^TagAldous Huxley

Lonely Human with water reflection, emotion, sadness loneliness, depression, mental health, fantasy painting, surreal illustration

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 21, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
1984 (book), Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (book), C.S. Lewis, emotions, Featured, fiction, George Orwell, mourning, Roger Scruton, Science fiction}

Huxley’s Brave New World and the Hard Work of Sadness

_{A society centered on pleasure has no place for mourning, and so has no room for love} _{Peter Biles

October 21, 2022

5

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Ninety years ago, Aldous Huxley published his prophetic and incisive Brave New World (1932), a dystopian novel that imagines a society of people intoxicated and controlled, not by state power, but by pleasure. Whereas George Orwell predicted an inevitable totalitarian world government in his novel 1984 (penned in 1949), Huxley proposed that human beings wouldn’t need to be coerced into submission but could be coaxed by the allure of pain-erasing drugs. Both nightmarish visions of the future have already somewhat played out today in American society. The government set up the Disinformation Governance Board in April of 2022, which sounds eerily like the “Ministry of Truth” in Orwell’s 1984. (The board has since disbanded.) Tech companies can track us more Read More ›

Light rays through the black window. Toned photo

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
May 23, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aldous Huxley, Dualism, Featured, Ferdinand Schiller, Henri Bergson, Idealism, LSD, Mysticism, Near-death experiences (recall), Psychedelics, William James}

Can LSD Help Us Understand the Mind–Brain Relationship?

_{Is the mind generated by the brain or does the brain merely focus the mind on the current scene? An experiment sheds some light} _{Michael Egnor

May 23, 2021

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In a fascinating article inThe Guardian titled “Acid test: scientists show how LSD opens doors of perception,” science editor Ian Sample discusses recent research on the mechanism by which LSD alters the brain and the mind. He begins by quoting Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) who noted that LSD “lowers the efficiency of the brain as an instrument for focusing the mind on the problems of life.” Remarkably, recent work in neuroscience supports Huxley’s view. The research, conducted at Cornell University, confirms what has been called the Rebus model of psychedelics. Rebus is a rough acronym for “relaxed beliefs under psychedelics”; the model proposes that the brain is essentially a prediction engine for daily life. In this model, the brain processes information Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 2, 2019

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technocracy

Tagged
1984 (book), Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (book), Dystopia, E. M. Forster, Featured, George Orwell, Longform, Machine Stops (short story)}

1984 is 70 years old yet still feels current

_{Did Orwell prove a better techno-prophet than Huxley did in Brave New World?} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 2, 2019

9

Arts & Culture, Technocracy}

In 1949, Huxley thought he was closer to the mark than his former student Orwell was. Later generations have tussled over the question, with revealing results.