The doors of perception
The Doors of Perception is a book by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1954, it details his taking mescaline in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. (Wikipedia)
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What Hacker News says
- Fair enough, but I have read Island, The Doors of Perception, and BNW, and none of those books described using uppers or anything about efficiency. Island was psychedelics (fantastic book in my opinion).
- Being obsessed with folds in clothing has a long, noble history - check out Huxley's Doors of Perception
- Flowers for Algernon (Keyes)
Doors of Perception (Huxley)
We (Zamyatin)
- When you throw open Huxley's doors of perception you get an extraordinary experience in the most quotidian of conditions. Like watching a river run by or just watching the washing machine run. Non psychonauts have to do extraordinary things, like become astronauts, to get to a similar level of awe-struck. A trip on a trip is a tragic waste of a trip.
- >> life-altering experience ... doesn't seem to make them a worse, better, or even different person
The best insight you will get, without taking the trip yourself is going to come from reading Huxley's "Doors of Perception". A large enough dose will give you all sorts of interesting insights into your own thinking.
The closest your going to come to this, is the first time you watch the film "The Game", assuming you pay close enough attention and are tuned into it as a film and the characters in it. However it pales in comparison to the real thing.
- >> Like every man of sense and good feeling, I abominate work. But I would rather put in eight hours a day at a Government office than be condemned to lead a life of "pleasure"; I would even, I believe, prefer to write a million words of journalism a year.
I adore Huxley. Brave New World, The Doors of Perception, Those Barren Leaves...
I think the overmedication facet of Brave New World is so very true. We know we have an opioid problem because people are addicted and then dying. I think it would be naive to think that we aren't doing the same with everything in psychopharmacology.
