Huxley Laura

8/11/2019 Huxley Laura

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Laura Huxley

Author, therapist, musician and muse to husband Aldous, she devoted her life to preserving his legacy

A vigorous and engaging therapist, musical prodigy and author, Laura Huxley, who has died of cancerged 96, will be best remembered as the second wife, muse and champion of writer Aldous Huxley. Aercely independent spirit, she was enthralled by him but was never in his shadow. Huxley once tolder that he thought of writing her biography, but the best parts would be unprintable.

aura met Huxley in !9"9, !6 years after the novel #rave $ew %orld established him as a formidablehin&er, writer and social critic. 'hey became more closely involved in !9(), when Huxley*s rst wife,

+aria, as&ed Laura to conduct a psychotherapy session with him in the hope of curing his writer*sloc&. 'hey were married in !9(6, a year after +aria*s death from cancer, and over the next sevenears Laura was her husband*s partner in the explorations of consciousness and drug use that helpedo spar& the psychedelic movement of the !96s.

After Huxley*s death in $ovember !96-, on the same day that resident /ac& 0ennedy was

ssassinated, Laura devoted herself to &eeping her husband*s legacy and reputation alive. 1ne of herast pro2ects was to initiate the lming of #rave $ew %orld. 3n !945 she founded a charity calledhildren7 1ur 8ltimate 3nvestment, which has wor&ed, particularly with teenagers, in schools inalifornia and #ritain. he described its goal as bringing children up loving the world, rather thanearing it as many children do.

ighteen years younger than Huxley, Laura Archera, as she then was, was born in 'urin, where heramily*s apartment was opposite to that of rimo Levi. Her father, ;elice, belied the image of atoc&bro&er, for, realising how intensely the child felt and imagined, he suggested she ta&e up theiolin. he proved a prodigy, studying in #erlin, aris and in>law ?irginia fei@er, she wor&ed as a lm editor at the while 3, on the cosmetic one, was worrying about the new rinse. Her own rst Lxperience prompted desperate sobbing as the chemical intensied the recent experience of visiting a

+exican orphanage. $ext day, still aware of the drug*s e@ect, she went to a funeral, where anmmense cosmic laughter exploded throughout my trillions of cells ... 'ears were streaming down myhee&s. 'he unending, immeasurable laughter could, than& heaven, be interpreted as uncontrollableobbing.

t is easy but unfair to portray the Huxleys as open to every alifornian fad. 'he ultimate in beingaidbac&, however, was their calm response when their home and its contents went up in Cames in96!. Huxley rescued two suits, Laura*s !4( Fuarnieri violin and the manuscript of what would be hisnal novel, 3sland G!96).

aura*s rst boo&, a pioneering self>help volume borne out of her own depressive bouts, =ou Are $othe 'arget G!96-, was published when Huxley was dying. Laura taped his nal dreaming thoughts and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/


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beyed his scrawled suggestion of L > try it intermuscular !mm. After her husband*s death, shetayed on in their house, becoming to some extent the ob2ect of pilgrimage.

Her other boo&s include 'his 'imeless +oment, a !969 memoir of her life with Aldous, #etween Heavennd :arth G!94", 1ne>a>ay who had been intaly and now lived in the desert outside LA > to write the screenplay of the palio lm, he might be ableo get it nanced. he wrote to solicit the #ritish author*s help.

He did not answer immediately so 3 thought > what is thisJ she recalled. oesn*t he &now howmportant this isJ o 3 nd his telephone and call him. Later 3 found out he lives in this little place wherehere was only one telephone and it was in the post oKce and Aldous Huxley was only as&ed Dto comeoE the telephone if it was an emergency. o they as&ed me if it was an emergency and 3 said *of courset*s an emergency*.

Huxley*s proposal to Laura the following year was an obliIue, Have you ever been tempted bymarriageJ ;ollowed, after a positive response, by o you thin& it might be amusing to travel to =umand get married at the rive>3nJ %hich, of course, they did.

His letter to his son and daughter>in>law was typically understated7 Laura Archera and 3 got marriedoday at =uma in the naive hope of privacy that has turned into publicity all the same ... he is ) yearsounger than 3 am but doesn*t seem to mind.

