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

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.

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Abstract

Delving into the unfolding correspondence that fills these lovingly crafted pages affords pleasure and no small dollop of prophecy as they chronicle the great friendship that manifested during the last decade of Aldous Huxley’s life and Humphrey Osmond’s most fertile period of research. Topics run from both men’s fascination with opening the doors of the mind to explore the biochemistry of schizophrenia, magic and mysticism, to the humble and mundane aspects of running a mental hospital in the socially isolating circumstances of Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The book showcases their conviction that ‘“sick” people would not be “sick” if we valued their experience of the other’ (p.61). Both British expatriates, Huxley and Osmond are unrestrained in discussing their lives—colleagues, friends, funders, spirit mediums, group dynamics, patients, wives and children—particularly the ‘duck poetess’, Osmond’s daughter Helen. Readers expecting tales of the profound will not be disappointed; they discuss their own and others’ range of experiences with psychoactives from ololiuqui seeds to mescaline to LSD. But their letters are not about the drugs.