@@purefoldnz3070 yeah I know, he sued him for the similarities in one of the "outer limits" episodes as I recall but I just wasn't sure what you were referring to from this interview in particular with him "stealing" anothers idea lol
I ALWAYS had my suspicions. James Cameron was a psychonaut. Avatars feminine, psychedelic, nature, art, science fictionc consciousness transference, this explains everything! Even the goddess of biology which you see on high doses of psilocybin
@@systemofadown945 why do you think they call it MOTHER nature. Throughout history, pagan religions and mythology, Nature has always been seen as a female/feminine entity.
This entire video is an absolute gold mine. Thank you so much for uploading this. I always wondered if Jim was influenced by Terence McKenna and/or the psychedelic experience. This confirms at least the latter part!
I'm sorry to let you know, but it's completely non-toxic and also anti-addictive. You couldn't really get hurt on it except emotionally if you do it in a disregarding sort of way. Maybe due to these negative qualities, it is extremely criminalized and very often carries felony charges for simple possession. Makes sense, when alcohol, which is dangerous, harmful to health, longevity, and addictive (these must be the positive qualities that save it in the eyes of the Law) , is given the government's blessing for all adults to use.
One of the most iconic directors of all time was millimeters close to getting plugged by a campfire made by his wife with his own hunting ammo while high off his ass with acid even before making a single movie. That's wild.
He was just tripping balls. .22LR in a fire isn't going to have that effect. Just heating a small caliber like that alone isn't going to provide enough pressure to send a round flying like it does from out of a gun. Worst that would happen is someone close to the fire getting burnt or losing an eye from exploding brass shrapnel. Just scary firecrackers, really. 🤣
@@Skrenja losing both eyes would have meant he can't look into a camera or watch playback of a scene, thus completely incapacitated to filmmaking. and then we all suffer lol. but true and well said. it was the PEWWW that scared me
Holy crap! Can James Cameron just put the Avatar sequels on pause for a wee bit and give us a blockbuster movie about tripping balls? It's been too long since we've gotten a good one - I'm looking at you Fear and Loathing - and the special effects are actually up to snuff now. I really want a movie that captures the visual hallucinations, the broken sense of time, the sudden epiphanies and connections that come about, and the ego dissolution that emerges with more extreme doses. This dude knows that experience and is an excellent storyteller... he could take us there in film!
Enter the void had the visuals but the storyline didn't grasp me... It was weird. I know that it was based off the tibetan book of the dead but some parts were weird.
I actually searched for this just now! I thought: he must have said something about psychedelics at sine point! The way nature and spirituality is depicted in Avatar just told me so! Beautiful 🙂
When Cameron talks about the feeling of being a 'tube' that ingests and excretes really hit home: I was at the end of a 10 wk meditation workshop, during an 8 hr meditation, I found myself as a mollusk, a small shelled thing sitting on the edge of an ocean, breathing in and breathing out -- nothing but the breathing - reduced to breath flow as a mollusk on a sea shore. I've done acid (decades ago) but that was an exceptionally vivid and tacit feeling that blew me away.
It's one thing to imagine what inspired the world of Pandora, it's another to hear the stories that led up to that inspiration. I've known about Jim's youthful exploits for some time but this video is a real treasure. I doubt I'm being bold to wager that the deleted psychedelic ritual sequence from the first Avatar will find new life in the sequels. Thanks so much for sharing this.
That specific deleted scene certainly indicates that James ultimately did have a mystical experience; probably with a shamanic plant like Ayahuasca. These plant medicines provide a much more organic experience that gives us an insight into the Gaian mind, as opposed to LSD that is more psychological/mental.
I was just watching a new 2023 documentary on “Titanic” and listening to Cameron talk about how the movie was conceived, I thought, “he talks like he’s done psilocybin,” then I found this video. It all makes sense now. Thanks for sharing, guided psilocybin therapy changed my life.
@@reccct it’s interesting but if you’ve done LSD… not… that interesting. ig snacking on psilocybin mushrooms throughout the night while also high and drunk (i.e. crossfaded) af is pretty good.
@@User61918it’s literally one of the most incredible experiences a human being can experience I wouldn’t call that “nothing” Lmfao wow bruh. I can see they had absolutely no effect on your npc dumbass Lmfao
Awesome upload man, I'm amazed this has remained hidden for so long. Love to hear articulate people talk about their psychedelic experiences. They are important tools, and it's a shame we are too scared to explore our own consciousness. The true final frontier will be the mapping of consciousness via the use of psychedelic compounds.
@@TickleMeTimbers We humans love to map things. We map our genome, we map our earth, we map outterspace. By map I mean understand.... It is currently illegal to explore consciousness via psychedelics. This should change so we can explore and map the mind. Have to start somewhere.
