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Title: The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0-06-090007-5 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 February, 1963 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.44 (36 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: aldous tripping out on the big M - utterly fascinating
Comment: "the doors of perception" is an obscure little book by aldous huxley that, in my opinion, is one of his best. it is obvious that huxley is really reaching, however, and perhaps looking for metaphysical meaning where there really is none, although as a great man once said i am too skeptical to deny the possibility of anything. the beautiful and unique thing about this book is that you can practically feel huxley's passionate search for the underlying essence of the universe, and it is a real privilege to be allowed a peek into the mind of a man of genius in an altered and stimulated state. along with gerard de nerval's "aurelia", this book is probably the best 'hallucinatory' work ever written. references to blake, coleridge, and many of the other 'mystical poets' abound, and one can practically feel the author's near desperation for attainment of ultimate truth. for a short time during the book he becomes what the surly schopenhauer would have called "the free willless subject of knowledge" and is more interested in the magic and wonder of pure perception than that of engaged being. huxley's honesty is at times almost disconcerting, and he admits several times that for people of abnormally abundant intellect such as himself, the world becomes more of a symbolic concept than a lived reality and experience, and his drug experimentation was an attempt to temporarily escape this mental deadening and sterility. it is probably true that this book may have helped to inspire some illicit and destructive drug use, but the blame for that hardly lies with huxley himself. if i remember correctly he published an essay that discouraged recreational drug use a few years after writing this book, although i could be thinking of someone else. there is no similarity whatsoever between a self controlled, brilliant man like huxley attempting a fleeting transformation of consciousness for creative purposes and a perpetually stoned young hippie trying to 'get the on the magic carpet ride' for a few hours. his more hasty readers should read a book entitled "beyond the outsider" by scholar/philosopher colin wilson before they start popping mescaline or taking psychedelic drugs that they are not experienced with. wilson describes in agonizing detail his horrific experience with mescaline and makes the astute and accurate observation that most people are too neurotic and fearful to have a positive experience with the drug. all of that said, however, this is an absolute must read for anyone even mildly interested in philosophy, poetry, or mysticism.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good reading, but too spculative at the end.
Comment: I liked this book right from the start, maybe because it supports my views upon life, but at the same time it challenges my view upon drugs through my views upon life.
Aldous Huxley describes a state of Suchness as a state where everything just exists, there is no real value in this state of mind except that there is beauty in everything, it's a kind of objective state distanced from the beholders self. To Aldous Huxley this is a state he reaches with mescalin, and the attainment of this state is the argument for drugs, because as he says, this is the way that people ought to see things. Huxley believes that we would be better human beeings if we reach into to this Other World, this state of distance from our own egos, and I believe he is right. We would probably be more peaceful, more open minded, more accepting and more forgiving, but as he points out, this is also a state of inactivity. This mind at large is a very observative and percieving state, and the beholder might even forget or ignore even his/her own basic needs like food. We aren't productive enough to sustain our own living in this condition.
I think that I know this state of mind well, with all it's blessings and pittfalls, even though I don't take any drugs (except from beer). Anyway I have started to wonder if I could extend this state of mind with mescalin, and wether it would be any good? My principal standing is that no drugs are needed in order to extend the experience of life, that's why I almost never have taken any kind of medication, even though I might suffer from pain. Also freedom is very valuable to me, so addiction scares me away form drugs. But if we had a perfect drug with no addiction, why not have this expereience? Why not once in a while? And why not all the time?
I think that Huxley himself answers this question very well in his book Brave New World, although its a long tim ago that I read it (6-7 years). I definitly need a brush-up on it. I read this as a critique of the ignorant state of mind of all the inhabitants in the Bave New World. I loved this book by all my heart and would recommend that you read it after reading Doors of Perception.
Another book that I will recommend highly is "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. This book is about another kind, but omnipresent drug, called television. This book might give you an idea of why drugs/television are no good solution. Drugs are just a too simple push-a-button-and-be-happy solution, the good has no proportions without the harsh to put it into perspective. Personally many of my great Mind at Large experiences have come to me after climbing a volcano, after walking 80 km in 14 hours or just by experiencing an extremely beautiful landscape while travelling.
Some of us might be more prdisposed to this Mind at Large than others, but I believe in David Keirseys theory that each of us are in fact satisfied with beeing the kind of person we are. Maybe we envy traits of others, but if the trade-off is our own abilities, we would rather like to be ourselves. "Please Understand Me II" by David Keirsey is a phenomenal book.
The reason for only giving this book 4 stars is that it get's a little too speculative towards the end.
Rating: 5
Summary: Huxley in one of his most sincere investigations
Comment: I've always felt that Aldous Huxley was the most versatile thinker of England the last century. His huge culture allows him to explore all the known items. I must recognize that with the astonishing exception of a brave new world, his novelist approach he doesn't have much to offer. I'd rather prefer his meticolous essays in multiple directions.
This book, in particular may be a good star for all who pretend to get into the Huxley's world.
I read that book in the middle of the seventies, and the first you acknowledge is the visible enchantment that gives to every note. In fact, Huxley was a fan of William Blake, and that explains the title "The doors of perception" (Jim Morrison was too a fervient reader of Blake).
The approach given for Huxley in the doors is like he and us were in an opened conference with no restrictions of any subject.
The explanations above the different ways you may reach of reducing the efficiency of the "third eye" is ravishing. You read page after with anxiety for absorbing every little comentary or observation. The links inmediatly leads you to Loudun's demons (which served to ken Russell for making a film entitled The demons, with Oliver Reed) (in my point of view his most complete work),
Heaven and hell is an autobiografical experience, in which he is under the effects of the mescaline, a plant used in Mexico. This mind journey is supported by recordings made in company with his wife and a friend of them. So this reading is just an overlapping of all the process.
In the seventies, too many things shocked the world. The end of Vietnam's war, The Watergate affair, the prizes of oil established by the OPEC in 1973. Those were the days in which Marcuse and Erich Fromm hold a wide audience all around the world.
And in this sense this book became a landmark , because the huge amount of items that troubled to Huxley , such he refers us in an new visit to a brave new world, The island (is the other side of the coin respect anew brave world), Huxley added to his no limits territories, a true example of what you may define like a reinassance man. In this category , you can include thinkers and writers like Bertrand Russell, Ortega and Gasset, Ernesto Sabato, Jorge Luis Borges, Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, Paul Diel, Jean marie Domenach, to name just a few.
This book, if you're really are interested for knowing the essential facts that happens in your mind when you are disturbed by your own choice, will offer a crude but enriched analysis.Don't be afraid just thinking the information may be dated.
I'm talking about the first step ypou may climb in oreder to follow you bliss in this sense. The links you can do are no ending. All depends about your inner convictions and interest areas, like investigator, universitary student, common reader or mythology investigator . The sky is the limit.
You will be always rewarded.
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Title: Perennial Philosophy, The by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0060901918 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 18 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Your Brain Is God by Timothy Leary ISBN: 1579510523 Publisher: Ronin Publishing Pub. Date: 09 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ISBN: 0802132952 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: February, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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