The Doors of Perception Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. Best known for his novels such as Brave New World and in this case, The Doors of Perception; Huxley authored eighty-two pieces of literature in his lifetime. A family man, Huxley had five siblings, married twice, and had one child. Huxley identified himself as a humanist, pacifist, and satirist, later becoming interested in more spiritual topics such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism; Universalism in particular. Living sixty-nine years, Huxley passed away on November 22, 1963; the same day as both C.S Lewis and President John F. Kennedy. On his deathbed he had one dying wish written out to his wife Laura asking for one hundred micrograms of LSD,
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The novel is very short with the first copy only reaching sixty-three pages in length. The novel details Huxley's monitored experience taking doses of the drug peyote, or mescaline. Taking it's title from a quote by William Blake, the novel reflects on Huxley's experience, relating them to both art and religion. Huxley initiated the writing of this essay, contacting psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and offering himself as an experimental subject. Huxley had been studying the effects of mescaline on the tribes who had taken the psychedelic drug to produce religious images. He believed our mind could reach a higher realm of consciousness, one that he wanted to experience, one that he wanted to show the world. He wanted to add verification to his beliefs. He wanted to explain to the world what he experienced, how he was right, and how they should follow in his …show more content…
However, the visual aspects of an object become more intense and the experience becomes so entrancing that the user will find no reason to call on actions. A few hours into the experience Huxley is taken to the World's Biggest Drug Store to be shown different books on art. One of the books showcases Botticelli's Judith which influences the acknowledgment of drapery as a major theme in art because it allows the artist to develop an abstract representational creation of mood and being. Human affairs become frivolous while under the influence of mescaline, Huxley acknowledges this by explaining his perspective of self portraits while on the drug. Cezanne's portrait seems pretentious, who did he think he was? On the other hand, Vermeer's still life paintings are the nearest depiction of the not-self state that Huxley experiences, allowing girls to be girls and not apples. Huxley decides that the experience between mescaline use and art doesn't represent contemplation to its fullness, the chair that Van Gogh paints will never be as much as it “is” as when you view it in this influenced
The novel is very short with the first copy only reaching sixty-three pages in length. The novel details Huxley's monitored experience taking doses of the drug peyote, or mescaline. Taking it's title from a quote by William Blake, the novel reflects on Huxley's experience, relating them to both art and religion. Huxley initiated the writing of this essay, contacting psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and offering himself as an experimental subject. Huxley had been studying the effects of mescaline on the tribes who had taken the psychedelic drug to produce religious images. He believed our mind could reach a higher realm of consciousness, one that he wanted to experience, one that he wanted to show the world. He wanted to add verification to his beliefs. He wanted to explain to the world what he experienced, how he was right, and how they should follow in his …show more content…
However, the visual aspects of an object become more intense and the experience becomes so entrancing that the user will find no reason to call on actions. A few hours into the experience Huxley is taken to the World's Biggest Drug Store to be shown different books on art. One of the books showcases Botticelli's Judith which influences the acknowledgment of drapery as a major theme in art because it allows the artist to develop an abstract representational creation of mood and being. Human affairs become frivolous while under the influence of mescaline, Huxley acknowledges this by explaining his perspective of self portraits while on the drug. Cezanne's portrait seems pretentious, who did he think he was? On the other hand, Vermeer's still life paintings are the nearest depiction of the not-self state that Huxley experiences, allowing girls to be girls and not apples. Huxley decides that the experience between mescaline use and art doesn't represent contemplation to its fullness, the chair that Van Gogh paints will never be as much as it “is” as when you view it in this influenced