The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell

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The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 13,586 ratings · 442 reviews

As only he can, Aldous Huxley explores the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness. These two astounding essays are among the most profound studies of the effects of mind-expanding drugs written in this century. Contains the complete texts of The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell , both of which became essential for the counterculture d...more

Paperback, 187 pages

Published May 4th 2004 by Harper Perennial (first published 1954)

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Dec 09, 2012 Everett Pantaloons rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those interested in altered mind-states and psychedelics

Shelves: non-fiction, philosophy

Going into this I had very high hopes, which were somewhat let down. A book about hallucinogenic drugs and altered mind-states written by author of famed science fiction novel Brave New World (which, as of writing, I have yet to read). Being that I have dabbled in the use of psychedelics and studied countless writings on hallucinogens and alteration of mind-states, a topic that greatly fascinates me, not to mention my love for sci-fi, I really expected more from this.

I was deeply disappointed.....more Going into this I had very high hopes, which were somewhat let down. A book about hallucinogenic drugs and altered mind-states written by author of famed science fiction novel Brave New World (which, as of writing, I have yet to read). Being that I have dabbled in the use of psychedelics and studied countless writings on hallucinogens and alteration of mind-states, a topic that greatly fascinates me, not to mention my love for sci-fi, I really expected more from this.

I was deeply disappointed... mostly. Contained within the book are two parts: The Doors of Perception and Heaven & Hell, as the title informs. The Doors of Perception focuses on the author's experience with mescaline. I did not like it.

It comes off as preachy and even pretentious. Pretentious being a word I don't use loosely, seeing as how I feel it is often misused/misinterpreted and wrongly attributed to some truly great artistic and intellectual people. There's not even much psychology in here, and even less science. The author just goes on about there being a correct way of seeing the world and a layman's way. The former only achieved by a special certain few, such as artists or those who achieve said "vision" through drug-use. It's all boring and, to simply put it, fairly stupid.

Psychedelics, or drugs in general for that matter, do not unlock or expand parts of your mind. They merely allow you to look at things in a new, different way. They do not make you any smarter, save for the things learned through the experience of taking them. This is why many great musicians or artists are greatly, even directly, influenced by drugs, because with drugs they see things in a new light that many people never noticed before due to the routine of conventional thinking, which makes their art appear to be fresh and unique. Artistic even.

The second part is basically the same. However, what makes this book worth reading is the forty or so pages at the end of Heaven and Hell, entitled "Appendices". I found these pages to be the best and most fascinating. The author talks about pattern inducing stroboscopic lamps (something I was not very knowledgeable on), potential affects hallucinations had on religions in the past, the affect technology has had on art, and schizophrenia, among other things.

So yes, the appendices are better than the actual book. There wasn't really much in here that I wasn't already aware of, but even with the bulk of it being mediocre with the rest really shining, I can easily recommend this. Especially to those interested in altered mind-states or psychedelics, or even surrealism.

(less)

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Oct 24, 2011 Ian Graye rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

Teenage Kicks

I read this book in the early 70's in my early teenage years.
The first thing about "The Doors of Perception" is that it was the source of the name of the band.
The second is that it shaped the views of many people about drugs for 20 years.
Aldous Huxley came from a scientific as well as a creative background. For me, it gave him some level of credibility when assessing the merits of psychedelic drugs.
Basically, (I think) he argued that the psychedelic experience could open the door...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-literature, psychology, pop-culture, one-dollar, spirituality, on-hand

Generally, I greatly prefer to read books in the dead-trees format—actual paper in my hand. This was the first I've read in a long time where I found myself desperately longing, not only for an electronic edition, but for a fully hypertextual version, rich with links. Over the two months I spent on this volume, on and off, I believe two-thirds of my time was spent on the Internet looking up references. At the very least, this book would benefit greatly from extensive illustration: the range of a...more Generally, I greatly prefer to read books in the dead-trees format—actual paper in my hand. This was the first I've read in a long time where I found myself desperately longing, not only for an electronic edition, but for a fully hypertextual version, rich with links. Over the two months I spent on this volume, on and off, I believe two-thirds of my time was spent on the Internet looking up references. At the very least, this book would benefit greatly from extensive illustration: the range of artistic works referenced, from Caravaggio to Millais to Vermeer, is sure to baffle most modern readers without a degree in Art History. Remember Laurent Tailhade? Yeah, me neither.

Frankly, with the state of Liberal Arts education today, I have a hard time believing that much of anyone who has read this in the last 30-40 years has understood but a fraction of it—and reading over the reviews I can find bears this out. Both essays are often seen as little more than an apologia for "drug experimentation." While that is certainly an element of both, it can hardly be taken as Huxley's central point. It was rather Dr. Leary who much later reduced the matter to such a simple and simplistic premise, and even he had more than that to say to those who were willing and able to delve beneath the surface.

