Horowitz Michael - Moksha: Aldous Huxleys classic writings on psychedelics and the visionary experience

Aldous Huxley at his home in the Hollywood Hills during his first mescaline experience, May 6, 1953. Photo: Humphry Osmond

MOKSHA

Aldous Huxleys

Classic Writings

on Psychedelics and the

Visionary Experience

Edited by Michael Horowitz

and Cynthia Palmer

Preface by Albert Hofmann

Foreword by Humphry Osmond

Introduction by Alexander Shulgin

Park Streek Press

Rochester, Vermont

Dedicated to

Sunyata, Jubal, Winona, Uri, Joaquin

GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: To Chatto and Windus, Ltd., for Wanted: A New Pleasure from Musicat Night and Other Essays, Copyright 1931 by Aldous Huxley, and a selection from The Olive Tree and Other Essays, Copyright 1936 by Aldous Huxley. To the Curtis Publishing Company for Drugs That Shape Mens Minds, from The Saturday Evening Post, Copyright 1958 by The Curtis Publishing Company. To Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., for a selection from This Timeless Moment by Laura Archera Huxley, Copyright 1968 by Laura Archera Huxley. To Grune & Stratton, Inc. for Mescaline and the Other World, Copyright 1956 by Grune & Stratton, Inc. To Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., and Chatto and Windus, Ltd., for portions of Brave New World, Copyright 1932 by Aldous Huxley; Time Must Have a Stop, Copyright 1944 by Aldous Huxley; The Devils of Loudun, Copyright 1952 by Aldous Huxley; The Doors of Perception, Copyright 1954 by Aldous Huxley; Heaven and Hell, Copyright 1955 by Aldous Huxley; Brave New World Revisited, Copyright 1958 by Aldous Huxley; Island, Copyright 1962 by Aldous Huxley; Aldous Huxley 1894-1963: A Memorial Volume, edited by Julian Huxley, Copyright 1965 by Julian Huxley; Forty-five letters (abridged) from Letters of Aldous Huxley, edited by Grover Smith, Copyright 1969 by Laura Huxley; Brave New World Revisited: Proleptic Meditations on Mothers Day, Euphoria and Pavlovs Pooch, as it appeared in Esquire Magazine, Copyright 1956 by Laura Huxley, by permission of Mrs. L. Huxley. To Laura Archera Huxley, for Exploring the Borderlands of the Mind, Copyright 1962 by Aldous Huxley; Culture and the Individual, Copyright 1963 by Aldous Huxley (courtesy G.P. Putnams Sons and H.M.H. Publishing Co., Inc.; originally appeared in Playboy); and Visionary Experience, Vol. 2 of The Human Situation, (Recorded) Lectures by Aldous Huxley, and reprinted by permission. To the Journal of Clinical Psychology for Visionary Experience, Copyright 1962 by Aldous Huxley. Reprinted by permission. To New American Library, Inc., for a selection from High Priest, by Timothy Leary, Copyright 1968 by League for Spiritual Discovery. To The New York Academy of Sciences, for The History of Tension, Copyright 1957 by The New York Academy of Sciences. To the Parapsychology Foundation, Inc., for The Far Continents of the Mind, Copyright 1957 by the Parapsychology Foundation, Inc. To The Psychedelic Review, for a selection from The Psychedelic Review, Vol. 1, no. 3, Copyright 1964 by The Psychedelic Review. To University Books, Inc., for selections from The Psychedelic Experience, by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert, Copyright 1964 by Richard Alpert, Timothy Leary, and Ralph Metzner. To Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, for The Final Revolution, Copyright 1959 by Charles C. Thomas, Publisher. To The Viking Press, Inc., for Interview with Aldous Huxley, from Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Second Series, Copyright 1963 by The Paris Review, Inc.; All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, Inc.

Editors Note

THE PRESENTATION IS chronological, except for the placement of one of the Visionary Experience lectures in an appendix at the end, and minor discrepancies arising from our attempt to organize each years correspondence. Addresses are arranged according to the dates they were delivered, rather than when they were printed; essays, according to the date of their first appearance in print, rather than their publication in book form. The memoirs of Humphry Osmond and Laura Huxley are placed in the time zone in which they belong rather than their date of publication.

In the interest of reproducing the complete texts of a number of very scarce and difficult-to-obtain essays and lectures, we have risked some occasional repetition which we hope is balanced by the virtue of providing those subtle variations in the language and ideas of a master prose stylist.

The spelling of mescalin(e) has not been standardized, as preference is pretty well split between the popular use of the shorter form, and the more scientific use of the longer. Huxleys personal spelling of the word psychodelic has been retained, as this was clearly his preference.

Bedford refers to Sybille Bedfords superb Aldous Huxley: A Biography (New York: Knopf, Harper & Row, 1974). The Smith number at the head of a letter refers to Professor Grover Smiths monumental edition of Letters of Aldous Huxley (New York: Harper & Row, 1969). Although references are to the first U. S. editions of Huxleys books, it should be noted that of the works reprinted in this volume all except Time Must Hare a Stop were first published in London by Chatto and Windus.

We wish to acknowledge the contribution of Robert Barker, a director of The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, who conceived of this anthology and provided source material and research. We thank Joan Wheeler Redington for providing the transcript of the Visionary Experience record album, and for comparing the French and English versions of the Planet and Fate articles. We are very grateful to Mrs. Laura Huxley for her invaluable support and assistance at every stage of our endeavors, and to Michael R. Aldrich, Executive Curator of the Ludlow Library, for editorial assistance. We also thank Humphry Osmond, Alexander T. Shulgin, Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner for supplying materials from their archives.

We welcome communication from Aldous Huxley readers who may have or know of any additional material for MOKSHA.

Michael Horowitz

Cynthia Palmer

Foreword

AS AN AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER, I was flattered that Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer wanted to use my picture of Aldous Huxley surveying Los Angeles from the Hollywood Hills on May 6, 1953. I had provided the mescaline and had been with him and his wife Maria when the doors of perception were cleansed. However, when it was suggested that I write a foreword to this new edition, I became uneasy. This book is an admirable selection of Aldouss writings on a subject he had studied for many years and whose great importance he understood very well. Moksha is readable, enjoyable, and, best of all, browsable. One can nibble on its psychedelic pages, but what could I possibly add to what Aldous himself has written?

After some reflection, I realized that the frontispiece of this new edition gives me an opportunity to correct a curious error in Sybil Bedfords splendid biography of Aldous. Readers of The Doors of Perception may recall a passage about the aesthetic and mystical experience the author has gazing at the fabric and folds of his gray flannel trousers while he is under the effects of the mescaline. Miss Bedford, on the testimony of a friend of the Huxleys, disputes the gray flannel trousers and replaces them with blue jeans. But, in fact, the original draft of