What a piece of work is a man; Visionary experience, part 1

The n ABC radio network presents the six like your in the series. What a piece of work is a man delivered by all of us Huxley at Greggy auditorium MIT Mr. Hawksley is introduced by Howard R. Bartlett professor of humanities MIT. Ladies and gentlemen tonight we welcome you all to the six day series of lectures by our distinguished guest on the general topic. We'll put a piece of work is man tonight Mr. Huxley speaks to us of a world of experience from which I assume most of us have been excluded by many obstacles. It is a world fascinating to contemplate a world from which extraordinary

unpredictable results may come. Since it seems likely to be able to enter this world if he chooses. The facts. It is the world. Of experience. Mr. Hucks. Visionary experience. Want to begin this with one of those questions Rich. Inquisitive children ask their parents I'm stumped and completely.

Question I ask. This is a question. About precious precious precious extremely difficult to find any rational reason for this. Certainly no economic reason no biological reason why people should have spent an immense amount of time energy and money on collecting and cutting and setting. Much deep psychological reason for this strange behavior. This question was asked many years ago. Who came up with what seems to me a partial explanation but I don't think it's a complete or final explanation he said in his opinion. Precious precious because they seem to me to be the nearest approach in this

world of perpetual perishing of passing away. They seem to be the nearest approach to the permanent oppression. It does appear to remain exactly as generation after generation. It was because this was the nearest approach to something that was intrinsically eternal and that the precious precious quality something in this explanation but I don't think it's by any means the complete story I think. Another compelling psychological reasons why we value pressure as we do. I'm going to quote a passage from which I think of like on this subject it comes from the fight on the dialogue and it is that.

Socrates is talking about the ideal which is more beautiful and real than the actual world in which we live. And look how much more brilliant. And lovely transparency and intensity of the purchase of this highly prized guest. But he's precious and he goes on to say the vision of this vision of bliss seems to me a very interesting much as it makes clear. That the ideal

metaphysical construction a kind of inference from the facts of the present imperfection describable peculiarities such as the colors being much which are very like Precious. And here probably a psychological reason for our precious objects in the natural things which are seen with the inner vision. People who have the gift of vision which even consciously have the gift of creation have some kind of unconscious

inkling of something going on in the back of the subterranean. Something about we get a certain confirmation of this. The greatest of the neoplatonic philosophers telling us that everything intelligible which is of much the same as the ideal of Plato shines for this reason. The most beautiful thing in this but which is precisely as we see the effects of the visionary effect this is that the transference of something which is highly esteemed is the most beautiful thing in this world. And it's interesting to find for example in

description of the Garden of Eden he speaks of it being filled with. Hope to later on. Rich Jim like polities which is found in the vision really does explain many strange facts about certain types of facts about the uniform quality of. Religious traditions folklore traditions traditions of the nature of an age and the afterlife which are found all over the world. We can talk about that later. I mean when I speak about the accessibility of this vision that. We look at the records and we look around a

certain number of people spontaneously but they can go back and forth between the two worlds without any real difficulty and probably quite a lot of visionary for quite a bit of time. We find that visionary highly praised by people and they will go out of their way to get into it. Do not spontaneously do a great many things which helps to artificially visionary experiences so highly prized throughout the ages of recorded history. People have done their best to try to go to this other world by the close

a number of ways which have been a. Psychological way a logical way a chemical way I think to describe being a few of these methods. For example it is possible to go into the other through hypnosis quite a number of. People in a certain stage of rather deep stages hypnosis can and do some kind of interesting. Ever watch people suddenly passing out of what seems to be a kind of sleep like stage seeing very clearly strange and interesting things I think

this hypnotic visionary is probably not quite so extraordinary as some of the visionary visionary which can be touched in other ways. Then of course there are the psychological. There are the methods of concentration which we find in the very least in the spiritual practices of the West which undoubtedly produce these visionary States. The method which has been employed in many many parts of the world the method of complete isolation limiting the cutting down of sensory experiences to the greatest possible extent. I know this is a very interesting thing with the last few years a number of experiments have

been made in modern psychological and medical laboratories limited environment for example people like Dr Lee National Institute of Health in Washington employ various means for cutting down the input of sensory stimuli to the extreme limit for example. To such a point that there was nothing practically that was affecting him from without. Immersed himself completely in the bowels of the temperature of 94 so that his face was completely covered therefore no part of his skin was feeding anything except a uniform temperature. He was sure shut himself up in a harness which didn't permit him to move more than a tenth of an inch. He was

like proof proof for the interesting fact is that within those colleagues of his who submitted to this extremely drastic treatment. The privation of external stimuli is not quite so complete as it was in his experiments. Similar visions will be seen within 24 to 36 hours and one of the interesting facts here is that the great majority of patients were extremely unpleasant. They were so unpleasant that they wear. Tell me I don't know what they must be very young indeed. This is extremely interesting in historical facts we find in the east in the West. Tradition

isolation and would be visionaries to the most desolate places where they could cut off an enormous amount of external stimuli. In the fourth century in Egypt numbers of unseen abouts in the desert cutting themselves off as far as possible from external stimuli. And we see the same thing with the Tibetan monks in remote places in the US. And they did it all for the same reason. Interesting is that we find from the records that a great many of the monks of the extremely disagreeable in virtually every picture gallery of the paintings the temptations of which

