![]() Insofar as he transcends his ordinary self and his ordinary mode of awareness, the mystic is able to enlarge his vision, to look more deeply into the unfathomable miracle of existence. The ordinary waking consciousness is a very useful and, on most occasions, an indispensable state of mind but it is by no means the only form of consciousness, nor in all circumstances the best. It exists as the feelings of love, fear and devotion evoked by this manipulation of symbols.Īnd finally it exists as a special kind of feeling or intuition - a sense of the oneness of all things in their divine principle, a realization (to use the language of Hindu theology) that “thou art That,” a mystical experience of what seems self-evidently to be union with God. It exists as a set of rites and sacraments, as a traditional method for manipulating the symbols, by means of which beliefs about the cosmic order are expressed. It exists as a set of abstract concepts about the world and its governance. Huxley begins by considering why religion is nothing more nor less than an attempt to codify through symbolism our longing for what Jack Kerouac called “the golden eternity” and what Alan Lightman described in his encounter with the ospreys - a sense of intimate connection with the universe, with something larger than ourselves:Įvery fully developed religion exists simultaneously on several different levels. In 1958, five years after his transcendent experience induced by taking four-tenths of a gram of mescalin, Aldous Huxley (July 26, 1894–November 22, 1963) - legendary author of Brave New World, lesser-known but no less compelling writer of children’s books, modern prophet - penned an essay titled “Drugs That Shape Men’s Minds.” It was originally published in the Saturday Evening Post and eventually included in Moksha: Aldous Huxley’s Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience ( public library) - a selection of Huxley’s fiction, essays, and letters titled after the Sanskrit word for “liberation.” In the essay, Huxley considers the gifts and limitations of our wakeful consciousness, our universal quest for transcendence, and the interplay of drugs and democracy.
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