The Doors of Perception

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The Doors of Perception is a 1954 book-length essay by the English writer Aldous Huxley, describing his experience taking mescaline under the supervision of the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. It was published in London by Chatto & Windus and remains the most widely read literary account of a psychedelic experience in English. The title is taken from a line in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The book later gave its name to the American rock band The Doors. Huxley followed it in 1956 with a companion essay, Heaven and Hell, treating the visionary tradition more broadly; the two are often published together. The book is cited as a primary literary source on the psychedelic phenethylamines page.