The Cave Hallucination: Eddie and Emily as Adam and Eve In Ken Russell’s Altered States (1980), a brilliant scientist called Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) conducts experiments on himself which cause him to hallucinate and experience revelations that parallel Christian mythology. Each hallucination becomes stronger than previous ones, and reveals more each time about Jessup’s quest for absolute truth. In one of the film’s hallucination scenes, Jessup and his wife Emily (Blair Brown) are portrayed as Adam and Eve in Paradise. Through the use of lighting effects and colorful imagery, Eddie and Emily are cast from the Garden and suffer the consequences brought about by Jessup’s vain attempts to obtain the Ultimate Truth. Eddie Jessup succumbs to the same temptation that overtook Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: the desire for the infinite knowledge that belongs solely to God. While participating in a mystical Mexican ritual, Eddie Jessup experiences an intense hallucination in which he and his wife Emily are depicted as Adam and Eve. The pair are shown sitting at a table in an expansive and beautiful garden. Their clothes are all white and look to be of the 19th century, suggesting a pure timelessness that is unmarred by sin of any kind. Emily looks up and sees a serpent above her. Lights are flashing like fireworks and the music intensifies contributing to the growing feeling of temptation that the scene evokes. Emily gives in to the serpent’s enticement and takes a bite of the “forbidden fruit” on the table in front of her. She then offers a bite to Eddie who takes it without objection. An eruption of lights and flowing colors follows the forbidden bites as a rush of Knowledge enters Eddie’s mind. The serpent wraps himself around Jessup’s neck suggesting a newfound self-awareness of Eddie’s struggle with temptation. Because Eddie and Emily ate of the “fruit”