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The Doors Of Perception
''The Doors of Perception'' is an autobiographical book written by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1954, it elaborates on his psychedelic experience under the influence of mescaline in May 1953. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, ranging from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision", and reflects on their philosophical and psychological implications. In 1956, he published '' Heaven and Hell'', another essay which elaborates these reflections further. The two works have since often been published together as one book; the title of both comes from William Blake's 1793 book '' The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''. ''The Doors of Perception'' provoked strong reactions for its evaluation of psychedelic drugs as facilitators of mystical insight with great potential benefits for science, art, and religion. While many found the argument compelling, others including German writer Thomas Mann, Vedantic monk Swami Prabhavananda, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, and Orientalist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine ''Oxford Poetry'', before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Peyote
The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to glisten". p. 246. See peyotl in Wiktionary. It is native to southern North America, primarily found in desert scrub and limestone-rich areas of northern Mexico and south Texas, particularly in the Chihuahuan Desert at elevations of 100–1500 meters. It flowers from March to May, and sometimes as late as September. Its flowers are pink or white, with thigmotactic anthers (like ''Opuntia''). It is a small, spineless cactus that grows in clusters, produces edible fruits, and contains psychoactive alkaloids—primarily mescaline—at concentrations of about 0.4% when fresh and up to 6% when dried. Peyote is a slow-growing cactus that can be cultivated more rapidly through techniques such as grafting, and while wild populations in regions like south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Weston La Barre
Raoul Weston La Barre (1911–1996) was an American Anthropology, anthropologist, best known for his work in ethnobotany, particularly with regard to Native American mythology, Native-American religion, and for his application of Psychiatry, psychiatric and Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic theories to ethnography. Education and early career La Barre was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son of a banker. After graduating from Princeton University in 1933 he began field work with the Yale Institute of Human Relations. During this period, La Barre worked with one of his lifelong academic associates, Richard Evans Schultes of Harvard University. Travelling and sleeping in Schultes' old car, they traveled extensively throughout Oklahoma on their quest to study the peyote cult of the Plains Indians. La Barre received his doctorate from Yale University, Yale in 1937 with a Doctoral thesis, thesis on peyote religion. In a 1961 article, La Barre wrote that "It was [La Barre's teacher at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Peyote Cactus
The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to glisten". p. 246. See peyotl in Wiktionary. It is native to southern North America, primarily found in desert scrub and limestone-rich areas of northern Mexico and south Texas, particularly in the Chihuahuan Desert at elevations of 100–1500 meters. It flowers from March to May, and sometimes as late as September. Its flowers are pink or white, with thigmotactic anthers (like ''Opuntia''). It is a small, spineless cactus that grows in clusters, produces edible fruits, and contains psychoactive alkaloids—primarily mescaline—at concentrations of about 0.4% when fresh and up to 6% when dried. Peyote is a slow-growing cactus that can be cultivated more rapidly through techniques such as grafting, and while wild populations in regions like south Tex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Heinrich Klüver
Heinrich Klüver (; May 25, 1897 – February 8, 1979) was a German-American biological psychologist and philosopher born in Holstein. After having served in the Imperial German Army during World War I, he studied at both the University of Hamburg and the University of Berlin from 1920 to 1923. In the latter year, he arrived in the United States to attend Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in physiological psychology from Stanford University. In 1927 he married Cessa Feyerabend and settled in the United States permanently, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1934. Klüver was a member of the 'core group' of cybernetics pioneers that participated in the Macy Conferences of the 1940s and 1950s. He collaborated most often and fruitfully with Paul Bucy and made various contributions to neuroanatomy throughout his career among others the Klüver–Bucy syndrome. His expositions of and experiments with mescaline were also groundbreaking at the time. He coined the term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Havelock Ellis
Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, Progressivism, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and inclinations, as well as on transgender psychology. He developed the notions of narcissism and autoeroticism, later adopted by psychoanalysis. Ellis was among the pioneering investigators of psychedelic drugs and the author of one of the first written reports to the public about an experience with mescaline, which he conducted on himself in 1896. He supported eugenics and served as one of 16 vice-presidents of the Eugenics Society from 1909 to 1912. Early life and career Ellis, son of Edward Peppen Ellis and Susannah Mary Wheatley, was born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London). He had four sisters, none of whom married. His father was a sea capt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Silas Weir Mitchell (physician)
Silas Weir Mitchell (February 15, 1829 – January 4, 1914) was an American physician, scientist, novelist, and poet. He is considered the father of medical neurology, and he discovered causalgia (complex regional pain syndrome) and erythromelalgia, and pioneered the rest cure. Early life Silas Weir Mitchell was born on February 15, 1829, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to prominent physician and writer John Kearsley Mitchell (1792–1858) and Sarah Henry Mitchell (1800–1872) . His father was a doctor and pathologist interested in snake venom, and Mitchell would continue his research later on. Dr. Mitchell studied at the University of Pennsylvania and later earned the degree of MD at the city's Jefferson Medical College in 1850. Career During the Civil War, he was director of treatment of nervous injuries and maladies at Turner's Lane Hospital, Philadelphia, and at the close of the war became a specialist in neurology. In this field Mitchell pioneered the rest cure for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ernst Späth
Ernst Späth (; 14 May 1886 in Moravský Beroun – 30 September 1946 in Zurich) was an Austrian chemist, specializing in natural products. Life Späth was the first to synthesise mescaline and was one of the first to synthesize cuscohygrine on a small scale with Hans Tuppy. He lost everything in World War II, and died with no money. His former student Percy Lavon Julian returned to Vienna, paid for his funeral, and commissioned a bust of Späth, which is still displayed in the foyer of the ''Faculty of Chemistry'' of the University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest .... A second cast of the bust was erected in 1961 in the ''Arkadenhof'' of the University of Vienna. References Biography * Publications * Austrian chemists 1886 births 1946 death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Psychoactive Drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system activity. Psychoactive and psychotropic drugs both affect the brain, with psychotropics sometimes referring to psychiatric drugs or high-abuse substances, while “drug” can have negative connotations. Designer drug, Novel psychoactive substances are designer drugs made to mimic illegal ones and bypass laws. Psychoactive drug use dates back to prehistory for medicinal and consciousness-altering purposes, with evidence of widespread cultural use. Many animals intentionally consume psychoactive substances, and some traditional legends suggest animals first introduced humans to their use. Psychoactive substances are used across cultures for purposes ranging from medicinal and therapeutic treatment of Mental disorder, mental disorders and pain, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Self-experimentation
Self-experimentation refers to single-subject research in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themself. Usually this means that a single person is the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment. Also referred to as Personal science or N-of-1 research, self-experimentation is an example of citizen science, since it can also be led by patients or people interested in their own health and well-being, as both research subjects and self-experimenters. Biology and medicine Human scientific self-experimentation principally (though not necessarily) falls into the fields of medicine and psychology. Self-experimentation has a long and well-documented history in medicine which continues to the present day. For example, after failed attempts to infect piglets in 1984, Barry Marshall drank a petri dish of ''Helicobacter pylori'' from a patient, and soon developed gastritis, achlorhydria, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, and halitosis. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Animal Testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted with field studies in which animals are observed in their natural environments or habitats. Experimental research with animals is usually conducted in universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to the industry. The focus of animal testing varies on a continuum from Basic research, pure research, focusing on developing fundamental knowledge of an organism, to applied research, which may focus on answering some questions of great practical importance, such as finding a cure for a disease. Examples of applied research include testing disease treatments, breeding, defense research, and Toxicology testing, toxicology, including Testing cosmetics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Alkaloids
Alkaloids are a broad class of naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel column chromatography. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial (e.g. quinine), antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), anticancer (e.g. homoharringtonine), cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. berberine). Many have found use in traditional or modern medicine, or as starting points for drug discovery. Other alkaloids possess psychotropic (e.g. psilocin) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
