Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was a renowned English writer and philosopher, best known for his dystopian novel *Brave New World*. He had a keen interest in the [[Consciousness|trance state]] and its potential as a means of gathering unseen information about the natural world, a fascination that led him to experiment with psychedelic substances and observe the work of [[Andrija Puharich]][^1]. Huxley's personal experiences with mescaline, the principal hallucinogenic agent in peyote, were documented in his 1954 book, *The Doors of Perception*. This work explored the expansion of consciousness through drug use and met with both controversy and widespread readership, influencing counterculture movements[^1]. In August 1955, Huxley visited [[Andrija Puharich]] at the [[Round Table Foundation]] in Maine. He was intrigued by the diverse group of individuals assembled by Puharich, including various psychics and researchers. Huxley noted the presence of [[Harry Stump]], the Dutch sculptor, who would go into trances in the [[Faraday Cage]] and produce automatic scripts in Egyptian hieroglyphics[^1]. Huxley was present when Puharich attempted to drug [[Harry Stump]] with the *teonanáctl* mushroom. He observed Stump's confused and intoxicated state and insisted that Puharich administer an antidote. Huxley expressed ethical concerns about drugging Stump without his knowledge[^1]. Huxley's interest in the sixth sense stemmed from a childhood eye infection that left him partially blind for nearly three years, making him keenly aware of perception beyond the five known senses[^1]. ## Publications * *Brave New World* (1932) * *The Doors of Perception* (1954) ### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.