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Masters and Houston - On distortion
Identifier
004932
Type of Spiritual Experience
Pure or enhanced perception
Vision
Hallucination
Background
A short description of the effects of distortion on pure and enhanced perception as it starts to morph into an hallucination. Occasionally the distortion is so peculiar it becomes abstract.
Again, there has been the suggestion that cubist art in particular was inspired by visionary experience. This is not implying the artists took drugs [although some did and others may have done and we may never know], but that they may have had spiritual experiences using other techniques, that resulted in forms of ‘overdose’. Look at the paintings of Picasso or Cezanne and many of the Russian abstract artists such as Kandinsky and their art very accurately reflects some of the descriptions I uncovered from other people of the distortions that can take place. As you can see from this site, many artists were very interested in the spiritual. Mondrian, for example, turned to a spiritual group during his life (Madame Blavatsky), and he led his life almost as a hermit would.
Alternatively, you may also get shimmering effects, similar to some impressionist painters and spotted effects, like the pointillists – for example Seurat, Maximilien Luce, or Paul Signac. Thus if you examine the works of these painters you get a very good impression of the types of distortion [and transfiguration] that can take place.
The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience – Dr Robert Masters and Dr Jean Houston[Effects of LSD] - When the phenomena progressively accumulate, rather than making simultaneous appearance, these colour perceptions quickly may be followed by a host of other phenomena including objects shrinking and growing, leaning and displaying in bold delineation the sharpness of their angles, dissolving into whirling particles, melting undulating, expanding and contracting and so on. The attempt to banish from consciousness this new world of stimuli yields only fear and confusion
A description of the experience
The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience – Dr Robert Masters and Dr Jean Houston - Effect of LSD on a subject
“I felt a great peace. The pink sky was hyper-pink. A myriad of multi-coloured telephone wires hummed as they wriggled like serpents …. when I closed my eyes there was an endless flow of dancing geometric forms in the most magnificent combinations of colour. I could not help thinking at this time how a man in advertising might make his fortune were he able to capture just a bit of this ….
As I watched a wooded section I was surprised to find the branches of the trees flapping as a bird does, only in harmonious slow motion. Distant scenery waved gently so at to almost resemble a tapestry gently swaying. I was amused to see the brick walls of a house tirelessly undulating. Fascinated, I drew near trees whose trunks heaved and whose bark from afar flowed and pulsated in a manner suggesting organic growth. Close observation of the bark was astounding............ here I was leaning against the brick house, bound by concentration on the microcosmic growth and flow of the particles.”