Berkeley Brett
2009-08-29 12:46:07 UTC
I've just been listening to a very interesting interview with Aldous
Huxley which is presented under the title "Speaking Personally."
It is not clear when the interview occurred or whom the interviewer
is. (Sounds like a BBC interviewer.) The whole thing is available
commercially as an MP3 download at a modest cost. But short of
purchasing it, you can listen to snippets of each of the 17 tracks of
the interview here:
http://tinyurl.com/nh9ydc
This is a transcription of a passage I found particularly interesting
(from track 14, "Mysticism hinges upon superstition?"). Of course,
Huxley was strongly mystically-inclined in his later life. He also
believed that, when intelligently used, certain substances (such as
mescaline or LSD) could be used as a "gratuitous grace" to help gain
insight into the nature of the Universe and the Divine Ground of
Being.
I regard his book "The Perennial Philosophy" as an especially good
summary of the essence of mysticism.
Here is my transcription of a portion of track 14:
=== begin quoted text ===
Can one have the flowering of mysticism without the dung of
superstition? I don't know whether you can. There's a very
interesting chapter in Conze's book on Buddhism saying that as a
matter of historical fact these extremely elevated mystical-
philosophical doctrines of the Mahayana have always been associated
with grossest forms of superstition. Can it be avoided? I don't
know. I mean, he is inclined to think you don't get to one except
growing out of the other. I hope it's possible to have an aseptic
mysticism. but I don't know if it is. I think certain people can
have it, but whether there can be a sort of general atmosphere on the
basis of a non-superstitious and non-dogmatic set of beliefs, I have
no idea. I profoundly hope so, but at certain times I rather doubt
it.
The whole problem of dealing with the irrational is surely to find out
means by which these irrational drives can be given their satisfaction
without harming the person who has the drives and without harming his
neighbors. This is not past the wit of man to devise these methods.
I mean this was something which William James years ago discussed in
his essay "The Moral Equivalent of War"....
=== end quoted text ===
I've often reflected that science has its roots in superstition --
both science and superstition seek non-obvious causes, and this is
their common ground. The key difference, of course, lies in the
methods they use to establish these non-obvious truths.
Though Huxley is hardly the first to say this, it is significant that
in the passage above he is not troubled by the "dung of superstition"
that so often accompanies the "flowering of mysticism" -- he just
encourages us to separate the two.
(It reminds one somewhat of William James's reflections on genius and
madness -- that when we find genius and madness together, we would do
ill to ignore the truths that this genius may disclose: we must simply
separate those truths from the accompanying madness.)
Your thoughts on these matters are most welcome....
--
Brett (in Berkeley, California, USA)
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/
"The 100 finest sites on the Web, all in one place!"
Widely-watched non-profit ranking of top Internet sites
Huxley which is presented under the title "Speaking Personally."
It is not clear when the interview occurred or whom the interviewer
is. (Sounds like a BBC interviewer.) The whole thing is available
commercially as an MP3 download at a modest cost. But short of
purchasing it, you can listen to snippets of each of the 17 tracks of
the interview here:
http://tinyurl.com/nh9ydc
This is a transcription of a passage I found particularly interesting
(from track 14, "Mysticism hinges upon superstition?"). Of course,
Huxley was strongly mystically-inclined in his later life. He also
believed that, when intelligently used, certain substances (such as
mescaline or LSD) could be used as a "gratuitous grace" to help gain
insight into the nature of the Universe and the Divine Ground of
Being.
I regard his book "The Perennial Philosophy" as an especially good
summary of the essence of mysticism.
Here is my transcription of a portion of track 14:
=== begin quoted text ===
Can one have the flowering of mysticism without the dung of
superstition? I don't know whether you can. There's a very
interesting chapter in Conze's book on Buddhism saying that as a
matter of historical fact these extremely elevated mystical-
philosophical doctrines of the Mahayana have always been associated
with grossest forms of superstition. Can it be avoided? I don't
know. I mean, he is inclined to think you don't get to one except
growing out of the other. I hope it's possible to have an aseptic
mysticism. but I don't know if it is. I think certain people can
have it, but whether there can be a sort of general atmosphere on the
basis of a non-superstitious and non-dogmatic set of beliefs, I have
no idea. I profoundly hope so, but at certain times I rather doubt
it.
The whole problem of dealing with the irrational is surely to find out
means by which these irrational drives can be given their satisfaction
without harming the person who has the drives and without harming his
neighbors. This is not past the wit of man to devise these methods.
I mean this was something which William James years ago discussed in
his essay "The Moral Equivalent of War"....
=== end quoted text ===
I've often reflected that science has its roots in superstition --
both science and superstition seek non-obvious causes, and this is
their common ground. The key difference, of course, lies in the
methods they use to establish these non-obvious truths.
Though Huxley is hardly the first to say this, it is significant that
in the passage above he is not troubled by the "dung of superstition"
that so often accompanies the "flowering of mysticism" -- he just
encourages us to separate the two.
(It reminds one somewhat of William James's reflections on genius and
madness -- that when we find genius and madness together, we would do
ill to ignore the truths that this genius may disclose: we must simply
separate those truths from the accompanying madness.)
Your thoughts on these matters are most welcome....
--
Brett (in Berkeley, California, USA)
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/
"The 100 finest sites on the Web, all in one place!"
Widely-watched non-profit ranking of top Internet sites