Yikes...
I had been under the impression that this book would document the experiences of an intelligent mind under the effects of mescalin. Instead it seemed to spiral into an abstract breakdown of reality in which points of view and experiences were supported with notions of "is-ness", something referred to as a "not-I", the "Mind at Large" and "the All in every This". The further I read, the farther away from understanding I ended up. In truth, I was barely able to finish the reading because I was not able to relate to what Huxley was trying to say. I understood certain aspects of the writing, such as the drugs effect on the perceptions of color, space and time, but overall, the idea that the "effects of a cerebral sugar shortage" (page 28) exposed a new universe of understanding...of BEING, was lost on me (personally).
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Hughes and Walsh
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Hughes and Walsh
This whole chapter along with Walsh had me thinking. These Shamans supposedly were one with themself and had underlying powers. I dont believe in this kind of stuff because i also dont believe in powers or other out of body experiences. In the chapter from Hughes, it said that the Shamans could dream while they are in a conscious state. How is that possible? Now i have heard of day dreaming but to be completely out of it while still being concscious is a little far fetched for me to even consider about! They also talk about the fact that the Shamans will port out to another "world". That sounds like some nonsense to me. Now i have heard of going into shock but not just going into a new state of consciousness.
Walsh's chapters also had me thinking. He comes up with alot of myths about shamanism that maybe with time i could believe in. I am very optimistic and open to experiencing new things and this would defiently be one of those instances. I feel that after i learn more and more about the subject, i will be able to believe in it a little more than i do now. Good reading though! : )
Posted by Kapone at 8:17 AM
Hughes and Walsh
This whole chapter along with Walsh had me thinking. These Shamans supposedly were one with themself and had underlying powers. I dont believe in this kind of stuff because i also dont believe in powers or other out of body experiences. In the chapter from Hughes, it said that the Shamans could dream while they are in a conscious state. How is that possible? Now i have heard of day dreaming but to be completely out of it while still being concscious is a little far fetched for me to even consider about! They also talk about the fact that the Shamans will port out to another "world". That sounds like some nonsense to me. Now i have heard of going into shock but not just going into a new state of consciousness.
Walsh's chapters also had me thinking. He comes up with alot of myths about shamanism that maybe with time i could believe in. I am very optimistic and open to experiencing new things and this would defiently be one of those instances. I feel that after i learn more and more about the subject, i will be able to believe in it a little more than i do now. Good reading though! : )
Posted by Kapone at 8:17 AM
Cosmic Egg
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Cosmic Egg
Reality? What is it viewed as in today's society. It is a funny thing. This was a very interesting reading. It had me thinking for a little bit. At first i was confused due to the weird nature of the title but then things began to get more clear. Pearce offered good explanation on the lack of thinking people actually do. We tend to only think about things that are relatively important. We tend to lose sight on things that will go down in the future. I can't even lie. I do that all the time! I tell myself that i will keep in mind all things i have to do but for the most part, i just worry about the things most important to me determined by date. On the other hand, it is good to just prioritize what you think about. A person can only handle thinking about so much at one time. I know it would be even harder for children due to the fact that they already have a whole lot to think about.
Personally, I think that this book might be really interesting. I like how he said that autistic individuals are not the ones missing things, it is the normal people. I agree with him. I worked with autistic children over the summer and they most defiantly are creative. They have ways to think and do things that normal people would not regularly do. All you have to do is give them time.
Cosmic Egg
Reality? What is it viewed as in today's society. It is a funny thing. This was a very interesting reading. It had me thinking for a little bit. At first i was confused due to the weird nature of the title but then things began to get more clear. Pearce offered good explanation on the lack of thinking people actually do. We tend to only think about things that are relatively important. We tend to lose sight on things that will go down in the future. I can't even lie. I do that all the time! I tell myself that i will keep in mind all things i have to do but for the most part, i just worry about the things most important to me determined by date. On the other hand, it is good to just prioritize what you think about. A person can only handle thinking about so much at one time. I know it would be even harder for children due to the fact that they already have a whole lot to think about.
Personally, I think that this book might be really interesting. I like how he said that autistic individuals are not the ones missing things, it is the normal people. I agree with him. I worked with autistic children over the summer and they most defiantly are creative. They have ways to think and do things that normal people would not regularly do. All you have to do is give them time.
Weird movie with a whole lot of reading!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Weird movie with a whole lot of reading!
Hughes 4:
Yet again.........another long and interesting read. They brought up alot of interesting thoughts about dreams and how the brain constructs them. The brain has a whole lot of CREATIVITY. (Had to put in caps since it has been so stressed.) The brain has people thinking about a whole lot of interesting things and/or ideas. Near death experiences do bring back memories. I say this because in 2006, i was shot at in one of the neighborhoods. It was like i blacked out to another world. When i came back to sense, i was in an alley. I had ran 3 blocks without even realizing it. This just shows what near death experiences can offer. I look forward to reading more of this work.
Pearce 4:
Blake began to say that all people can not properly utilize their mind and i agree with him 110% on that. I feel that some people do not allow themself to do so. Some people are so straight edge or precise, that they do not allow themselves to think out of the ordinary. I on the other hand love to think out of the box. I dont like to be like others. I do on the other hand like like-minded people and people who think like me. Something i didnt agree with was the hypnotizing. Im not buying it for a second. I find it hard to believe that one person can control someone else through hypnosis. I think it would have to be done on me before i could believe something as far fetched as that.
Movie:
Man o man did that movie have me thinking. I kept trying to figure out why people would take something that would immediately make them sick. I know that you have to do whats cultural but there has got to be a line drawn. That movie was wild. The people had interesting lifestyles to say the least. The Shaman culture sure is special.
Weird movie with a whole lot of reading!
Hughes 4:
Yet again.........another long and interesting read. They brought up alot of interesting thoughts about dreams and how the brain constructs them. The brain has a whole lot of CREATIVITY. (Had to put in caps since it has been so stressed.) The brain has people thinking about a whole lot of interesting things and/or ideas. Near death experiences do bring back memories. I say this because in 2006, i was shot at in one of the neighborhoods. It was like i blacked out to another world. When i came back to sense, i was in an alley. I had ran 3 blocks without even realizing it. This just shows what near death experiences can offer. I look forward to reading more of this work.
Pearce 4:
Blake began to say that all people can not properly utilize their mind and i agree with him 110% on that. I feel that some people do not allow themself to do so. Some people are so straight edge or precise, that they do not allow themselves to think out of the ordinary. I on the other hand love to think out of the box. I dont like to be like others. I do on the other hand like like-minded people and people who think like me. Something i didnt agree with was the hypnotizing. Im not buying it for a second. I find it hard to believe that one person can control someone else through hypnosis. I think it would have to be done on me before i could believe something as far fetched as that.
Movie:
Man o man did that movie have me thinking. I kept trying to figure out why people would take something that would immediately make them sick. I know that you have to do whats cultural but there has got to be a line drawn. That movie was wild. The people had interesting lifestyles to say the least. The Shaman culture sure is special.
Mr. Aldous Huxley
Huxley's essays were full of valuable insights. In fact, there were several parts of the Doors of Perception that I found fairly fascinating. Huxley the "sleuth", disclosed his own personal experiences with inebriation. In the beginning of Doors of Perception, Huxley mentions his decision to swallow four-tenths of a gram of mescaline dissolved in a glass of water. It was in this part of the essay, that Huxley made note of the problem with our experiences. He writes, "Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies— all these are private and except through symbols and at a second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves." Yes.
Talking about experiences... In the last class, a female student said that she and her father came to the conclusion that life is about experiences. I believe this.
I remember years ago thinking about the purpose of life. Sure, life might have NO PURPOSE at all, BUT I find this hard to believe.
I believe life is to be lived to experience. To experience is so much different from a lot of other beliefs. Even if a moment is bad, disastrous, it is another experience to be absorbed.
In the next sentence, Huxley writes, "From family to nation, every human group of society is a society of island universes." This is a powerful statement. It makes a lot of sense. At times I think I about my friends. We are so much different from most people. As the years have passed, we seem to have become one person... a lot like a family unit. My family isn't much different.
I know this was just a small part of a larger idea, but it's just some things I have been thinking about recently.
Later in the essay, Huxley writes about the condition of the human being. He says that the mind and nervous system literally filter out anything that is not useful for survival. I raised this point a couple of blogs ago. I first read of this philosophy in a Kabbalist text. Huxley writes, "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 of the kind of consciousness which will help us stay alive on the surface of this particular planet."
In Heaven and Hell, Huxley writes that not just spiritual, but religious insight can be gained through drugs. Surely this section will offend some, but after doing my own research for the Analysis Paper I can see where he is coming from. One of the topics that I proposed in my analysis paper was the story of the Moses on Mount Sinai. There is lots of compelling evidence to suggest that Moses was a shaman, disseminating messages from the divine with the aid of mushrooms. Really at this point, anything is possible.
Talking about experiences... In the last class, a female student said that she and her father came to the conclusion that life is about experiences. I believe this.
I remember years ago thinking about the purpose of life. Sure, life might have NO PURPOSE at all, BUT I find this hard to believe.
I believe life is to be lived to experience. To experience is so much different from a lot of other beliefs. Even if a moment is bad, disastrous, it is another experience to be absorbed.
In the next sentence, Huxley writes, "From family to nation, every human group of society is a society of island universes." This is a powerful statement. It makes a lot of sense. At times I think I about my friends. We are so much different from most people. As the years have passed, we seem to have become one person... a lot like a family unit. My family isn't much different.
I know this was just a small part of a larger idea, but it's just some things I have been thinking about recently.
