A Review of Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception”
By: Jina Zhao
Tags: Doors Of Perception, Psychedelics, Lsd, Aldous Huxley, Perception

Renowned writer Aldous Huxley, best known for his great dystopian novel Brave New World (1931), writes in his essay “The Doors of Perception” a detailed account of his first experience with the psychedelic mescaline.

Found in the peyote cactus native to Mexico, mescaline has been used by Indigenous American cultures for over 5,000 years. Its introduction to the modern world, however, did not begin until the early 20th century, when scientists, intellectuals, and artists began to experiment with it for its reported mind-altering and creativity-inducing properties. Aldous Huxley became acquainted with mescaline after reading an essay by Humphry Osmond, and, with the help of Osmond, decided to personally experiment with the substance. “The Doors of Perception” is not simply an account of a drug experience. In it, Huxley elucidates his views on art, nature, consciousness, religion, and education, and suggests a potential positive role that psychedelics could have on society.

Of his many notions, the one that I found the most revolutionary and consequential was his view on the brain and consciousness. Advancing a theory put forth by eminent 19th-century philosopher Henri Bergson, Huxley proposes the idea of the mind as a “reducing valve” whereby the main role of the brain, nervous system and sense organs is to filter rather than generate knowledge.

According to Huxley, each individual is capable of remembering all that has happened to them and able to perceive everything occurring in the universe, which he calls ‘Mind at Large.’ Normally, the brain and nervous system protect us from being overwhelmed by this vast amount of mostly irrelevant information, leaving only what is deemed practically useful. ‘Normal’ consciousness, therefore, is a kind of reduced awareness. By inhibiting the production of certain enzymes which regulate the supply of glucose to brain cells, Mescaline lowers the effectiveness of the mind’s ‘reducing valve,’ thereby allowing one to be ‘transported.’

Artists and mystics are those who have greater access to ‘Mind at Large’ than the average person, evidenced by their penchant for seeing ‘biologically useless’ colors and visions. In a synthesized discussion of art and mescaline’s unique properties (part of his trip occurs at “the world’s biggest drugstore” where he browses through some art books and offers undeniably eloquent commentary) Huxley seems to offer an uncritical appraisal of the substance.

Despite his accounts of its various restoring effects, the bottom line of “The Doors of Perception” has less to do with psychedelics and more to do with reawakening a timeless consciousness:

“I am not so foolish as to equate what happens under the influence of mescaline or of any other drug, prepared or in the future preparable, with the realization of the end and ultimate purpose of human life: Enlightenment, the Beatific Vision. All I am suggesting is that the mescaline experience is what Catholic theologians call “a gratuitous grace,” not necessary to salvation but potentially helpful and to be accepted thankfully, if made available. To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large — this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual.”

Perhaps what we as individuals should aspire for is not the drug-induced change of perception, but a general openness towards experience. By limiting the role that fear plays in our lives and allowing our minds to roam more freely, perhaps, even without mescaline, we could hope to apprehend the world of Mind at Large.