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Tripping in Films

I never really cared for "visuals" in movies (except fear and loathing because that's were it all began) because in my opinion they don't do justice to "the real thing".

And i don't think that it will ever be possible to fully recreate a psychedelic experience on screen/3d glasses/virtual reality.

For example...the first time i had visuals was on mushrooms.
Before that trip i thought that i have a picture of how it will be.
From explanations and fear and loathing.
But the moment i stared at that marble table which looked like two different fluids dancing and swirling beneath a glass plate i couldn't believe that something like this is possible (even though i saw it) and knew that i had no fucking clue beforehand.
 
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Eat a decent amount of mushrooms or acid and watch The Matrix. Visually, emotionally, conceptually... it is a total representation of a first trip.
Feeling something is wrong ("You know there's something wrong with the world, you don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." - stepping into the unknown (meeting morpheus and hearing about the rabbithole and the red pill) - willing to hear/see the Truth (jacking into the matrix and learning what it is) - not believing it ("let me out", puking "he's gonna pop !") - being made a believer by dying (at the end of first movie) and the feeling of first LOVE (when trinity tells him she loves him , ++++ experience) - using what you learned to help others (freeing minds in Matrix Reloaded) - DIE in Matrix Revolutions (just like the trip ends and real life ends).

I know Matrix lost a lot of support after the second movie but I believe it truly is a piece of art. Again, if you're into it, watch it during a peak LSD or mushrooms experience.
 
Achten said:
Eat a decent amount of mushrooms or acid and watch The Matrix. Visually, emotionally, conceptually... it is a total representation of a first trip.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, and what you are referring to here might be labelled "The Hero's Journey." This is basically the driving force behind every narrative as far as I can tell. I believe that in some capacity, every story embodies some variation of this. This would be the reason that pink floyd and the Wizard of Oz sync up so well in my opinion. They are both versions of the hero's journey.

See the following diagram from wikipedia:
Heroesjourney.svg


I believe that everyone experiences the hero's journey directly whether they take psychedelics or not. Some people are just less aware of what they are experiencing and some find their journey less meaningful than others do. And it seems that when people find their journey less meaningful they seek to experience more meaningful versions indirectly. This is why people found meaning in going to church and hearing about Jesus which is just a very old version of the journey. Today most people are tired of the old versions and so they go to the movies or read books to experience it indirectly, but a few of us have found that psychedelics allow a very direct experience of the journey (or the realization that you are experiencing it directly). In my opinion, a psychedelic experience is far more meaningful than listening to a 2000 year old myth as told by some old guy in robes or even the captivating experience of putting yourself in the hero's shoes while you're watching a film in the theater (don't get me wrong here I truly appreciate narratives and I love films), but this is why psychedelics are dangerous to those who want to control people.

When someone realizes that they themselves are the hero, it's much harder to captivate and control them with a bible or a television. Now I'm not saying there is some conscious conspiracy by people who run the world to keep us under their control by keeping the hero's journey just out of our reach, but some people have realized the power that these narratives have to captivate the masses and I guess they've also realized that psychedelics remove this power as they empower the individual that comes to realize they are the hero in their own journey and need no one but themselves to guide them through the narrative we call life.
 
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I liked how in the movie 'Rango' the main character takes a drinks cactus juice and some little old dude appears next to him and starts explaining his problems to him or something along those lines. Thats Johnny Depp for ya.
 
I love the undulating crowd scene in 'Taking Woodstock'. Absolute magic!
 
Great post Enter Galactic.

I don't think many films accurately portray a trip.The movie Fear And loathing In Las Vegas more captures the thought process of a tweaker than a trip IMO. Easy Rider does convey the nonlinear confusion of a trip, but not the ecstasy or the beauty of a trip. You don't see lizards or some imaginary dude running around with acid.

Others seem to be inspired by psychedelics, but a dream, seizures, near death experience or a spiritual experience can be similar to a trip. A trip isn't just visuals. I'd say 90% of the effects is the mind trip. It'd be a real challenge to make a movie that conveys the emotions and feelings of a trip to non-trippers.

