Mescaline and Mysticism

 The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley

This blog is in serious danger of becoming a little Huxley-heavy! But, personally, I have no problem with that and have some pride in the fact that, of the three blog posts I have published on Huxley's books, Brave New World has only come up in passing. But, that's the little literary snob in me, so perhaps it's best to move on.

In 1953, Aldous Huxley (pictured above, 1931) took four-tenths of a gram of mescaline and waited to see what would happen. In The Doors of Perception he described the effects of this experiment. And it is a beautifully written account of the visionary experience ever written.

Aldous Huxley was a man interested in mysticism and what Meister Eckhart called "istigkeit", or the is-ness of things, and he explores this in this account. Through this account, we learn that when Huxley took that dose of mescaline, the active principle of the cactus peyote, he saw through the everyday surface of things and "istigkeit" of all about him. 

Personally, The Doors of Perception, is just as memorable and important to me as Brave New World. It is not just the telling of a giggly and trippy day spent on an hallucinogen, but a work exploring mysticism, the deeper meanings and beauty behind the mundanities of life, and how we use mood and mind altering substances. A subject that Huxley was obviously interested in - remember soma from Brave New World.

Through Huxley, we are shown how this experience offered insight into the universe about him. The universe about us. As I said, this is not the account of a trippy hippie afternoon on acid - I mean, look at that picture above! The man was an intellectual with a keen interest in what intrigued him. Huxley's account of the experiment on mescaline is well written and well worth the read. It is a telling that tells of an experience in which the veil fell away and the inner, deeper, richer, and wonderful is-ness of existence was revealed to a mind on survival mode, a mind worn by the mundane. An experience where the beauty in the crease in a trouser leg is obvious. 

Read it - you'll understand.

Available for purchase here (Disclosure: if you make a purchase through links in this blog, I may earn a commission from the seller, but that does not influence the content of this blog).

Fun Facts

- The band, The Doors, named themselves after this book, and it earned Huxley his place, amongst many other public figures, on the cover of The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

- Huxley died on the same day that JFK was assassinated - 22 November, 1963. It is also the same day that C. S. Lewis died. Both authors' deaths received little attention because of the tragic shooting and murder of the thirty-fifth President of the United States.

- Huxley died of cancer and, on his death bed, he asked his wife to inject him with LSD. This is how he passed out of the world. Accounts say he left this life peacefully, a 'good death'. After a dose of 100 milligrams, his wife asked him if he would like more, he nodded in assent, and she injected a further 100 milligrams.