The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley recounts taking mescaline in May 1953 and reflects on the insights it brought, which run, in his account, from the purely aesthetic to a sacramental vision. He considers what the experience implies for philosophy and psychology, and for art and religion. The title comes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, where the doors of perception stand for humanity's narrow view of reality. Huxley's case for psychedelic drugs as aids to mystical insight drew strong responses: Thomas Mann, Martin Buber and Robert Charles Zaehner were among critics who held that mescaline produces subjective effects, not religious mysticism. A later essay, Heaven and Hell, extends these reflections, and the two are often printed together.

Jordan B. Peterson included it among the suggested readings for Maps of Meaning.