Love, Spirituality, and Drugs

The old philosopher lay dying. Beside him, his loving wife, Laura, kept watch over him, ensuring that he was as comfortable as possible. His cancer was advanced and left him weak and in pain. Huxley knew that the moment had come to explore a brave new world. He asked for pen and paper to be brought to him, and in a trembling hand he wrote: Try LSD 100 mml intramuscular

(Huxley, 1968)

Aldous Huxley authored several science fiction books, his most famous one being Brave New World. He was a scholarly gentleman who used the vehicle of science fiction to deliver his insights into human nature. His style was old school and having lived through the second world war, his outlook was understandably gloomy. His early work reflects the pessimistic flavor of his age, the specter of Big Brother always looming like a shadow over the heroes.

Later in his career, his world view would be turned upside-down after dosing himself with mescaline and other mind-altering substances. He opened the doors of perception and experienced the psychedelic phantasmagoria of altered consciousness. The antipodes of the mind, as he called the friendly and hostile territories of the turned-on brain. The experience left him bewildered, and for the rest of his life he dedicated himself to making sense of it and its effect on human evolution.

He went on to write books like Heaven and Hell, and the Doors of Perception. Books that are now part of 60s psychedelic lore. In fact, Jim Morrison named his band, The Doors, after reading this book. In them, Huxley recounted and tried to make sense of altered states. His language is philosophical, and to be honest, somewhat difficult to digest. He really did tie himself up in symbolic knots as he tried to describe the indescribable nature of a psychedelic experience. Nevertheless, the significance of his work cannot be overstated.

Although his most famous piece was the pessimistic novel entitled Brave New World, I think that Island is his most important. In this novel, Huxley provided a vision of what a psychedelic society would be like if left unperturbed. It is romantic, wise, and overly optimistic. His prose flows with utopian beauty. Not one to be naive, he does end the book with a stark warning to humanity. It’s a shame that this novel hasn’t received nearly the same level of attention as his other work. Although I find it too idealistic, it is a wonderful attempt- prescient in some ways- at laying a foundation for the dawning Age of Aquarius.

In the late 50s and early 60s, there was a wide-eyed naivete about psychedelic drugs. Like ship-wrecked sailors, those who partook of the experience ended in different islands. Inevitably, they began to come together, fast spinning electrons whizzing with newfound freedom. Huxley came into contact with other neuro-explorers who introduced him to a variety of chemicals. He used them like tools of exploration to magnify and zero-in on insights that can only be grasped by the psychedelic brain. Love, for example, was one such insight. Love was in the air in the 60s, but it wasn’t Love the way we think of it, as that of a man and a woman or child and mother. Huxley believed that Love- capital L- was not just a feeling or emotion, but a real tangible “cosmic factor” of the universe. As real as gravity or “shit”. A fundamental force that in spite of "pain, death, and bereavement," made everything all right.

With his wife, he explored these realms of experience. They were dyadic couple, whirling, spinning, flowing, grooving together through the lysergic landscapes of the mind. Laura beautifully recounts Huxley’s ideas in her book This Timeless Moment. She discusses what her husband thought about psychedelic drugs. That is, he understood that to truly capture the heart of an idea, the mind needed to be turned on and tuned in to higher processes. For him, drugs were not just recreational distractions but powerful tools of exploration. It was a belief that he put to practice even in his final hour.

In her book, Laura recounts Huxley’s last moments under the influence of LSD. He was practicing what he preached. In his novel, Island, the characters use Moksha-medicine to help the dying transition to the realm beyond. They were guided through the experience until they came to terms with it and took their last breath. Now, he himself had taken the Moksha-medicine and with the loving help of his wife, he traveled to the other side.

We’ve come a long way since the heady days of the 1960s. I think that we still haven’t come to terms with what happened then and the impact that period had on our modern culture. Many books have been written on the subject, and popular culture is rife with references to that period. Yet, the story is too grand and too unbelievable to forget. And lest we forget, history is iterative. Someday we’ll find ourselves back in the antipodes of the mind. This is why the tale bears repeating. It will be even more fantastic this time around.