Guest speaker: Aldous Huxley
PROGRAM NOTES:
(This program marks our third anniversary
of podcasting from the Psychedelic Salon!)
PROGRAM NOTES:
[NOTE: All quotations below are by Aldous Huxley.]
“Today we are faced, I think, with the approach of what may be called the ultimate revolution, the final revolution, where man can act directly on the mind-body of his fellows.”
“We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy, who have always existed and presumably will always exist, to get people to love their servitude. This is the, it seems to me, the ultimate in malevolent revolutions.”
“Given the fact that there are these 20% of highly suggestible people, it becomes quite clear that this is a matter of enormous political importance, for example, any demagogue who is able to get hold of a large number of these 20% of suggestible people and to organize them is really in a position to overthrow any government in any country.”
“If there are 20% of the people who really can be suggested into believing almost anything, then we have to take extremely careful steps into prevent the rise of demagogues who will drive them on into extreme positions then organize them into very, very dangerous armies, private armies which may overthrow the government.”
“The really interesting thing about the new chemical substances, the new mind-changing drugs is this, if you looking back into history it’s clear that man has always had a hankering after mind changing chemicals, he has always desired to take holidays from himself, but this is the most extraordinary effect of all that every natural occurring narcotic stimulant, sedative, or hallucinogen, was discovered before the dawn of history, I don’t think there is one single one of these naturally occurring ones which modern science has discovered.”
“Man was apparently a dope-bag addict before he was a farmer, which is a very curious comment on human nature.”
“You can have an enormous revolution, for example, with LSD-25 or with the newly synthesized drug psilocybin, which is the active principal of the Mexican sacred mushroom. You can have this enormous mental revolution with no more physiological revolution than you would get from drinking two cocktails. And this is a really most extraordinary effect.”
“And then again, in the case of these very strange substances like psilocybin and lysergic acid, I think there is a great deal to be said for doing what William James talked about, which was getting people to realize that their ordinary, sort of common sense view of the world is not the only view. The universe they inhabit is not the only possible universe.“
NOTE FROM LORENZO: A few minutes after I posted this podcast on the Net, I checked my email and discovered that fellow saloner John H. sent me a link to the following video. After you listen to the talk by Aldous Huxley you may find it rewarding to view the following video and then do a little thinking about what is really going on in the U.S. today while you re-read “Brave New World”.
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Comments from original blog page: http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?p=295
DrPurple
Having just finished Huxley’s _ISLAND_ I have to give it my strongest recommendation. If you ever come across a Randroid (someone taking with Ayn Rand who’s recommending _Atlas Shrugged_ or _Fountain_ at a truth of the universe), ask them to read Huxley’s _Island_ and then have a discussion comparing the utopia/dystopias presented.
Kevin
I read Island when I was seventeen, which was a long time ago. I found it a deeply inspiring book, and am heartened to learn that others are reading it today.