Instead, while making the case for the legitimacy of drug use, Doors offers a hypothesis for the mechanism of the experience via the well known reference to Blake and the then-current state of neuro-biological research; to wit, that ordinary perception is a matter of the mind filtering data for survival, while transformed or visionary experience—whether achieved through asceticism, art, or chemistry—opens the mind to all the data available, regardless of its mere survival value, thus allowing one to see through the ordinary to a truer vision of reality. Why, after all, should one need to starve or abase oneself for months and years to achieve such states when the same experience, or a reasonable simulacrum, can be had for the cost of a drug and perhaps a mild hangover?

Heaven and Hell goes on to develop this thesis by comparing the visions induced by exogenous chemicals to the more visionary pieces of art throughout history, as well as elaborating on the religio-spiritual theme. This is where, I believe, a majority of readers are likely to get lost, and thus explains why there are far more extant reviews of the former essay than of the latter. Even with handy art references, the latter is still the more difficult read, with its several tangential appendices and textual digressions. One might almost suppose that the drugs had not yet worn off while he wrote this one. Still, for the persistent, this is a worthwhile sequel, and it is readily obvious why the two are so often packaged together. But keep your browser near at hand, because many of his points are utterly lost without knowing the art to which he refers.

Finally, it is this very lack of illustration, and internal referencing for the modern reader, that prompts me to deduct one star from what would otherwise be a truly stellar recommendation. I continue to hope that the Huxley estate, or whoever controls the copyrights, will consider reissuing this with the necessary supplemental material, perhaps even in a definitive scholarly "critical edition." Were it in the public domain, I might take on such a project myself.(less)

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Jul 01, 2008 Shiv rated it 4 of 5 stars

Doors of Perception is a deeply interesting short essay by the famous author Aldous Huxley. In 1953 he was involved in a controlled experiment into the psychological effects of the drug mescalin.
What he describes is less a mere hallucinatory experience and more an opening of his ability to percieve, and to see himself as part of the Oneness of the universe. He argues (quite correctly) that a massive part of the function of the brain is to selectively discard sensory input, keeping only what is...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

A thoroughly thought provoking book! I really enjoyed the various thoughts and discussions on the nature of reality and perception - that is, the idea that what we see/interpret is unique no matter what we do to try to convey to another person. Some great excerpts:

"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their...more

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Apr 09, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of two long essays by Aldous Huxley. The First one featured is the Doors of Perception. It argues that the primary purpose of the brain is to filter out irrelevant thought, rather than creating relevant thought. This has somewhat been confirmed by modern neuroscience. with side effects from psychiatric medications and astral energy form covert groups, creating allegic dependsay on such normal things as caffine, alchol,tobacco, Through thease and recreational drugs, hallucino...more

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Dec 21, 2007 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

i give doors of perception 3 stars, and heaven and hell 1. overall, there was just not much interesting material in these books. i found two ideas in "the doors" that were interesting to me.

first, the idea that the primary function of the brain is as a filter, to reduce the massive amount of incoming information that comes into a smaller set that is useful for survival and propagation. in itself, this is not much, but the implications as to what that unfiltered set looks like, is. this does not...more i give doors of perception 3 stars, and heaven and hell 1. overall, there was just not much interesting material in these books. i found two ideas in "the doors" that were interesting to me.

first, the idea that the primary function of the brain is as a filter, to reduce the massive amount of incoming information that comes into a smaller set that is useful for survival and propagation. in itself, this is not much, but the implications as to what that unfiltered set looks like, is. this does not mean that the data coming in from the five senses is filtered down. it means that the five senses also serve as part of the filtering mechanism, and the original source is the universe itself. this is quite agreeable to me - the bottom-up approach to consciousness taken by most western scientists is full of holes. (in western metaphysics, there seem to be two major categories of theories on this - the first agrees with that of western scientists, and the second posits a dualism, where the soul is somehow more-or-less completely separate from the physical body, but still informs conscious process. this position is, in my opinion, even more untenable than the materialist one - it is directly evident from our experience of the universe that everything is connected, and the idea of two separate but somehow-interacting universes is silly.)

the second thing that turned me on in "the doors" was his description of tripping not as a vivid hallucinogenic experience, but as an exposure the the raw, true, nature of reality - that essentially, our survival filters fail to function. this is the most sympathetic description of tripping that i have ever heard - it matches my experience to a tee. most people who describe tripping either talk about wild hallucinogenic, or imagined, experiences, which never really happened to me at all, or they talk about the experience of one-ness with the universe in terms that are more or less opaque and seemingly ingenuine. bill hicks is a prime exception here, but his trippping story basically boils down to a single run-on sentence that he used to close his shows.

both of these texts extremely annoyingly lacking in any visible structure - just one paragraph after the other, with no exposition of a thesis or anything like that. as if the thoughts that were running through this guys mind were enough, as is, to spark great insight into his readers. sorry aldous, just not there. "the doors" goes on for 70 pages without section or subsection, without a single "***" or "*****" between two paragraphs, and exactly one instance of a single blank line between two paragraphs. just awful! heaven and hell is more or less the same.

maybe i should be more interested in art, but both these texts read more as poor art criticism than anything else.

the idea that psychedelics function by cutting off oxygen to the brain seems incredibly silly and quaint here in 2007. the psychedelic experience is *not* on the order of sniffing glue or hyperventilating until we pass out. there is obviously something more going on here.

anything else? i flipped through most of the pages in heaven and hell. actually reading it would have been a big waste of my time.(less)

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May 28, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in psychedelics or in Huxley

Recommended to Erik by: John O'Reilly

Shelves: psychology

Towards the end of his life Aldous Huxley was introduced to psychedelics, still legal at that time. His analyses of the phenomenon are detailed in these two essays here combined in one volume. For further reading about his relationship to such drugs see, of course, the various biographies about Huxley, particularly Huxley in Hollywood, and his wife's collection of essays by and about him and these drugs entitled Moksha. For his use of his experiences in literature see his novel Island.

