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Mysticism sacred and profane

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In 1954, Aldous Huxley, published a book called The Doors of Perception that chronicled his experience with mescaline and how this drug when combined with his Eastern spiritual training led to a mystical experience. The excesses of Doors of Perception provoked this book by R.C Zaehner, an Oxford don of Eastern religions. Zaehner did not question the reality of what he call Huxley's "praeternatural" experience, although he could not refrain from poking fun at Huxley's drug-induced description of his trousers: "Those folds in the trousers - what a labyrinth of endlessly significant complexity! And the texture of the grey flannel - how rich, how deeply, mysteriously sumptuous!" Zaehner concedes that drugs can induce a form of natural mysticism in which the soul tends toward union with the natural world which is the reason for their addicting power. He also admits that people occasionally see the workings of nature as a whole through the use of deliberate techniques such as ascetic types of yoga or by the taking of drugs. But there are deep problems with this sense of unity with nature..

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Availability

171009591

Z. HANDIMAN

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

291.42 ZAE m

Publisher

London : Oxford University Press., 1961

Collation

xvi,256p.; 21 cm.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0-19-500229-6

Classification

291.42

Content Type

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Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

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Subject(s)

MYSTICISM

Specific Detail Info

m

Statement of Responsibility

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