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A review by tabsfchnr
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
4.0
Mescalin is the active ingredient in peyotl, a cactus with psychoactive effects. Huxley takes four-tenths of a gram of mescalin as part of a study, and writes his interpretation of his experience that afternoon.
The result is a brilliantly articulated hypothesis on the insights this offers into understanding the source of madness (schizophrenia) and the themes across centuries of art - gems, fabrics, landscapes - as a means to transport the viewer to the furthest regions of the mind. At these remote places, the "antipodes", one sees scapes and creatures unrelatable to every day existence and yet somehow familiar, if only through the universal, trans-generational consciousness of "The Mind at Large".
The second half, Heaven and Hell, makes clear that, for most, the experience may be one of bliss; of bright, intricate geometries that instill a sense of connection to the Divine - heaven. Yet for a few, the same bright shapes are blinding, and the same infinity frightening - hell. This is dependent on the state of the mind at the time of the experience. Are you experiencing negative emotions? - "The fear which is the absence of confidence, the hatred, anger or malice which exclude love". Thus faith trumps virtue in guaranteeing a blissful visionary experience. Thus "the nature of the mind is such that the sinner who makes an act of faith is more likely to have a blissful visionary experience than is the self-satisfied pillar of society with his anxiety and ingrained habits of blaming, despising, and condemning".
Clearly this has many parallels to ordinary folk and ordinary life. How much of reality is another form of the mind's illusions? How many of these elaborate visuals stem from the mundane, banal sediment of day to day existence?
In the end I guess it all boils down to concept vs. percept and our ability to transcend our identification with symbols.
The result is a brilliantly articulated hypothesis on the insights this offers into understanding the source of madness (schizophrenia) and the themes across centuries of art - gems, fabrics, landscapes - as a means to transport the viewer to the furthest regions of the mind. At these remote places, the "antipodes", one sees scapes and creatures unrelatable to every day existence and yet somehow familiar, if only through the universal, trans-generational consciousness of "The Mind at Large".
The second half, Heaven and Hell, makes clear that, for most, the experience may be one of bliss; of bright, intricate geometries that instill a sense of connection to the Divine - heaven. Yet for a few, the same bright shapes are blinding, and the same infinity frightening - hell. This is dependent on the state of the mind at the time of the experience. Are you experiencing negative emotions? - "The fear which is the absence of confidence, the hatred, anger or malice which exclude love". Thus faith trumps virtue in guaranteeing a blissful visionary experience. Thus "the nature of the mind is such that the sinner who makes an act of faith is more likely to have a blissful visionary experience than is the self-satisfied pillar of society with his anxiety and ingrained habits of blaming, despising, and condemning".
Clearly this has many parallels to ordinary folk and ordinary life. How much of reality is another form of the mind's illusions? How many of these elaborate visuals stem from the mundane, banal sediment of day to day existence?
In the end I guess it all boils down to concept vs. percept and our ability to transcend our identification with symbols.