Cynthia Carson Bisbee, Paul Bisbee, Erika Dyck, Patrick Farrell, James Sexton and James W. Spisak (eds), Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond
Social History of Medicine May 28, 2019 Nancy D Campbell 2 citations
A collection of letters between Aldous Huxley and Humphrey Osmond reveals the great friendship that developed during the last decade of Huxley's life and Osmond's most fertile research period. The correspondence covers their shared fascination with exploring the mind, the biochemistry of schizophrenia, magic, mysticism, and the mundane aspects of running a mental hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The book showcases their conviction that sick people would not be sick if their experience of the other were valued. Both British expatriates, they discuss colleagues, friends, funders, spirit mediums, group dynamics, patients, wives, children, and their own experiences with psychoactives including ololiuqui seeds, mescaline, and LSD, though the letters are not primarily about the drugs.