The Doors of Perception
#927 of 2,654 all-time
The Doors of Perception
Aldous Huxley
7 people recommended it in 7 threads, 2016–2024.
What people on Hacker News said
But now that I've been studying Buddhism and practicing meditation for a while I picked it up again and I found it nothing short of brilliant, packed with interesting insights on philosophy, the arts, theology, the history of mysticism and the quest for the meaning of life.
By that definition of "radical": painful and difficult to read, but yielding enormous positive transformation, then for me Aldous Huxley's "Heaven and Hell" (which contains "Doors of Perceptions"), Erich Fromm's "To Have or to Be", Lewis Mumford's "Technics and Civilization" and his "The Myth of the Machine".
YMMV, but for me all of these were "radical" in challenging my purely rational, instrumental, and I think very limited ideas of knowledge, technology and "progress" that I held as a younger scientist/engineer.
The book covers Aldous' thought about his experience while under the influence of mescaline.
Where it comes up
- What's the most radical book you've read? 2024 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What books are you currently reading? 2018 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently? 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Books you read in 2016? 2016 · 1 recommendation