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The Doors of Perception

By: Aldous Huxley
Narrated by: Rudolph Schirmer
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Publisher's summary

The critically acclaimed novelist and social critic Aldous Huxley, describes his personal experimentation with the drug mescaline and explores the nature of visionary experience. The title of this classic comes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."
©1954 Aldous Huxley (P)2009 BBC Audio
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What listeners say about The Doors of Perception

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    3 out of 5 stars

Pretty inderwhelming book tbh.

I wasn't super impressed by the content or narration of this book so couldn't recommend it.

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Very much insightful.

Very much insightful.

He focused on the fact, for most of it. This' a great quality content!

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The narrator is bad for those with misophonia

The story is great, but I am so distracted by the person narrating that I cannot focus on the content. I have misophonia, so I get immensely irritated and distracted by certain sounds. The narrator has this raspy, heavy breath and it sounds like he’s gasping for air with every inhale.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book & amazing lecture

Amazing book about modified perception perfectly read by Rudolph Schirmer. I'm even able to visualize the Mescaline Trip

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Seems very dated

I re-read this after a 50 year gap. It is difficult to assess how I might have ranked a first reading. As of 2022, it seems dated both culturally and scientifically.

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trip report for those that have seen God themselve

this is a book for those of us that have gone through the transmutation that's brought by mezcaline, psilocybin, DMT, et al... it's a beautiful piece of insight only understood on its most profound meaning by the brave that have been initiated. if you find this book dull or boring, you have yet to live and experience the communion.

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Insightful and fascinating

To all my fellow psychonauts out there this reading of Huxley’s brilliant work is fantastic. I’ve never seen or heard such a intelligently written and logically interpreted vision of subjective reality, mind altering substances, and “mind at large”. While my own experiences are still in their infancy, this work has greatly expanded my understanding. It may be worth buying this work in print because many of the ideas and quotes are mind bending. Meaning that after hearing it spoken once, I wanted to see the phrase or quote in writing to confirm and reflect on exactly what I had heard and what this new perspective might mean. If you are new to Huxley’s works as I am then new concepts might be coming at you too fast to properly absorb and you might be better served seeing his insight in print. I’ll be starting it over to listen again very soon.

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Very Dry, but still good

If you have even the slightest interest in consciousness expansion, this is a great listen. Very Dry, but I still enjoyed it.

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Mind blown

Mind blown. Read up on mescaline, a natural substance found in peyote. Native Americans used it for religious purposes. Ask yourself why. Best of all it was free!

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Soporific

The beginning is interesting and written with Huxley's usual dry with, but it seems to degrade into a justification for peyote use. The narrator saved me from nodding off.

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