"I wasn't born Richard Alpert - I was just born as a human being, and then I learned this whole business of who I am and whether I'm good or bad or achieving or not - all that's learned along the way. And you see all those learn things separate, so you start to have this dissociative experience, where all that you become is a point of awareness, that's all that's left. I remember the first time this happened to me, I got in terrible panic because, indeed, I was gonna cease to exist." Set me free