Altered States

Altered States is the only novel (ISBN 0060107278) and last film written by Paddy Chayefsky. Both novel and film are based on Dr. John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks and sometimes under the influence of drugs like LSD. Although Chayefsky never contacted Lilly directly, Lilly liked the film version, and noted the following in an Omni magazine interview published in January 1983:
The scene in which the scientist becomes cosmic energy and his wife grabs him and brings him back to human form is straight out of my Dyadic Cyclone (1976, ISBN 067122218X).
As for the scientist's regression into an ape-like being, the late Dr. Craig Enright, who started me on K (ketamine) while taking a trip with me here by the isolation tank, suddenly "became" a chimp, jumping up and down and hollering for twenty-five minutes. Watching him, I was frightened. I asked him later, "Where the hell were you?" He said, "I became a pre-hominid, and I was in a tree. A leopard was trying to get me. So I was trying to scare him away."
The manuscript of The Scientist (1978 ISBN 0397012748, updated in 1988 and reissued in 1996, ISBN 0914171720) was in the hands of Bantam, the publishers. The head of Bantam called and said, "Paddy Chayefsky would like to read your manuscript. Will you give him your permission? I said, "Only if he calls me and asks permission." He didn't call. But he probably read the manuscript.
The film was directed by Ken Russell, after Arthur Penn resigned in a dispute with Chayefsky. It starred Blair Brown and William Hurt in his screen debut. It was also the film debut of Drew Barrymore.
Altered States is also a novel by Anita Brookner.

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
early history of cambodia
javaone
dark ages of cambodia
colonial cambodia
julie payette
history of cambodia (1979 present)
paddy chayefsky
the vanishing (1988 film)
benjamin west
disk defragmenter
eurybiades
lot (biblical)
tyrolean airways
galton watson process
purple martin
cambodia under sihanouk (1954 1970)
defa studio fr spielfilme
kerikeri
st. johnsbury, vermont
cambodian civil war
robert benoist
saarlouis
apple address book
northern rough winged swallow
deutsche film aktiengesellschaft
st. james church
mount robson
aleksei petrovich bestuzhev ryumin
vladimir mensik
aleksandra lisowska
first order resolution
prime minister of singapore
delmar loop
biological psychology
president of singapore
bay of islands
bourke b. hickenlooper
kilauea
cobb douglas
logicism
blair brown
the decline of the west
aids in africa
multiplayer