Though dat...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Drugs and artists are connected? Holy Shit!

The copy I read contained only Doors, no Heaven and Hell, but in it Huxley writes about his controlled experiment with mescaline. It's not surprising what he comes up with, given his work in Brave New World and his stance as a contemplative artist: he argues in Doors that mescaline opens "doors through the wall" of existence that we all try to access as a way of escaping the the monotonous, the mundane, and also the higher order of existence that is cl...more Drugs and artists are connected? Holy Shit!

The copy I read contained only Doors, no Heaven and Hell, but in it Huxley writes about his controlled experiment with mescaline. It's not surprising what he comes up with, given his work in Brave New World and his stance as a contemplative artist: he argues in Doors that mescaline opens "doors through the wall" of existence that we all try to access as a way of escaping the the monotonous, the mundane, and also the higher order of existence that is closed off, unseen, but felt and searched for. He describes his experience staring at the pattern of his flannel clothes; he ties this observation of the visually stimulation to that aspect of schizophrenia and the way that "those who are mad" perceive things; he ties this into the psychological connotations of Ego and Selflessness, the all-encompassing "Is-ness" of existence; and he ultimately brings his experience full circle, tying all of this into notions of religion and attempting to discover the greater divine by means of enhanced perception rather than methods of explanation relying on "Words."

He ends his essay by commenting on how the "urge to transcend self-concious selfhood is... a principal appetite of the soul," and that human beings will do so in any way they find manageable: alcohol, drugs, art, religion, etc. He argues that future society needs a way to help with this -- alcohol produces too much inhibition, violence, and recklessness; drugs are too narcotic, addictive, and destructive; religion is too ambiguous, relative, and reliant on "words." But he also states that to achieve a pleasurable experience, the taker must not be afflicted by "periodical depression," "chronic anxiety," approach it "without fear," and "remain undistracted: Undistracted by the memory of past sins, by imagined pleasure, by the bitter aftertaste of old wrongs and humliations, by all the fears and hates and cravings that ordinarily eclipse the Light." Of course, but who isn't afflicted by these things? That's why people try to escape, because they are afflicted so intensely by these things. If one can come to terms with these conflicts, isn't that peace, isn't that the goal, isn't that the secret to life as is?

I think the most applicable comment of his regards "visionaries": "most visualizers are transformed by mescaline into visionaries. Some of them -- and they are perhaps more numerous than is generally supposed -- require no transformation; they are visionaries all the time." Do the deeper thinkers think deeply because they are, by nature, deep thinkers? Does this affect them more by enhancing their already-possessed ability? Or will this experience transform a shallow thinker into a visionary? Sure, this experience was good for him, but what about the disturbed? The distracted? The angry? The godless? Is this a magical pill that solves the world's problems, create understanding out of ignorance, peace out of hate, for everyone who approaches "without fear"? I have a hard time believing that. Huxley is a visionary, an artist, a soul-searcher, a contemplative writer willing to experiment with an open mind. Is his experience relative to the rest of the human population?

The most common reference to this essay is found in the name of the classic rock band The Doors. It is widely known that Morrison took the name from Blake's poem regarding existence, things appearing as they are, and Huxley's experiment with hallucinogens. Isn't his case the best example of what could very well happen if Huxley's methods were popularized? Sure, Morrison was a visionary for an album or two. His music changed peoples' lives, music as a whole, and the way people viewed our world. There's a reason kids today still wear his T-shirts -- actually there's two, and that's the exact dichotomy of this example: he attempted to transcend to a greater reality -- and then he self-destructed... rapidly. He's a symbol of the searching for something greater, which kids identify so much with, and simultaneously a symbol of excess vice. Did Huxley keep this theory and experiment long enough to experience this?

I can completely understand why this became a "Bible" for the 60s movement, and perhaps there are some positive factors that can arise from such experiments. But look what happened to that? I am all about deeper understanding, soul-searching, and discovering things as they truly are. But am I proponent of Huxley's idea of a humanity on mescaline? Hardly. Should the world all take a deep breath, relax, smoke a joint, and search for meaning and God in their everyday experiences? Definitely. Do we need Huxley's method to achieve this? No, though it could be fun if one brought the right mindset... perhaps that's all he is saying. But I really don't want to be a part of a world containing 6 billion lunatics on mescaline. (less)

