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The Doors Of Perception: And Heaven and Hell: WITH Heaven and Hell
 
 
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The Doors Of Perception: And Heaven and Hell: WITH Heaven and Hell [Kindle Edition]

Aldous Huxley (Author), J G Ballard (Introduction)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews) |
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'Concise, evocative, wise and, above all, humane, The Doors of Perception is a masterpiece' Sunday Times

Product Description

In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes everything was transformed. Huxley described his experience in The Doors of Perception and its sequel Heaven and Hell.
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Aldous Huxley
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Read this book 16 Nov 1998
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book blew my mind. Reading it was interesting, but the thoughts that it provoked were amazing - as he puts it (which seems to be the best way) it opened up an entirely new avenue of experience. Huxley's enormously wide breadth of knowledge of music, art and literature means he makes references to many works outside of mine (and I suspect most people's), and I didn't always agree with his theories, but these are tiny quibbles about a brilliant book that should be, IMHO, read by everyone.

The Doors of Perception is Huxley's account of an afternoon on which he sat down and, in a controlled experimental situation, took 0.4g of mescalin (a drug not dissimilar to lysergic acid). Heaven and Hell is his later reflections and the paths down which his thoughts went following this experience.

I generally read books simply for entertainment - this one gave me another perspective with which to look many things and left a strong, permanent and very postive effect in me.

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55 of 57 people found the following review helpful
A glimpse of reality? 16 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
The Doors of Perception is the account of Aldous Huxley's experience with the hallucinogenic drug mescalin. It is full of incredible insights into human nature and apprehensions of an ultimate reality. Though his mystic experience was drug-induced, it was nonetheless genuin and astonishing. It was on that Spring morning in 1953 that Aldous came to a complete understanding of exactly what Blake had meant when he said "If men's doors of perception were cleansed he would see everything as it is, infinite". This account is beautifully written (compiled by Huxley after the event) with the aid of his recording, thus ensuring nothing he said was lost.

To quote from the blurb: "Hugely influential, still bristling with a sense of excitement and discovery, these intense and illuminating writings remain the most fascinating accounts of the visionary experience ever written."

At only 50 pages in length (excluding the later-added 'Heaven and Hell'), The Doors of Perception is an amazing glimpse into what Huxley called 'Otherness'; "To be enlightened is to be aware, always, of total reality in its immanent otherness." I urge anyone interested by what's been said to pick up a copy (the Vintage Classic edition is your best buy) of this unique trip.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Thought provoking 14 July 2003
By S. Diment VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
"The Doors of Perception" is an account of Huxley’s experience of taking the hallucinatory drug Mescalin under controlled conditions, and the rather rambling but vivid thoughts and sensations that resulted. Huxley’s abilities as a writer enable him to describe them much more effectively than most people could.

"Heaven and Hell" is a post experience discussion of the effects of Mescalin. Huxley considers other ways of achieving the same visionary experience as the drug induces, such as starvation or meditation, and notes work by other writers and artists that suggests they must have had similar experiences. He compares these experiences through the work produced, and also considers how these experiences might relate to people who have some form of mental disorder, such as schizophrenia.

Despite the passage of time since the book was written, it hasn’t really dated. His reflections highlight the fact that our knowledge of how the human brain works has only advanced very slowly over the last half century.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent
The Doors of perception is 40 clever and intense pages. I think everybody should let go and ready this book.
Published 3 months ago by Branwenn
Poetic vision of altered states of mind...A great read....
This book is as inspirational as books get.I first read it nearly 20 years ago,and the experience has not changed one bit. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. R. S. Akhtar
A wild ride
This is a must for disco biscuit fans or anyone who thinks that getting nutted is a modern invention. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Gaz Pacho
A Manifesto for Our Techno Age
These days we are all happy with our technology, and rightly so. Our Android smart phones allow the world to fit into the palm of our hands; internet highways let the uninteresting... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Halifax Student Account
A book that infuses quite a fair bit on Eastern philosophy
It is a fairly short book that is easy to go through. Quite an interesting read as Huxley offers a unique perception into what he sees after he took the mescalin, though some of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ky
An essential tool for coping with modern life
In our increasingly fame, money and sex obsessed, instant gratification based society, Huxley's The Doors of Perception provide beyond valuable summaries and conclusions about what... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2010 by Ray L
Fantastic
Yeah, this is a really good book. Although both were a bit shorter than I expected, they were also brimming with knoledge and ideas. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2009 by S. G.
Russells new book
I enjoyed this book, I know its one I will read again soon
theres so much to it even though it has not many pages.
Published on 13 May 2009 by Russell Wells
The Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley explains clearly and dispassionately the effects of a small dose of mescalin he took.He compares the experience of seeing the world in it's heightened and altered... Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2009 by D. Mcmullin
The Doors fo Perception
Genius, a seminal masterpiece. If you are looking for an insightful text to further your understanding of the possibilities and wealth of perception outside the premises of... Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2009 by Melanie J. Harris
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Popular Highlights

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The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful. &quote;
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The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive. &quote;
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We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. &quote;
Highlighted by 20 Kindle users

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