"People are strange when you're a stranger..." - The Doors
And I've noticed this more and more as of late, that when you're in some altered states, when you're fucked up on whatever your choice of drug is, be it alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy or heroin, there comes a point where people start making sense.
This is when you know you're fucked up.
And you find yourself understanding them, looking about a bar and seeing deeper inside people than any of them would be comfortable with, that when you start talking to them you know their situation well before they spell it out to you. And maybe even, if you're really fucked up, you empathize with them.
You can spot them, the fellow tweaks and junkies, drunkards, potheads, across the bar, you're recognizing yourself in their mannerisms, their exaggerated and failed attempts to hide their addictions, you understand, you're somehow or another just that much more intuitive than you'd be normally, and you marvel that you never noticed it before, it was sooooo obvious....
But the realization of it depended somewhat greatly on your being in the same state of mind.
And now that you are you know that you're fucked up. Some of the fucked up, they just lurk in corners and laugh, it's all just too funny, they're recognizing, understanding, everything that they've missed all the time they've been sober, and now, just now, it's all making sense. You understand them as well.
And this is how you know that you are really fucked up.