The Perennial Philosophy
Aldous Huxley
The Perennial Philosophy
Huxley's anthology of the mystics, published nine years earlier. The Doors of Perception tests its ideas on his own mind.
Read our takeThe Doors of Perception
Aldous Huxley
The Doors of Perception
Aldous Huxley takes mescaline in May 1953 and writes down what happens to the world when he looks at it.
- 1954
- 208
- Hallucinatory
- autobiographical
- intimate
- voice-driven
About Aldous Huxley
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe Doors of Perception is Aldous Huxley's short account of taking mescaline, the drug made from the peyote cactus. In May 1953 he took the drug with the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond guiding him. Huxley describes ordinary things, from flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers, turning strange and wonderful. He then asks what the experience says about the mind and about art. Chatto & Windus in London and Harper in New York published the book in February 1954.
The story, in more detail
Huxley was fifty-eight when he took the drug. He had lived with badly damaged eyesight since an eye disease in his teens, and he had spent years on exercises, treatments and spiritual disciplines trying to see clearly. David King Dunaway's life of Huxley for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that under mescaline he briefly got back the depth of vision he had lost as a boy. Huxley wrote that he saw as painters see.[1]
The title comes from William Blake, the English poet and painter. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake wrote that if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.[2] Huxley took Blake's idea literally. He argues that for a few hours he saw the world as it is taken in by what he calls Mind at Large, and not as it appears to an animal obsessed with words and ideas.[3]
The book is short. The first American edition, published by Harper in 1954, runs to 79 pages.[4] Two years later Huxley followed it with Heaven and Hell, which looks at the history of visionary experience. The two essays are now usually sold in one volume.[5][6]
What's inside
Huxley opens with the experiment itself. In May 1953 he took a tablet of mescaline, with the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond there to guide him. Vintage Classics puts the dose at four-tenths of a gram. Huxley sat down and waited to see what would happen.[1][6]
The core of the book is what he saw. When he opened his eyes, everything looked transformed, from the flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers. He wrote that he saw as painters see.[6][1]
The rest of the book is argument. Huxley describes the world as seen directly by Mind at Large, rather than through words and ideas. He argues that being shaken out of ordinary habits of seeing, even for a few hours, is an experience of great value.[3]
He is careful about what he is claiming. The EBSCO account of his life sums up his view. Some drugs may be useful to some people on some occasions, if used intelligently. He did not think they were essential, or that they always produced good visions, and he did not approve of taking them for fun.[3]
Themes and analysis
A half-blind man looking hard
Huxley's eyes explain a great deal about the book. In the autumn of 1910, at Eton, he caught keratitis punctata, an infection of the clear front surface of the eye. The infection left him nearly blind and forced him to leave the school, and his sight stayed damaged for the rest of his life. In 1942 he published The Art of Seeing, a book about the eye exercises he had practised through the war.
Dunaway's biography says that Huxley was searching in May 1953 for personal balance and for new ways of seeing. His wife Maria was ill with the cancer that killed her in 1955. The mescaline session, guided by Humphry Osmond, ended with Huxley briefly recovering the three-dimensional sight he had lost as a teenager.
The book the 1960s took up
The Doors of Perception found a new audience in the 1960s. Dunaway writes that this book and Huxley's last novel, Island, announced the youth culture of the 1960s. That audience bought twenty-three printings of The Doors of Perception.
In 1965 and 1966 a young band played the clubs on Hollywood's Sunset Strip. Its members were the singer Jim Morrison, the keyboard player Ray Manzarek, the guitarist Robby Krieger and the drummer John Densmore. They called themselves the Doors, after Huxley's book and the line from Blake behind its title. Huxley's face also appears on the cover of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul McCartney later said the band had decided it was about time to admit they liked Aldous Huxley.
Huxley did not like everything done in the book's name. He had met Timothy Leary at Harvard University. Karen Kildahl's account of Huxley's life for EBSCO calls Leary the high priest of psychedelic drugs, and says Huxley deplored his irresponsible behaviour.
The Doors of Perception and Paris
Huxley was living in California, not France, when he wrote the book. The first French translation, Les Portes de la perception, came out in 1954, the same year as the English original. Jules Castier, who had translated Huxley's novels for Plon in Paris, did the work. The publisher was the Éditions du Rocher in Monaco, and the volume ran to 264 pages. Paris publishers took the book up in paperback later, including the 10/18 series in 1977.
The strongest Paris link runs through the band that borrowed the title. Jim Morrison, the Doors' singer, left the United States for Paris to write poetry. He died there on 3 July 1971, and no autopsy was done. His grave at Père-Lachaise Cemetery has become a place of pilgrimage for rock fans.
Why we recommend it
Short and famous
The first American edition ran to 79 pages. The book gave a rock band its name and helped shape the 1960s.
A writer looking with fresh eyes
Huxley had poor sight all his adult life. Under the drug, his biographer says, he briefly saw depth again and saw as painters see.
