Aldous Huxley and Self-Realization
Aldous Huxley and Self-Realization

Author: Dana Sawyer

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 3643911386

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Throughout his writing career, and especially in the last thirty years of his life, Aldous Huxley exhibited a deep interest in human potentialities, which he often described as our greatest unused natural resource. The present volume is the first book to focus on this Huxleyan core concern. It is based on presentations given at the Sixth International Aldous Huxley Symposium held in 2017 at the University of Almería (Spain). This volume collects essays by eleven scholars from eight countries that discuss Huxley's concept of human potentialities from an interdisciplinary perspective. This is another innovative feature of this book, since today Huxley is mainly remembered as a novelist, although only eleven of his fifty published works belong to that genre. The topics of this volume span Huxley's mature philosophy, including his theories relating to the expansion of consciousness, the development of nonverbal humanities, the need to improve bio-ethics, the role of nature, the role of beliefs and prejudice, and other subjects. These essays review Huxley's various positions, shedding light on their possible significance for today. Huxley marshalled his remarkable intellect to the project of improving the human condition, and here we find an up-to-date report card of his theories and their efficacy.

The Art of Losing Control
The Art of Losing Control

Author: Jules Evans

Publisher: Canongate Books

Published: 2017-04-25

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1782118772

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Humans have always sought ecstatic experiences - moments where they go beyond their ordinary self and feel connected to something greater than them. Such moments are fundamental to human flourishing, but they can also be dangerous. Beginning around the Enlightenment, western intellectual culture has written off ecstasy as ignorance or delusion. But philosopher Jules Evans argues that this diminishes our reality and denies us the healing, connection and meaning that ecstasy can bring. He sets out to discover how people find ecstasy in a post-religious culture, how it can be good for us, and also harmful. Along the way, he explores the growing science of ecstasy, to help the reader - and himself - learn the art of losing control. Jules' exploration of ecstasy is an intellectual and emotional odyssey balancing personal experience, interviews and readings from ancient and modern philosophers that will change the way you think about how you feel. From Aristotle and Plato, via the Bishop of London and Sister Bliss, radical jihadis and Silicon Valley transhumanists, The Art of Losing Control is a funny and life-enhancing journey through under-explored terrain.

The Perennial Philosophy
The Perennial Philosophy

Author: Aldous Huxley

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2012-02-14

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 0061893315

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An inspired gathering of religious writings that reveals the "divine reality" common to all faiths, collected by Aldous Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy," Aldous Huxley writes, "may be found among the traditional lore of peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions." With great wit and stunning intellect—drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam—Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.

The Divine Within
The Divine Within

Author: Aldous Huxley

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-07-02

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 0062236830

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“A genius . . . a writer who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine.” — The New Yorker Brave New World author Aldous Huxley on enlightenment and the "ultimate reality." In this anthology of twenty-six essays and other writings, Aldous Huxley discusses the nature of God, enlightenment, being, good and evil, religion, eternity, and the divine. Huxley consistently examined the spiritual basis of both the individual and human society, always seeking to reach an authentic and clearly defined experience of the divine. Featuring an introduction by renowned religious scholar Huston Smith, this celebration of "ultimate reality" proves relevant and prophetic in addressing the spiritual hunger so many feel today.

Moksha
Moksha

Author: Aldous Huxley

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 1999-04-01

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1594775176

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Selected writings from the author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception on the role of psychedelics in society. • Includes letters and lectures by Huxley never published elsewhere. In May 1953 Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gram of mescaline. The mystical and transcendent experience that followed set him off on an exploration that was to produce a revolutionary body of work about the inner reaches of the human mind. Huxley was decades ahead of his time in his anticipation of the dangers modern culture was creating through explosive population increase, headlong technological advance, and militant nationalism, and he saw psychedelics as the greatest means at our disposal to "remind adults that the real world is very different from the misshapen universe they have created for themselves by means of their culture-conditioned prejudices." Much of Huxley's writings following his 1953 mescaline experiment can be seen as his attempt to reveal the power of these substances to awaken a sense of the sacred in people living in a technological society hostile to mystical revelations. Moksha, a Sanskrit word meaning "liberation," is a collection of the prophetic and visionary writings of Aldous Huxley. It includes selections from his acclaimed novels Brave New World and Island, both of which envision societies centered around the use of psychedelics as stabilizing forces, as well as pieces from The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, his famous works on consciousness expansion.

Inevitable Grace
Inevitable Grace

Author: Piero Ferrucci

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2009-07-23

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 158542725X

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Now back in print, this classic guide to breakthrough transpersonal experiences shows how exceptionally creative and talented individuals become capable of their remarkable feats, and teaches the techniques and inner attitudes that put the same breakthroughs within anyone's grasp. What spiritual practices have helped the world's greatest artists, scientists, and thinkers? How can you discover the type of spiritual practice that's suited to your personality. Inevitable Grace shows how people from every walk of life can learn from teh achievements of humanity's spiritual and creative geniuses.

Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality
Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality

Author: Jake Poller

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-08-12

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 9004406905

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Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality offers an incisive analysis of the full range of Huxley’s spiritual interests, spanning both mysticism (neo-Vedanta, Taoism, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism) and Western esotericism (mesmerism, spiritualism, the paranormal). Jake Poller examines how Huxley’s shifting spiritual convictions influenced his fiction, such as his depiction of the body and sex, and reveals how Huxley’s use of psychedelic substances affected his spiritual convictions, resulting in a Tantric turn in his work. Poller demonstrates how Huxley’s vision of a new alternative spirituality in Island, in which the Palanese select their beliefs from different religious traditions, anticipates the New Age spiritual supermarket and traces the profound influence of Huxley’s ideas on the spiritual seekers of the twentieth century and beyond.

Those Barren Leaves
Those Barren Leaves

Author: Aldous Huxley

Publisher: Aegitas

Published: 2021-11-22

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0369406729

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Those Barren Leaves is a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1925. The title is derived from the poem 'The Tables Turned' by William Wordsworth which ends with the words: Enough of Science and of Art; Close up those barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives. Stripping the pretensions of those who claim a spot among the cultural elite, it is the story of Mrs. Aldwinkle and her entourage, who are gathered in an Italian palace to relive the glories of the Renaissance. For all their supposed sophistication, they are nothing but sad and superficial individuals in the final analysis.