Spiders On Drugs

[rayheinrich]

Huxley is ok by me also although "The Doors of Perception" was way over my head when it came to all his references to art and certain bits of philosophy, although I was only 19 when I read it so it serves me right. "Heaven And Hell" the companion book to "The Doors of Perception" was excellent, as were his lectures soon after. At least by then he had realised his potential for being a better teacher by using more universally relatable ideas like "Why are precious stones precious?" And he refuse refused a Knighthood, so he must be cool.

As regards your flotation tank story, as I was reading the beginning I presumed that it was leading up to the fact that someone outside the tank was just playing a trick on you. So for it to develop they way that it did was a shock. Not only is it a scary thought but also I wasn't aware that such vivid hallucinations could be achieved in just a flotation tank. I presume you must have seen the Ken Russell film Altered States which is based on Lilly's research into flotation tanks combined with taking mescaline and LSD. It's a very interesting and scary film. 
I can relate to your thought process of telling yourself that it is just a hallucination and therefore doesn't exist, I've been to a similar place on a few occasions. I also think that if you happen to cross the line where your mind has accepted the hallucination as a physical reality the chances of getting back across as the same person that started the trip are very slim indeed, if at all.
Interesting stuff, cheers.
Mark

More tank talk:

Lord knows we took enough mescaline and LSD back then, and we were quite interested in using
it in the tank. But it didn't work out for us. We'd take it and go into the tank before it came on
in the hopes of having a birth experience like we'd read about (along with all the usual heightened
whatever ). The problem was the tank required a lot of patience. You needed to be centered,
meditative, and to really and truly have gotten lots of sleep...

Aside:
For safety reasons we had a microphone (a Radio Shack wireless mic) inside so someone outside
(we never did it alone) could listen. Their were many times George, I, and others would be sitting
outside the 'hay pile' (it was inside of a cube of hay bales inside his dad's barn, about 15 bales
thick on all sides) reading, writing, drawing (always something that didn't make noise) and after
about an hour or so we'd hear SNORING. The 'doors of perception' require a good night's sleep.

When any of us was on acid, waiting 4 to 8 hours in the tank for something that may or may
not happen was impossible. We weren't THAT centered. Jeez, let's go watch a movie or try to
find where we'd put the finger-paint for two hours (bad trip) or play with the dogs (cats are
scary as shit on acid), or something, anything that moved! So, no, for us at least the tank
didn't work well with drugs.

I remember seeing Altered States a few years after the hay pile had been eaten by cows.
I was quite envious. On the other hand, we'd had no major actors, our budget was 1/10,000th
of theirs, and while the movie had some scary parts, it was 1/10,000 as terrorizing as those
sea snakes.