The Doors of Perception, written by Aldous Huxley in 1954 was the first essay of its kind to deal with not only the physical effects of mescaline but also attempted to rationalize the fundamental needs satisfied by the drug by its takers. Mescaline is the active chemical in peyote, a wild cactus that grows in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Huxley volunteered to boldly go where few Americans other than chemists, native Americans, and researchers dared to go by ingesting synthesized mescaline in a controlled experiment to measure it’s psychological effects. The idea was that since Huxley was an accomplished writer he would be well suited to catalog the effects of the drug in a way few researchers would have. The story of Huxley’s journey to the center of his mind is well told and is highlighted by rational and logical observations on the nature of madness, perception and the very human need for such occasional hallucinogenic departures from reality.Huxley’s expected hallucination included lying with his eyes shut, visioning many colored geometric shapes, animated architectures, rich with gems, and landscapes with heroic figures of symbolic dramas. This was realized quickly by Huxley as an absurd expectation. When being asked about spatial relationships, he states this as a difficult question to answer. Yes, the room did not appear to have 90 degree angles, but the perception of shapes seemed to him as really unimportant facts. He realized his mind was not perceiving the world in terms of spatial categories, as we are taught to perceive the world. When asked about time Huxley replied " there seems to be plenty of it". Time had lost any real meaning and he was not concerned much with it. In fact, he seemed concerned with very little. The idea of doing things, even simple things, seemed to be not worth the effort. It was far more enjoyable to contemplate more esoteric ideals than to deal with the humdrum of...