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Apr 07, 2013 Sam Quixote rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever had to be the designated driver while your buddies got wasted? Watching them laugh at nothing and behave like asses while you’re (unfortunately) stone cold sober is a pretty miserable experience as your mind hasn’t been altered by chemicals. Reading “The Doors of Perception” is like this - Aldous Huxley does mescaline and then describes it extensively to the bored reader who is probably not on mescaline. And it’s not nearly as fascinating as Huxley believes it to be - because we’re...more Have you ever had to be the designated driver while your buddies got wasted? Watching them laugh at nothing and behave like asses while you’re (unfortunately) stone cold sober is a pretty miserable experience as your mind hasn’t been altered by chemicals. Reading “The Doors of Perception” is like this - Aldous Huxley does mescaline and then describes it extensively to the bored reader who is probably not on mescaline. And it’s not nearly as fascinating as Huxley believes it to be - because we’re probably not on mescaline (I know I wasn’t when reading this crap). “The Doors of Perception” is a 50 page essay and it’s sequel, “Heaven and Hell”, a 33 page essay, read like far longer works because they’re so unreadable.

The point of the essays is that Huxley believes there is more to human nature than the base level of survival and that it’s because of how our species has developed that has made us forget ways in which we can perceive things beyond the ordinary. He wants to allow people to experience mescaline in order to see things he believes are there but beyond our reach without the help of hallucinogenics.

And here’s the big problem I have with this view - it’s that assuming that what you experience while high is worth more and is more real than what you experience everyday. I mean, what you’re experiencing is simulated with the aid of chemicals - why would it be more “real” than reality? A problem endemic to this book is that Huxley is talking about experiences that are purely visceral and “beyond man-made constructs” such as language and are therefore indescribable - yet he’s trying to describe them with language. Which is why you get drivel like this:

“I spent several minutes - or was it several centuries? - not merely gazing at those bamboo legs, but actually being them - or rather being myself in them; or, to be still more accurate (for “I” was not involved in the case, nor in a certain sense were “they”) being my Not-self in the Not-self which was the chair.” p.10

“Confronted by a chair which looked like the Last Judgement - or, to be more accurate, by a Last Judgement which, after a long time and with considerable difficulty, I recognized as a chair - I found myself all at once on the brink of panic.” p.33

Good lord, this crap goes on and on for nearly a 100 pages and it doesn’t help that he’s not a very good writer to start with. His rambling style fused with a dry, almost academic, vernacular makes reading this book of insubstantial observations and half-formed ideas all the more insufferable. All he proves is that drugs make intelligent people sound like morons.

He feebly attempts to make the argument that researchers and scientists don’t take “spiritual” experiences seriously because they can’t see it, measure it, rationalise it, in any scientific way. Duh. He bewails methods (eg. taking mescaline) that allegedly “make you more perceptive, more intensely aware of inward and outward reality, and more open to the spirit” which constitute the “non-verbal humanities” aren’t taken more seriously. Well, when you put it like that, Aldous...

He attempts to rectify this by constantly referencing William Blake, Homer, and Goethe in an effort to make the essay appear academic and therefore substantial and worthy of consideration. It’s truly pretentious and pathetic in its ineffectiveness.

This quote basically sums up the essays:

“Those folds in the trousers - what a labyrinth of endlessly significant complexity! And the texture of the grey flannel - how rich, how deeply, mysteriously sumptuous!” p.16

Wooaaaah, Aldous got fucked up on mescaline! (less)

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Mar 18, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, philosophy-religion, science-and-nature

"In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." - William Blake

I was lucky enough to procure this double volume, and I can certainly see why they were combined in this single intriguing read. As a reader who recently discovered and fell in love with the writing of Huxley, this volume was the next logical step. As someone with extensive past experience in using (and also, unfortunately, misusing) psychedelic drugs, I can certainly...more "In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." - William Blake

I was lucky enough to procure this double volume, and I can certainly see why they were combined in this single intriguing read. As a reader who recently discovered and fell in love with the writing of Huxley, this volume was the next logical step. As someone with extensive past experience in using (and also, unfortunately, misusing) psychedelic drugs, I can certainly identify with and relate to the material in both "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven and Hell".

First, I have to say that Aldous Huxley certainly had a set of big, brass ones to use himself as a guinea pig for the psychedelic experiment outlined in "Doors"; not only at his age, but also at a time when so little was known about hallucinogens. Evidently, his research helped a great deal in the enlightened fews' understanding of the effects of mescalin and other psychoactive substances on the CNS, as well as the very mind itself.

I was also impressed by his observations on how mescalin 'shuts off' the 'reducing valve' of our 'mind-at-large'; basically, removing the cerebral filter that spares the mind the agony (ecstasy?) of having to process every single bit of available sensory information simultaneously. Additionally, he also compares the psychedelic experience to schizophrenia, and demonstrates how such a mental state is most likely due to a naturally-occurring defect in the minds 'reducing valve', allowing one's 'mind-at-large' to run riot.

He uses his mastery of language and literary technique to paint marvelous pictures of his experience, giving vibrant, living qualities to even such mundane objects as a wicker chair, as well as ridiculing the hideously trite artistic emptiness of, say, a modern motorcar. Making frequent comparisons to the images of heavenly realms described in various religious texts, Huxley also describes how even the great art of Western culture seems transparently 'ordinary'(and even mediocre) to him when the blinders of 3-dimensional reality have been temporarily removed.

