Literature Review 4/4

Chrissie Calvert

Literature Review 4/4

MFA Part 3, 2023

Book: The Doors of Perception

Essay: Heaven and Hell

Author: Aldous Huxley

The essay Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley delves into the deepest parts of human perception. Huxley talks about our historical obsession with colour as something transcendent from the drab, earthly colours of the everyday. He talks about the methods used to transcend the mind into the ‘antipodes’ of human consciousness, and the results relation to religion and the reason we, (humanity), value highly coloured gems such as emerald, ruby and sapphire. He touches on our modern resistance to the transporting powers of the highly pigmented as a reaction to the bright obnoxious pigments used in superstores to allure us to buy, spend and collect things.

First, Aldous Huxley expands on what he calls the mind’s antipodes. The farthest reaches of the mind is where the antipodes dwell. An area of consciousness, or awareness, that exists above the survival mode which we inhabit during the day to day. The antipodes of the mind are described, by Huxley, to be a place of childish wonder. Where the wild things roam. Oddity is perceived at the antipodes of the mind. Oddities which recognise the repeating patterns of the usual, yet which are unusual. So how do we reach this alluring paradise? Huxley mentions a few. Hipnosis is one, and then psychedelics such as mescaline, (cactus), and lysergic acid, (LSD), are mentioned. Simply a deprivation of the senses could transport one to the mind’s antipodes. Someplace devoid of the usual symbols our minds construct to contextualise the universe and our place within it, are the antipodes of the mind.

Now we know how to get there, what can we expect? Huxley talks about a heightened sense of pattern and colour. “All colours are intensified to a pitch far beyond anything seen in the normal state, and at the same time, the mind’s capacity for recognising fine distinctions of tone and hue is notably heightened.” What does this mean for the antipodes? Are they located in the same space of consciousness dreams occupy? Apparently not. According to Professor Hall, who collected many thousands of dreams; of those thousands, only one third dream in colour. An explanation to this revelation is that we dream to contextualise, and to contextualise we use symbols. Symbols do not require colour to be interpreted. “That which is given is coloured; that which our symbol-creating intellect and fancy put together is uncoloured,” And, “We are for ever attempting to convert things into signs for the intelligible abstractions of our own invention. But in doing so, we rob things of their native thing-hood.” The antipodes of the mind are free of language and representation and conceptual thought.

Next Huxley turns to Irish poet A.E, otherwise known as George Russell; an advocate of Irish culture, a painter, writer while also a philosopher. Specifically, Huxley talks about the poet’s experience of the mind’s antipodes, “...but there are windows in the soul, through which can be seen images created not by human, but by the divine imagination.” Huxley’s point in reference to the poet being, that, an intensity of colour is common to all those who pull back the curtain of reality, from the mundane to the visionary.

So, we have an intensity of colour when experiencing the mind’s antipodes. What of it? Religion, religious experiences and existential meaning can be found or, (or lost), within the antipodes. Think of worldwide religious phenomena. Iranian architectural mosaics, stained glass of pre-presbyterian churches, gemstones, greenstone, golden ornaments of the many queens and kings. All of the other than ordinary. All brilliantly hued, all play with, or, reflect light. Glass or diamond chandeliers, fire from candles, sapphires and emeralds. If you were from a time before Cosco, The Warehouse, Pak N Save and basically any brand which bombards us with its colourful, attention-grabbing packaging; these gems, ceramics, stones and jewels would seem transfixing. Transfixing, transportive and hypnotising. Alluring us to the antipodes. Which may be why they were used in the first place. Until they were less alluring to the oversaturated colours of today. Think of the jewel-like cajoling of Mcdonalds or Countdown. “Every paradise abounds in Gems, or at least in gem-like objects resembling, as Weir Mitchell puts it, Transparent fruit.” Huxley argues that precious stones are precious because of their resemblance to the visionaries’ inner eye.

Huxley then talks about the power of colour in artworks; in particular, colours' ability to transport the viewer's mind to the antipodes. “Consequently works of art painted in bright, pure colours are capable, in suitable circumstances, of transporting the beholder’s mind in the direction of the antipodes.” But then juxtaposes this idea to the lack of desire for colour in our modern world. The reason for this being, according to Huxley, the fact that we are oversaturated by colour today. We can buy any colour we please at a commercial colour shop. We can see the bright, vibrant colours while playing games such as Zelda, or Tetris or Animal Crossing. Just like over highlighting reduces the validity of the use of the highlighter, bright colour can no longer easily transport us to the antipodes. “What was once a needle of visionary delight has now become a piece of disregarded linoleum.’ Can artwork still transport us? Yes, according to Huxley. Specifically artworks which depict objects in close up or far away. Close up reveals the intricacies of patterns within the universe, while far away is naturally transporting. Mid-view is mundane and ordinary.

Aldous Huxley philosophises about the existence of the antipodes’ of the mind. He describes this as an experience of vibrant colour. A state of mind free from symbols, of which our regular human minds crave, a place which can transport us to heavenly visions or to hellish absurdities. Colour is paramount in the antipodes. Colour within ancient mythologies and cultures is proof of the ancients' access to this less common state of mind; although due to an oversaturation of colour in modern times, a lack of senses or chemical alterations may be necessary to experience this state of mind today. Artwork can be a key to accessing the antipodes, or simply an impression of one's experience to the antipodes of the mind. Either way, colour is the essence of thing-ness while experiencing reality in the antipodes. Symbols in black and white are a human, mundane creation of our day-to-day consciousness. Safe and ordinary.

Bibliography

Huxley, Aldous. “Heaven and Hell.” In The Doors of Perception, 44-76. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009.