'he Huxleys had ta&en L together while listening to #ach*s ;ourth #randenburg oncerto > as doeshe main character in 3sland > experiencing aesthetic revelations. #ut when we met, Laura, still trimnd active at 9, was anxious to put her late husband*s relationship with L into context, saying thatetween !9(- and !96- he too& it only around ! or !) times.

n her own memoir, 'his 'imeless +oment, she described how her husband too& L as he died. He

ad ta&en this mo&sha medicine in which he believed. 1nce again he was doing what he had written insland, and 3 had the feeling that he was interested and relieved and Iuiet. #oth she and Huxley werepset that 3sland was treated as a wor& of science ction and not ta&en seriously at the time.

1f 3sland, she said7 :very single thing that is written in 3sland has happened and it*s possible andctual ... 3sland is really visionary common sense. 'hings that Aldous and many other people said, that

were seen as so audacious > they are common sense, but they were visionary because they had not yetappened.

Laura Huxley, writer, musician and therapist, born $ovember ) !9!! died ecember !- )4


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A Discussion with Laura Huxley

by Rick Doblin

This telephone discussion took place on March 12, 1994. Laura's conference was scheduled to

begin April 2 in LA.

RD:%hat inspired you to organiBe your upcoming conferenceJ

LH:'he main inspiration is that this is a one and only opportunity to unite Aldous*s birth centennialwith hildren7 1ur 8ltimate 3nvestment. elebrating Aldous with children is a natural merging. Heedicated much of his writing to ma&ing us aware of our choices and our creative capacities. =et, thereative capacity of children is being stiCed. 'his event is a uniIue moment in time, not 2ust because ofhe fact of only onebirth centennial, but also because of the extraordinary group of pioneers andeaders who have responded to this call with enthusiasm.

RD:%hat do you hope the conference will accomplishJ

LH:3 hope that people become more aware of Aldous*s suggestions and advice. +ore than anything,hat they become more aware of the importance that each one of us has in the ma&ing of the wholeociety. %e thin& that we are not important because society is so overpowering. 3f we remember that

while we may not do great things, great revolutions, we can do small things with great love. 'his is thedvice of +other 'heresa. :ach one of us can become more conscious, more clear about what society

s and what it can be. 3f people read 3sland, they will nd a lot of ideas on how to live. 1f course, theyannot all be actualiBed but if we do a little bit, a little bit goes a long way.

RD:#rother avid teindl>


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RD:%hat do you thin& made it stopJ

LH:%ell, the abuse, and the confusion of issues. =ou cant drop out, you have to stay in and very mucho. Aldous wrote in 3sland about how the young people who, in a ritual of puberty, are ta&en into the

mountains and given the mosh&a medicine. 'heir teacher as&s, will you merely en2oy this experiences you would en2oy an evening at a show and then go bac& to business as usualJ 'he answer is not inhe wonder of the day, the answer is nding value and wonder in everyday acts.

RD:o you thin& that the idea of rites of passage for dying with mo&sha medicine, is that somethinghat you thin& we should try to bring into our cultureJ

LH:%ell 3 only assisted two dying persons with L, Aldous and another person. D:ditors note7 Aldouss&ed Laura to in2ect him with L as he lay dying. ee This Ti!eless Mo!entby Laura Huxley.E ;or

Aldous it was very good, for the other person it wasn*t. 'he point is it needs to be studied in the properway. Aldous thought that L may be used with terminal patients, and he was in contact with r. 0astn hicago, who was doing DL sessionsE with terminally ill patients.

RD:;A>approved ++A research will rst loo& at its safety in normal, healthy people but then wereoing to start a study with terminally ill cancer patients.

LH:=ou have done beautifully, convincing the most impossible people that everything can be used inwo ways, even water. =ou can die if you drin& too much water but you cannot live without it. 3t*s reallyiKcult, because the responsibility comes bac& to each one of us, again and again for the way we dohings, as with sex and love. Aldous always tried to o@er some ideas, either in a novel form or in a playorm, about the situation of the human race, about ma&ing us realiBe we have some choice. 1ur

8ltimate 3nvestment does exactly the same thing, by focusing on being conscious that children andarents will be happier and healthier if treated well. :ven before they*re born, before conception. 'he

dea is that if we are loved even before being conceived, then the family is prepared for conception, inrateful and loving ways.

RD:=ou mentioned giving people a choice7 what do thin& about abortionJ

LH:%ell, if you follow the idea of the conference, the rst thing to do if you conceive a child is to beonscious that you are doing one of the most important things that the human being can do. =ourepare for conception for two years. =ou prepare your body and your mind, and you care about theelationship between you and your partner. %hen you do that, the Iuestion of abortion doesn*t ariseecause youre not going to abort the child for which you*ve prepared for so long. 3n other cases, ofourse, that is an absolutely personal thing, nobody can tell anybody what to do.