Careful rather than excited
Huxley argues that the experience has value, and says just as plainly that drugs are not essential and not for fun.
A bridge between Huxley's books
The book sits between The Perennial Philosophy, his anthology of the mystics, and Island, his last novel, where a society uses a drug to make people more aware.
What this book explores
Bring it to book club
- Huxley took the drug as an experiment, with a doctor present. Does that change how you read what he saw?
- Why do you think flowers and the creases in a pair of trousers affected him more than grand sights?
- Huxley had poor eyesight all his life. How much of the book is about drugs, and how much about seeing?
- The book became a text of the 1960s counterculture. Would Huxley have recognised the uses people made of it?
- Is a changed state of mind a way of seeing more truly, or only a way of seeing differently?
Timeline
May 1953
Huxley takes mescaline under the supervision of the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond.
February 1954
Chatto & Windus in London and Harper in New York publish The Doors of Perception.
1954
Jules Castier's French translation, Les Portes de la perception, is published by the Éditions du Rocher in Monaco.
February 1956
Huxley publishes the sequel, Heaven and Hell.
1965–1966
Jim Morrison and his bandmates name their group the Doors after the book.
3 July 1971
Jim Morrison dies in Paris. He is buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery.
1977
The Paris paperback series 10/18 publishes Les Portes de la perception.
2009
Harper Perennial Modern Classics publishes The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell in one volume.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Chatto & Windus
- 1954
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Harper & Brothers
- 1954
Paperback
- Paperback
- Éditions du Rocher
- 1954
- Jules Castier
- Paperback
- Harper Perennial Modern Classics
- 2009
- 9780061729072
- Paperback
- Vintage Classics
- 2004
- 9780099458203
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
Island
Aldous Huxley
Island
Huxley's last novel imagines a society that uses a hallucinogen, moksha-medicine, to make its people more aware.
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Brave New World
The earlier novel's drug, soma, makes people forget. Huxley's later books imagine drugs that make people more aware.
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Junky
William S. Burroughs's account of heroin addiction appeared the year before, from the other side of the drug experience.
Read our takeThe Doors of Perception: frequently asked questions
What is The Doors of Perception about?
Aldous Huxley's experience of taking mescaline in May 1953, and what he thought it showed. He describes ordinary things looking transformed, then argues that such a break from ordinary seeing has great value.
Where does the title The Doors of Perception come from?
From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake wrote that if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Who gave Aldous Huxley mescaline?
The psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. He guided Huxley through the session in May 1953.
Is the band the Doors named after the book?
Yes. Jim Morrison and his bandmates took the name from Huxley's book, and through it from Blake's line, when they started playing on the Sunset Strip in 1965 and 1966.
Did Aldous Huxley approve of taking drugs for fun?
No. His view was that some drugs may help some people on some occasions if used intelligently. He did not think they were essential, and he disliked recreational use and Timothy Leary's showmanship.
What is the difference between The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell?
The Doors of Perception, from 1954, describes Huxley's own mescaline experience. Heaven and Hell, from 1956, looks more widely at visionary experience and mysticism. The two are usually printed together.
Does The Doors of Perception have a Paris connection?
Only an indirect one. The first French translation appeared in Monaco in 1954, and later Paris paperbacks followed. The band named after the book lost its singer, Jim Morrison, in Paris in 1971, and he is buried at Père-Lachaise.
Which edition has this ISBN?
ISBN 9780061729072 is the Harper Perennial Modern Classics paperback of The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, published 28 July 2009, 208 pages.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Doors of Perception, its publication, and its place in literary history.
2↑The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Project Gutenberg ebook 45315, from the 1906 John W. Luce reprint
PoetryProject Gutenberg transcription, 1790Used forBlake's line about the doors of perception, in the 1906 John W. Luce reprint.
4↑The Doors of Perception (New York: Harper, 1954) — Open Library edition record OL6152917M
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forLibrary record for the first American edition.
5↑Aldous Huxley: A Chronology of His Life
ArchiveAldous Huxley ArchiveUsed forDates of the eye disease, the mescaline session, and publication.
7Jim Morrison
WebsiteEBSCO Research Starters, 2024Used forJack Ewing's account of Jim Morrison: the band's name, and Morrison's death in Paris.
8The Doors of Perception (London: Chatto & Windus, 1954) — Open Library edition record OL6150743M
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forLibrary record for the first British edition.
9Les Portes de la perception, essays translated by Jules Castier (Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 1954): catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1954Used forCatalogue record for the first French translation.
10Les Portes de la perception, translated by Jules Castier (Paris: Union générale d'éditions, 10/18, no. 1122, 1977): catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1977Used forCatalogue record for the 10/18 paperback published in Paris.
11The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009) — Open Library edition record OL24091081M
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forLibrary record confirming ISBN 9780061729072, date and page count.
12The Doors of Perception
NovelAldous Huxley, 1954Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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