The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell

Marc Notes:
Originally published: New York: Perennial, 1990.;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. Huxley described his experience in 'The Doors of Perception' and its sequel 'Heaven and Hell'.

Review Quotes:

"A genuine spiritual quest. . . . Extraordinary." - New York Times

"Wonderfully entertaining." - The New Yorker

"Evocative, wise and, above all, humane, The Doors of Perception is a masterpiece" - Sunday Times (London)

"The book that launched a thousand trips." - Daily Telegraph (London)

Half an hour after swallowing the drug I became aware of a slow dance of golden lights . . .

Among the most profound explorations of the effects of mind-expanding drugs ever written, here are two complete classic books--The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell--in which Aldous Huxley, author of the bestselling Brave New World, reveals the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness. This new edition also features an additional essay, "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds," which is now included for the first time.

"A genuine spiritual quest. . . . Extraordinary." -- New York Times

Among the most profound and influential explorations of mind-expanding psychedelic drugs ever written, this landmark work of consciousness exploration includes two complete classic books--The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell--in which Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, reveals the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness. This edition also features an additional essay, "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds," now included for the first time.

This foundational work of psychedelic literature details Huxley's transformational journey and includes:

• Firsthand Psychedelic Experience: Follow Huxley as he swallows four-tenths of a gram of mescalin and meticulously documents the profound changes in his perception of reality, from seeing the "Inner Light" in a vase of flowers to understanding the "divine source of all existence."
• Consciousness Exploration: Delve into the theory of the brain as a "reducing valve," a concept that explains how the mind filters reality and how psychedelics can temporarily open the doors of perception to a vaster, unfiltered awareness known as "Mind at Large."
• Visionary Art and Perception: Discover a new way of seeing art and the world, where the folds in a pair of trousers or the legs of a chair become "living hieroglyphs" and reveal the "unfathomable mystery of pure being."
• The Nature of Heaven and Hell: Go beyond a single journey to explore the crucial differences between blissful and terrifying visionary states, examining the psychological conditions that can turn a spiritual quest into an infernal experience.

Contributor Bio:Huxley, Aldous

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World, Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.