The Doors of Perception From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Doors of Perception DoorsofPerception.jpg 1st edition (UK) Author Aldous Huxley Country United Kingdom Language English Subject Philosophy Genre Non-fiction Publisher Chatto & Windus (UK) Harper & Row (US) Publication date 1954 Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Pages 63 (hardcover, first edition; without the accompanying essay 'Heaven & Hell', written in 1956) ISBN 0-06-059518-3 OCLC 54372147 Dewey Decimal 615/.7883 22 LC Class RM666.P48 H9 2004 The Doors of Perception is a short book by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1954, detailing his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and 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".[1] He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. Contents [hide] 1 Background 1.1 Mescaline (Peyote and San Pedro Cactus) 1.2 Peyote as entheogen drug 1.3 Research by Humphry Osmond 2 Huxley's experience with mescaline 2.1 Day of the experiment 2.2 Compilation of the book 3 Synopsis 4 Reception 4.1 Robert Charles Zaehner 4.2 Huston Smith 5 Later experience 6 Influence 7 Cultural references 8 Publication history 9 See also 10 References Background[edit] Mescaline (Peyote and San Pedro Cactus)[edit] Main article: Mescaline Mescaline is the principal agent of the psychedelic cactus peyote and San Pedro cactus, which has been used in Native American religious ceremonies for thousands of years.[2] A German pharmacologist, Arthur Heffter, isolated the alkaloids in the peyote cactus in 1891. These included mescaline, which he showed through a combination of animal and self-experiments was the compound responsible for the psychoactive properties of the plant. In 1919, Ernst Späth, another German chemist, synthesised the drug.[3] Although personal accounts of taking the cactus had been written by psychologists such as Weir Mitchell in the US and Havelock Ellis in the UK during the 1890s, the German-American Heinrich Kluver was the first to systematically study its psychological effects in a small book called Mescal and Mechanisms of Hallucinations published in 1928. The book stated that the drug could be used to research the unconscious mind. Peyote as entheogen drug[edit] In the 1930s, an American anthropologist Weston La Barre, published The Peyote Cult, the first study of the ritual use of peyote as an entheogen drug amongst the Huichol people of western Mexico. La Barre noted that the Indian users of the cactus took it to obtain visions for prophecy, healing and inner strength.[4] Most psychiatric research projects into the drug in the 1930s and early 1940s tended to look at the role of the drug in mimicking psychosis.[5] In 1947 however, the US Navy undertook Project Chatter, which examined the potential for the drug as a truth revealing agent. In the early 1950s, when Huxley wrote his book, mescaline was still regarded as a research chemical rather than a drug and was listed in the Parke-Davis catalogue with no controls.[6] Close up of a peyote cactus growing in the wild. A peyote cactus, from which mescaline is derived. Huxley had been interested in spiritual matters and had used alternative therapies for some time. In 1936 he told TS Eliot that he was starting to meditate,[7] and he used other therapies too; the Alexander Technique and the Bates Method of seeing had particular importance in guiding him through personal crises.[8] In the late Thirties he had become interested in the spiritual teaching of Vedanta and in 1945 he published The Perennial Philosophy, which set out a philosophy that he believed was found amongst mystics of all religions. He had known for some time of visionary experience achieved by taking drugs in certain non-Christian religions. Research by Humphry Osmond[edit] Huxley had first heard of peyote use in ceremonies of the Native American Church in New Mexico soon after coming to the United States in 1937.[9] He first became aware of the cactus’s active ingredient, mescaline, after reading an academic paper written by Humphry Osmond, a British psychiatrist working at Weyburn Mental Hospital, Saskatchewan in early 1952. Osmond's paper set out results from his research into schizophrenia using mescaline that he had been undertaking with colleagues, doctors Abram Hoffer and John Smythies.[10] In the ep the bras and both Osmond and Maria remained with him throughout.[19]photo of the day that showed Huxley wearing flannels.[23]

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