I say that any movie seems profound on psychedelics if you get into it.

The closest movie representation of trip I've seen was Taking Woodstock. Anybody know of other ones?
 
The one in Enter the Void is pretty neat, kind of a long movie to sit through though.
 
Thanks Enter Galactic, I had never seen that before !

Could very well be that indeed every movie has this setup, now that I come to think of it.

That diagram looks like Dale Cooper's / Windom Earle's search for The White/Black Lodge.

I love watching Twin Peaks tripping, emotions really pour from the screen !
 
I think Knocked Up did a pretty good job with shrooms, especially thanks to Paul Rudd. As far as movies that feel like tripping, it's hard to beat Everything is Illuminated and Southland Tales.
 
I think the coolest visual representation was from Taking Woodstock. That was just CGI ingeniousness.

As far as all-time favorites that I just enjoy (mainly for their humor): Neil Patrick Harris tripping on shrooms in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and Jack Black on shrooms in Tenacious D: Pick of Destiny. :P
 
I remember watching Fear and Loathing when I first started tripping, and sorta getting it, and then I went back and watched it about a week ago and it was far more relatable. The visual effects are not really very accurate or interesting, but HST's ability to capture the mindset is impeccable.

You can turn your back on a person, but you never turn your back on a drug. Especially not when it's waving a razor sharp hunting knife at you.
 
I think in fear and loathing they added the dinosaurs because hunter would start seeing humans as reptiles while binging on stimulants and psychedelics for days at a time. some where i think i read after day 3 he'd start seeing the reptiles, idk if this is completely true but i wouldnt be suprised if it was. wasnt a bad movie imo. i think they could have had a better drug stash.

i like the end of the men who stare at goats where they dose the whole camps main water tank and powdered eggs with lsd lol
 
Fear and loathing is great, but imo taking woodstock best combines the visual and emotional aspect of a psychedelic experience. As someone mentioned earlier the undulating crowd scene is pure magic. However, i don't think any film could literally recreate the enormity of such an experience. If it were possible, it would be really interesting to see psychedelics through another's eyes
 
I believe that if you represent drugs in any film there's a "guideline" that states you are forbidden from glamourising or making drug use look positive in any way.

I think that's the main reason why all representations of drugs in films are shit.
 
Ismene said:
I believe that if you represent drugs in any film there's a "guideline" that states you are forbidden from glamourising or making drug use look positive in any way
Click to expand...

Imo, this is the main reason many drug films may not have such a happy ending's (a.k.a you can show drug use within film but it must lead to some sort of negative ending)
 
Renegade (aka Blueberry in Europe) was BY FAR the best visual depiction of high-dose tripping... by ***FAR**.

Director Jan Kounen went to South America (from Europe) to research psychedelic healing and ended up living with the Shamen there for a fucking YEAR (much to the alarm of his crew who feared he had been killed or kidnapped!) and going on mamy trips. The films visuals are utterly superb, cosmic, and emotionally intense, so sophisticated they are CLEARLY designed by some who'se done ALOT of hallucinogens.

BUT PLEASE DO NOT JUST WATCH THOSE CLIPS!!! (You can buy a DVD of the movie for a couple dollars.)
That will spoil the movie, which integrates the content of the trips into the plot & the characters' emotional journeys, and the whole film is structured like a sacred vision... it even opens with an Eagle, long the totem animal of spirit journeys.

Trust me, if you like tripping, you will be PISSED at yourself if you just watch the crappy, jerky, lo-res vids of these sequences on YouCrapTube. The real joy is dosing up, putting this LOUD on a big sound system (with a subwoofer! seriously!!!), and pressing PLAY when you start to really get off. And then BEING AMAZED and entranced by the visuals you've never seen before and never imagined could be done so well.

You will be so mad at yourself if you ruin that by watching those clips before you see the film... DONT DO IT!

PRESERVE THE MYSTERY & EXCITEMENT! And if you pay attention it is a really good story!

In the USA:
renegade.jpg


In Europe & elsewhere:
blueberry.jpg
 
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