daily life and relationships. This reluctance to pursue human relationships disturbed Huxley at first. It seemed as though the experience on mescaline left no room for human relationships, which is as he later conclude exactly how it should be. One should not be concerned with the banal nature of one’s life when one has had one’s ego dissolved into the "Mind at Large" as he puts it. Huxley hypothesizes that since mescaline lowers the blood sugar in the brain it has effectively allowed his senses to be more aware of this "Mind at Large", which is in a sense the universal mind. This universal mind is what allows us to perceive things which are seemingly beyond perception and accounts for genius, artistic innovation and madness. It is with similarly unhindered senses that Huxley believes the schizophrenic must be forced to experience the world. When the realization that madness lies not far from the state in which he is in Huxley comments to the overseer that, "if you started out in the wrong way, everything that happened would be a proof of the conspiracy against you. It would be self-validating." Huxley believes to have found where madness lies and when if asked if he thought he could control it, his answer is a resounding "No". The idea that one could induce a state of near madness seems to be a valuable tool in the understanding of schizophrenia. Huxley realizes that besides the great beauty of his illuminated environment there is the possibility of having it all crescendo into a self-validating psychosis. Being a stable and mature adult, Huxley is nevertheless able to fight off such spiraling madness. Mescaline itself would not produce such a true psychosis on its own he surmises; it would take an unstable person and make them more unstable. It is with an open mind and the promise of no ill affects that Huxley approaches this experiment and that is precisely what he receives: A delightful departure from himself into a w...
