[DRUGS] HUXLEY, Aldous and Timothy Leary

Visionary Experience and How To Change Behavior

Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1962. Second Separate Printing. One of appoximately 100 copies printed for distribution to members of the International Federation for Internal Freedom in 1963. Slim octavo (23cm); white wrappers printed in black, stapled; 40pp. Gentle sunning along spine-fold and upper edge of front wrapper, with a faint, tiny scuff beneath Leary's name, else a fresh, Near Fine copy.

An offprint, revised, of the first book appearance of this talk - the first and only occasion Huxley and Leary lectured together. "The XIV International Conference of Applied Psychology took place in Copenhagen, Aug. 13-19, 1961. In addition to Leary, Frank Barron of the Harvard psychology department and author Aldous Huxley were also invited to speak...Huxley's lecture was entitled "Visionary Experience"; it was delivered earlier than Leary's, and concludes with a reference to Leary's upcoming lecture ("We shall hear from Dr. Leary about the induction of such experiences by such substances as psilocybin"). Barron's talk contains the first reference in print to his "commend[ing] the mushroom to the attention of Dr. Leary, who immediately seized upon its possibilities as a vehicle for inducing change in behavior as a result of the altered state of consciousness which the drug produced" (HOROWITZ, WALLS & SMITH AA23D). Huxley, who had written extensively about his psychedelic experiences under the influence of mescaline in Doors of Perception (1954), here writes about the pursuit of the visionary experience as a vehicle for change and a more beautiful reality. He elaborates on the various methods of access to the visionary world, including spontaneous, induced, and chemical access, with separate sections on the usage of mushrooms and how light can enhance the visionary experience. This, and the first separate printing, are substantially expanded from the two which precede them, both produced by mimeograph and issued in small numbers. BROMER B113.

Price: $450.00

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