comprehend their intentions--a disconnect associated both with schizophrenia and drug abuse. In a way, his research is a means of self-medication. Eddie acknowledges that the general consensus among his erudite peers is that God is a myth, and does not exist; his hypothesis is that we are the vessels of our own enlightenment. But if Jessup's upbringing was not founded on religion, why then are his visions of the end of days, of images of biblical significance, something he attests is shared by his research subjects? Does this suggest that all people are tied to a deeper consciousness, where they see the revelation, where they each and every one of them experience God's word, validating His existence? Or is it that John the Apostle was schizophrenic, and that his conclusion to the bible was merely evidence of his disease, just as it is with Eddie and his subjects? Or even still, that the schizophrenics are simply more "in tune" with the state of reality which taps into that knowledge? The visceral and intense imagery of Altered States is savvy in that it does not express a singular answer, although we may consider one opinion or another based on our own perspective--not unlike making it our own reality, each interpretation uniquely personal. After Eddie experiences the full spectrum of experience that the unclassified potion he reclaimed from his sojourn to Mexico has to offer, he monitors his progress, continues daring tests upon himself, and even undergoes a type of "transitory de-evolution", which when indicated to Mason is laughed off as lunacy...until the tests tell a different story. The question here is whether our physical form is dictated by gradual evolution or intelligent design; or--in Eddie's case--is our very genetic makeup simply another state of mind? And amid the vast expanse of evolution and consciousness--our lives are but a solitary speck of light set on a backdrop of black oblivion, where the only salvation comes in the form of love.
Recommended for: Fans of a vivid and striking science fiction drama, where challenging theological and scientific questions are asked, and where seekers of truth find that the answers can be more catastrophic and unbalancing than the search for them.
Altered States begins in the late Sixties; the "Age of Aquarius" is in swing, and while it might surprise no one that Eddie would indulge in mind-altering experimentation, he claims to abhor the idea of a drug-fueled descent into pseudo-science. But as the Sixties give way to the Seventies, that new age daydream transitions into the chill of an awakened shock. Eddie distances himself from his complacent life as a Harvard professor--and his marriage--to pursue a lead on a barely documented ritual and psychedelic mushroom harvested in Mexico by a reclusive tribe of natives. As he consumes the mysterious solution, he experiences more visions of apocalyptic doom, although now accompanied by visions of Emily. All of Eddie's friends tell him that he should find happiness with his better half, but his perceptions are so skewed that he can no longer comprehend their intentions--a disconnect associated both with schizophrenia and drug abuse. In a way, his research is a means of self-medication. Eddie acknowledges that the general consensus among his erudite peers is that God is a myth, and does not exist; his hypothesis is that we are the vessels of our own enlightenment. But if Jessup's upbringing was not founded on religion, why then are his visions of the end of days, of images of biblical significance, something he attests is shared by his research subjects? Does this suggest that all people are tied to a deeper consciousness, where they see the revelation, where they each and every one of them experience God's word, validating His existence? Or is it that John the Apostle was schizophrenic, and that his conclusion to the bible was merely evidence of his disease, just as it is with Eddie and his subjects? Or even still, that the schizophrenics are simply more "in tune" with the state of reality which taps into that knowledge? The visceral and intense imagery of Altered States is savvy in that it does not express a singular answer, although we may consider one opinion or another based on our own perspective--not unlike making it our own reality, each interpretation uniquely personal. After Eddie experiences the full spectrum of experience that the unclassified potion he reclaimed from his sojourn to Mexico has to offer, he monitors his progress, continues daring tests upon himself, and even undergoes a type of "transitory de-evolution", which when indicated to Mason is laughed off as lunacy...until the tests tell a different story. The question here is whether our physical form is dictated by gradual evolution or intelligent design; or--in Eddie's case--is our very genetic makeup simply another state of mind? And amid the vast expanse of evolution and consciousness--our lives are but a solitary speck of light set on a backdrop of black oblivion, where the only salvation comes in the form of love.
Recommended for: Fans of a vivid and striking science fiction drama, where challenging theological and scientific questions are asked, and where seekers of truth find that the answers can be more catastrophic and unbalancing than the search for them.