looking at a peach for 20 minutes

“I didn’t keep a peyote diary & am writing from memory
there were times when I felt little—i’ll describe the high spots

colors were much brighter & richer when I was high
bright color was the main effect on my senses
everything looked exciting and beautiful, & that made me happy
looking at a peach for 20 minutes I was most fascinated, not by the brightred part of the skin but by the subtle changes of tint in the paleyellowgreen part
objects, for example a garbagecan, had an intrinsic visual significance that had nothing to do with words, attractive
the more i looked at one thing the more it interested me
a friend, high, didn’t recognize a familiar street because there was so much she hadnt seen before
it was not like “normal” seeing, where you dully register only what has a, usually false, relation to “practical” purposes
i saw the bright colors reflected from the oil in flying pigeon feathers
the colors must have been there before but i didnt notice them
on peyote you notice everything that can be sensed, without effort
sitting in my store, i saw there is no color white
my white walls were yelloworange from lightbulbs & there was a strong green from the old coat of paint
an eyechart had an unusual quality like old chinese manuscripts because the paper had yellow-browned a bit from age”

Jack Green, peyote, newspaper #8, 1959; The Beats, edited by Seymour Krim, 1960.

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