ALDOUS HUXLEY

Aldous Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in Godalming, England. As a child he grew up learning at his fathers botanical lab. Later on, he went to school at Hillside, he was always being watched because his mom was his teacher. He then went on to Eton college where he studied but then he became ill. The illness left him mostly blind for two to three years. Once he got better he went and studied English literature at Bailliol college. He worked at the technologically-advanced Brunner and Mond chemical plant in Bellingham Teaside. After working there Huxley then wrote his novel, Brave New World.

Huxley moved on and worked as a farm labourer where he is said to have met a lot of interesting figures. In 1919 he married and moved out to California in 1937. While he was living in California he did a couple of movie scripts because he was know for writing good papers. He once wrote the synopsis of Alice and wonderland for Walt Disney, but they rejected the script due to the their was some barrier in the understanding of it.

In 1939 Huxley started to use the Bates Method hoping that he would recover his eyesight. While using this method he was inspired to write a book called The Art Of Seeing. Huxley believed that the Bates Method worked, but while giving a speech once he started pulling in the paper closer and closer to his eyes. It was then exposed that Huxley had not gained any eyesight but that he was just remembering his speeches.

Huxley was also known for taking psychedelic drugs, mainly LSD. It is believed that in 1930 he took peyote with the Mystic Aleister Crowley. He was later proscribed to mescaline by his psychiatrist in 1953. Huxley wrote a number of essays which depicted his experiences while on his psychedelic drugs. Hippies were really interested in his writings. Huxley was so addicted to LSD that even on his death bed he took 100 micrograms as he was dying.

Wikipedia said that working at the chemical plant was a source in the book. I believe Huxley took what he saw and knew from working there to tie it in to his book only in a different way. If you think about it, in the book Huxley talked alot about how humans were conditioned to be specific members of the caste sytem.At the chemical lab Huxley probably witnessed a lot of things being engineered to do specific things.

In the book, he used the somas for the people to be happy and brainwashed. He probably used his experiences of drug use to elborate in the book on what people feel. In 1930 when Huxley took peyote it must have made him feel good. I researched the effects that peyote gives you and it said it gives people a enlighted and happy feeling. This is what probably lead him to putting it in the book with a different name. One of the descriptions of soma use in the book says that it would relax you if mad or angry. Many of the times that soma was used it was used to calm one of the characters in the book down.

Huxley had a crazy interesting life. He seemed to have been sort of crazy with the drugs, but at the same time doing good in his life. To become blind and then write something so sophisticated as BNW is amazing to me. This guy really thought over his head, I do too, but I could have never came up with something like this.