"the proto-psychedelic, avant-garde films of John and James Whitney [...] the Whitneys engaged direct cinema techniques--methods of working directly with celluloid, pigments, and performations on the film surfact and in its emulsion--to form explorations of metaphysical subjects related to thems in abstract art and aspects of spirituality" (21)
see their Abstract Film Exercises (1940-45) ... "landmark achievements in the representation of subjective states of consciousness"