It’s interesting how many of our most creative and igneous minds, the greatest artists, musicians, CEO’s, filmmakers, etc etc..all have crazy stories of some kind of experience with LSD. The Beatles were the clean cut, fab 4, mop tops making pop hit after pop hit…did LSD then morphed into the greatest songwriters and biggest and most influential band of all time. Also interesting to note that LSD and the Atomic bomb were both discovered around the same time. One being the greatest explosion in the world, the other being in the mind.
@@TrggrWarning If it’s described as a “drug”, as in it fits in the same category as say Heroine, Crack, Meth, many Opiates, PCP, Cocaine, etc..that isn’t what LSD is. All “drugs” are normally toxic, addictive, have no health benefits of any kind are harmful, have no benefit other than for “pleasure” and escape Psychedelics are not that. They are non toxic, non addictive, are derived from fungus and plants and are natural. Can they be dangerous? Absolutely!!! But if done responsibly if provides one of the most important and influential experiences a human being can have. It’s up there with getting married, or having a child. People that have a full-blown psychedelic experience normally state it being one of the most significant experiences in their life. I know it was for me. I don’t consider LSD a “drug” It’s a tool and an access to your higher self. Your spiritual self. The “real” you. And those that aren’t in anyway prepared to experience that, or had some naive idea of what they were going to experience, are the people who have the “bad trip” and give psychedelics a bad name. It’s a full-blown spiritual journey…not some “party drug” that you just take on a Saturday night hoping to “get high.” It’s not LSD’s fault. It’s the persons fault and ignorance towards the substance. The insights, ideas, the creative energy it provides will drastically alter your perception of reality and provide you new insights opening an entire world of imagination. To credit LSD as the “main source” for many of our creative minds creations? No. To say that it didn’t have an impact of influence? Also no. It’s a combination of the individual already being a “creative” person. The LSD just took it up to a whole other level.
It's a nuanced discussion. Too many people give too much credit to psychedelics for changing everything from art to politics, while at the same time others refuse to recognize their very real impact on society and if anything call them only harmful. Truth lies somewhere in the middle.
I completely agree with being able to remember from one trip to another, even if you forget about it between the trips. Except my experiences are not related to drugs, but dreams and sleeping paralyzes. Sometimes I remember something from a dream while I'm having another dream, but which I had forgot when I was awake. It's all about taking it back with you from your sleep og your waken state of mind. Or sleeping paralyzes. I suddenly remember what I was thinking the last time, or what I have experienced many times before, until I'm finally able to remember it while being awake. Once I thought; "there is so much evil in this apartment, how could I forget?"
My friend had a boa constrictor, that always just stayed still in its tank. But every time, maybe three or so trips, we sat in the same room with the snake, it would rise up, and move its head toward either of us. It would look directly at one of us, or in turn, some of us. It certainly seemed to be responding to us, and only when we were tripping on acid.
That's wild. Like you were tuned in with senses you normally wouldn't experience and the snake sensed that too. Like you guys were on the same wavelength of experience.
I have always though that lot of experiences that i've had has a characteristic to it which can only be described as "serpentine". Reading your comment was relateable and also mind blowing at the same time.
Makes you wonder if psychedelics involve more of the "lizard" brain that we have, and which might have some kind of telepathic properties. I'd thought I'd heard that science still doesn't have an explanation as how large reptiles like alligators communicate (other than their unique vocalizations).
13:50 what's interesting is that that also applies to meditation, where you also build up upon your previous experiences and basically sort of hop on the train of where you left when you stop and do it again.
If there is an interview of James Cameron talking about screenwriting and film making and his struggle in the industry this intimately, I'd love to see it.
Agreed, I feel his life pre-Terminator is shrouded in a fair bit of mystery this interview was actually quite a surprise to hear his experimentation with drugs, but for me I wish he talked about his entry into the movie business particularly his days with Roger Corman, directing Piranha 2 etc and how he managed to fund Terminator.
@@DrAutoflower I can only gather that you haven't heard of any of the stories from making The Abyss to know that is simply untrue, tripping on LSD... sure, still an interesting insight into the man but frankly if Cameron was known to be difficult at the height of his career god only knows what he was doing on productions pre Terminator.
@@astronautadejakku9699 In a recent Avatar 2 promotional interview he stated that his best works in the 80's were driven by 'toxic testosterone'. A virtue signaling, unnecessary political, and alienating statement imo..
@@cliddilyI think he knows his own mind and past motivations better than you, a random internet person. Virtue signalling would be him saying something he doesnt really believe just to score points with a certain group. You seem to be assuming that's not simply how he feels, because somehow you are "triggered" by his use of "toxic testosterone" and feel the need to be reactionary and contrarian about it
Wow, what a really interesting and intelligent guy he is. If taken responsibly for the first time (set and setting), psychedelic experiences can be safe and powerful for most people.