he did have a certain number of patients but he had also a great many of these very unpleasant patients and it's interesting to see. Records confirming that has been found in recent years over and above the psychological myth. A number of methods of changing body chemistry. This is one of the strange effects is that inducing certain changes in body chemistry to open the door so to say which separates our ordinary every day from this remote visionary area one of the ways the physiological method is of course the method practiced in the orient the method of

breathing exercises breathing exercises culminating in prolonged suspensions of breath. Which may last a minute several minutes even such prolonged suspensions of breath naturally increase of carbon dioxide in the blood and it is no increase of carbon dioxide induced in this way in the blood relation. Produce a visionary psychological experiences so that we hear time on a recent laboratory work. If you do something which height increases the CO2 in the blood you automatically give yourself excess to

question the first thing. Cultural tradition fasting has been used for the purpose of creating a visionary experience the man in this country. Many tribes have resorted to fasting for the express purpose of achieving visionary experience it was one of the initiation rites of young men in many of the Indian tribes. And of course fasting has been used a very considerable extent in the major religions. Lack of sleep. Cutting down on sleep will also produce even some of the physical austerities such as flagellation. So I think produce certain

chemical changes which facilitate the coming of patients. I mean for example self-flagellation really great quantities of histamine great quantities of which may have profound psychological effects. So that when we look back on the history of religious practices and the desire for a vision which has existed I think you know cultures see the ways of facilitating the visionary experience of being employed you know biochemical reasons why these practices were adopted of course beyond the methods

of the direct chemical methods. And here again with history on this field anybody who wishes to know the detail story of it I recommend to read very interesting book by the French anthropologist Philip to create sacred poisons account of purely chemical and primitive cultural traditions. Getting people into the religion into the visionary state every kind of substance is speed used for this purpose. The interesting fact is that in the past the majority of these substances changing vision inducing substances being dangerous

opium of course is a dangerous substance even alcohol is a dangerous substance. To the extent it has been in the various religious traditions dangerous fairly dangerous substances many of them certainly have been a fictive producing experience but has been effective. Of course people are paid a great price I mean even the traditional drugs which is described in the US produce certain visionary effects without any doubt. But it was so poisonous that even the great god extremely ill after taking too much of it.

Just now in the introduction the startling fact about recent pharmacological developments is that a number of chemical substances have been produced discovered in recent years which the opening of the door into the vision of inflicting damage upon the body. Changes in consciousness can be brought about without the ability. And this is an extraordinary effect. Some of these substances are related to substances existing in nature. For example the active principle now synthesize and incidentally Pre-OT's one of the few traditional changing drugs which has been taken for many centuries and whose use is spreading throughout the western United States right up into Canada.

Producing addiction without causing degeneration and those who take it beyond the synthetic there are various other lysergic acid. The most recent of them being the principal of the sacred Mexican mushroom which last year was synthesized by Hoffman in Switzerland. Which incidentally my friend that is the mycologists he told me that he had recently returned from Mexico and had gone down to witch doctoress for bringing the pills which Hoffman had synthesised given it. Given some of these pills taken and was quite delighted because they produced exactly the same

as the mushrooms and she was especially delighted to know she could practice her magic mushrooms. So this is one of the great triumphs of modern science the witch doctor in Mexico will be able to send a postcard to Dr. Hoffman in Basel saying very important magic to do. Please send 100 caps. These are some of the ways of opening up the door which leads into the other part of the experiments of course have been made by eminent psychologists for a long time William James for example made considerable experiments for the nitric oxide. Incidentally was. Such a frivolous undertaking and for taking it so seriously.

Religion must remember it was not the first remarkable experience. It removes certain obstacles which permitted this other material to come through could have been removed by purely psychological. Psycho physical means but this particular deed open the door. The nature of the experience which came through is not affected by the nature of the key which is used to open the door and the interesting passage in very similar I think it is fundamentally true that although there seems to be something rather discreditable than so to say about the possibility of opening the door by means yet there seems to be no reason to doubt that what comes through

of the same nature as what comes through by our breathing exercises or fasting or any other means. Let me briefly talk about the nature of the experience of course. Every visionary experience is unique because every human being is unique. These things do not occur at random. They are unique and considerable. We do recognize in the majority of these experiences the kind of family likeness to a certain Plus we realized very well if we read such a book as a book monograph on the whole mass of religious literature and so forth we see that there is a kind of common

kind of resemblance running through Cambridge experiences. I think we can say that the common factor all these experiences. Experience. The light experience kinds the experience which is recorded in a great deal of the literature differentiated like just a. Burst of light. Any particular form of light general I think could be true to say that this experience of the undifferentiated light or all of mystical experience and experience I

think very briefly to define that experience which transcends the subject object relationship which produces a sense of solidarity between the experience and the universe which. He experienced a sense of the basic All right of the universe and understanding of such a phrase as occurs in the book of me yet will I trust in him. Seems to me a characteristic feature of the mystical experience and the kind of experience and the experience of the same when associated and interpreted in terms of a theological frame of reference for when the experience is interpreted in Christian terms as the unity of knowledge of

God. This kind of experience is a matter of fact. Associated with this experience of undifferentiated light. And of course this kind of. Light experience recorded it again in the in the literature the most familiar case is the case of the simple on the road to Damascus and we find Muhammad being a prophet. When you woke up in the middle of the night perceiving a light so intense that it caused him to swoon away protectiveness entered several times into the light. He says swallowed up in divinity. You find it down to describing paradise as being as though by two suns I mean that is the

ordinary sun. And then there is this other like which is like a light a much more part of the sun coming through the ordinary sunlight.