Observations placeholder
Michaux, Henri - Miserable Miracle Mescaline - Stretched animals
Identifier
004844
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
One asks the question 'did Salvidor Dali use mescaline too?' after this quote.
A description of the experience
Henri Michaux – Miserable Miracle Mescaline
I began to glance at the text and in the flickering light of the wood fire with difficulty making out a few words: 'the giraffe... a ruminant, between the antelope and the .. by its shape....' Wait! At these words something seems to stir. I close my eyes and already responding to the mention of their name, two dozen giraffes are galloping in the distance, rhythmically raising their slender legs and their interminable necks. True, they have nothing in common with the muscular, beautifully coloured animals of the photographs I have been looking at, and which were unable to create 'inner' giraffe. These are moving diagrams of the idea 'giraffe', drawings formed by reflection, not reproduction. But tall they certainly were. High as houses of seven stories but with bases not proportionately larger. In order to enter into the mescalinian world they had been forced to become slender giants, these ridiculous, vertiginous mannequins that a mild mistral could have toppled over with their legs broken.
Cessation.
