I'd possibly be able to accept a romantic ideal if those who also do so didn't 'loathe' me. Wasn't it Homer who said 'who love too much, hate in the like extreme'?
As a response to the Chayevsky point, I am aware of his pedigree. Yes,
Network
is a marvelous screenplay, for instance. My problems with
Altered States
are those that people who blame Russell for (including Paddy himself), but I also believe him when he says he was faithful to the script. I don't believe that what Paddy wrote must have been flawless solely based on his greatness after all, even Austen had to have her Nortanger Abbey (yes, I'm well aware that that was an early work, while Paddy was in the twilight of his career; see, I would've cited
Finnegans Wake
, because it's a book that many would cite in this case, but I'm not in that camp. Sorry for going D.F. Wallace there, but I had to show my Aspergian thought process so as to try to justify my analogy after your response to my
Solaris
one) but, to be honest, I wouldn't even expect Ingmar Bergman to be able to make some of the pieces (most notably the ape transformation yes, I'm a sucker for Tarkovsky, but he couldn't even make that palatable for me in a non-camp way, which I happen to think
Altered States
didn't need) in this film work for me. And I happen to believe Ken when he says he stuck to the script. My 're-write' comment was a comment on that, not an affront to Chayevsky's talent, but since you probably hate me forever for saying it in the first place, I won't bother going further. I'm a little too sensitive for some corners of IMDb.
Well, I will say this. My 'conceit', which I apologize for, was that these visions Jessup had, even though they were the same that anyone else taking that shroom would have, should have just made it harder to connect. That's the
Solaris
connection, though now I see that Antonioni would've been less of a leap.

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What a cold, shallow and ultimately empty life you must lead.
That's high school for you.
I'm not a Russellite, so please, tell me what I missed. Tell me what you loathe.

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To me, it seems like he hits a ceiling he cannot pass and settles for Blair Brown in a cheesy ending a-ha later used in the "Take On Me" video. If that is a deeper understanding of life in the universe greater than any other human, I guess all my time reading Kierkegaard has been a waste.

Why do you feel he was cheated? Jessup comes through the experience with a deeper understanding of life in the Universe greater than any other human. What else would you want to see there?