"Heaven and Hell" is the logical sequel in the study of altered states in relation to mystical and religious visions, with a basic thesis stating that the same mystical vision can be perceived as either sublime or infernal, depending largely of the state of mind of the person under the influence of hallucinogens. He fervently disagrees with the notion that chemically induced 'trips' cannot be true mystical visions, claiming that even 'naturally' occurring religious experiences are actually chemically induced, even if said chemicals are created by altering ones own physical condition.

Citing examples of such ritualistic mortification techniques as near-starvation, sleep deprivation, self-flagellation, infection, and near-asphyxiation, he demonstrates how primitive cultures induced sacred visions by altering their brain chemistry in order to by-pass the 'reducing valve', and let the infinite imagination of the subconscious 'mind-at-large' reveal their respective spiritual insights.

He also covers extensively how light and color (as well as the catalysts for them, such as translucent and prismatic precious stones and shiny precious metals) play key roles in these visions, being used for millennia by royalty and ecclesiastic institutions to recreate 'heaven on earth', based on the colorful, brilliantly-illuminated visions of celestial bliss. On that note, he also points out how these sublime visions can also appear quite hellish to those minds preoccupied with such negative emotions like revenge, worry, and envy.

Truly to do either book justice would probably require me to write a review almost as thorough and as long as these two books, but I humbly present but a small taste of the brilliant insight and extensive research on the effects inflicted when these chemical doors to the mind have been opened, and how the very state of that mind preceives the strange creatures that dwell in the antipodes of our deeper consciousness. These two essays obviously aren't for everyone, but I highly recommend them for those unique minds who can see the simple truths in life as well as the atoms within them. To paraphrase Dan Ackroyd, when most folks look at the floor, they only see the tiles, but when Huxley looks at the floor, he sees the molecules.(less)

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Jan 30, 2013 Ev rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, true-stories

Was home sick and read it from beginning to end while lying in bed. I grabbed this book from the library for a few reasons; it's written by a classic author, the band "The Doors" took it's name from the title of this book, I'm interested in the subject, and the cover looked cool.
This book is really good and explores perceptions of reality, enlightenment and how and why we think the way we do. Although is starts with the author's controlled experience while tripping on mescaline, this book isnt'...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Alan Furth rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this book, Huxley tries to make sense of his experience with mescaline, a drug used for centuries by indigenous peoples of North America and Mexico to induce spiritually significant altered mental states.

Huxley's prowess for narrative and articulate reporting make the book a particularly engaging read, but are not enough to allow him to transmit the full gist of what he experienced with mescaline -- he makes clear from the outset that he seems to have experienced a totally different reality t...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Mor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Довольно трудно ставить оценку книге, состоящей из двух разных произведений. "Двери восприятия" - отличное размышление о сути психоделического опыта со множеством ссылок на живопись. Психоделики не объединяют, это глубоко эгоистический опыт, зацикливание на вещах и их круговороте. "Ад и рай" - совершенно необязательное, спорное дополнение, в котором Хаксли пытается суммировать "духовидческие" опыты и вывести аналогию между сознанием шизофреника, человека под галлюциногенами и мистика. Получается...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Shinn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, metaphysics, mystic, philosophy, non-fiction, religion, spiritual, art

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Doors of Perception as well as its sequel, Heaven and Hell. On the one hand, this book seemed so familiar; some of the ideas and experiences so mirror ones I've lived through - albeit without the use of drugs - that writing this review will be difficult without divulging details, something I don't really want to.

I liked many of Aldous Huxley's ideas on art, colour and the other worlds. It was personally interesting for me because the shift of my own ar...more I'm not entirely sure how I feel about The Doors of Perception as well as its sequel, Heaven and Hell. On the one hand, this book seemed so familiar; some of the ideas and experiences so mirror ones I've lived through - albeit without the use of drugs - that writing this review will be difficult without divulging details, something I don't really want to.

I liked many of Aldous Huxley's ideas on art, colour and the other worlds. It was personally interesting for me because the shift of my own art into bright and pure colours a few years ago coincided with an experience I can best describe as my version of the flowers.

And yet, the book is almost dull at times. I would have liked to read a lot more about Huxley's actual experiences with mescaline rather than his continuous pontifications. He talks of symbols and their limitations in truly describing a personal experience to another but he himself makes the attempt futile by overloading these descriptions with jargon.

I think the two essays in this book have a rather facile view of the visionary experience. I agree that the exploration of alternate realities is powerful, and may be useful as a tool for growth. After all, when each corner of the world without has been discovered, the explorer has nowhere to go but within. At the same time, the temptation to be constantly immersed in these other worlds - something an entheogen like mescaline can satisfy - would turn these visionary experiences into the same drudgery of the "real" world. To be fair, Huxley does mention this issue when he talks of the modern indifference to the world of lights and colour (I might add that I don't remotely have this problem!). However, while the book touches upon the age-old problem of balancing the material and mystical worlds, it doesn't seem to offer a solution.

