A little while ago in /r/askdrugnerds, I made a post, Looking for a humorous quote that involved an impressively long list of the effects of psychedelics:

It may have been the beginning of a chapter.

It's one big paragraph, talks about how it's difficult to characterize its effects, and uses the ridiculously long list as an example of why it's not an easy thing to do. It had a combined counterculture and scholarly feel. Alan Watts comes to mind, but I don't think it's him.

... Anyone?

At first, /u/MusicPsychFitness quoted the timeless Fear and Loathing suitcase inventory check, and /u/schizorobo added a gem from the same book:

“Look outside,” I said. “Why?” “There’s a big... machine in the sky,... some kind of electric snake... coming straight at us.” “Shoot it,” said my attorney. “Not yet,” I said. “I want to study its habits."

Out of love, I searched this quotation and found the shimmering lines that preceded it:

"The only problem now was a gigantic neon sign outside the window, blocking our view of the mountains -- millions of colored balls running around a very complicated track, strange symbols & filigree, giving off a loud hum...."

Fantastic. But not the words I'm looking for.

This morning I was reading my copy of The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience by Masters and Houston, and found it:

Even the briefest summation of the psychological effects of these drugs would have to include the following: Changes in visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and kinesthetic perception; changes in experiencing time and space; changes in the rate and content of thought; body image changes; hallucinations; vivid images eidetic images seen with the eyes closed; greatly heightened awareness of color; abrupt and frequent mood and affect changes; heightened suggestibility; enhanced recall or memory; depersonalization and ego dissolution; dual, multiple, and fragmentized consciousness; seeming awareness of internal organs and processes of the body; upsurge of unconscious materials; enhanced awareness of linguistic nuances; increased sensitivity to nonverbal cues; sense of capacity to communicate much better by nonverbal means, sometimes including the telepathic; feelings of empathy; regression and "primitivization"; apparently heightened capacity for concentration; magnification of character traits and psychodynamic processes; an apparent nakedness of psycho-dynamic processes that makes evident the interaction of ideation, emotion, and perception with one another and with inferred unconscious processes; concern with philosophical, cosmological, and religious questions; and, in general, apprehension of a world that has slipped the chains of normal categorical ordering, leading to an intensified interest in self and world and also to a range of responses moving from extremes of anxiety to extremes of pleasure. These are not the only effects of the psychedelic drugs, but the listing should suffice to convey some idea of the potency of the drugs and the range of the experiences they afford.

-Ch.1, p.5 in Park Street Press softcover (2000 edition)

I've been looking for this quotation because it illustrates in empirical terms how difficult it is to talk about the psychedelic eye in five or ten seconds. It can't be done in two minutes; it can't be done in an hour. That is the feeling, the burden, the savage severance with all those lost to the restless temptation of insta-gramification. Without sustained attention most people will never know the beauty of it all--there is no easy way to talk about the brilliant breadth, experiential richness and spectacular personal significance that characterize these states.

Just wanted to share this and update for those left wondering what it is I was looking for.

-syn