For all those about to light up and watch the movie: get ready for a wild ride. Enjoy!

AHAHAHAHAHAAHHA!!! ^^^THIS^^^ That was EXACTLY my experience lol! I watched it once sober like 4 years back and I enjoyed it but Just finished now. I smoked some beforehand and OMG!!! Yeah, was beep intense.
the guy in the $600 banana suit - COME ON!

Good to know!
"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

My friend watched it on marijuana, and it really intensified the experience for him. The trip scenes took on whole new meaning, and some of the bizarre dialogue and choices the actors make are 10x funnier. Also, the regression to an ape-like humanoid made more sense!
Overall, he highly recommends it.

Only one way to find out
(Don't try this at home, kids!)
Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

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"Altered States" has long been one of my faves to see while high. It's intriguing subject matter and awesome visual effects make for a most psychedelic experience!

Sounds uncomfortable
Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

Was it trippy?
Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

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man, I wish I hadn't watched this high, well, I mean, not totally, it was an experience for sure, but one that left me anxious for the entirety of the movie.
It didn't help that my friend was kind of spurring this thought in my mind that I was going to activate some dormant schizophrenia, and that my mind was going to become overactive with images.

With the last two posts, then, I think the question has been definitively answered!
Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

I only ever watched it on drugs. Now that I don't do drugs, I don't have the patience for the movie. It was known as a trip movie.

Yeah drunk and high (from weed). I feel like it would be best while using hallucinogens

Many of the posts on this thread deal with speculation; allow me to present the case for the "enhanced" experience. This is THE BEST "drug movie" ever! I have watched this movie several times with friends while tripping, and it is extraordinary. If you're into the acid, you may need to remind yourself "It is only a movie," especially during Act 3.
An All-Star movie marathon for the psychedelic fan: Start with "Altered States" followed by Pink Floyd's "The Wall", finish with the animated "Heavy Metal." Relax. Enjoy.

i love taking acid and watching good films,tryed performance and vanishing point and phantasm on acid,but i would love to see this one on the stuff.cant bloody get any at the moment tho
GET UP..GET UP AND DANCE,YOU WILL DANCE AT MY PARTY

Before I went to see this in the theater in 1980 I took a couple of tokes off a joint. That first hallucination scene hit me pretty hard.

Because that is the nature of consciousness study and finding an ultimate finality. The finality is intangible to us in our current paradigms. The only way to achieve transcendence is to challenge reality. Not to just challenge it in theory, and then return to it when things get scary, you have to let go of all your conceptions of reality, let go of your current consciousness.
You will lose your ego, or the illusion of what you think you are, and find the core finality that is beyond question or rational explanation in this dimension.

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I'd like to add my own experience watching an '80's film while on a hit or two of blotter. I was past the peak stage when I tuned into a man vs. nature flick on one of the pay-TV channels many yrs. ago that was called "Razorback". I think the star was Gregory Harrison, who was on the late '70's TV spinoff of "Logan's Run". Anyhow, his character in the movie is obsessed Ahab-style with capturing this monsterous Outback porker. Sometime in the movie he has a bedroom scene with this hot Shelia (that's Aussie for babe) and he turns over and sees her rise up wearing this hog mask. He naturally startles awake to indicate that it was a dream image. The Psychotrophics in my synapses triggered intense laughter.
If I gotta connect this post in some way tangentally to "Altered States", lemme mention that the 2nd episode of the live-action DC Comics' "The Flash" series from 1990-91 has the titular speedster facing off against this mad geneticist who devises a way to de-evolve himself. He becomes a primordial creature who runs amok in Central City killing homeless people. Clearly the writers were lazily copying from the basic premise of "Altered States".

I'm pretty sure this is a science fiction movie.

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how can anyone take this movie seriously once they've seen the hairy monkey running around at the end? seriously

Ive watched it coming dwn from LDS (when you cant sleep and your body is still tensed up things arent crazy but they still arent right) and it is no run in the park. It messes with you on some levels but then again the whole monkey regression thing killed the feeling for me. If you want to know what else not to watch on substances, one flew over the coo coo's nest and the history channel special on the last days of the reich