Talk:The Doors of Perception

Citation requests

From the article:

This must be similar to how manic-depressive people feel and helps to understand them and their way of perceiving and reacting to their environment.

Really? Cite, please?

To be added:

Mention of walt disney's involvement with Aldous Huxley? Is this just a rumor, or are there any reputable sources avalible?

While I'm sure Jim Morrison was familiar with this book, I'm also pretty sure he knew Blake, so without a citation I'm not sure if it's clear that he named The Doors after this book or after the quotation from Blake's poem. Does anyone have a citation for that claim? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.42.129.30 (talk) 14:41, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Doorsofperce.jpg

Image:Doorsofperce.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:10, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

although i too question the necessity of the image. it is stated, "the image serves as the primary means of visual identification of the subject (the book). it illustrates educational articles about the book from which the cover illustration was taken." however, is the "visual identification of the book" really pertinent, and belonging to the article? Twipley (talk) 20:17, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't much like this article

Because it taught me nothing about the Doors of Perception. Where is the summary? You just have a few quotes written by Huxley himself. Please, a synopsis. What is Aldy's philosophy in this book? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Seanpatnaude (talk • contribs) 22:32, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

did Huxley write this while ON mescaline?

The quotes are rather...obscure, not to mention verbose. It sounds like he wrote it while high on whatever drug he was taking (mescaline or otherwise). Or perhaps he did write it while sober, but no one who has taken such perception altering drugs could possibly understand what he's really trying to say. 72.92.173.86 (talk) 05:56, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

insert:

In the appended reference section on Humphry Osmond, it is stated:

<<<<In 1953 Osmond provided English author Aldous Huxley with a dose of mescaline.[citation needed] As a result of his experience, Huxley produced an enthusiastic book called The Doors of Perception, describing the look of the Hollywood Hills and his reactions to artwork while under the influence. Though Osmond is not named, it is believed[who?] that he is referred to in the book.>>>

Although this commonly ascribed attribution that Osmond gave Huxley the impetus to write Doors of Perception, to my knowledge this is not correct....My understanding of the situation, of which I have first hand knowledge based on a conversation with Dr. Kluver, is that Huxley was inspired to write Brave New World on the basis of direct conversation, advice, discussion, and recommendation (to try mescaline) by Dr. Heinrich Kluver. Kluver had written "Mescal and Mechanisms of Hallucination" in 1929-based on personal trial and observation of mescaline induced hallucination. Kluver was also the direct instigation (and so credited) for Weston La Barre to write "the Peyote Cult" as a thesis in 1938 (and who later wrote the superb "Ghost Dance Religion"). Dr. Kluver was also the principal inspiration who persuaded Richard Evan Schultes to enter the field of ethnobotany (per personal conversation with Schultes)....This academic chain of events is a far more cogent explanation for the true genesis and origin of Doors of Perception than the Osmond thread. It is probably Kluver that Huxley referenced without specifically naming him....I did not discuss at the time with Kluver whether he may have given Huxley a sample of mescaline, although Kluver was a profound scholar and experimentalist as well as being a specialist expert in the chemistry, pharmacology, and behavioral effects of psychoactive phenethylamines, and definitely had a supply of pure mescaline on hand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delta 77 (talk • contribs) 03:23, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

blake's original quote wording

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

-- i've reverted "through" to "thro'," so as to reflect the way blake chose to write it in his original manuscript. however, i still wonder if it should be written as "thro'" or as "through," and thought i could call for some opinions here. Twipley (talk) 19:53, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

zaehner's criticism

i think in order for that section to be neutral, smith's views on zaehner's criticisms should be included, as observed there: http://www.psychedelic-library.org/hsmith.htm. Twipley (talk) 19:58, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Good article, I was not aware of it. Yes, Huston Smith's points should be included within the Zaehner section.--Evenmadderjon (talk) 15:22, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

nice to have "fell in," then. :)

the following might have to be taken into account (so as to attain neutrality of the section):

"The principle of causal indifference is this: If X has an alleged mystical experience P1 and Y has an alleged mystical experience P2, and if the phenomenological characteristics of P1 entirely resemble the phenomenological characteristics of P2 so far as can be ascertained from the descriptions given by X and Y, then the two experiences cannot be regarded as being of two different kinds—for example, it cannot be said that one is a 'genuine' mystical experience while the other is not—merely because they arise from dissimilar causal conditions" (Stace, 1960, p. 29); psychedelics "can induce religious experiences indistinguishable from ones that occur spontaneously." (Smith, 1964)

- Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W.. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance, “Psychopharmacology,” Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

- Stace, W. T. (1960). Mysticism and Philosophy, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.

- Smith, H. (1964). Do Drugs Have Religious Import?, “The Journal of Philosophy,” Vol. LXI, No. 18.

Twipley (talk) 15:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, but I think we must be careful here to include specific responses to Zaehner's criticisms of Huxley's Doors....rather than just general discussion of the validity of psychedelics as a cause of religious experience - something that could be discussed elsewhere. Huston Smith's article attempts to make arguments on Huxley's behalf, but I'm not entirely sure if Stace is engaged with the Huxley/Zaehner debate. --Evenmadderjon (talk) 09:31, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

you're right. if those infos would have to be included, it would mostly be in a section else than in zaehner's, as to my mind smith is the only one of the mentioned authors engaged in the involved debate. Twipley (talk) 13:04, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

As the Huston Smith response to Zaehner is now included, do you think we could get rid of the 'neutrality contested' tag?--Evenmadderjon (talk) 08:01, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

I've just removed the POV tag. Thanks Evenmadderjon, for all you've done. Twipley (talk) 23:59, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Most important quote

You are the most articulate guinea pig that any scientist could hope to engage.

The importance of this quote cannot be emphasized enough. One of the problems with people who use drugs, is that very few of them have the mind of Huxley. Viriditas (talk) 04:42, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Publication date?

It is written in this article that the book was published in 1954. However, it also says that the experiment that Huxley is talking about happened during October, 1955 (this date also appears in Laura Huxley's Timeless Moment--and might be inaccurate). One of those two dates must be wrong. But which one? (2/19/2013 - 3:21PM - USA)

Pub date is definitely 1954, see [1]. The other date doesn't have to be wrong. The next edition may have been a revised one. Yworo (talk) 07:09, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Oh, you're talking about the LSD date. The book isn't about his LSD experiences. He didn't take LSD until after the book was finished. The book is about his mescaline experiences. Yworo (talk) 07:14, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

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