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Huxley and God: Essays

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This book is a collection of 26 essays and two poems written by Aldous Huxley during the last twenty years of his life. Each essay is about man's relationship with God, with the environment and with his fellow man. Huxley started out life as an agnostic and, at times, took a sarcastic, almost caustic attitude towards religion. However, certainly by 1939, his attitude had changed, as those familiar with Huxley's later works will recognise. In fact, several of the essays contained in this book appear in Huxley's later novels such as DEVILS OF LOUDON and TIME MUST HAVE A STOP.

Huxley believed that those who wholeheartedly and sincerely seek God will find what they're looking for. He tried to strip religion of all the tradition and trappings to find a common thread running through all religions. What he found was, in part, that God is One and that God is love. In these essays, he shares his methods for seeking (and finding) God. He also shares his thoughts on the destructiveness of misguided religious idealism and nationalism. There's alot of deep thought in this book. I really can't do Huxley justice in a review of one of his religious works. The man was in a class all by himself. I will say that this book makes its readers stop and think. The essays contained in this book are particularly apropos to a warring and terrorism-stricken society such as ours. I especially recommend two essays, "On a Sentence from Shakespeare" and "A Minimum Working Hypothesis". You'll see life differently after reading them.

I started out with Huxley's Perrenial Philosophy and am 3/4 of the way through Huxley and God. The effect these two books have had on my way of thinking about most anything religious or spiritual, and matters of daily existence and reality can't be understated. If asked what my belief is about God, I would recommend that someone read both of these books. No one in my mind has written about God, Godhead, the Divine Ground and our times existant relation to that reality better than Aldous Huxley. I found my self completely awed by what and how he describes the things he does. He makes so much sense out of really complicated verse and Mystical thought, and always has really profound insights to all that he discusses, which is immense. I hope more people find these books and have the same appreciation that I do for Mr. Huxley. You are in for a wonderful read, one that will force you to stop, and make you think about and recognize the enormity off all that he speaks.

Huxley's brilliance shines in this collection. I do not like to use the word "God" as it has little meaning since the many concepts that people dump into the word are so varied that the word does little to communicate. But with Huxley, a master comunicator, and key figure in the exciting merging of East and West mystic philosophy, the word illuminates. I could use the word sitting down talking to Aldous.

This discussion of God and our relationship with all of creation could have been written today. Its relevance is timeless and its comments inspire and give comfort....

buy this book. then by The Perennial Philosophy. both will change your life. in a most descriptive way it describes that "All you need is love." A simple but extremely difficult concept to master and live.