Huxley

I found this quote interesting and funny cosidering that we recently turned in an assignment where we had to define 'altered states of consciousness'---"The mind is its own place, and the places inhabited by the issane and the exceptionally gifted are so different from the places where ordinary men and women live, that there is little or no common ground of memory to serve as a basis for understanding or fellow feelings. Words are uttered, but fail to enlighten. The things and events to which the symbols refer belong to mutually exclusive realms of experience" (13). This almost sounds like you wouldn't be able to define a ASOC without having been in one before. Huxley talks about his mecalin experience and how place and time are insignificant. In discussing the experience and seeing his books on a shelf he notes that "What I noticed, what impressed itself upon my mind was the fact that all of them glowed with living light and that in some the glory was more manifest than in others" (20). I'm curious as to what he means by the "glory was more manifest than in others" part. What does glory look like? Maybe even more importantly, which books? Was there something that just looked different about them or was it related to their contents? I own/have many books that sit on my shelf---some of which I like more than others. I wonder if his 'favorites' looked different to him or if I'm just not understanding what he means by 'glory'. The anti-drug campaign has a new argument thanks to Huxley's summarizing of the mescalin users reaction to the drug: "The mescalin taker sees no reason for doing anything in particular and finds most of the causes for which, at ordinary times, he was prepared to act and suffer, profoundly uninteresting" (25). According to this then, you might find enlightenment or gain a new perspective on life but you won't want to do anything productive (doing work, taking care of responsibilities, running errands, etc.) I realize that work, work, work is not any way to live your life but can you imagine what would happen if enough people decided to give up on their work/family/daily activities? I can't help but picture in my mind a bunch of people on mescalin just staring at books, furniture, etc. I know it's not necessarily realistic but it did make me laugh to think about it.

I also found the part about why we dream in black and white interesting. Huxley quotes Prof. Calvin Hall, "We have come to the conclusion that color in dreams yields no information about the personality of the dreamer" (90). He goes on to say that color in dreams is analogous to color in 'reality', in that, they are both useless. We perceive or 'see' color in reality but it doesn't tell us anything, does it? Additionally, he states that "Color turns out to be a kind of touchstone of reality. That which is given is colored; that which our symbol-creating intellect and fancy put together is uncolored" (91). I must not be getting this. I'm thinking about how things can be red (a color) when they are hot. Such as: a burner on the stove or metal when it is still being molded/formed. I've learned through experience that things can be hot when they are red---but the color red didn't teach me that. The color red didn't come first (as in the chicken or the egg), but rather, my experiences taught me not to touch things that are hot (or red, that is). So if 'red' is a symbol to me of 'hot', then where did it come from? I'm so confused. He also says, "Thus the external world is perceived as colored. Dreams, which are not given but fabricated by the personal subconscious, are generally in black and white" (90). I completely lost my thought I had about this---it had something to do with the word 'fabricate' that he uses. I don't know---anyway, I'm going to have to try to remember some of my dreams because I feel like I do dream in color.