Maybe further reading will make me understand and appreciate this book better. As of now, it is mainly the fleeting descriptions of the world seen through mescaline that I liked most.(less)

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Aug 19, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: art, psychology, science

The main book would have gotten 5 stars. Wonderful exposition of what a psychedelic experience feels like, of the common thoughts which occur, and of the shifts in perception which the psychonaut undergoes. The connection between psychedelics and aesthetics (especially visual arts, or visual experiences which could potentially inspire art) takes up a lot of the book, and is in my opinion its most interesting facet by far.

The subject of the spirituality of the experience is also addressed in an u...more The main book would have gotten 5 stars. Wonderful exposition of what a psychedelic experience feels like, of the common thoughts which occur, and of the shifts in perception which the psychonaut undergoes. The connection between psychedelics and aesthetics (especially visual arts, or visual experiences which could potentially inspire art) takes up a lot of the book, and is in my opinion its most interesting facet by far.

The subject of the spirituality of the experience is also addressed in an unreligious way without denying any of the wondrousness of the experience.

The writing is scientific and clear, but also brisk and never boring.

Heaven and hell is much more fantastical, and mystical in its language and claims. It contains more descriptions of psychedelic experiences, as well as rampant speculation. In this is more closely resembles a Terrence Mckenna book.

He spends a lot of time on color, shininess, and brightness in an attempt to link our appreciation for them in the real world to their presence in the other-world of visions and psychedelic experience. This leads into an in depth discussion of art, especially landscape art which he finds to be the most "spiritual".

There was comparatively little devoted to "hell" compared to "heaven" which is a shame because the picture he paints is rather fantastic and horrid at least in the use of adjectives (unnatural, constricting, hellish, shadowless light. Talks about seeing the universe as a disgusting, sinister, infinite cosmic machine grinding out punishment). It is true horror of an infinite, all powerful and everlasting scale.

The appendices were vaguely interesting. 1 was about inducing visions by flooding the blood with co2, or by flooding the eyes with light. 2 was about how our ancestors induced visions in much more unpleasant ways than we do now (vitamin deficiencies, self flagellation, etc) 3-5, and 7 were about how pageantry, art, and various extravagant displays in reality appeal (or revolt us in the case of 7)to us because they strike the same root which psychedelic experience derives from. 6 and 8 were about schizophrenia.

the bonus essay (in my edition) "drugs that shape mens minds" was meh. Interesting for the time period it was written in, but contributed nothing which the book hadn't. Its also annoying that Huxley was in favor of complete legalization of psychedelics, but not for other more harmful drugs.

Overall, the entire edition is rich in descriptions and speculation regarding psychedelic experience, mostly derived from a rationalistic perspective rather than a hippy-dippy one. The focus on aesthetics and art is also appreciated. The link between the two may be obvious to some, but it perhaps also runs deeper than most imagine.(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Tim Pendry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: british, consciousness, cultural-studies, esoteric, history-of-art, north-american, popular-culture, psychology, religion-spiritual, twentieth-century

Although much-lauded, especially by those looking for a literary advocate for the re-integration of altered states of consciousness into our society and culture (a cause I tend to support on principle), this book has not stood the test of time very well.

This edition contains, in fact, two works – ‘The Doors of Perception’, an account of Huxley’s experience taking mescalin and ‘Heaven and Hell’, a somewhat rambling view of art from a somewhat self-appointed cultural Pontifex Maximus.

‘Heaven and H...more

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May 08, 2011 Keisha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Extremely fun read, and the first work of Huxley's I've read that wasn't Brave New World. The blurb on the back describes it as “…among the most profound studies of the effects of mind-expanding drugs written in the twentieth century. These two books became essential for the counterculture during the 1960s and influenced a generation’s perception of life.” I can’t claim to know what life was like in the 1960s, nor can I verify that his experience on drugs were accurate reflections of the effects...more

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Oct 10, 2010 Catherine added it

"I continued to look at the flowers, and in their living light I seemed to detect the qualitative equivalent of breathing—but of a breathing without returns to a starting point, with no recurrent ebbs but only a repeated flow from beauty to heightened beauty, from deeper to ever deeper meaning. Words like "grace" and "transfiguration" came to my mind, and this, of course, was what, among other things, they stood for. My eyes traveled from the rose to the carnation, and from that feathery incande...more "I continued to look at the flowers, and in their living light I seemed to detect the qualitative equivalent of breathing—but of a breathing without returns to a starting point, with no recurrent ebbs but only a repeated flow from beauty to heightened beauty, from deeper to ever deeper meaning. Words like "grace" and "transfiguration" came to my mind, and this, of course, was what, among other things, they stood for. My eyes traveled from the rose to the carnation, and from that feathery incandescence to the smooth scrolls of sentient amethyst which were the iris. The Beatific Vision, Sat Chit Ananda, Being-Awareness-Bliss-for the first time I understood, not on the verbal level, not by inchoate hints or at a distance, but precisely and completely what those prodigious syllables referred to. And then I remembered a passage I had read in one of Suzuki's essays. "What is the Dharma-Body of the Buddha?" ('"the Dharma-Body of the Buddha" is another way of saying Mind, Suchness, the Void, the Godhead.) The question is asked in a Zen monastery by an earnest and bewildered novice. And with the prompt irrelevance of one of the Marx Brothers, the Master answers, "The hedge at the bottom of the garden." "And the man who realizes this truth," the novice dubiously inquires, '"what, may I ask, is he?" Groucho gives him a whack over the shoulders with his staff and answers, "A golden-haired lion."

