Ancient weapon's distant thunder makes a cultural point

A recent moment of enlightenment reminded me of the 1980 science fiction movie Altered States, in which Edward Jessup, the psychopathologist played by William Hurt, experiments with alternative states of consciousness.

In lab research involving the repetitive use of a sensory deprivation tank, the eccentric Jessup gradually devolves so dramatically that he eventually morphs - albeit temporarily - into a feral, cavemanlike creature.

My own experience was hardly so drastic, at least outwardly, though it did involve wielding a spear. But it likewise transported me backward through ancestral generations.