Influence
A variety of influences have been claimed for the book. The psychedelic proselytiser, Timothy Leary, was given the book by a colleague soon after returning from Mexico where he had first taken psilocybin mushrooms in the summer of 1960. He found that The Doors of Perception corroborated what he had experienced 'and more too'. Leary soon set up a meeting with Huxley and the two became friendly. The book can also be seen as a part of the history of entheogenic model of understanding these drugs, that sees them within a spiritual context. Looking to broader culture, Huxley's experiment can be seen, alongside the work of other artists such as John Cage and Jackson Pollock, as proposing a model of the imagination opposite to the symbolic, representational structures that had governed Western thought for centuries. Although this new direction cannot be attributed entirely to mescaline or Huxley, it had made a strong impact on politics, art and religion.
Read more about this topic: The Doors Of Perception
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“I believe that the influence of woman will save the country before every other power.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)
“Only let the North exert as much moral influence over the South, as the South has exerted demoralizing influence over the North, and slavery would die amid the flame of Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy indignation.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)