Aldous Huxley

WITH A FOREWORD J.G. BALLARD In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes everything, from the flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers, was transformed. Huxley described his experience with breathtaking immediacy in The Doors of Perception. In its sequel Heaven and Hell, he goes on to explore the history and nature of mysticism. Still bristling with a sense of excitement and discovery, these illuminating and influential writings remain the most fascinating account of the visionary experience ever written.

And Heaven and Hell

The Doors of Perception

oh the tragedy of it. they can only yearn to

Solongo B

However expressive, symbols can never be the things they stand for.

the plot. if u can even call it that. the book is a recounting of this moment

For the moment that interfering neurotic who, in waking hours, tries to run the show was blessedly out of the way.

Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies -- all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.

Andrew John Kinney

I picked up this slim Aldous Huxley book because it was referenced by Michael Pollon in his book, How to Change Your Mind, and because I thought, well, after all, it's Aldous Huxley. It is partly about Huxley's 1953 experience using mescalin, or peyote, a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid famously used by some Native American tribes as a religious sacrament. Huxley had the normal "trip" associated with peyote or with "magic mushrooms", and he describes it well, to the extent it can be described in words, and he fully recognizes and describes the limitations of such an attempt at describing an ineffable experience. But also, being Huxley, he brings countless cultural references into the mix, so I was busy googling the Le Pain brothers, Swedenborg, Vuillard, et al, and checking out paintings by Vermeer, writings by Aquinas, and the meaning of "Yggdrasil".

If you've read the Pollon book, this might be worth your while. Huxley is certainly the most literate person I am aware of who has described a psychedelic experience.

Lucía RG

Do you have to be on mescalin to understand what is happening? 
3,5*

François Declercq

Mark

WITH A FORWARD BY J. G. BALLARD In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes everything, from the flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers, was transformed. Huxley described his experience with breathtaking immediacy in The Doors of Perception. In its sequel Heaven and Hell, he goes on to explore the history and nature of mysticism. Still bristling with a sense of excitement and discovery, these illuminating and influential writings remain the most fascinating account of the visionary experience ever written.

The Doors of Perception And Heaven and Hell

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