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The Doors of Perception

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The Doors of Perception

By: Aldous Huxley
Narrated by: Rudolph Schirmer
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The critically acclaimed novelist and social critic Aldous Huxley describes his personal experimentation with the drug mescaline and explores the nature of visionary experience. The title of this classic comes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: “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.”

©1954 , 1955, 1956 by Aldous Huxley (P)1998 AudioGO Consciousness & Thought Medicine & Health Care Industry Pharmacology Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

“There is nothing the pen of Huxley touches which it does not illuminate, and as the record of a highly civilized, brilliantly articulate man under the influence of an astonishing drug, The Doors of Perception is a tour de force.”

(Daily Telegraph (London))

“You can look at Aldous Huxley and draw parallels with the Beatles…with The Doors of Perception his full-blown Sergeant Pepper trip. Like the Beatles, Huxley had so many ideas in his head that it was natural he would want to expand and experiment. What drugs provided for them both was not escape, but reevaluation.”

(Times (London))

“The Doors of Perception is a poignant book, partly because it reveals the human frailties and yearnings of a very cerebral writer.”

(Financial Times (London))

“Sometimes a writer has to revisit the classics, and here we find that ‘gonzo journalism’—gutsy first-person accounts wherein the author is part of the story—didn’t originate with Hunter S. Thompson or Tom Wolfe. Aldous Huxley took some mescaline and wrote about it some ten or twelve years earlier than those others. The book he came up with is part bemused essay and part mystical treatise—‘suchness’ is everywhere to be found while under the influence. This is a good example of essay writing, journal keeping, and the value of controversy—always—in one’s work.”

(Amazon.com, editorial review)
All stars
Most relevant
Eloquent, thought provoking and packed with interesting ideas - including the use of "speaker pillows" to reassure the mentally fragile while they sleep!

Profound and lyrical

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A profund journey of alternating perception under mescaline, through which many questions arise, most notably: what is sanity, what is insanity?

Beautiful description of the changes we go though once we come out the door are

What’s been seen can’t be unseen

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A stunning short book about the possibilities that exist to expand your knowledge and your mind. We should never stop learning or trying to understand ourselves and our reason for being. A fabulous listen.

Mind opening

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This book was on my reading list for a long time. I enjoyed listening to it and found the account of his experience to be very interesting and well described. I particularly enjoyed the very last few minutes, where he describes his thoughts and views around this area of knowledge and competency after he had finished the account of his experience. It is also a piece of history, as well as being interesting in itself.

Fascinating account and thoughts on the subject

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Once I point out the narrator’s wheazey in take of breath after every few words, it’s all you’ll hear. Don’t smoke kids.

Having said that, thank goodness Aldous experimented with consciousness changing things which prompted this interesting essay and no doubt inspired his inspirational imagination.

Time for a new (less wheazey!) narration

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