Altered Consciousness in Easy Rider and Altered States

Cinema uniquely makes altered consciousness visible by allowing spectators to inhabit a character's visual experience, a 'double occupancy of vision'. The chapter argues that cinematic simulations of altered consciousness go further by using the medium itself to emulate a consciousness-altering agent. It analyzes the portrayal of lysergic acid diethylamide in *Easy Rider* and psilocybe mushrooms with isolation tanks in *Altered States*, contending that while both films borrow formal devices from experimental cinema, Hollywood narrative cinema offers distinct phenomenological and historical grounds for analysis.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The significance of altered consciousness in cinema hinges on the medium’s unprecedented ability to turn the visual consciousness of an Other inside-out onscreen, making it visible and inhabitable to the spectator. Cinema thus transcends the limits of intersubjectivity through a ‘double occupancy of vision’, which it may predicate to the consciousness of any fictional character. Cinematic simulations of altered consciousness take this a step further by lending the mediation of experience that is cinema to an experience of mediation that emulates a consciousness-altering agent. This chapter analyses altered consciousness in Hollywood cinema, focusing on the use of lysergic acid diethylamide within Easy Rider and psilocybe mushrooms in conjunction with isolation tanks in Altered States. Although many of the formal devices used to simulate altered consciousness in both films are appropriated from experimental/avant-garde cinema, there are phenomenological and historical grounds to focus on Hollywood narrative cinema.