Later in the essay, Huxley writes about the condition of the human being. He says that the mind and nervous system literally filter out anything that is not useful for survival. I raised this point a couple of blogs ago. I first read of this philosophy in a Kabbalist text. Huxley writes, "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 of the kind of consciousness which will help us stay alive on the surface of this particular planet."
In Heaven and Hell, Huxley writes that not just spiritual, but religious insight can be gained through drugs. Surely this section will offend some, but after doing my own research for the Analysis Paper I can see where he is coming from. One of the topics that I proposed in my analysis paper was the story of the Moses on Mount Sinai. There is lots of compelling evidence to suggest that Moses was a shaman, disseminating messages from the divine with the aid of mushrooms. Really at this point, anything is possible.
Hughes, walsh, and santa
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Hughes, walsh, and santa
Hughes:
Interesting to say the least. I refuse to sit here and admit to taking drugs but lets just say it enables you to think outside the box. Some of the greatest writers and artists have been linked to many different drugs including Edgar Allen Poe. Now don't get me wrong, i know enough creative people who do not look towards drugs for creativity. I feel that the people who do use drugs just use them for their own sake. Im sure Poe didn't need the opium for his creativity. He just probaly used them for his own recreational purposes. Someone can not look at him as a bad person just because his drug use. Nothing negative came from it so everything should be ok.
Walsh:
I found this a little far fetched but then again i do agree. Once again, i do believe in the altered states. Like i have said in previous weeks, i believe there is another atate of consciousness. I believe that it is ypur choice if you want to visit this place or not. You have to be up for change and something different.
Fat man in the red suit:
This was an intresting read. Im confused on how santa clause was compared to the little mushroom. I felt that this was really odd. I didnt like this reading because it was not interesting to me. The author needs to sit down and evaluate himself. He needs to ask himself........"What am i talking about?
Hughes, walsh, and santa
Hughes:
Interesting to say the least. I refuse to sit here and admit to taking drugs but lets just say it enables you to think outside the box. Some of the greatest writers and artists have been linked to many different drugs including Edgar Allen Poe. Now don't get me wrong, i know enough creative people who do not look towards drugs for creativity. I feel that the people who do use drugs just use them for their own sake. Im sure Poe didn't need the opium for his creativity. He just probaly used them for his own recreational purposes. Someone can not look at him as a bad person just because his drug use. Nothing negative came from it so everything should be ok.
Walsh:
I found this a little far fetched but then again i do agree. Once again, i do believe in the altered states. Like i have said in previous weeks, i believe there is another atate of consciousness. I believe that it is ypur choice if you want to visit this place or not. You have to be up for change and something different.
Fat man in the red suit:
This was an intresting read. Im confused on how santa clause was compared to the little mushroom. I felt that this was really odd. I didnt like this reading because it was not interesting to me. The author needs to sit down and evaluate himself. He needs to ask himself........"What am i talking about?
2`qqqqqqqqqqqq
I feel like Huxley wanted more than anything for the people reading these essays to “Get A Clue!” I don’t think what was written has to be applicable to our lives, but I do think it should make us wake up a little in the day to day. He said in reference to the books “The mind was primarily concerned, not with measures and location but with being and meaning.” I find that so pivotal in a mindset, seeing as many of us are not concerned with being or meaning whatsoever. I was walking behind a girl today and she was telling her friend that she was on the way to a yoga class. The friend said, “Oh, that’s cool. How did you get involved in that?” and the girl replied “It’s for ten extra credit points. I don’t really want to go.” I know I am no aficionado of Yoga, but I do know it has/had significance. On the Wiki yoga page it states, “Yoga is an Indian spiritual path aimed at achieving the union with the Supreme Consciousness.” Now when supreme consciousness can be traded for ten extra credit points, I think a problem is starting to form. We have had so many distractions and variables placed in our lives we could care less about the meaning and being of most anything we do.
Huxley goes on to talk about how cigarettes are bad for us and that they are linked to lung cancer. (Where was he when Big Tobacco sprung up!?!) Anyway, he points out how “practically everybody regards tobacco smoking as being hardly less normal and natural than eating. From the point of view of the rationalist utilitarian this may seem odd. For the historian, it is exactly what you would expect.” More implicit than “hindsight is 20/20”, we as a species seem to be aware of our downfalls but we write them off to happenstance. Everyone thinks, “It’s not going to be me,” and continues on in blind oblivion, never minding the descent until they hit the ground. Perception is so important to our consciousness and once we are aware of something, it shouldn’t be dismissed. Likewise, perception is such an explorative creature, and there is so much to be garnered from a new point of view.
As far as Heaven and Hell, I loved where Huxley said “for primeval Nature bears a strange resemblance to that inner world where no account is taken of our personal wishes or even of the enduring concerns of man in general.” I think this idea of “go, go, go” to survive is an illusion and actually an allusion as well. We are not animals and are not in “danger” so to speak. These value systems are placed upon us by ourselves, and through our society. They have no inherent meaning other than to keep us contained and controlled.
Huxley goes on to talk about how cigarettes are bad for us and that they are linked to lung cancer. (Where was he when Big Tobacco sprung up!?!) Anyway, he points out how “practically everybody regards tobacco smoking as being hardly less normal and natural than eating. From the point of view of the rationalist utilitarian this may seem odd. For the historian, it is exactly what you would expect.” More implicit than “hindsight is 20/20”, we as a species seem to be aware of our downfalls but we write them off to happenstance. Everyone thinks, “It’s not going to be me,” and continues on in blind oblivion, never minding the descent until they hit the ground. Perception is so important to our consciousness and once we are aware of something, it shouldn’t be dismissed. Likewise, perception is such an explorative creature, and there is so much to be garnered from a new point of view.
As far as Heaven and Hell, I loved where Huxley said “for primeval Nature bears a strange resemblance to that inner world where no account is taken of our personal wishes or even of the enduring concerns of man in general.” I think this idea of “go, go, go” to survive is an illusion and actually an allusion as well. We are not animals and are not in “danger” so to speak. These value systems are placed upon us by ourselves, and through our society. They have no inherent meaning other than to keep us contained and controlled.
Chemical Vacation
It was fascinating to read about mescalin, a plant based hallucinogen and its similar chemical make-up to adrenalin. Huxley’s description of experiencing moment by moment of naked existence is very profound and thought provoking. The ability to recognize the pure aesthetic nature of reality must be divine. I found it interesting that Huxley, in this estimation, could function normally with misjudging objects – space was there but was not important. His awareness and ability to perceive the universe and its inner light must be surreal.
For some reason, maybe it is my own learning process, Huxley’s explanation and experience on mescalin seemed less contrived than some of the other readings… Huxley seemed to enter the experience with out any pretenses and he quietly enjoyed his enlighten experience. Maybe it is all “Hollywood” but I am amazed that he was not driven to act out in any way.
I enjoyed reading he experiences of the Native American Church and their sacramental use of plant. It is intriguing to thing about our forefathers and their use of plants from the earth. I wonder if people who ate pure unprocessed foods can more easily experience because their bodies are not poisoned by synthetic means.
Knocken’ on Heavens Door
Although I enjoyed the readings I found it difficult to synthesize all its many components. I am looking forward to reading the comments and hypothesis from my classmates.
Visions vs Dreaming was a very interesting section. During this class I had my first, to my recollection, dream with parts of color. It must have been memorable because I mentioned it to my husband upon awaking… The idea that color is the touch-stone of reality is pretty cool!
The section on heaven and hell helped to cement many of the concepts we have been discussing over the past month or so. I really liked the idea that light is aggressive as it pervades even our subconscious. So much of the Christian Bible is filled, as Huxley described, references to light, gems, metals, and color in general. In fact Christian are referred to at being a light - Matthew 5 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Relating the blissful visionary experiences to religion is not new but Huxley provided me with a new way to look at myself and my own beliefs and practices.
For some reason, maybe it is my own learning process, Huxley’s explanation and experience on mescalin seemed less contrived than some of the other readings… Huxley seemed to enter the experience with out any pretenses and he quietly enjoyed his enlighten experience. Maybe it is all “Hollywood” but I am amazed that he was not driven to act out in any way.
I enjoyed reading he experiences of the Native American Church and their sacramental use of plant. It is intriguing to thing about our forefathers and their use of plants from the earth. I wonder if people who ate pure unprocessed foods can more easily experience because their bodies are not poisoned by synthetic means.
Knocken’ on Heavens Door
Although I enjoyed the readings I found it difficult to synthesize all its many components. I am looking forward to reading the comments and hypothesis from my classmates.
Visions vs Dreaming was a very interesting section. During this class I had my first, to my recollection, dream with parts of color. It must have been memorable because I mentioned it to my husband upon awaking… The idea that color is the touch-stone of reality is pretty cool!
The section on heaven and hell helped to cement many of the concepts we have been discussing over the past month or so. I really liked the idea that light is aggressive as it pervades even our subconscious. So much of the Christian Bible is filled, as Huxley described, references to light, gems, metals, and color in general. In fact Christian are referred to at being a light - Matthew 5 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Relating the blissful visionary experiences to religion is not new but Huxley provided me with a new way to look at myself and my own beliefs and practices.
My doors of perception have been opened...
It's true. Huxley is/was/will be considered a genius in my book. He is one of the most influential people in the psychedelic world and his influences permeate my thoughts on a daily basis. Next time you listen to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", check out Huxley on the album cover. I have read this book several times and some things I get perfectly, some things I still don't get, and some things I can never understand because of the importance of personal experience. I believe so far we have just been fed facts and theories about these altered states - Huxley is our first example of what someone can do while influenced by one of these ASCs. It is obvious that just because someone takes a drug, it doesn't mean they are some crazy, drug fiend. Huxley shows us that these substances can take us to levels of awareness and consciousness that help us better understand our ability as a human and he did so in an appropriate way. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Huxley talks about this chair. He describes the chair in all of its brilliance being a possibility of mankind. I think what he is saying is that our possibilities as a human are LITERALLY ENDLESS. Whether someone needs a drug to realize this is irrelevant. The fact is simply that he has realized it. Huxley speaks and writes with such a graceful tone that it is not hard to be pulled directly into the state of mind that he is in. I remember the first time I read the entire book in one sitting. After reading it I felt like I had dropped the Mescalin with him. I can definitely dig his theories and ideas about schizophrenia. He shows us that there are always two sides to everything and this thing is called life. There are obviously going to be positive and negative aspects to entering (and exiting) these states. I love when he describes the aesthetically pleasing things in life to be these gateways to heaven. I totally agree with him. It's not a place that you go after life, with him it's seeing beauty here in the Now. If anyone really dug this book, I highly recommend looking for a documentary/movie about Huxley called "The Gravity of Light". It is filled with all of the brilliance of Huxley featuring interviews with him and interviews with people who have devoted their life to the psychedelic state of mind and how it can help us as humans. I think the moment I put this book down I became one of these "mind-at-large" recruiters. I hope that this book encouraged some people to think twice about pointing the finger at people who use these drugs (and other drugs even). To each their own right?
Stop and smell the roses...and stare at a chair
I really enjoyed Huxley's two essays. I thought they were very interested and were easier reading than what we've been doing. Although it was easier reading, the content was very thought provoking.
The first thing that became obvious to me in The Doors of Perception was that during his experience on mescalin, Huxley said space and time ceased to matter, which was mostly what I remember from our last class discussion. We talked a lot about the present, and how that's all there would be without space and time. The more I think about altered states of consciousness, space and time seem to be key markers in noting what an ASC is and whether you're in one. This concept of space helps me understand, especially as a bartender, why drunk people lose control of their motor skills. The more they drink, the further into the altered state they get and the less concerned they are with staying seated on their barstool. Consequently, I'm much less concerned with serving them more alcohol. Similarly, a characteristic of smoking marijuana is that people don't do anything while they are high. A friend of mine says she can't smoke while she is taking classes because she won't get anything done. Perhaps this is because in the altered state, time doesn't matter, so we take time to stare at a chair and respect its beauty. I guess I always knew the side effects of drugs but never questioned why they were that way.
I also found it fascinating when Huxley said that language is both beneficial and harmful, that we are both the beneficiary and the victim of it. Again, I only ever viewed language as beneficial (if I ever even really thought about it--it's always been there) and never realized language can be restraining as well. As Huxley says we are "the victim in so far as it confirms in him the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things." So words aren't things, they only represent things. The only reason a chair is a chair is because we agree to call a chair a chair. I think what Huxley is suggesting is that as children, before we learn to speak or have a large vocabulary, our minds are extraordinary, experiencing many different worlds and many adventures. But as we learn a language, we learn that "reality" is this certain state of consciousness, which Huxley calls reduced awareness, and all the other realities we've experience, like the world where we have "imaginary" friends, don't really exist. Perhaps as children, we actually know more than we do as educated adults.
I don't know why but when I'm reading I always instinctively compare things with religion. Perhaps it's because I am choosing not to define my religion and am constantly exploring things, but I am always thinking of Bible stories and how this is so similar to that in religion. When Huxley began explaining human relations and himself as a "Not-self", I thought of the story of creation, of Adam and Eve, and the garden. Huxley says, "This participation in the manifest glory of things left no room, so to speak, for the ordinary, the necessary concerns of human existence, above all for concerns involving persons." This made such an impression on Huxley that he should be able to experience this altered state while at the same time care for others in the room with him, but he could not. Maybe before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were in the ultimate altered state where you experienced the joy of human interaction and the bliss of timelessness and spacelessness. See, everything comes back to Adam and Eve screwing everything up for the rest of us!
One question I thought of during the reading was if we actually have a need for altered states? Not for drugs, but for the actual altered state. Do we need to experience an ASC to fill a need we don't even know we have? Can we only be truly content if we have experienced an ASC?
Back on the religion track, Huxley argues that Christianity and alcohol mix as well as drinking and driving. This made me think of a friend in high school who was a very Christian boy, but he drank a lot. I asked him once why he did that. "Keith," I said, "You are such a Christian, it's not funny. You're saving yourself for marriage and everything. But you drink. Doesn't that go against what you believe?"
His response was so simple, but so undeniable that I often think of it when I'm pondering religion. He said, "Alli, Jesus drank wine." And that was that.
Now I think of it and I wonder if Jesus drank wine to reach an altered state where he could talk to God. Perhaps Jesus could only hear God when in an altered state. I don't think it makes it any less real. So what if Christianity were to re-embrace alcohol? (I say re-embrace it, because many churches did and some still do use wine in Communion.) Maybe it would make the whole personal relationship with Jesus more attainable.
In Heaven and Hell, I think Huxley's strongest point is that there is still so much we don't know about the brain. He says, "Like the earth of a hundred years ago, our mind still has its darkest Africas, its unmapped Borneos and Amazonian basins." I know from watching Grey's Anatomy an House that the brain is the least understood and most important organ in our body. It controls the rest of our body, our emotions, and our thoughts. Everything we do, our brain controls. If someone can't feel their legs, check the brain. But scientists and doctors are constantly finding out new information about our brain. We only know a relatively little bit about the powers of our brain, so we can't scientifically rule out even the craziest of hypotheses.
I also like how he compares the brain to Australia and kangaroos. He says, "All he can do is to go to the mental equivalent of Australia and look around him." I think what Huxley is saying has been embraced by Nike in their famous slogan, "Just do it." Huxley is saying to just try it. Go to an altered state of consciousness and see what you're brain is up to. Look in the corners and the shadows. What's the worst thing that could happen? Enlightenment? Just do it...why not?
When Huxley is describing elements of old churches and synagogues and religious art, like stained glass windows and shiny metals and polished stone and bright shiny glass, I realized that many churches do not include any of these traits. For example, I think of the sanctuary of the church I grew up in. It has little windows along the side, which let in little light, horrid green carpet and even worse goldish-yellow (gold without the metallic aspect) covered pews. The shiniest thing in the entire sanctuary is the baby grand piano. The cross at the very front is even dull. I think it's either made out of wood or it could be just a dull metal. Then I thought of how Jehovah's witness churches have no windows at all. I just think this is weird that religions used to include certain traits that induced ASCs in their architecture and art, but they don't as much anymore.
My last point also has to do with religion...go figure. When Huxley talks about how singing actually deprives increases the concentration of CO2 in our lungs and blood, which then affects our brain, I couldn't help but wonder if the worship part of church, singing "for God", isn't actually to bestow our praise onto Him, but for the singers to actually reach a religious high that is purely biological.
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.
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.
Huxley: The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell
At the beginning I liked how Huxley explains all about the chemical breakdown of Mescaline and it's research. I mean, I guess when your high on drugs you can achieve an altered state of consciousness but not all drugs give you the same effect; so it was relevant for him to go in detail about what you feel under this drug. Huxley goes on to talk about his first effects on the drug (which weren't so successful at the beginning). He was waiting to reach this other "Universe" and experience the unknown. Little did he know that he was getting into. I really enjoyed the part when he was at home and realized that he was looking at the bouquet of flowers on the table with a different light. He saw colors and textures beyond what he'd ever seen. Without words and brilliant was when he noticed the chair and desk as a composition like no other. He probably passed this chair and desk a million times and never understood it this way. He didn't see this composition as just his furniture but as someone who is only concerned with "forms and their relationship within the field of vision or the picture space".(22) He spent several minutes contemplating this piece of furniture, it's texture, color and space and not for it's actuality of being but because HE was the being this piece of furniture.
When the investigator asked numerous times about how long did he (Huxley) think this altered state was for, Huxley responded, "My actual experience had been, was still, of an indefinite duration or alternatively of a perpectual present made up of one continually changing apocalypse." (21) This is some wild quote, I mean i know it may sound like everyone who has done some kind of hallucinogens can say this because they are high on the drug but really "one continually changing apocalypse" (21); it's like he is saying that no space and time and "Universe" as we may know it would or could compare with this feeling and realization.
Huxley also touches on the topic of how "man" has made a language and domesticated society to the extend that we are separated or a "victim" of our own man made linguistic tradition making our experiences those of others and vice versa and thus forth only allowing ourselves to be "reduced" in awareness of what is reality. He goes on to say that along with all the majority of mescalin tested, usually everyone experiences the same effects, intensified visuals and no sense of time as if you were in a long vacation and didn't care whether it was night or day. Huxley continues, " In some cases there may be extra-sensory perceptions. Other persons discover a world of visionary beauty. To others again is revealed the glory, the given, unconceptualized event." (26) I can say that maybe, yes there's some known related effects under mescalin but for those to whom it affects in different ways can be translated as what you could have taken for granted; the little things can mean so much.
On another note, I was really interested by the differences between visionary experiences and ordinary dreams. I didn't know that we can't see color in dreams or some partial color. All this time I was under the influence that I could see colors just fine. Huxley quotes Professor Calvi Hall, " Only one dream in three is colored, or has some color in it."(89) Only a few people dream entirely in color. Looking back into my dreams I don't remember if I am a partial color dreamer or all black or white.
When the investigator asked numerous times about how long did he (Huxley) think this altered state was for, Huxley responded, "My actual experience had been, was still, of an indefinite duration or alternatively of a perpectual present made up of one continually changing apocalypse." (21) This is some wild quote, I mean i know it may sound like everyone who has done some kind of hallucinogens can say this because they are high on the drug but really "one continually changing apocalypse" (21); it's like he is saying that no space and time and "Universe" as we may know it would or could compare with this feeling and realization.
Huxley also touches on the topic of how "man" has made a language and domesticated society to the extend that we are separated or a "victim" of our own man made linguistic tradition making our experiences those of others and vice versa and thus forth only allowing ourselves to be "reduced" in awareness of what is reality. He goes on to say that along with all the majority of mescalin tested, usually everyone experiences the same effects, intensified visuals and no sense of time as if you were in a long vacation and didn't care whether it was night or day. Huxley continues, " In some cases there may be extra-sensory perceptions. Other persons discover a world of visionary beauty. To others again is revealed the glory, the given, unconceptualized event." (26) I can say that maybe, yes there's some known related effects under mescalin but for those to whom it affects in different ways can be translated as what you could have taken for granted; the little things can mean so much.
On another note, I was really interested by the differences between visionary experiences and ordinary dreams. I didn't know that we can't see color in dreams or some partial color. All this time I was under the influence that I could see colors just fine. Huxley quotes Professor Calvi Hall, " Only one dream in three is colored, or has some color in it."(89) Only a few people dream entirely in color. Looking back into my dreams I don't remember if I am a partial color dreamer or all black or white.
Huxley
This reading was a bit interesting for me. I will admit that I did have a hard time following the text at some points, but otherwise was thought-inspiring in its own way. The number of metaphors within the text is astounding, and oftentimes I had to take a step back and ponder what I had just read. While I have never been under the influence of such substances, I was given a sort of first-hand look at the effects of such a drug. One particular passage of interest to me was “To see ourselves as others see usis a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves. But what if these others belong to a different species and inhabit a radically alien universe? For example, how can the sane get to know what it actually feels like to be mad?"(Huxley, 13) It is in these lines that Huxley challenges us to define reality, when (no pun intended) in reality, such a definition is nigh impossible. There is also a sense of spite in some of his words, as he appears to mock the ignorance of the “civilized” human at some points, including his comment that such individuals, saying that, “We cover our anterior nakedness with some philosophy—Christian, Marxian, Freudo-Physicalist—but abaft we remain uncovered, at the mercy of all the winds of circumstance.” (Huxley, 72) This clearly is a shot at the skepticisms of such a text as this. In a world full of conformity and political misdirection, Huxley encourages us to look within ourselves and within various arts in our world (including music and portraits) and finding a deeper meaning than what is considered scientific fact.
Heaven and Hell was a little more difficult to comprehend than Doors of Perception (once again, I have never been under such influence as mescalin and the like, yet I understand altered perceptions thanks to my skill as a writer). Mainly, it compares views of various paintings that often involve various vices to achieve different states of their visionary heaven or hell, such as intoxication, drugs, and lust. However, oftentimes by undergoing such a vice, enlightenment can occur. It involves not looking at the whole picture, but rather the fine details, as he gives several examples of physicists and astronomers. He then makes a comparison, writing that “Something analogous happens to the myopic artist and the happy lover. In the nuptial embrace personality is melted down; the individual (it is the recurrent theme of Lawrence’s poems and novels) ceases to be himself and becomes a part of the vast impersonal universe.” (Huxley, 130) He goes on to discuss that of the artist and his portrayal of “‘mere things,’” (Huxley, 130) that continues to emphasize that we must look beyond pre-fabricated perceptions crafted by society and find our own meaning through observation.
As another note, I find it ironic that the more I type about the part of the book I don’t understand too well, the more clearly I can comprehend it. Go figure.
All in all, it was a pleasant read. I did a little research on Huxley’s other work and I’d be interested to see what other forms of perception he might elaborate on, such as in his Brave New World.
Heaven and Hell was a little more difficult to comprehend than Doors of Perception (once again, I have never been under such influence as mescalin and the like, yet I understand altered perceptions thanks to my skill as a writer). Mainly, it compares views of various paintings that often involve various vices to achieve different states of their visionary heaven or hell, such as intoxication, drugs, and lust. However, oftentimes by undergoing such a vice, enlightenment can occur. It involves not looking at the whole picture, but rather the fine details, as he gives several examples of physicists and astronomers. He then makes a comparison, writing that “Something analogous happens to the myopic artist and the happy lover. In the nuptial embrace personality is melted down; the individual (it is the recurrent theme of Lawrence’s poems and novels) ceases to be himself and becomes a part of the vast impersonal universe.” (Huxley, 130) He goes on to discuss that of the artist and his portrayal of “‘mere things,’” (Huxley, 130) that continues to emphasize that we must look beyond pre-fabricated perceptions crafted by society and find our own meaning through observation.
As another note, I find it ironic that the more I type about the part of the book I don’t understand too well, the more clearly I can comprehend it. Go figure.
All in all, it was a pleasant read. I did a little research on Huxley’s other work and I’d be interested to see what other forms of perception he might elaborate on, such as in his Brave New World.
Perception
At the beginning of class we made a list of things that helps you decide whether you are in an altered state or not. This list included, but was not limited to, sense of time and sense of space being a factor. Aldous Huxley wrote, in The Doors of Perception, that when he took mescalin as a supervised experiment one day he experienced no sense of time and space. He said that they did not matter to him. All that mattered was the colors and textures of the everyday things around him that he normally didn’t pay attention to. The bamboo chair was one that I found interesting. He just stared at it for a long time so enraptured by the texture. Also, when they went to the Worlds Biggest Drug Store and he looked at the books of paintings. He saw how, even though he did not like some of the pictures before, these paintings could be so well known. Huxley was, yet again, fascinated by the textures of dresses and drapes. This interests me because he said that he did not like these paintings when in an ordinary state of mind but when he was on mescalin and looked at them he couldn’t look away. He always said that painters can turn this way of looking at things on and off or that it is permanently on for them. Wouldn’t that drive some people crazy? Their way of looking at things would be so much different from everyone else’s.
Something else that interested me a lot was the beginning of Heaven and Hell. Huxley writes that the majority of people, when in a normal state, dream in black and white. Really? I have never heard this before and I have never noticed this before. When I dream, and for some reason I do a lot, I guess I never really noticed whether it was in black and white or vibrant color. I always assumed that my dreams were in color but now, when I wake up from dreaming, I will have to attempt to remember what it was like color wise. One thing about color he mentions in the first book is that it turns on your emotions when you are on drugs. How can colors have such an effect of people and why do we dream in black and white? I had a couple of dreams 3 days in a row that scared me and I am almost positive that at least two of them were color. Why would those have been in color? What is the difference between certain types of dreams that allow some to be in color and others not?
Something else that interested me a lot was the beginning of Heaven and Hell. Huxley writes that the majority of people, when in a normal state, dream in black and white. Really? I have never heard this before and I have never noticed this before. When I dream, and for some reason I do a lot, I guess I never really noticed whether it was in black and white or vibrant color. I always assumed that my dreams were in color but now, when I wake up from dreaming, I will have to attempt to remember what it was like color wise. One thing about color he mentions in the first book is that it turns on your emotions when you are on drugs. How can colors have such an effect of people and why do we dream in black and white? I had a couple of dreams 3 days in a row that scared me and I am almost positive that at least two of them were color. Why would those have been in color? What is the difference between certain types of dreams that allow some to be in color and others not?
Huxley
"I am and, for as long as I can remember, I have always been a poor visualizer. Words, even the pregnant words of poets, do not evoke pictures in my mind."
I cannot put my finger on this Aldous Huxley. I have had arguments with friends over Brave New World, and whether it should be a deemed classic fiction. Um... I find this work by him much more relieving. It seems that his writing in non-fiction, although a bit preachy at times, is his stronger medium.
This is the first book we've read that actually follows someone's journey through a drug experiment. Having had some prior knowledge on the subject (from other assigned readings) I found it interesting that his taking mescalin was to see. He had no other reason for taking it. I think for the most part he and his friend were just looking to have a good time. There was no experiment except for, "I'm going to take this drug, and then we'll see what happens."
Is-ness
He even says that the changes the drug makes are not revolutionary. He never mentions Shamanism is his book. I like this because he touches upon some of its principles without even realizing he's done so. For instance, he talks about the pulsing life in a vase of flowers.
Huxley's great change was what had happened to his world of "objective fact." The drug also made him some what reclusive. He mentions not making eye contact with his friend and his wife because he was not interested in their world at that moment. They belonged to "the world of selves, of time, of moral judgements, utilitarian considerations, the world of self-assertion, of cocksureness, of over valued words and idolatrousy worshiped notions." I think this idea is explored in Crack in the Cosmic Egg when Peirce talks about children and autistic thinking.
Heaven and Hell caught me off guard. I took the title literally at first, and thought how is this going to relate to what we're learning at the moment? I was pleasantly surprised. The two books go hand in hand. Huxley mentions his heightened sense of seeing color after taking the pill. He calls the ability of humans to see color a luxury.
I had seen a Felini (sp?) film in a class a few years ago in which he recreated dreams. All of the dreams were in black and white, and I was a bit confused when my professor said that most people dream in black and white. I don't believe this. For so many years we've been having dreams, but nobody I've ever spoken to has said anything about black and white dreams. I never said anything. I never thought I had them, and I'm still convinced I don't. But this is the second time I've been told this fact, and now I don't know what I think about it.
I really enjoyed Huxley's human island analogy. I gather he was a bit of a curmudgeon, but his cynical approach to human interaction was interesting. "By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude." What I find so interesting about it is I don't think a lot of people realize the truth in this statement. Some people spend all their time committing themselves to people, and remain unhappy and insecure. Bukowski wrote something about this as well. The line was something like, "Beware of the person who constantly needs a crowd. When they're alone, they are nothing." Someone put a band-aid on that aching truth. Again, this thought has traces of Shamanism to it. The self.
I cannot put my finger on this Aldous Huxley. I have had arguments with friends over Brave New World, and whether it should be a deemed classic fiction. Um... I find this work by him much more relieving. It seems that his writing in non-fiction, although a bit preachy at times, is his stronger medium.
This is the first book we've read that actually follows someone's journey through a drug experiment. Having had some prior knowledge on the subject (from other assigned readings) I found it interesting that his taking mescalin was to see. He had no other reason for taking it. I think for the most part he and his friend were just looking to have a good time. There was no experiment except for, "I'm going to take this drug, and then we'll see what happens."
Is-ness
He even says that the changes the drug makes are not revolutionary. He never mentions Shamanism is his book. I like this because he touches upon some of its principles without even realizing he's done so. For instance, he talks about the pulsing life in a vase of flowers.
Huxley's great change was what had happened to his world of "objective fact." The drug also made him some what reclusive. He mentions not making eye contact with his friend and his wife because he was not interested in their world at that moment. They belonged to "the world of selves, of time, of moral judgements, utilitarian considerations, the world of self-assertion, of cocksureness, of over valued words and idolatrousy worshiped notions." I think this idea is explored in Crack in the Cosmic Egg when Peirce talks about children and autistic thinking.
Heaven and Hell caught me off guard. I took the title literally at first, and thought how is this going to relate to what we're learning at the moment? I was pleasantly surprised. The two books go hand in hand. Huxley mentions his heightened sense of seeing color after taking the pill. He calls the ability of humans to see color a luxury.
I had seen a Felini (sp?) film in a class a few years ago in which he recreated dreams. All of the dreams were in black and white, and I was a bit confused when my professor said that most people dream in black and white. I don't believe this. For so many years we've been having dreams, but nobody I've ever spoken to has said anything about black and white dreams. I never said anything. I never thought I had them, and I'm still convinced I don't. But this is the second time I've been told this fact, and now I don't know what I think about it.
I really enjoyed Huxley's human island analogy. I gather he was a bit of a curmudgeon, but his cynical approach to human interaction was interesting. "By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude." What I find so interesting about it is I don't think a lot of people realize the truth in this statement. Some people spend all their time committing themselves to people, and remain unhappy and insecure. Bukowski wrote something about this as well. The line was something like, "Beware of the person who constantly needs a crowd. When they're alone, they are nothing." Someone put a band-aid on that aching truth. Again, this thought has traces of Shamanism to it. The self.
Blog number six
The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell:
Immediately reading this book I found that the last paragraph on page 12 to be very insightful. “We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves… By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies –all these are private and, except through symbols at second hand, incommunicable.”
I really liked that because I often acknowledge the fact that a lot of times I am by myself and experience much on my own, to think about it deeper than that as Huxley puts it, down to yes, our thoughts feelings and insights are incommunicable for the most part, and sometimes when we try to reveal the things in our head to others, meanings or ideas get lost in the translation from one mind to another.
The concept of Mind at Large…
I definitely think it’s possible. Huxley quotes Cambridge Philosopher, Dr. C. D. Broad, “The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful.”
Huxley makes a good point in connecting this to survival, “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 of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet.”
I find this interesting because we know that we don’t use all of our brain. This provides a realistic explanation as to what happens. Plus, we definitely do disassociate ourselves with certain things of the past for survival. I think this kind of explains it.
Through mescalin Huxley had an inkling of what it is to be mad. Mescalin = Schizophrenia.
After a semester of hard core upper level undergraduate Psychology courses, I had my fare share of studying schizophrenia. The fact that this drug induces the “heavenly part of schizophrenia” seems intimidating to a degree. For starters that means, it’s not always a good experience for everyone, and two, schizophrenia includes: hallucinations- often auditory, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, and “Negative” symptoms (e.g., flat affect, alogia, avolition, anhedonia). So really, it’s really a use at your own risk kind of thing.
I really liked how Huxley stated, “Humanity at large will ever be able to dispense with Artificial Paradises seems very unlikely. Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul.”
Mescalin apparently may interfere with the enzyme system that regulates cerebral functioning. The theory is that by doing so, it lowers the efficiency of the brain as an instrument for focusing the mind on the problems of life on the surface of the planet. It also resembles the state of schizophrenia, which after hearing about in Psych class, sounds crappy.
The concept of antipodes was interesting… regions of the mind that can be reached with certain meditation, drugs, etc. It was the first time I heard the term.
I also never really noticed that my dreams are in black and white and that 2/3 of all dreams are in black and white. Few people ever dream in color and few never experience color in their dreams. It’s also concluded that color in dreams doesn’t say anything about the personality of the dreamer.
Immediately reading this book I found that the last paragraph on page 12 to be very insightful. “We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves… By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies –all these are private and, except through symbols at second hand, incommunicable.”
I really liked that because I often acknowledge the fact that a lot of times I am by myself and experience much on my own, to think about it deeper than that as Huxley puts it, down to yes, our thoughts feelings and insights are incommunicable for the most part, and sometimes when we try to reveal the things in our head to others, meanings or ideas get lost in the translation from one mind to another.
The concept of Mind at Large…
I definitely think it’s possible. Huxley quotes Cambridge Philosopher, Dr. C. D. Broad, “The suggestion is that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful.”
Huxley makes a good point in connecting this to survival, “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 of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet.”
I find this interesting because we know that we don’t use all of our brain. This provides a realistic explanation as to what happens. Plus, we definitely do disassociate ourselves with certain things of the past for survival. I think this kind of explains it.
Through mescalin Huxley had an inkling of what it is to be mad. Mescalin = Schizophrenia.
After a semester of hard core upper level undergraduate Psychology courses, I had my fare share of studying schizophrenia. The fact that this drug induces the “heavenly part of schizophrenia” seems intimidating to a degree. For starters that means, it’s not always a good experience for everyone, and two, schizophrenia includes: hallucinations- often auditory, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, and “Negative” symptoms (e.g., flat affect, alogia, avolition, anhedonia). So really, it’s really a use at your own risk kind of thing.
I really liked how Huxley stated, “Humanity at large will ever be able to dispense with Artificial Paradises seems very unlikely. Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul.”
Mescalin apparently may interfere with the enzyme system that regulates cerebral functioning. The theory is that by doing so, it lowers the efficiency of the brain as an instrument for focusing the mind on the problems of life on the surface of the planet. It also resembles the state of schizophrenia, which after hearing about in Psych class, sounds crappy.
The concept of antipodes was interesting… regions of the mind that can be reached with certain meditation, drugs, etc. It was the first time I heard the term.
I also never really noticed that my dreams are in black and white and that 2/3 of all dreams are in black and white. Few people ever dream in color and few never experience color in their dreams. It’s also concluded that color in dreams doesn’t say anything about the personality of the dreamer.
Huxley
I dont see how a person can take a drug, record his expieences, write a book on it and get an award for it. I do find it intersting that he could "discover" another world and look in on reality. What i dont understand is he stares a t a bamboo chair for 5 pages because hes high, not because hes making these great insights and people love him for it. It seems the world that Huxley is in is so peaceful and sureal compared to our busy and hectic world of reality. It seems Huxley is saying the other world is where humans should be and that its our job to get into that other world where everythung is calm. As a class we were speaking about living in the present, I say its impossible to live in the present but when Huxley is on Mecaline he says time is no factor and the whole expierence of the drug is to live in the present.Huxley states, "we live in our own created world and thoughts, and society tells us there is no exit. We try to create exits with drugs, alcohol and orgasms". There is only one problem with that statement, there is no exit theres not supossed to be one. Humans are designed to take alot of stress and pressure, why would anyone want to leave this life? I say Humans have pretty good lives i dont know about anyone else but i love the stress and pressure of life its what makes a person stronger. I found a critique on doors of perception, "Even his extatic description of the Other World cannot do justice to what he has witnessed since it is impossible to put an experience into writing. He is crystal clear in describing the absurdity, arrogance and craziness of our world. He has mixed up the notions "I" and "Self" several times. But, where he really goes astray is in the elaboration of his insights. The book contains a fair bit of contradictions and prejudices, but inbetween it contains beauties of clarity and insight". I think this quote sums my argument up very nicely.
Huxley
Huxley's prose, knowledge of history and personal experience with mescalin made his book more interesting to read than any other thus far in the course. It was interesting how he became unconcerned with people in his immediate surroundings after taking mescalin. This sort of drug induced antisocial behavior he describes seems to coincide with the fact that people who take hallucinogens like to surround themselves with other people who are also under the influence of hallucinogens. Maybe if he had another person tripping with him, his book would have turned out a little bit differently. Anyhow, how do we know that mescalin, mushrooms or LSD produce an experience with numinous qualities and possess any actual intellectual value? The only way to know for certain would be to experiment with the said drugs and see what happens. Until then, we would be solely taking Huxley's word for it, and in doing so, exemplifying the same indoctrinated approach to learning information that is discussed and frowned upon in Pearce's text. As we've already discussed, there are numerous ways to experience an altered state of mind, and not all of them entail taking drugs. Nor do such experiences all result in a person arriving at the same conclusions about the nature of reality. At any rate, ingesting a hallucinogen does seem like the most direct, timely and dramatic way to endure a cognitive journey to an altered frame of mind; however, not everyone will be able to empathize with Huxley's interpretation of the world and human behavior due to their abstention from drug use.
Huxley
It was interesting because Huxley seemed very concerened with the experiences of other individuals, even when he was having his own experience. It is interesting that this mescalin could cause so much color and beauty and even awareness of what is happening in the universe. It seemed like his hallucinations got stronger after the cerebral sugar shortage was wearing off and that he was still having pretty intense visions. I did think he did a good job at relaying his experience to the reader. I thought it was kind of neat.
Later on I thought it was interesting that he said that, "We now spend a good deal more on drink and smoke than we spend on education. This of course, is not surprising. The urge to escape from selfhood and the environment is in almost everyone almost all the time."(63) I thought that was interesting, because I don't think that society spends more time on drink and smoke then on education. Perhaps parts of society do, but that is a pretty large claim to make. Also, I don't have the urge to escape myself almost all the time. Honestly, I never thought that much about it until I had this class. I just felt like he is making a lot of statements and he is not backing them up. He also says, "What is needed is a new drug which will relieve and console our suffering species without doing more harm in the long run than it does good in the short."(65) I guess it is better to have a drug like this opposed to cigarettes and alcohol, but I don't feel that drugs are that crucial. Even when Huxley explains what is gained by a drug, I still cannot understand it. I really don't believe one can understand until they experience it, and I think the only reason people do drugs is because of curiosity.
I feel like even people who have experienced drugs and hypnosis still don't understand it. Huxley even mentions that nobody knows how and why hypnosis effects people. What is the point in going to another state of consciousness if we won't understand it. I'm a very curious person. Therefore, I would not be satisfied in having an experience in which I don't understand. Overall, I feel like altered states of consciousness won't be fascinating for long, because people will just look at them from a scientific approach. They will apply so much meaning and so many terms that the mystery will be erased. Eventually, altered states of consciousness will become just as dull as normal states of consciousness.
Also, I found this quote by Huxley interesting. "Unconsciously to myself, I looked at a film of sand I had picked up on my hand, when I suddenly saw the exquisite beauty of every little grain of it; instead of being dull, I saw that each particle was made up on a perfect geometrical pattern..." (94) This quote in general reminded me of Walt Whitman because he sees beauty in everything. Maybe he was on some kind of drug. I don't know.
Later on I thought it was interesting that he said that, "We now spend a good deal more on drink and smoke than we spend on education. This of course, is not surprising. The urge to escape from selfhood and the environment is in almost everyone almost all the time."(63) I thought that was interesting, because I don't think that society spends more time on drink and smoke then on education. Perhaps parts of society do, but that is a pretty large claim to make. Also, I don't have the urge to escape myself almost all the time. Honestly, I never thought that much about it until I had this class. I just felt like he is making a lot of statements and he is not backing them up. He also says, "What is needed is a new drug which will relieve and console our suffering species without doing more harm in the long run than it does good in the short."(65) I guess it is better to have a drug like this opposed to cigarettes and alcohol, but I don't feel that drugs are that crucial. Even when Huxley explains what is gained by a drug, I still cannot understand it. I really don't believe one can understand until they experience it, and I think the only reason people do drugs is because of curiosity.
I feel like even people who have experienced drugs and hypnosis still don't understand it. Huxley even mentions that nobody knows how and why hypnosis effects people. What is the point in going to another state of consciousness if we won't understand it. I'm a very curious person. Therefore, I would not be satisfied in having an experience in which I don't understand. Overall, I feel like altered states of consciousness won't be fascinating for long, because people will just look at them from a scientific approach. They will apply so much meaning and so many terms that the mystery will be erased. Eventually, altered states of consciousness will become just as dull as normal states of consciousness.
Also, I found this quote by Huxley interesting. "Unconsciously to myself, I looked at a film of sand I had picked up on my hand, when I suddenly saw the exquisite beauty of every little grain of it; instead of being dull, I saw that each particle was made up on a perfect geometrical pattern..." (94) This quote in general reminded me of Walt Whitman because he sees beauty in everything. Maybe he was on some kind of drug. I don't know.
Huxley's world in High-Def...
So I get Huxley's intention, he wanted to be able to perceive this inner world, or inner light through the use of mescalin. Through his various references to the flowers in the vase, the chair, the blue car, the reader can really get an appreciation of hoe deeply his perception went. He mentions that such factors as time and space were no longer contenders in the fight to occupy his thoughts. Under the spell of the drug, Huxley's focus lie on the "intensity of experience, profundity of significance, and relationships with pattern". Huxley was now aware of a deeper meaning to such trivial, mundane things - things we recognize as our reality, however our reality, perhaps is only "surface deep". Being in this drug-induced state allows the mind to contemplate the meaning of such novelty-everyday things, and appreciate their "just being". I think this is what Huxley was describing when he said this ASC he experienced was like regaining perceptual innocence of childhood. I can recall from my own two sons, the wonder and amazement in their eyes as they explored different toys, books, and everyday items as infants.
I think Huxley made a good point about society's excessive use of symbols as a means of expression and clarification. In reality, these symbols stand for nothing at all unless the item being 'symbolized' can be experienced. His analogy of the "elegantly composed recipe in lieu of dinner" made me chuckle. Not only are symbols ultimately portraying just 'Suchness', but they permit us to go on with this lifestyle of condensing our values, time, space, etc. just so we can cram more things into our day. How many times do we as a society do such things , not necessarily making dinner, but any event or activity that can be shortened or abbreviated as to save us time in our hurried lives...are we really getting the 'meaning and being' of everyday life with all our short cuts?
I really liked Huxley's comment about an ASC's perception vs. that of an artist's; "What the rest of us see only under the influence of mescalin, the artist is congenitally equipped to see all the time". This made me think a lot about our creativity discussions - perhaps artists (and certainly I'm not limiting the term to those exclusively of the fine arts) have an uncanny ability to tap into the creative process much easier than others.
It was interesting that he noted while under the influence, he could not look at his wife or friend who was with him during the experience, and he made great effort not to do so. Would obliging in eye contact with those not induced cause him to feel guilty for his newly acquired perception, or perhaps present him with a buzzkill due to their confined thinking? I also thought it was interesting that his enlightened inner world consisted of no work or monotony...it provided for yet another chuckle as I remembered our extensive class discussion regarding work in our everyday reality.
I do have to disagree with Huxley's assumption that we as 'hungry sheep' look to be fed and when we do not obtain what we are searching for we "turn to the bottle". Say it isn't so! He had me until that point - certainly we go to services, take part in rituals, anything that can provide us with some kind of nourishment for the soul. But I think his assumption is a little extreme, people may turn away from such soul-searching tasks in disappointment, but I disagree that we are turning into the nearest State store for a fifth!
Lastly, I was surprised about the mention that 2/3 of our dreams are black and white...who knew? I've been attributing our discussions on ASC to dream-like states, but Huxley's ASC under mescalin was a plethora of high-def colors - some so intense that the name alone implied nothing. Huxley describes colors viewed with this inner light as having so many divisions and meanings. This parallels Hughes' comment on synthesesia. Apparently, a dreamlike state comes nothing close to the mescalin-induced state as far as "colors' being".
I think Huxley made a good point about society's excessive use of symbols as a means of expression and clarification. In reality, these symbols stand for nothing at all unless the item being 'symbolized' can be experienced. His analogy of the "elegantly composed recipe in lieu of dinner" made me chuckle. Not only are symbols ultimately portraying just 'Suchness', but they permit us to go on with this lifestyle of condensing our values, time, space, etc. just so we can cram more things into our day. How many times do we as a society do such things , not necessarily making dinner, but any event or activity that can be shortened or abbreviated as to save us time in our hurried lives...are we really getting the 'meaning and being' of everyday life with all our short cuts?
I really liked Huxley's comment about an ASC's perception vs. that of an artist's; "What the rest of us see only under the influence of mescalin, the artist is congenitally equipped to see all the time". This made me think a lot about our creativity discussions - perhaps artists (and certainly I'm not limiting the term to those exclusively of the fine arts) have an uncanny ability to tap into the creative process much easier than others.
It was interesting that he noted while under the influence, he could not look at his wife or friend who was with him during the experience, and he made great effort not to do so. Would obliging in eye contact with those not induced cause him to feel guilty for his newly acquired perception, or perhaps present him with a buzzkill due to their confined thinking? I also thought it was interesting that his enlightened inner world consisted of no work or monotony...it provided for yet another chuckle as I remembered our extensive class discussion regarding work in our everyday reality.
I do have to disagree with Huxley's assumption that we as 'hungry sheep' look to be fed and when we do not obtain what we are searching for we "turn to the bottle". Say it isn't so! He had me until that point - certainly we go to services, take part in rituals, anything that can provide us with some kind of nourishment for the soul. But I think his assumption is a little extreme, people may turn away from such soul-searching tasks in disappointment, but I disagree that we are turning into the nearest State store for a fifth!
Lastly, I was surprised about the mention that 2/3 of our dreams are black and white...who knew? I've been attributing our discussions on ASC to dream-like states, but Huxley's ASC under mescalin was a plethora of high-def colors - some so intense that the name alone implied nothing. Huxley describes colors viewed with this inner light as having so many divisions and meanings. This parallels Hughes' comment on synthesesia. Apparently, a dreamlike state comes nothing close to the mescalin-induced state as far as "colors' being".
Ah, mescalin
I thought Huxley's descriptions of what it was like to be under the influence of mescalin were absolutely fascinating. Though I have never taken the drug itself, there was a lingering familiarity to similar experiences I have had. It has just dawned on me that while drugs or meditation or sleep deprivation or whatever may be a way to get to an altered state of consciousness, that does not necessarily mean that the destination is so different once we get there; that is to say, we may travel by plane or train or automobile, but Disney World will still be there at the end of the journey. And just as Disney World will be there, every person who visits will take something different from the visit.
