as it Relates to an LSD Trip

1.) Dropping the Acid:

The White Rabbit

The movie begins with Alice at the park with her mother (I believe) reading to her. Alice gets tired of the words in the book and says everything in her world would be pictures. That relates to the desire of the visual hallucinations from LSD. She then begins talking to her cat. The acid is starting to effect her physically because she starts explaining strange things, but she has not yet started to see them. The first thing she imagines is the white rabbit which represents her racing ahead of her actual self to create this imaginary world in which to explore. So naturally she follows him down the hole. This is where the acid stamp would have fully dissolved.

2.) Beginning the Trip:

As Alice falls down the hole the colors begin to flash on her skin and change colors which is the depiction of the hallucinations beginning. The sounds as she falls down the hole are being distorted. Her trip is actually starting now.

3.) Coming Up in the Trip:

            The Dodo

The inanimate objects begin talking to her, and she begins analyzing every thing, and every word. She then drinks the bottle and shrinks. I remember on my first REAL trip I saw everyone walking down the street as being about 2 feet tall and I asked everyone around me if they actually were midgets. No. They were not. She cries an ocean which imitates the shiny ocean, watery translucency everything has when on acid. Now beings the confusion. The animals are running around in circles around the Dodo on the hill trying to get dry by running. They're running in the ocean however. She runs after the white rabbit to escape from that confusion.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

            Now she meets Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. They represent the confussion that just wastes your time. Kind of like the moment where you realize you're way too far gone to carry on a conversation because you constantly forget what your point was. They tell her the story about the Walrus and the Carpenter. Notice how Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum's faces turn into the moon and the sun, two very typical things to gaze at when tripping. At the end of the story Alice completely misses the moral of the story if there even was a real moral to the story. Confused, but in denial about it because she still has yet to reach the peak of her trip.

            The White Rabbit's House

Alice then walks to the White Rabbit's house where she gets mistaken for someone else. She goes up the stairs in search of his gloves and with out any question eats a cookie that says 'Eat Me'. Her mind is very impressionable to anything and cookie that says 'Eat Me' doesn't need to be questioned. Naturally it should be eaten. Once again she grows to an enormous size. The Dodo returns with the White Rabbit bringing even MORE confusion to the situation. He suggests a lizard with a ladder remove Alice (the monster) from the house. After this fails they decide to burn things 'to smoke the monster' out. This specifically reminds me of the recent trip I had where we all were burning things, but that is a very personal example. In a more general perspective, the idea of smoking the monster out is a good way of doing things, however, burning down the house is a horrible way to go about doing it. Acid effects your better judgment of these things.

The Flowers

            Alice now wanders into the flower patch. This part is the most vividly colored and there is an actual music number. She beings to take things in a very carefree way now. Butterflies are no longer butterflies, they are Bread and Butter flies. Horse flies are now Rocking Horse flies. Things are no longer confusing at the moment, they are just incredibly ridiculous. When the song ends the flowers turn on her and she no longer has the carefree feeling and gets angry. Many abrupt sounds and sudden movements happen. Often a trip can is so intense you feel obligated to continue moving on to another location or environment. So Alice continues on, away from the commotion the flowers caused.

The Caterpillar

Enter the Caterpillar. This is the moment in your trip when you know you're peaking, because absolutely nothing makes sense. You can listen to music and see the sound waves, or words can actually be visible when speaking at times depending on how intense your peak is. Obviously, the Caterpillar is smoking some substance such as opium, heroin, hash, or pot. He is completely confused because he is blasted. This is Alice's encounter with someone who is trying to confuse her into forgetting who she is, which works. Sometimes, you will encounter a person who learns you are on LSD and will begin telling you strange stories or just generally messing with your highly impressionable mind at that moment just for fun. Sometimes, these moments aren't even made up stories, but the way you understand them they seem incredibly ludicrous. Once again Alice here's a tale about an animal enticing its food into its mouth. Sometimes, there will be a certain object or word, perhaps a certain song or something that reoccurs several times during your trip like de ja vu. Notice how after Alice walks away and comes back, the Caterpillar asks her what her problem is after all that nonsense. Alice responds and when the Caterpillar is angered by her response of 'three inches being a wretched height' he shouts that he is 'exaciticly three inches HIGH' and a puff of smoke is exhaled on the word 'high'. Perhaps a little bit of a play on words? This would represent the point in your trip where you pull out your weed and smoke a blunt.

