4/5 stars
What's it about? In three essays, Aldous Huxley dissects the visionary experience and its attainment through mind-altering drugs. Of particular enjoyment is “Heaven and Hell,” in which Huxley discusses non-pharmacological means of transcendence, such as art and breath work. Compelling, dense, and effective in its call to seek the “Mind at Large.”
How’d I find it? I came to this book through Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind, a book club selection for Solid State Books.
Who will enjoy this book? In addition to those intrigued by How to Change Your Mind, this book might also appeal to readers of Eckhart Tolle.
What stood out? Huxley advocates relaxing the brain’s survival-focused filter from time to time to expand one’s perception and feel true being. In addition to the mescalin and LSD he champions, Huxley unconvincingly argues that color, light, and physical exertion can free the mind but fail to impress our oversaturated and modern sensibilities. His thoughts about how theatrics and alcohol interact with transcendence and religion seem somewhat unresearched but offer food for thought to expand one’s own ideas.
Which line made me feel something? “Visionary experience is not the same as mystical experience. Mystical experience is beyond the realm of opposites. Visionary experience is still within that realm. Heaven entails hell, and ‘going to heaven’ is no more liberation than is the descent into horror. Heaven is merely a vantage point, from which the divine Ground can be more clearly seen than on the level of ordinary individualized existence.”
