“...we were back at home, and I had returned to that reassuring but profoundly unsatisfactory state known as 'being in one's right mind.”Main themes:Perception, conceptualization, expressionArtEscapismSyncretismTranscendance and immanenceSelfhood and selflessnessMore excerpts :“Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the

“…Christianity and alcohol do not and cannot mix. Christianity and mescalin seem to be much more compatible.”An interesting but very unscientific survey of one; Huxley’s mescaline (peyote) experiment, May 1953, had him contemplating the fabric of space/time whilst entranced by the folds of his trousers. Okay, I’ll concede that narcotics and hallucinogens may have inspired a few great works of art and literature but I remain highly skeptical of the scientific value of any anecdotal accounting of

This must've blown minds when it came out. Now though, it's lost its edge. Full disclosure, I'm here because of The Doors...of the Jim Morrison sort. Being a HUGE fan of him and the band, I absorbed all I could of them back during my teens. I even read his poetry. Hell, I even read William Blake's poetry, simply because it apparently influenced Morrison. However, I never did get around to reading Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception , the book title from which the band was named. WHAT THE HEL...

Thus it came about that, one bright May morning, four-tenths of a gram of mescaline dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to wait for the results.What ensues is a description of the experience written retroactively, with the help of taped conversations taken at the time, and interspersed with commentary on art, philosophy, and the usefulness (and abuse) of drugs in reaching altered states. Some themes: mind as a valve that regulates how much the chaos and infinity of the universe we ca...

Increasingly, I'm learning that perception is far more complicated than I ever imagined. Sight, as an example, isn't simply eyes acting like cameras, sending image data to the brain for interpretation. An article in the online journal, Nature, described the mechanism by which the brain "sees" what our eyes are going to see before our eyes see it. This is why we don't view the world through what would otherwise look like a hand-held camera. Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Med...

I need to read more Huxley...maybe I'll finally dig in to the copy of "The Perennial Philosophy" that I've started on several times (although probably not until after "A Brief History Of Everything"...those two at the same time would be just masochistic.)Although I did get a lot out of this book, the single thing that really made an impact was the discussion of our brain as a sensory-limiting mechanism which is concerned most of the time with filtering out all but what we need for survival at an...

An erudite artist and scholar tripping on mescaline.Decades before other drug culture manifestos and hippy folios cool cat Aldous Huxley first published his Doors of Perception in 1954 ( the same year as Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend). The initial part is a first person narrative about his experiences taking peyote and his descriptions of the insight. Of course what makes this stand out from the legion of trip and tells is his intellectual observations. Huxl...

My 5th best read of 2020.Best book to convince someone that (hallucinogenic) drugs could improve or at least add new detail to one's perception of objective reality. It's difficult to agree with or understand all of it, but the form of them is very unique and make this phenomenal reading. Who knows whether this is fiction or non-fiction!As a neuroscientist studying psychiatry I find many of the ideas here theoretically visionary but lacking clear experimental evidence but in a way these ideas a

November 22, 1963. That fateful day. Yes, the day Huxley died. His last words were “LSD, 100 micrograms I.M.” He took psychedelic drugs less than a dozen times in his life, but he always did so with a deep spiritual purpose, never casually. The Doors of Perception is a detailed account of the first time. The title comes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up,

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” - William BlakeAldous Huxley, a renowned writer, mainly famous for his great dystopian work, Brave New World (1931), blasts to the world his transcendental essay: The Doors of Perception, published in 1954.In this philosophical essay, Huxley describes his spiritual experience with mescaline, taken one day in May 19...

Aldous Huxley takes us through doors that we may never have gone through. I will never forget the "luminous books" that seemed to pulse and glow with their own aura of differing colors. Not to mention that one of my favorite bands of all time took their name after this book.

This is the review copied from my review of The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell which I read earlier this year, both combined in one book - that review can be found here. Otherwise, below is solely for The Doors of Perception.Huxley takes 4/10 of a gram of mescaline and writes about the experience. Mescalin is comparable with LSD. I wasn't expecting much from the writings of his 'experience' but I found it fascinating. Of course, the world is more desensitised to drugs now; on the whole,...

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.”In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley's approach to using mescaline (to open the doors of perception) is markedly different from mystics like Carlos Castaneda. Like Castaneda, Huxley explores both ritual and states of non-ordinary reality (to use a term from Castaneda); however, Huxley opens the doors wider as he makes comparisons to experiences of painters and writers, global spiritual...

Huxley. Not on my list of great writers, but an interesting person with ideas. There are more illuminating books on psychoactive substances, but this would perform well as a primer for those completely brainwashed into thinking that drug-takers are dazed hippies. I see them/us as *seekers*, people seeking to believe in something they can see and experience in an age where we don't take words like mind, soul, reason for granted anymore. This is exactly the point of view Huxley uses here. Also, im...

Huxley is a great thinker and philosopher. Here he examines what the element of pure art is. As a background he deals with mescalin and its impact on body and mind. I was especially fond of his mentioning of Vermeer and why we still love his paintings. Also the reference to Plato's mistake was remarkable. Great essay and absolute reading recommendation!

A classic from the Psychedelic Era.Huxley goes into detail about his fascinating experiences with the mind expanding substance, mescalin. This is basically the whole premise of this essay, him describing the results of mescalin ingestion on himself.A thought-provoking and interesting read.

This has opened some aspects & still some are in mirage. I would read again and again over the ages & believe will be able to decode more...

I listen to CBC radio a lot, one of the side effects of not owning a television. One of the by-products of all this radio time is the addition of many books of different subject areas added to my TBR. This is one of those books. The radio show that I listened to was called High Culture, about the therapeutic use of the psychedelic drugs. If you are interested, Part One (of three) can be found here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/high-c...This book is apparently where The Doors got the name of th...

Huxley's writing is brilliant and a joy to read. The work is littered throughout with so much religious and philosophical allusions, which adds to the thoughtful depth. I found it to be quite fascinating. However, his conclusions leave empty. Essentially, it's religion achieved through chemistry. And his conception of religion focuses purely on the subjective. It's no surprise that he refers to Eckhart, Boehme, and eastern philosophy so often; he looks only at the "inner light" rather than consi...

I read this because I had a friend who owned several Doors albums and was curious to learn more about the book that had inspired the name of the band. I had also enjoyed "Brave New World."It's not the worst thing that I have read but it has nothing to recommend itself.