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Cocteau, Jean - Opium the Diary of his cure - Heurtebise
Identifier
002774
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Opium – the Diary of his cure – Jean Cocteau
When I was completely under the spell of opium, I used to sleep interminable sleeps lasting half a second. One day, when I went to see Picasso in Rue La Boetie, I thought in the lift that I was growing taller side by side with something indefinably terrible which would last for ever. A voice cried out; 'My name can be found on the brass plate'.
A jolt awakened me and I read on the brass plate HEURTEBISE.
I recall that at Picasso's we talked about miracles; Picasso said that everything was a miracle, and it was a miracle that one did not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar. A little while afterwards the angel Heurtebise haunted me and I began the poem. On my next visit I looked at the plate. It bore the name Otis-Pifre; the lift had changed its make