Altered Consciousness in Easy Rider and Altered States
Kevin M. Fisher
February 21, 2019 DOI: 10.4324/9780429061196-12 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness |
| Keywords | Altered state Consciousness Cognitive science |
| Key points | Argues that cinema's ability to simulate altered consciousness relies on a 'double occupancy of vision' that makes a character's inner experience inhabitable, and that Hollywood narrative cinema provides a unique framework for analyzing such simulations. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altered States of Consciousness | 1966 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Functional neuroanatomy of altered states of consciousness: The transient hypofrontality hypothesis | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter with Death | 1969 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| A neurophenomenological approach to non-ordinary states of consciousness: hypnosis, meditation, and psychedelics | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Hypnotic phenomena and altered states of consciousness: a multilevel framework of description and explanation | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |