Welcome to Litsy!

I picked these up today, the Huxley for the cover by Max Ernst, as it has an "old money" price, and because for a drug book to be published in 1967, the Summer of Love, seemed apposite. I've got it in a more recent edition, so this was a bibliophilic purchase!
The Unholy City I haven't read before, but enjoyed Finney's Circus of Dr Lao and The Wizard Out of Manchuria, so happy to give this a spin. Also, cover love again, as it's a Peter A. Jones?

A classic from the Psychedelic Era.

Huxley goes into detail about his fascinating experiences with the mind expanding substance, mescalin.

This is basically the whole premise of this essay, him describing the results of mescalin ingestion on himself.

A thought-provoking and interesting read.

A classic, for sure, but this is my first time reading it. Loved it!

Read this a long time ago when I was going through my jim Morrison phase. Had to listen to it again to even remember some of the important details.

Did I need to listen to this? Probably not! It was fine but after having read another drug tome I think this doesn‘t really give enough.

Hopefully will finish this short one in one sitting.

This is a dense one, but does the best job of describing the indescribable I think I've ever read. Far from being full of hippie nonsense, Huxley's essay approaches psychedelics from a deeply objective standpoint, even while accepting the "holiness", "spiritual oneness", whatever you'd like to call it, of his experience. Could do without the pooh-poohing of modern art, though. You're better than that, Huxley.

Hmm.

But the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same...

I think reading is one of the best ways you can #Freeyourmind
I've really enjoyed completing these #Fiercefeb prompts. Thanks so much for organising @batsy @Cinfhen

... the man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.

That 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.

We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain... From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.

Spending two hours and a hundred bucks at the Strand has become a biannual tradition 📚 #nyc

Ingrid: "It's an essay about the author's experience eating a cactus called peyote which contains mescaline. I've tried mescaline before. It takes you to a different dimension. I was in the middle of the desert when I ate it and it made me feel very far away from the reality we live in. I puked, but I was ok. A cactus that you should eat is called nopal. It's healthy, cheap, and it tastes great."

In the 50‘s Aldous Huxley took Mescaline and then sought to record the experience. This is he book that resulted, an interesting detailing of how the drug heightens perception, while removing material desires raising the participant to a mystical state, and an impassioned plea for the use of hallucinogenic drugs to open out understanding of the artist, the mystic and the world as a whole. A strange and alluring book

My books arrived @Born.A.Reader!!

Amazing book. Gave so much insight about the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. The second essay (Heaven and Hell) and the appendices were a little more obscure but still interesting. Though there are many spots within the book that may be hard to read through, I say, force through it because at the end it is worth it. The essays allow the reader to analyze life and the concepts of "living" within a "imprisoned society"

I have read some of his fiction and loved it, I also have a strong interest in the way certain plants and chemicals affect the brain. This was a fascinating little read!!

Meh. Some of the insight was interesting, but once it started going into comparing mescaline to religion and booze, I got bored. Didn't bother reading the second half, "Heaven and Hell".

Opening an old book is walking back through time and right into the mind of someone else. And what a trip this particular mind was on.

He sleeps, I read. Partner in crime. 🐶💕📚👸🏼 #24in48 #readathon

Finally getting a chance to read through these essays written by one of my favorite authors, Aldous Huxley! 😬

"The undernourished person tends to be afflicted by anxiety, depression, hypochondria and feelings of anxiety" p. 150

I'm determined to finish The Doors of Perception 😁✨

Concise writing that accurately depicts certain sensory perception that are nearly impossible to describe to others. I think you already know if your going to like this book.