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Huxley combines here specialized knowledge, intellectual wisdom, and literary skill. He describes
the use of mescalin, lysergic acid, the stroboscopic lamp, and hypnosis for artificially transporting the self to a region of the mind which he calls the antipodes, lying beyond the personal unconscious and the deeper collective unconscious. Here one sees wonderful geometrical forms, vast Gothic buildings set in lovely landscapes, heroic figures, fabulous animals, and precious stones—all in a galaxy of brilliant colour. These visionary experiences are reckoned to be on a par with the spontaneous visionary experiences of individuals under various conditions.
Such thrilling insight when acquired by taking mescalin may enrich one with gems and artistic beauties of which our earthly gems and works of art are but a poor reflection, but the method of acquisition reminds one of a smash-and-grab raid. The experience is seized rather than earned, by means of by-passing the more law-abiding subconscious and unconscious—surely an omnipotent short cut bearing little relation to science or the truly divine.
Huxley's speculations about the Hereafter are fascinating, but so are the results of inordinate curiosity in many people who unconsciously pry instead of waiting to know something in good time. He states honestly that if mescalin is taken on a tide of negative emotions such as fear, hatred, malice or lack of confidence and faith, the visionary experience may not be heavenly bliss, but very hell. Every psycho-analyst knows that these negative emotions may be quite unconscious, and so it seems that visitors to the antipodes must take pot luck.
The book has educational value so long as the reader is forewarned that it constitutes a temptation to taste something akin to a forbidden fruit, and that to follow the practice outlined therein is to gamble for a prize which may be hell, or at best a heaven similar to that experienced by a schizophrenic in his ecstatic phases.