5 Ways To Access Visionary Experiences According To Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was the author of the famous Brave New World. He was also a curious and restless man who was fascinated by so-called “altered states of consciousness” or visionary experiences. He entered this type of experience through different paths.

This writer maintained a great spiritual search that at one point led him to practically become a mystic. In 1953, Huxley read about the use of mescaline in the treatment of schizophrenia. Under the supervision of Dr. Humphry Osmond he decided to try mescaline and other psychedelic drugs. He wanted to enter the world of visionary experiences.

Thanks to all this he wrote two very interesting essays. First, the doors of perception . Then Heaven and Hell. In them he details his journey through visionary experiences. Finally, it details the means through which they can be achieved. These are five of those means described by Huxley.

1. Fasting, a means to access visionary experiences

Fasting is a very widespread practice in the world. There are many religions, especially, that recommend and practice fasting as a means to achieve their mystical experiences. Food deprivation unleashes a chain of effects in the body, which also end up modifying the way the brain works.

Typically, religions speak of fasting as a means of purifying the body and spirit. Huxley points out that it is also a mechanism for achieving visionary experiences. When the body stops eating food for a certain time, it is very common for visions and special emotional states to emerge, where happiness merges with sadness.

2. Jewelry and crystals

Many of the views present in religions and in various philosophies speak about jewels and / or crystals. Gold and precious stones, beyond their commercial value , are recurring images in mystical visions. And where there are no jewels, we talk about crystals and their brilliance.

According to Huxley, this is because jewelry and crystals emanate light. They are transparencies or glints. The careful and silent contemplation of the jewels, says the writer, would promote visionary experiences. That is, the emergence of revealing images about one’s own being.

3. The darkness and the confinement

Aldous Huxley says that being in a place where there are no sensory stimuli, after a while, provokes visionary experiences. You begin to “see” and “hear” many things that you do not have access to in your normal state of consciousness. These types of practices are very common in Buddhism.

This appreciation of Huxley has been corroborated by science. It has been established that spending a long time in the dark causes large amounts of brain hormones to be secreted and generates an activation of various neurotransmitters. After about three weeks, DMT is produced, a molecule that is in psychedelic drugs.

4. Contemplation of works of art

Another way to access visionary experiences is the attentive and concentrated contemplation of works of art. In particular, of religious paintings and works of architecture. Huxley says that many of them are the result, precisely, of visionary experiences and that is why they facilitate the ascent to new states of consciousness.

In fact, Huxley lists the artists who best convey a visionary experience through their works. He quotes Andrea del Castagno, Caravaggio, Goya, Rembrandt, Georges de la Tour, William Blake and Fra Angelico. It also gives special relevance to Zen art. He points out that Sufi poetry and music induce other states of consciousness.

5. Fireworks and pompous processions

Fireworks were not created simply as a spectacle of enjoyment. At first  they were considered a magical and transporting experience that had great effects on those who saw them. Observing them carefully and drawing figures in the sky with them can become a visionary experience.

The same is true of pompous processions. Those in which powerful sculptures, silks, velvets, unusual clothing and a lot of pomp are exhibited. Huxley says that contact with these images induces revealing visions, which may well manifest in the instant or later during sleep.

Mystical experiences go beyond the realm of psychology. To be precise, they fall more within what is called “spirituality.” They are a transcendent phenomenon that is already being studied by science, but still far beyond its scope.

Images courtesy of J. Robinson