I decided that I would do my part in celebrating Albert Hoffmann’s life by watching Disney’s animated ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and, in watching it, I happened to create the following list.* If you’ve both watched this movie and tripped on acid, you will really understand this. If you’ve done one of those two things, this list may help you imagine what it would be like to do the other one of those two things. If you haven’t watched the movie or tripped on acid, f*** you.

7. It’s colorful. Everyday items are depicted in ridiculous colors and nobody seems to notice or care.

6. It’s musical, and most of the songs don’t really make any sense.

5. There is just some generally weird random shit. If you want one ‘for example,’ consider the case of the walrus that dances and sings the baby clams away from their seabed and later chows them all down (alive, apparently) within a matter of seconds. That is weird, especially with the songs this guy sings…and his underwater cigar.

4. (Get ready for a big word) Synesthesia. It basically means that one’s senses get cross-wired, in a sense. You may see sound, for example. It’s this same example that is used in the movie multiple times. Once when the butterflies fly away when certain sound happens, even though there is no obvious connection between them leaving and that certain sound. Another instance is in the conversation with the caterpillar. When he says words like “you” or “why” he exhales smoke-letters (in the shapes “U” and “Y”, respectively for the two example words).

3. There is a constant shifting of perspectives. Furthermore, there is a relatively easy acceptance of the craziness by Alice as well as everybody around her.

2. Alice is always chasing the white rabbit. If you haven’t had an acid trip where you came to a realization that this term applied to you or your actions in some manner, that’s too bad.

1. The ridiculous amount of smoking. The caterpillar’s hookah-style pipe, the walrus’s cigar (that he took with him underwater), the dodo’s pipe, etc.

* Aldous Huxley, a well-known LSD advocate, wrote the original screenplay for the movie. However, it was rejected for its literary aspect.