The crude analogy to a theme park aside, Huxley's thoughts got me thinking. While reading about the flowers or the material of his slacks, I was reminded of fleeting thoughts and memories that had flitted through my own mind, perhaps when I was in an altered state of consciousness, or close to it. We've already discussed that sleep deprivation can lead to an altered state, even unintentionally; have you ever had a day when you were so incredibly exhausted you can barely keep your eyes open and your head upright? Still, you take a shower (trying not to drown yourself in the process), put on make-up (because the worse you feel, the more you have to look like you're fabulous), and somehow manage to make it to school or work in one piece, though when you get there you're not exactly sure how you didn't hit anything (a typical example of drifting consciousness).
You're so sure that you can fool everyone, that if you look the part and if you are physically present, no one will ever guess that you were up so late because your girlfriend never left your house or you had to cram for an exam or because you couldn't put down the controller because you were playing MegaMan until the sun came up. Yet somehow, at some point throughout the day, you look down at your knee, and you're suddenly and as if for the first time aware of the knee of your jeans, of the curious diagonal pattern (what would have been wrong with horizontal or vertical threads?), of the ridges from one thread to the other, how the jean is not all the same color but faded in some spots, darker in others. Though some small part of your conscience may be trying to tell you that you should be listening to the professor, that voice slowly fades into nothingness, and you're absorbed with the pattern on the jeans.
You don't care whence the jeans came or how many cotton plants it took to weave those patterns or how long the jeans will last or even what you leg looks like beneath it. Though on any other day they would just be a pair of pants that happen to look good with any shirt you own, in those moments they are your entire world, because you are suddenly aware that they are. While you don't give any thought to the leg itself, you can feel the brush of the material against your thigh when you move; you can feel where it's stiff from being hung to dry and soft from being worn so many times. Every aspect of those jeans fills your mind and your senses -- you can even smell the Tide laundry detergent you used to wash them, but that does not exist in your mind as Tide; it is the scent of those jeans.
Perhaps it is a form of meditating that when we become so focused on one object that it expands to fill one's entire mind; perhaps it is a combination of meditation and sleep deprivation and hypnosis? From everything we've been reading about what happens to the mind when it is influenced by drugs, it seems that these drugs offer the user the opportunity to shut out everything else, to focus on one thing that is so important -- an idea for a painting, a vision for a book, pitching a no-hitter. In these altered states, we are no longer a slave to the busyness and the white noise that surrounds us and fills our everyday lives with meaningless chatter. Life is a package that has arrived and is filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts -- they're everywhere, of no particular use and in fact dangerous, but we have to cut through them to reach what is really important in the center of that box.
It's all shadows and dust.
The crude analogy to a theme park aside, Huxley's thoughts got me thinking. While reading about the flowers or the material of his slacks, I was reminded of fleeting thoughts and memories that had flitted through my own mind, perhaps when I was in an altered state of consciousness, or close to it. We've already discussed that sleep deprivation can lead to an altered state, even unintentionally; have you ever had a day when you were so incredibly exhausted you can barely keep your eyes open and your head upright? Still, you take a shower (trying not to drown yourself in the process), put on make-up (because the worse you feel, the more you have to look like you're fabulous), and somehow manage to make it to school or work in one piece, though when you get there you're not exactly sure how you didn't hit anything (a typical example of drifting consciousness).
You're so sure that you can fool everyone, that if you look the part and if you are physically present, no one will ever guess that you were up so late because your girlfriend never left your house or you had to cram for an exam or because you couldn't put down the controller because you were playing MegaMan until the sun came up. Yet somehow, at some point throughout the day, you look down at your knee, and you're suddenly and as if for the first time aware of the knee of your jeans, of the curious diagonal pattern (what would have been wrong with horizontal or vertical threads?), of the ridges from one thread to the other, how the jean is not all the same color but faded in some spots, darker in others. Though some small part of your conscience may be trying to tell you that you should be listening to the professor, that voice slowly fades into nothingness, and you're absorbed with the pattern on the jeans.
You don't care whence the jeans came or how many cotton plants it took to weave those patterns or how long the jeans will last or even what you leg looks like beneath it. Though on any other day they would just be a pair of pants that happen to look good with any shirt you own, in those moments they are your entire world, because you are suddenly aware that they are. While you don't give any thought to the leg itself, you can feel the brush of the material against your thigh when you move; you can feel where it's stiff from being hung to dry and soft from being worn so many times. Every aspect of those jeans fills your mind and your senses -- you can even smell the Tide laundry detergent you used to wash them, but that does not exist in your mind as Tide; it is the scent of those jeans.
Perhaps it is a form of meditating that when we become so focused on one object that it expands to fill one's entire mind; perhaps it is a combination of meditation and sleep deprivation and hypnosis? From everything we've been reading about what happens to the mind when it is influenced by drugs, it seems that these drugs offer the user the opportunity to shut out everything else, to focus on one thing that is so important -- an idea for a painting, a vision for a book, pitching a no-hitter. In these altered states, we are no longer a slave to the busyness and the white noise that surrounds us and fills our everyday lives with meaningless chatter. Life is a package that has arrived and is filled with Styrofoam packing peanuts -- they're everywhere, of no particular use and in fact dangerous, but we have to cut through them to reach what is really important in the center of that box.
It's all shadows and dust.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Does peyote rhyme with coyote? Just wondering.....
A couple of times during the readings, I had to kind of shake my head, as if to dislodge water from my ears. I know this reading was a little easier than the other texts, but it was still a little tedious to me. I think that accompanying Huxley on his experience was a little weird, but at the same time a little interesting. I think I would rather read about one's experience than to see it, like with did with the video in class. It's one of those things that I think loses something with the visual to accompany it............kind of like what Huxley says about landscapes. For years, no one painted them, but they spoke/wrote of them. Now that that they are painted, we could care less about them. A flower is a flower. A rock is a rock. A babbling brook............well, it doesn't babble.
I thought it was interesting when he touched on the mind as an elimintative. Some of the other authors we've studied have talked about this, but I like how Huxley put it. "What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet." (p. 23) The idea makes sense. Our brain filters through everything it takes in and merely highlights to us what we need to know to keep us alive. The information it receives that won't benefit us is discarded...........it's considered chaff, in a sense. It is that "stuff" though, that may increase our day-to-day experience. I would expect that as our society moved into more industrialized times, with more "free" time, that our mind would filter less, and that we would experience more. But I don't think we allow ourselves to do that. I made a comment to the Professor the other day and she advised me to relax (I'm paraphrasing). I told her that wasn't how I was wired. She thought that was funny, but I had to reflect on that. I know that I am wound tighter than a tick (where do these phrases even come from????). BUT WHY???? I am not daily fighting for my survival............far from it. Yet we all act this way. We are constantly in a go-go-go state of mind. We think that everything we do is soooooo important. And while some things might have some sort of significance, I think we may need a lesson from Huxley. We need to stop and smell the proverbial roses, or as he did, look at a chair. He found so much in a chair. Granted, he was taking a drug, so he wasn't in the "right" state of mind, but maybe he's on the right track. There are times when I realize that I have been so focused on going somewhere, that I don't realize what I have experienced while getting there. I have learned to look around when I'm running, not just to avoid stepping in roadkill (though that is terribly important), but to make sure I SEE. A lot of what Huxley talked about was simple. He mostly talked about taking in our surroundings, and studying them. I'm removing the altered state from this, sure, but I think that's the underlying message, especially in The Door of Perception...........at least that's what I came away with.
I spent most of this blog referencing The Doors of Perception, though I enjoyed Heaven and Hell more. One of my favorite passages was on page 138: the nature of the mind is such that the sinner who repents and makes an act of faith in a higher power is more likely to have a blissful visionary experience than is the self-satisfied pillar of society.......Hence the enormous importance attached, in all the great religious traditions, to the state of mind at the moment of death." God sees through the things we say and do that are solely for appearances. He knows the state of our heart, of our true mind. He knows when we are simply spouting out crap that we think we ought to say, because someone told us it was so when we were young. When we make the true commitment to Him, regardless of how late in life, He recognizes it, and welcomes it. A death-bed conversion is a conversion, even though it came at the last possible minute. Such a person will receive the same lot in Heaven as someone who was converted much earlier in life. That's the beauty of God!!!
I think I have sufficiently digressed in my ramblings about both articles, so I will consider this entry completed.
I thought it was interesting when he touched on the mind as an elimintative. Some of the other authors we've studied have talked about this, but I like how Huxley put it. "What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet." (p. 23) The idea makes sense. Our brain filters through everything it takes in and merely highlights to us what we need to know to keep us alive. The information it receives that won't benefit us is discarded...........it's considered chaff, in a sense. It is that "stuff" though, that may increase our day-to-day experience. I would expect that as our society moved into more industrialized times, with more "free" time, that our mind would filter less, and that we would experience more. But I don't think we allow ourselves to do that. I made a comment to the Professor the other day and she advised me to relax (I'm paraphrasing). I told her that wasn't how I was wired. She thought that was funny, but I had to reflect on that. I know that I am wound tighter than a tick (where do these phrases even come from????). BUT WHY???? I am not daily fighting for my survival............far from it. Yet we all act this way. We are constantly in a go-go-go state of mind. We think that everything we do is soooooo important. And while some things might have some sort of significance, I think we may need a lesson from Huxley. We need to stop and smell the proverbial roses, or as he did, look at a chair. He found so much in a chair. Granted, he was taking a drug, so he wasn't in the "right" state of mind, but maybe he's on the right track. There are times when I realize that I have been so focused on going somewhere, that I don't realize what I have experienced while getting there. I have learned to look around when I'm running, not just to avoid stepping in roadkill (though that is terribly important), but to make sure I SEE. A lot of what Huxley talked about was simple. He mostly talked about taking in our surroundings, and studying them. I'm removing the altered state from this, sure, but I think that's the underlying message, especially in The Door of Perception...........at least that's what I came away with.