I relate to that being able to remember former tripping-territory better when you trip again, but for me it happened in a scary/daunting way when coming up on mushrooms, like "oh whoahhhh here we go again... how could i forget how bizzarre, serious, and frightening this strange rendezvous IS?" But then maybe that is just coming up against my own entanglements, which the mushrooms are trying to undo, even heal. They always seemed to land me peacefully/gently and in health, regardless of the intensity. Still I fear them now. Also, the part at the end about animals seems to be a thing for sure. Even just in core/central shifts of the individual. Like, dont crystaline matrices grow outwards, but the pattern can be altered by something at the center/origin? Anyway, my body jas definitely seemed to change on mushrooms in various ways, including inter-cellular integrity. I.e. subjectively described as a soft vibe. One glowing mushroom experience ended up in a really peaceful state in friend's room and she gave me her snake and he coiled up in my hands and we were in a deep stillness, and (I like to believe at least 🤣) in serious appreciation of each other and the moment 🐍🔮🌠 another time a friend's cat raised fully and hissed in fear (kind of made sense by my inner state maybe). People and other animals can become extremely sensitive to, and aware of each other. Some internal states or vibes can be very hard to "hide". Mushrooms can certainly melt a lot of boundaries and leave us naked... you know how ink is the only way for an octopus to have a private moment/thought, as they are like an ongoing physical expressions of, I guess, much to all of what they are, including their "inner state"? I think Terence McKenna made that same kind of analogy. Some of us are trying to grow boundaries again... we know where the melt-button is 🍄🙏
Always loved Cameron. Had my fair share of psychedelic experiences. This is a pretty far out time capsule. He really has responsible measured answers, as you’d expect him to have. Great upload. Are you asking the questions?
I wonder what the purposes of this interview were? This was Reagan era War on Drugs, people weren't trying to hear all this stuff back then. Kinda ballsy of him to be so candid about drug use and legality, that could have cost some their careers.
Too funny. There's "420 Comments" now 421... This is the stuff Cameron doesn't talk about ever and hasn't since then. Thanks for the upload, it's pure GOLD!
God I love young James Cameron, his enthusiasm and witty charisma is so damn attractive ngl. I can see why the ladies liked him so much back in the day hahaa 🤩
I have been to that dark place, where there is nothing. It was quite liberating. It happened when I was given a visual/sound show my first trip, it just went blank, when I focused eventually I saw the girls hands come back. She was swirling them while the man made noises behind me.
Oh wow had no idea Jim experimented with acid back in the day shouldn't surprise me as he's always been about and heavily interested in exploring curiosity as a famous quote from him on the Ted talk he did years later but I loved this interview its always awesome to discover and check these ones out interesting thought from Jim as always great interview find was this off a vhs recording you had from years back or was this a deep dive find online? Cause wow 👌
James should get himself an isolation tank for his home, (if he doesn't already have one.) Lord knows he can afford one. If he enjoys tripping as much as it seems here, he would REALLY dig having his own tank. Those things take you into an entirely new dimension.. without any substances needed whatsoever.
I was lucky to get one or two in college in the late 90s. Feel luckier now to have gotten in an out of college before the university system became the woke hell it is today. Plus we actually learned a few things, real subjects were still required, no BS gender studies courses and all that.
same happened to me at age 12, i had a survival knife with one 22 round in the handle, we were throwing the knife at a tree as we had a fire going (with older brother and 2 friends). the knife handle broke bc it was a pos and we didnt think anything of it. about 20 min later we were sitting around the fire and it went off. we dont know where it hit but it wasnt a little wood fire pop, it was a regular gunshot sound. freaked us all out but were excited bc it was crazy, unintentional and we didnt get hit! haha childhood......
Crazy ,about twenty five years ago my sister and a friend went to Turkey,while there they took some acid,that night there was an earthquake, a very severe one,I think it was quite a traumatic experience,but luckily they made it through . So yeah,that happens.
I love Cameron's films and he's an amazing writer/director -- but box office returns aren't indicative of a movie's quality _at all._ There's great movies that make no money and terrible ones that rake it in. It's just like how McDonald's being the most profitable restaurant in the world doesn't make it the best.
You are missing the point with this comment. Point= LSD won’t turn you into a raging lunatic, like the government wanted people to believe. And don’t shoot rabbits 🤘🏼
I’m sure it seemed so at the time, but .22 cartridges do not blast off when left in a fire. The bullet only separates from the shell with a POP. It would need something fixed solid to blast away from.
