During the 1950s, Huxley's interest in the field of psychical research grew keener and his later works are strongly influenced by both mysticism and his experiences with the psychedelic drugs. In October of 1930, the Mystic Aleister Crowley dined with Huxley in Berlin, and to this day rumours persist that Crowley introduced Huxley to peyote on that occasion. He was introduced to mescaline by the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in 1953; on December 24, 1955, Huxley took his first dosage of LSD. Indeed Huxley was a pioneer of self-directed psychedelic drug use "in a search for enlightenment", famously taking 100 micrograms of LSD as he lay dying. His psychedelic drug experiences are described in the essays The Doors of Perception (the title deriving from some lines in the book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake) and Heaven and Hell. The title of the former became the inspiration for the naming of the rock band, The Doors. Some of his writings on psychedelics became frequent reading among early hippies. While living in Los Angeles, Huxley was a friend and mentor to Ray Bradbury.
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Farhad2000Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was an English writer who emigrated to the United States, living in Los Angeles until his death in 1963. He was a member of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through his novels and essays Huxley functioned as an examiner and sometimes critic of social mores, societal norms and ideals. Huxley was a humanist but was also interested towards the end of his life in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, about which he also wrote. By the end of his life, Huxley was considered, in many academic circles, a 'leader of modern thought' and an intellectual of the highest rank.
* On truth: "Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations."
* On psychological totalitarianism (1959): "And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing … a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods."
* On social organizations: "One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters."
* On heroin: "Who lives longer: the man who takes heroin for two years and dies, or the man who lives on roast beef, water, and potatoes till ninety-five? One passes his twenty-four months in eternity. All the years of the beef-eater are lived only in time."
* On words: "Words form the thread on which we string our experiences."
* On experience: "Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." – Texts and Pretexts, 1932
* After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.- Music at Night, 1931
* "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." - - Aldous Huxley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley
Farhad2000<ahref="http://www.videosift.com/edit.php?id=29337">Aldous Huxley: Sum & Substance (1/3)
A conversation with Aldous Huxley. The first of three parts covers the following:
- Intelligence & Good Will
- Discoursive Logic & Non-verbal Awareness
- Scientific language & Poetry
- Culture's Benefits & Traps
- Breaking out of our culture
<ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbAPLJUl3mI">Aldous Huxley: Sum & Substance (2/3)
The second of three parts covers the following:
- Power politics / Arms race
- Destruction of the environment
- Corybantic dances / Dionysian orgies
- The Third World's dilemma
- Large-scale educational experimentation
- Reptilian brain vs. Neocortex
<ahref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDMtbadCYY">Aldous Huxley: Sum & Substance (3/3)
The last of three parts covers the following:
- Human potential
- New educational approaches
- Receptivity: "A wise passiveness"
Farhad2000Not surprised to see this get so few votes...
mauz15keep it up farhad
Getting closer to that well deserved '250' diamond
mas8705*dead
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mauz15*talks *dead
siftbotThis published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by mauz15.
Adding video to channels (Talks) - requested by mauz15.
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