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Huxley actually categorically condemned the use of narcotics in terms of “freeing the mind” - he said that it was simply an avenue into an illusory trap, and that one should not bother. This is in the preface to Brave New World, written after the book was originally published.
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When was the preface written? Huxley discovered psychedelics [in 1953] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception), and was enthusiastic (though elitist) about their use, even requesting LSD on his deathbed.
Psychedelics (‘Moksha’) are widely used in his utopian society in ‘Island’, written in 1962.
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Mmmm I read it 25 years ago … will see if I still have the copy!
I’ve heard that he is cited as condoning it. Maybe he went back after the preface.
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Wasn’t it mushrooms that he wrote about in The Doors of Perception? I remember him being enthusiastic about the drugged experience he describes in that book.
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Peyote. He experimented with LSD as well, and actually took it on his death bed. Brave New World was written many years earlier.
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