Aldous Huxley

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 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 Puharich¹.

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 movements¹.

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 hieroglyphics¹.

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 knowledge¹.

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 senses¹.

Publications

• Brave New World (1932)
• The Doors of Perception (1954)