Title The Doors of Perception

Author Aldous Huxley

Year Published 1954

Kind of Book Psychedelic/Spirituality/Consciousness

How strongly I recommend it 9/10 

My Impressions Huxley wrote this after his first psychedelic experience on Mescaline. It changed the way he thought of consciousness. Reading this piece might change the way you think of consciousness too. Lots to chew on.

Date Read circa 2018

Big Ideas

  • Every individual is solitary

Because

  • Every individual has their own unique subjective experiences (sensations, feelings, and fancies) that only they experience

  • We are able to communicate information ABOUT an experience we have had to other people

but

  • Other people can never directly experience one of our subjective experiences

  • Each human possess Mind at Large (ie. Buddha consciousness ie. Nondual consciousness)

However

  • We are all animals

and

  • The goal of all animals is to survive

 So

  • During normal consciousness our ego filters out the majority of the input that it receives from the outside world

  • Because

  • Most of the input we receive from the outside world at any given second is not useful to us or to our survival (from an Evolutionary perspective)

  • Under the influence of psychedelics (or other states of consciousness) the filtering mechanisms in our ego are weakened an we receive heightened levels of input from the outside world (and can even attain Mind at Large ie. Nondual consciousness)

  • Language was created in normal consciousness

therefore

  • Language contains no words to describe what one experiences in an altered consciousness

  • Mescaline inhibits production of enzymes that regulate the supply of glucose to the brain cells.

Therefore

  • Under the influence of mescaline the brain runs out of sugar, the undernourished ego grows weak, and is not able to filter out all of the inputs it usually does

  • What most people see only under the influence of Mescaline, the artist is congenially equipped to see all the time

  • The artist is able to see more than what is biologically and socially useful

  • If things always looked at beautiful/extraordinary/fascinating as they do on mescaline we would never want to do anything else (ie. Hunt, forage, build shelter, and other things that keep us alive)

  • There would be less evil in the world if people were able to sit quietly and contently alone in their room -Blaise Pascal

  • Under the influence of mescaline people would have no problem sitting quietly and contently in their rooms

  • Most people are unable to find the words to describe their spectacular visionary experiences

  • During the normal waking consciousness the ego/conscious mind tries to run the show

  • During a mescaline trip the ego/conscious mind is out of the way (ie. Dead ie. Gone)

  • The soul has an urge to transcend self-conscious selfhood (ie. The feeling of being an individual separate from everything else ie. Ego)

  • When people aren't able to transcend their self-conscious selfhood (ie. The feeling of being an individual separate from everything else) through worship, good works, and spiritual exercises, they turn to alcohol and narcotics

 

After a transcendent experience (whether via psychedelics or otherwise) a person will never be the same

  1. They will be

  2. happier but less self-satisfied

  3. Humbler in acknowledging their ignorance

  4. Better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things

 

Unknown Terms

Bergen’s theory: “...According to such a theory, each one of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals, our business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle if the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet. To formulate and express the contents of this reduced awareness, Man has invented and endlessly elaborated those symbol-systems and implicit philosophies which we call languages...."

The reducing valve: a term coined by Aldous Huxley to describe the process in which the ego (during normal unintoxicated waking consciousness) filters out most of the input it receives because it is not useful in attaining social or biological goals.

Mind at Large: a concept proposed by Aldous Huxley to help interpret psychedelic experience. He maintained that the ego filters reality under normal circumstances and that psychedelic drugs remove the filter, exposing the user to a type of total consciousness. 2)sim to Buddha consciousness or no dualistic consciousness