It had been, when I read it, only a vaguely pregnant piece of nonsense. Now it was all as clear as day, as evident as Euclid. Of course the Dharma-Body of the Buddha was the hedge at the bottom of the garden. At the same time, and no less obviously, it was these flowers, it was anything that I—or rather the blessed Not-I, released for a moment from my throttling embrace—cared to look at. The books, for example, with which my study walls were lined. Like the flowers, they glowed, when I looked at them, with brighter colors, a profounder significance. Red books, like rubies; emerald books; books bound in white jade; books of agate; of aquamarine, of yellow topaz; lapis lazuli books whose color was so intense, so intrinsically meaningful, that they seemed to be on the point of leaving the shelves to thrust themselves more insistently on my attention. "(less)

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Apr 11, 2011 Drew Barth rated it 4 of 5 stars

The absolute best time to read this is sometime in High School, on a particularly cool day, one in which you've forgotten not only the keys to your front door, but your phone and wallet as well, and are now stuck outside for two hours, waiting for your Dad to get home from work to let you in. Most of this, then, will be about The Doors of Perception with bits of Heaven and Hell sprinkled in for the former was the one I finished first.
But, well, that's just how I did it. I have no idea if it'll w...more

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Nov 05, 2009 Mark R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is composed of two works by Aldous Huxley, both dealing with the Other World and humans' abilities and means of glimpsing this Other World. Huxley describes how a person's potential for knowing is much greater than is normally realized, our brain and nervous systems filtering 90% of what we can know at any time, in order to keep us sane. But the potential is there, he says, and by some means, including ingesting mescalin, or peyote, a person can partially bypass our natural filters and...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Chris Hennessey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, essay, non-fiction

This was worth the read if only to corroborate personal experience.

The second essay was just plain dull. I noticed some parallels between this and another recent read, "The Three-Cornered World". Both postulated wildly about the fundamentals of good art and though they held contradictory views (e.g. truly captivating sculpture depicts absolute stillness/a figure on the verge of movement), both argued equally baselessly. Huxley liked to wrap up his ad hoc theories with, "We see, then, that . . ....more

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Aug 04, 2012 Jani rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One can understand why these works caused a lot of controversy and wide spread dismissal as follies of a formerly great writer. Probably few works before it and most likely since have quite managed to create a more interesting and thought-provoking account of a drug experience as Huxley. He combines his penmanship with his profound philosophical well-readness and his endless anthropological curiosity that carries the work into a far-reaching and profound description of an experience that rightly...more One can understand why these works caused a lot of controversy and wide spread dismissal as follies of a formerly great writer. Probably few works before it and most likely since have quite managed to create a more interesting and thought-provoking account of a drug experience as Huxley. He combines his penmanship with his profound philosophical well-readness and his endless anthropological curiosity that carries the work into a far-reaching and profound description of an experience that rightly was feared to make others after him curious of the possibilities of mind altering substances.

Huxley displays throughout the novel his great interest in the mystery of human being, an interest that is one of the factors why Brave New World, for example, is still such an interesting dystopic vision. This curiosity leads him into taking steps into the perhaps greatest unknown still left to explore, the human mind and consciousness. His desire to understand the human condition and his afore mentioned prowess as a writer makes this collection at times compelling reading that reaches almost philosophical proportions and at certain times poetic visions. However, these visions are today perhaps a bit watered down by the information available to us about the workings of our minds and bodies.

The final frontier isn't as big and compelling as it still was during Huxley's days. Just like Huxley dispels the mystique of the religious experiences and art (which tellingly about its power, does not get compromised by this approach like the former) by rationally delving into the building blocks of formerly transcendent visions, the modern science have done the same to Huxley's theoretizations: I can't help but feel we live in a less magical world every year and feel a bit saddened by this (constant need to explain everything that is precious).

Nevertheless, Huxley writes about many fascinating matters and manages to create vibrations in the nervous systems of even a (post?)modern reader. For example, when he describes those who carry the Hell within them as those to whom "everything in [universe] from stars in the sky to the dust under their feet, is unspeakably sinister or disgusting; every event is charged with a hateful significance; every object manifests the presence of an Indwelling Horror, infinite, all-powerful, eternal.", I can't help but think of the poor Howard Phillips Lovecraft. While Huxley (who denied his BNW being SF) would probably have been loath to raise H.P. among his other exemplar of Van Gogh, Kafka and Gericault (as would I), it is still interesting to think Mr Lovecraft as one of those cursed with this artistic vision of Hell that Huxley writes about. Anyways, well worth reading for many reasons, be they Howard or to better understand Break on Through (to the Other Side). :) (less)