I spent most of this blog referencing The Doors of Perception, though I enjoyed Heaven and Hell more. One of my favorite passages was on page 138: the nature of the mind is such that the sinner who repents and makes an act of faith in a higher power is more likely to have a blissful visionary experience than is the self-satisfied pillar of society.......Hence the enormous importance attached, in all the great religious traditions, to the state of mind at the moment of death." God sees through the things we say and do that are solely for appearances. He knows the state of our heart, of our true mind. He knows when we are simply spouting out crap that we think we ought to say, because someone told us it was so when we were young. When we make the true commitment to Him, regardless of how late in life, He recognizes it, and welcomes it. A death-bed conversion is a conversion, even though it came at the last possible minute. Such a person will receive the same lot in Heaven as someone who was converted much earlier in life. That's the beauty of God!!!
I think I have sufficiently digressed in my ramblings about both articles, so I will consider this entry completed.
Drugs, Again
Aldous Huxley made it interesting to say that when you take a drug, the normal side effects are not always the same. That is a very important fact to take to heart. This includes any drug you take, whether prescription, over the counter, or even illegal, if you’re a person who does that. I found it interesting when he went on to explain about the side effects he experienced. While taking the drug Mescalin, he experienced a huge increase in awareness. There was an infallible intensity of existence, perception of significance, relationships, the loss of predominance in space, the mind loosing interest in measures and specific locations, a major focusing on being and meaning, an indifference in time, and a still life recognition to relative objectivity in the world. His primary focus mostly became triggered on the concern of forms and their relationships with one another. “Place and distance cease to be of much interest.” (The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell, Page 20) What is said to happen to most people who take Mescalin, is a reduction in the normal ability to remember, or to think normally, visual impressions are intensified, loss of interest in space, a great loss in time, and loss of will or the motivation to do anything in particular. It is believed by the author that “most visualizers are transformed by mescalin into visionaries.”(The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell, Page 45) I do not agree on this. Once again, I feel anyone who has to use drugs to see visions, hallucinations, foreshadows, or whatever the case may be weakens a person. These people are not visionaries, they are just high. Only people who are weak take themselves out of the normal realm of reality, instead of facing it head on. That is my belief. The weak look for a crutch to fall on while the strong stay sober, drug free, and face there problems, issues, concerns, fears, and pain.
Huxley
Perception-
I enjoyed reading Huxleys experiment with mescalin. During his experience with the drug it was neat to find that he seen more beyond what a typical rose, carnation, and iris actually are observed by the human eye. This actually made me think that if you stare at a flower for a short period of time you may not understand the compound of it, but if you think about it you can see what its all about. The way Huxley described the investigator shifting Huxleys vision from the book shelf to the furniture and making him see what added space is and how it can be full was interesting, because what really makes up the extra space we see? I believe what Huxley stated about the five and dime ship and how it correlates to us and how we are perceived as others is a good example of self confidence. Because, when you act in a proper fashion or act approate you are given more respect and appointed different positions, and you should give back to your environment with some talents you have. In the last paragraph of the perception, Huxley states that " The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out." That's true but my ? is can you really be changed after coming back into the light?
Heaven an Hell-
I enjoyed reading Huxleys over all expierence with mesculin and how it affect him. I thought that his expiernce was good that way he can describe it to us how it feels. It was neat to see that he used an instructor or guide on his trip. The guide followed him through seeing the meaning behind the apperence of flowers and showed him the negative space that fills the air. Also I enjoyed how Huxley decribed his trip to the beach with his friend and how he zoned out and managed to see the sparkle in the sand that caught his eye and how he realized how special this piece of sand was and in transition how to special life really is. That happens to me sometimes when Im driving and Im listing to a cd in the car and its something that strikes my over all perception of what Im doing and helps me focus on the good things in life.
Appendices-
I enjoyed learning about different stages of mescalin and how it affects the body, mind and soul.
I enjoyed reading Huxleys experiment with mescalin. During his experience with the drug it was neat to find that he seen more beyond what a typical rose, carnation, and iris actually are observed by the human eye. This actually made me think that if you stare at a flower for a short period of time you may not understand the compound of it, but if you think about it you can see what its all about. The way Huxley described the investigator shifting Huxleys vision from the book shelf to the furniture and making him see what added space is and how it can be full was interesting, because what really makes up the extra space we see? I believe what Huxley stated about the five and dime ship and how it correlates to us and how we are perceived as others is a good example of self confidence. Because, when you act in a proper fashion or act approate you are given more respect and appointed different positions, and you should give back to your environment with some talents you have. In the last paragraph of the perception, Huxley states that " The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out." That's true but my ? is can you really be changed after coming back into the light?
Heaven an Hell-
I enjoyed reading Huxleys over all expierence with mesculin and how it affect him. I thought that his expiernce was good that way he can describe it to us how it feels. It was neat to see that he used an instructor or guide on his trip. The guide followed him through seeing the meaning behind the apperence of flowers and showed him the negative space that fills the air. Also I enjoyed how Huxley decribed his trip to the beach with his friend and how he zoned out and managed to see the sparkle in the sand that caught his eye and how he realized how special this piece of sand was and in transition how to special life really is. That happens to me sometimes when Im driving and Im listing to a cd in the car and its something that strikes my over all perception of what Im doing and helps me focus on the good things in life.
Appendices-
I enjoyed learning about different stages of mescalin and how it affects the body, mind and soul.
The doors or perception..Heaven & Hell
I thought i was interesting that taking mescalin in small does changes the quality of consciousness in a profound way, and it is NOT as toxic as most drugs. It has an affect on the central nervous system and affects the relationship between the brain and consciousness.
I LOVED the quote, "the martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse thier insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain" this gives me such a sad feeling. Huxley uses it in describing how we are overall actually all by ourselves, even though we feel like we are with others. It makes me think about my own perception of reality. He continues on about how communication between 'universes' is pretty much nonexsistent. The minds of the insane and gifted are so unique compared to normal men and women. He poses the question, "How can the sane get to know what it feels like to be mad?"
I needed to know what some words meant:
mesomorphy means of, relating to, or existing in a state of matter intermediate between liquid and crystal.
somatotonia: is defined as the temperamental trait associated with a mesomorphic somatotype, characterized by an active, aggressive, and risk-taking approach to life.
These both relate by means of there is an inside to expierence as well as an outside.
I liked the authors description of his mescalin expierence. He thought he was going to have a crazy episode and see all sorts of things. He actually only saw more vivid colors and speace ceased to matter to him. It is interesting that to humans, we percieve things in terms of intensity of exsistence, significance, and patterns. Suddenyl, space meant little to Huxley. He was concerned simply with being and meaning.
The author states on page 23 that "every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the lingusitic tradition into which he has been born" this brings me to think about the whole "nature versus nurture" argument.
The use of mescalin causes: the ability to remember is mostly reduced, visual impressions are intensified, intrest in space is diminished, the intellect is intact, but perception is improved, the will diminishes, and 'better things' may be expierenced 'out there' and 'in there'.
"the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner", a great analogy for the way someone thinks while on mescalin.
I like how Huley says our minds still have the darkest Africa's, unmapped Borneo's and amazonian basins. We still have much to learn about the human mind. The zoologist analogy is creative.
A visionary is not seeing anything that reminds him of his past. He is looking for new things to be a creation. I think this is hard for some people to do this, because we are emotional and tend to relate things to our expierences.
I LOVED the quote, "the martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse thier insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain" this gives me such a sad feeling. Huxley uses it in describing how we are overall actually all by ourselves, even though we feel like we are with others. It makes me think about my own perception of reality. He continues on about how communication between 'universes' is pretty much nonexsistent. The minds of the insane and gifted are so unique compared to normal men and women. He poses the question, "How can the sane get to know what it feels like to be mad?"
I needed to know what some words meant:
mesomorphy means of, relating to, or existing in a state of matter intermediate between liquid and crystal.
somatotonia: is defined as the temperamental trait associated with a mesomorphic somatotype, characterized by an active, aggressive, and risk-taking approach to life.
These both relate by means of there is an inside to expierence as well as an outside.
I liked the authors description of his mescalin expierence. He thought he was going to have a crazy episode and see all sorts of things. He actually only saw more vivid colors and speace ceased to matter to him. It is interesting that to humans, we percieve things in terms of intensity of exsistence, significance, and patterns. Suddenyl, space meant little to Huxley. He was concerned simply with being and meaning.
The author states on page 23 that "every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the lingusitic tradition into which he has been born" this brings me to think about the whole "nature versus nurture" argument.
The use of mescalin causes: the ability to remember is mostly reduced, visual impressions are intensified, intrest in space is diminished, the intellect is intact, but perception is improved, the will diminishes, and 'better things' may be expierenced 'out there' and 'in there'.
"the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner", a great analogy for the way someone thinks while on mescalin.
I like how Huley says our minds still have the darkest Africa's, unmapped Borneo's and amazonian basins. We still have much to learn about the human mind. The zoologist analogy is creative.
A visionary is not seeing anything that reminds him of his past. He is looking for new things to be a creation. I think this is hard for some people to do this, because we are emotional and tend to relate things to our expierences.
Carbon dioxide and the stroboscopic lamp, causes the user to have certain physical and psycholoical changes. Some see swirls of colors, vivid recollection of past expierences.
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