10 Oct The Huxleys in Paradise
Most everyone knows The Doors as one of the, if not the, quintessential LA bands. Perhaps only rock aficionados know that The Doors took their name from Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, a chronicle of his experiences exploring mescaline. This British-born author, most widely known for Brave New World, a sci-fi novel in which the world’s inhabitants lie around hypnotized by legal drugs and entertainment (sound familiar?), was experimenting with spirituality and mind-expansion here in LA from 1937 until his death in 1963, which he chose to undergo while taking LSD.
Aldous Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963) was admired worldwide for his intellect and fearless investigations into life. His work was nominated seven times for the Noble Prize in Literature. He was a novelist, essayist, and social critic who also wrote screenplays for Hollywood. As a scholar of mysticism, he wrote The Perennial Philosophy, a seminal book about the deep universal Truth underlying all religions.
More interesting, perhaps, was his hipster life: Huxley lived surrounded by the artists and intelligentsia of his day: D.H. Lawrence, the Bloomsbury group, Igor Stravinsky, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Christopher Isherwood, Ram Das and Timothy Leary. Glamorous and handsome, Huxley always wore dapper suits and was rumored to have had an “interesting” sex life.
It was in LA that Huxley’s search took a serious turn toward the spiritual. He became a dedicated student of Eastern philosophy, frequenting the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood. (pg xxx). Huxley studied yoga with Krishnamurti and practiced meditation and vegetarianism.
It was also in LA that he married his second wife, Laura Huxley, who went on to become a prominent psychotherapist and quite the hipster herself. Laura authored five books, the most famous being You are Not the Target. Long after Aldous’ death, she was always on the guest list of the most desirable gatherings in town, most often to be seen with her trademark white hat tipped saucily over one eye.
© 2020 Catherine Auman
This is an excerpt from Catherine Auman’s book Guide to Spiritual L.A.: The Irreverent, the Awake, and the True
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