4.) The Peak

The Cheshire Cat

Now Alice is coming to her first peak. The forest begins to shape shift in vivid colors and she imagines the Cheshire Cat who represents her cat Dinah. The cat is mad. He's like Alice's inner being realizing she is not 'all there' and that she feels a bit mad herself. The sounds are echoing and distorted slightly. This would definitely be the moment her peak is occurring. Once again she doesn't get any straight answers from the Cheshire cat, and he is confusing her a lot.

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

The tea party is the most ridiculous moment in her trip. She accepts the madness that occurs here. Everything at the tea party is very backwards. They cut a cup in half in order to get a 'half cup' of tea. There is even a firework that goes off which the colors and sparkles from LSD create. Alice begins to get upset and annoyed with the madness of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare so the White Rabbit reappears. Alice had most likely been wanting to leave the party and so the rabbit appeared to guide her. During a very intense trip it is sometimes too much to handle and you will try to stop the acid. Alice says this, 'I've had enough nonsense, I'm going home' and begins walking aimlessly through the woods.

The Mome Rath's and the Forest

Despite her best efforts she is still hallucinating but she really wishes she wasn't. This can happen when a trip lasts for a long time, or you feel you are in an uncomfortable surrounding for your trip. The things in the woods are a combination of the most unrelated objects such as frogs with drums for bodies and a bird with an umbrella for a body. There is a sign that read 'don't step on the Mome Raths'. Perhaps I'm stretching it a bit, but Mome Raths kind of sounded like 'Path Home' if you rearranged the letters and sounds in the two words, which is what the path is supposed to lead to. She was lost in all the confussion for a bit and she really wanted someone to lead her away to another tripping spot just like everything else had, instead she's stuck in the woods alone. It is possible at this moment her trip's peak had gone away and she was left feeling very empty. The Cheshire cat appears to her rescue because after sitting down for a bit her hallucinations return.

5.) Coming Down

The Queen

The Queen is a key character in Alice's trip. This is her mother. This is the point where you are still tripping but you know you're time is almost at an end and you have obligations such as school or sleep that you need to go do. These thoughts had been blocked out in the confusion of your tripping but now you have a bit of a clearer conscious and responsibilities are setting in. The song the cards sing says something about 'this is the part we dread' but it's not quite that intense of a dreading feeling. It's more of a sad feeling because the trip is ending and you don't want it to. The cards also begin dancing in a line that is similar to the fractal spiral created by acid. The Queen is a character that could also be called a buzz kill. She ruins your happy tripping. It could be a person at a party that is drunk or rolling that has too many emotions running through their veins. It snaps you back into a more reasonable mind set despite the fact that you're still hallucinating. You can even begin to think a bit clearer. And then you are forced to do something unexpected such as play croquet while on acid. It's not something you have any control over, such as having to leave a party and go to someone's house and you're still trying to have fun but that stupid person keeps being a buzz kill.

The King

The King is the person or persons trying to save the mood for the tripper(s). He tries to bring back the happy setting and calm it down, and sometimes these people are successful in saving the trip.

6.) Comprehending Your Trip

The Trial

People involved in Alice's trip reappear at the trial. It's like the moment when you sit down and begin to review the events that occurred during your trip. You realize just how ridiculous the entire night was as Alice calls the Queen's soldiers just a pack of cards. The trip goes backwards as she reviews it and anything and anyone she encountered during it is reintroduced for one moment before the end of her trip. She encounters the caterpillar one more time. Insinuating that you smoke another blunt to return to a calm state as you're coming down. The confusion is starting to go away. You get extremely stoned and fall asleep…only to wake up and realize the acid is gone and now you can reflect on the insanity that ensued.

The song sang as Alice is exiting Wonderland:

Forward, backward, inward, outward
Come and join the chase
Nothing could be drier
Than a jolly caucus race

Backward, forward, outward, inward
Bottom to the top
Never a beginning,
There can never be a stop

To skipping, hopping, tripping fancy free and gay
Started it tomorrow
But will finish yesterday

'Round and 'round and 'round we go
Until forevermore
For once we were behind
But now we find we are be-

Forward, backward, inward, outward
Come and join the chase
Nothing could be drier
Than a jolly caucus race!