Aldous Huxley

[[File:Aldous Huxley psychical researcher.png|thumb|right|165px|Huxley in 1954]]
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{{cquote|To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves.|||Aldous Huxley<ref name=doors>''The Doors of Perception'' by Aldous Huxley (1954) Harper.</ref>{{rp|13}}}}
'''Aldous Huxley''' {{lived|1894|1963}} was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[author]], best known for the 1931 [[dystopian]] novel, ''Brave New World'',<ref>''Brave New World'' by Aldous Huxley (2006) Harper Perennial. [[Special:Booksources/0060850523|ISBN 0060850523]].</ref> and to a lesser extent for the [[Hallucination|hallucinogenic]] [[Peyote|mescaline]]-inspired 1954 philosophical essay, ''The Doors of Perception''.<ref name=doors/> He was also a grandson of biologist [[Thomas Henry Huxley]].

As a teenager, Huxley became completely blind from infectious keratitis, but eventually recovered some vision. Huxley was a supporter of the dangerous and ineffective [[Bates eye method]] for vision improvement, going so far as to write a 1942 book on the subject, ''The Art of Seeing''.<ref>''The Art of Seeing'' by Aldous Huxley & Laura Huxley (1982) Creative Arts Book Company. ISBN 0916870480.</ref>

In 1954, Huxley wrote an article for ''Life'' magazine titled, "A case for ESP, PK and Psi".<ref name=life>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vkgEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false "A case for ESP, PK and Psi: Famous Writer Argues that Evidence Proves the Mind is Capable of Telepathy, Can Foresee Events and Even Exert Influence Over Matter"] by Aldous Huxley (January 11, 1954) ''Life'', pages 96-108.</ref> In the article, he supported several [[pseudoscientific]] ideas: [[extrasensory perception]] (ESP), [[psychokinesis]] (PK), [[telepathy]], [[psi]]<ref name=life/> that by then were long-since discredited. As supporting evidence, Huxley referred to the [[Society for Psychical Research]],<ref name=life/> whose level of [[skepticism]] had become quite minimal by the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. The ''Life'' article was Huxley's most well known publication on [[woo]], but Huxley's belief in the [[supernatural]] dated back to the 1930s.<ref>[http://www.unz.org/Pub/Forum-1935apr-00248?View=PDF Science Views the Supernatural - I] by Aldous Huxley (April 1935) ''Forum and Century'', pp. 248-252.</ref>

==''Brave New World''==
{{cquote|What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.||| Neil Postman ''Amusing Ourselves to Death: Politcs in the Age of Showbusiness''<ref>https://www.tau.ac.il/education/muse/maslool/boidem/170foreword.html</ref>}}
He is perhaps best known for ''Brave New World'', published in 1932. This describes a future society based on [[Command economy|command economics]], [[Consumerism]], [[Taylorism]], [[Totalitarianism]], mass production, a [[Caste|Caste system]], [[Eugenics]], [[Genetic modification]], Recreational [[Psychedelic drug|Psychedelic]] euphoriant [[Drug abuse|drug abuse and addiction]], [[Brainwashing]], [[Sleep-learning|Sleep]]-[[Propaganda|propaganda]], [[Personality cult]] surrounding [[Sigmund Freud]] and Henry Ford, [[Anti-intellectualism]], [[Bread and circuses]], Collectivism, [[Prostitution]], [[Free love| “Free” love]], and [[Child sexual abuse]] are used to create a “[[Dystopia|utopian]] society” free of [[war]], [[racism]], [[sexism]], suffering, starvation or famine at the cost of all artistic, religious, political, intellectual, emotional, and individual liberties, rights and freedoms. In it, everybody takes the psychoactive drug "soma"{{efn|A [[Vedas|vedic]] intoxicant later believed by R. Gordon Wasson to be the psychoactive mushroom ''[[Purported legal highs#Amanita muscaria|Amanita muscaria]]''<ref>''Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality'' by R. Gordon Wasson (1968). Mouton.</ref>}} to have a good time, while babies are grown in artificial wombs and classified before birth from alpha to epsilon according to their future social status. Society worships [[Henry Ford]] rather than Jesus: dates are given "After Ford" based upon the Model T in 1908, and people swear "By Ford!" and worship with T-shaped crosses (cut the top off a cross to give a T).<ref>{{wpa|Brave New World}}</ref> Although he copied ideas from various scientists including [[J. B. S. Haldane]], he has also been accused of [[Plagiarism|plagiarising]] Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel ''We'' (1923) (which [[George Orwell]] is accused of plagiarizing and he himself accused Huxley of the same).<ref>[http://mentalfloss.com/article/64046/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-brave-new-world 15 Things You Might Not Know About Brave New World], Mental Floss, May 20, 2015</ref>

Upon publication, the book was banned in [[Ireland]] and [[Australia]], as it was viewed to be anti-religious and anti-family by people who failed to notice the [[satire]] and social criticism.<ref>[http://blog.naa.gov.au/banned/2013/07/02/brave-new-world/ Brave New World], Amy Lay, ''Banned'' blog, National Archives of Australia, July 2, 2013</ref> It came third on the American Library Association's 2010 list of books people most wanted to ban, although reasons ranged from [[sexual]] explicitness to its allegedly [[racist]] treatment of [[Native American]]s.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/12/brave-new-world-challenged-books Brave New World among top 10 books Americans most want banned], The Guardian, Apr 21, 2011</ref>

==See also==
*[[Adrenochrome]] — Huxley fabricated the description of this chemical in his ''Doors of Perception''
*The [[Bates eye method#Aldous Huxley|Aldous Huxley]] section of [[Bates eye method]]
*[[Thomas Henry Huxley]] — His grandfather
*''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' – Another [[Dystopia|dystopian]] story where pleasure and [[anti-intellectualism]] is used to pacify us, at the cost of all intellectual and cultural freedoms. In it, any book that is too violent, sexual, vulgar, bigoted (or anti-bigoted for that matter), ideological, controversial, biting, thought-provoking, etc is censored and [[Book burning|burned]], and since every book offends at least one group, the state bans all books and burns them along with burning alive the people who read them. In its place, television and consumerism take its place, and the attention span of the average person is only about 30 seconds because of the media, making sure no one can read books anyway. Meant by author and honorary Martian Ray Bradbury as a critique of [[McCarthyism]], [[Nazism]], mob mentality, [[political correctness]] and [[conservative correctness]] at the same time, television, 1950s consumerism and excess, and most of all [[censorship]] (especially intellectual censorship) of any kind.

==External links==
*{{wpa|Aldous Huxley}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

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[[Category:Agnostics]]
[[Category:Alternative medicine promoters]]
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Categories: Agnostics, Alternative medicine promoters, Authors, British people, Parapsychology, Philosophers, Plagiarists, Pseudoscience promoters, Psychic powers, Science fiction