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Sep 17, 2009 Sandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Occasionally.... messages from the Other World are transmitted by means of a subject drawn, not from real life or history, but from the realm of archetypal symbols. There hangs in the Louvre a "Meditation du Philosophe," whose symbolical subject matter is nothing more nor less than the human mind, with its teeming darknesses, its moments of intellectual and visionary illumination, its mysterious stairways winding downward and upward into the unknown. The meditating philosopher sits there in his...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Peter West rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book a long time ago and only recently started reading it. Initially it caught my eye as something that might be interesting from a psychology perspective. Doors of Perception is difficult to define in terms of who will like it. It deals with how we perceive images, colour and the reality around us, and tries to analyse what makes this perception vivid or lacking in different people. It covers the use of drugs such as Mescalin and the effects that these drugs have on our perception...more

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Dec 13, 2010 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

Huxley was a brilliant man and this book was a very fascinating read. “To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception“ says Aldous Huxley, “to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large - this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the [psychologist, philosoph...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Alana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A perfectly repackaged release from the painfully cool harper perennial. One doesn't need first-hand experience of the psychedelic trip to understand what Huxley is getting (although having personal experience of a trip does illuminate scenes in which mescalin-high Aldous is overcome by the "suchness" of things being very intensely themselves.
ye
I love this book. Not only as one interested in the intellectual possibilities of psychedelics, but as one interested in just about everything. In both "...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Snafu Warrior rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sad znam odakle je Džim Morison izvukao ideju za naziv benda. Haksli svakako jeste inspiracija, pogotovo kada su u pitanju psihoaktivne supstance kao što je meskalin, ili lizergična kiselina.
Taj čovek je postao moj idol onog trenutka kada sam saznao da je na samrtnoj postelji zatražio od žene LSD- i dobio!
Elem, što se sam knjige tiče - velika očekivanja, mala opravdanja.
Nije baš da Haksli nije pokrio svoju temu, nego je previše razvukao. Da je ovo bio jedan esej od nekoliko stranica, to bi bilo...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-year-of-huxley

So I decided that, starting with 2012, I'm going to try to focus on one "great mind" each year and read as much as I can by and about that person. There will probably also be various other goofy events like celebrating the person's birthday and planning mini-vacations around the person, but that is really up in the air at this point. ANYWAY, for 2012 I decided to focus on Aldous Huxley, the great mind behind Brave New World. Sadly, that is pretty much the only book most people (including me) hav...more So I decided that, starting with 2012, I'm going to try to focus on one "great mind" each year and read as much as I can by and about that person. There will probably also be various other goofy events like celebrating the person's birthday and planning mini-vacations around the person, but that is really up in the air at this point. ANYWAY, for 2012 I decided to focus on Aldous Huxley, the great mind behind Brave New World. Sadly, that is pretty much the only book most people (including me) have read by AH, so without delay I set off to read The DoP and H&H.

First off, DoP gets totally misrepresented in contemporary society (especially contemporary college-aged stoner black-light posters on the wall and lack of deodorant society). Huxley was not a druggie, in the traditional sense. Huxley was a curious person. Keep in mind, this book was written well before LSD experiments, hippie counter-culture, the Grateful Dead, and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Huxley, being a student of philosophy and religion, wanted to see what the deal was with all the Native Americans in his region rocking out on peyote. So he did that. While it's not what we would tell our children to do, it is admirable in the sense that the dude saw a mountain to climb and he climbed the darn thing.

But the essay isn't the glorification of drugs. Far from it. Huxley systematically goes through all of the chemical "distractors" in our society (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, etc.) and elaborates on why they do more harm than good. What he does note, however, is that our society gives its citizens no logical option BUT to desperately search for an escape. From this point, he describes how he feels that peyote is the nearest to the ideal vessel for this escape.

H&H is a reflection on the DoP experience. In this text, Huxley goes into far more detail on how throughout time, people searched for transcendence. It could be through chanting and prayer (increased CO2 expulsion...who knew?) vivid colors in art, etc. Huxley says that as long as our society is in the business of keeping us in line, people will always search for an escape. He goes into this societal control more in BNW Revisted, by the way.

All in all, these two essays serve as an interesting and thought-provoking journey into the curious mind of a great thinker. Is AH advocating that we all start freaking out on peyote? Not at all. Does he want his readers to start exploring the world they live in as active, rather than passive participants? Absolutely. (less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Isil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://okudumdanoldu.blogspot.be/2012...

Öncelikle bana bu kitabı veren sevgili Haku'ma çoook teşekkür ederim. Ne zamandır okuma listemde olsa da insan dokununca koklayınca canı daha çabuk istiyor. Bu baskı aslında Aldous Huxley'nin iki ayrı kitabını içeriyor. The Doors of Perception ve onun devamı niteliğindeki Heaven and Hell. İkinci kısmını daha sonra koyacağım.

Cesur Yeni Dünya vesaire bir kenara bırakın. Bu çok başka. Zamanında legal olan algı açıcı bitkisel ve kimyasalları tahmin edemeyeceği...more

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About Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through his novels and es...more

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“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.” — 173 people liked it

“The course of every intellectual, if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough, ends in the obvious, from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.” — 26 people liked it

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