Heaven and Hell is a philosophical work by Aldous Huxley, published in 1956. The title is derived from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake. The essay discusses the relationship between bright, colorful objects, geometric designs, psychoactives, art, and profound experience. The reference to Heaven and Hell brings out the two possible sides of mystical experience. When one opens the doors of perception one can experience both extremes...
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Heaven and Hell is a philosophical work by Aldous Huxley, published in 1956. The title is derived from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake. The essay discusses the relationship between bright, colorful objects, geometric designs, psychoactives, art, and profound experience. The reference to Heaven and Hell brings out the two possible sides of mystical experience. When one opens the doors of perception one can experience both extremes. But the import of the essay does not confine itself to a further explication of mystical experience (one that continues from the earlier essay, The Doors of Perception), but it points us to the reality that can be Heaven and Hell in ordinary lived experience. The text is usually published in a volume combined with Huxley's companion work The Doors of Perception.
Huxley uses the term antipodes to describe the "regions of the mind" that one can reach by meditation, vitamin deficiencies, self-flagellation, fasting, or (most effectively, he says...
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