Opening the Doors of Perception ─ The Key to Cosmic Awareness

In 1954 Aldous Huxley’s hugely influential book “The Doors of Perception” was published. Huxley’s title is taken from William Blake’s 1793 book “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”. In this Blake makes the following observation: “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” Opening the Doors of Perception will update Huxley’s work and suggest process and procedures whereby man can, indeed, perceive reality in its true glory. The book will be in two sections. The first will discuss in great detail a concept I first introduced in my book The Daemon: A Guide to Your Extraordinary Secret Self. I termed this the “scale of transcendence” and suggested that there is a scale of perceptions whereby the doors of perception are slowly opened and, bit by bit, they reveal the true nature of “reality” as suggested by most esoteric teachings and mystic traditions. Most human beings perceive the doors as being securely closed. However there are occasions when the doors become slightly ajar and allow fleeting glimpses of what the Gnostics called “The Pleroma”. For “normal” people these glimpses are experienced during fleeting “noetic” experiences. However for others the doors are prized upon by certain neurological processes starting with migraine and progressing through various “altered-states” such as temporal lobe epilepsy, bi-polar syndrome, autism and finally, when the doors are fully open, schizophrenia.

Anthony Peake (born 1954) grew up on the Wirral, near Liverpool, England. He was educated at Wirral Grammar School, Warwick University and the London School of Economics. He is a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, The Scientific & Medical Network and the Society for Psychic Research. He has been interviewed by many radio stations and magazines across the world and has appeared on British television discussing the explanatory power of this idea. He is also developing a reputation as an engaging and dynamic public speaker having now presented over 100 lectures across the UK, Europe and the USA. In July of 2009 he was a speaker at a prestigious "Platform Event" at the National Theatre in London, and two weeks later he presented a lecture to over 300 people in Manhattan, New York.