East and West with Aldous Huxley

Abstract

Starting with the 1900s, major changes in the humankind’s history took place in terms of scientific development, chiefly, which generated rapid evolution in all other domains of life, too. If it weren’t for the modern era, none of these changes could have been possible. There are a few speculative theories that account for the “coincidence;” most of all actually point in the same direction – that the sudden boom of technological and scientific development from the beginning of the century were initiated by entities that are superior to humans. By some people these are considered aliens; by others, spirits which have reached a level of evolution a lot higher than the incarnated inhabitants of the Earth. Whether this change is justified by the intervention of the more evolved entities or it is just a consequence of the growing in complexity of the mental processes that started the scientific development is not essential to 4 establish. What is more important to notice, nonetheless, is the parallel opening at the mental, thinking, philosophical level. Starting with modernity, thus, a crucial shift took place and this is the foundation of the new trend in ratiocination. Since uncertainty, change and limitlessness are the new keywords characterizing the new era, it becomes obvious why the main purpose of the present academic enterprise is to explore the Huxleyian texts in search for these concepts and the way they are treated by Huxley. The corpus used is generous in supplying literature that not only deals with them but also works them up to the point in which his stand would be identified rather as trialectical thinking. Huxley’s trialectical ratiocination may be seen in many and various instances such as his suggestion to go deeper into the knowing of other peoples and cultures because the ultimate point of his philosophy is that love is all that counts. More importantly, the urge to know oneself is vital for this leads to enlightenment and access to the Divine Ground via complete openness of the mind and detachment from everything worldly – the purpose is also to reach that level of illumination due to which one understands the Ultimate Reality and succeeds in being a loving spirit.