RD:3ts reassuring for me to learn that you value the individual nature of that choice.

LH:1h, yes. 3t seems to me that conception should be a very conscious act. 3f it happens to be

i@erent, if some circumstances arise by which suddenly you nd yourself pregnant, then the decisionan only be made by yourself. 3t is depressing to thin& that it has become a political issue.

RD:=ou helped Aldous to die in such a conscious way, in an altered state, are there ways you suggesto help the actual process of birthJ

LH:%ell, the actual process of birth has already been helped for about ten million years. urrently, theind of help that is o@ered by people in the medical profession is too often very disrespectful andamaging. 'he whole business of birth has been made into some &ind of a disease. 'he woman arrives

n the hospital to have a baby and the rst thing is that she is put in a wheel chair as though she wereic&. 'he whole process can be helped a great deal by leaving it as it is. Let it be, let it be, as evolutionas prepared for many, many millions of years. Leave the father and mother to do what is necessary,

with the help of midwives who are doing wonderful wor&. #irth now has become a medical business.'here are very few births now on aturdays and undays because its not very convenient for theoctor. %hen the baby isn*t ready to be born during the wee&days, sometimes it is obliged to do so.

'he percentage of cMsareans has gone up from - or " percent to )), )-, )" percent.


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RD:After the conference do you have other plans for 1ur 8ltimate 3nvestmentJ

LH:=es 3 do. 3 want to &eep on with two basic pro2ects. 1ne is ro2ect aressing, which is thentergenerational pro2ect where senior citiBens hold and caress babies. ?ery often people at the twonds of life are solitary and alone. 'he baby is sometimes left a long time in a crib with maybe only theelevision, certainly the most cruel of all babysitters. 1ld people feel alone, too. o if the two can be

matched, the loneliness can melt into tenderness. 'hat is one pro2ect. 3 would li&e to have a caressingoom every few bloc&s in every metropolis. 'he other pro2ect is relude to onception, to ma&e youngeople aware of the responsibilities of having a baby. 'he teenager ta&es care of a toddler when itegins, at two years old, to say no, no, no. At this demanding time in the life of the baby, the teenager

will ta&e care of this toddler, or two or three toddlers, every wee&. And also get credit for this in theirchools. 3 had this pro2ect one summer, and each teenager became very, very wise and said, $o, 3mot going to have a baby yet, until 3m )( or - or -(. 'here are many people now who have babies

ater in life. 'hey are better parents because they*ve already gone through part of their own personalrowth, for example with their own career. 3 &now several parents about ". 'hey ta&e such wonderfulare of the child because they feel more privileged in being parents.

RD:How are you going to try to go about bringing these pro2ects into beingJ

LH:Ah, the practical side, that is very diKcult. o far, 3 have nanced everything personally, 3 will haveo have a little more help from corporations for ro2ect aressing. ;or relude to onception, 3 would&e to put it in high schools. o, there needs to be a recognition of these e@orts on the part of thechools. 3t is a practical recognition because so many &ids have &ids. 'hat is most often a painful thingecause they*re not prepared, the babies dont fare as well. ?ery often they need much more care, andhe care is not available. 3 did try several years ago and did not succeed to involve the unied schoolistrict.

RD:o you*ll rst try to do these things in the Los Angeles areaJ

LH:1h, 3*ll do it anywhere where it*s possible, 3 dont care where, but generally in the big cities. 3n themall cities, these problems are a little bit better ta&en care of, 3 understand.

RD:'heres already something li&e ro2ect aressing with crac& babies in which hospitals arrange for

enior citiBen volunteers to hold the babies.

LH:3t*s a natural thing, its not a brilliant idea. 3 can assure you that the baboons about two millionears ago already did that. o we cannot ta&e any credit.

RD:ometimes if wed 2ust be as smart as animals, we*d be doing better.

LH:%e are too smart in certain things and not smart enough in others.

RD:3t must have been an enormous underta&ing to put this conference together.

LH:3*ll say, yes. 3 have a wonderful coordinator, atricia Faul, without whom 3 could not have done it. 3nny case, 3 would not miss the opportunity to wor& on an event which is uniIue in Iuality and time. 'herivilege and the responsibility are bigger than myself but thats o&ay. 3 always had the tendency tottempt things bigger than myself it is ris&y, but it gives deeper and tastier fragrance to life.


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nterview with Laura Huxley

by Bruce Eisner

BE:an you tell me about the "hildren# $ur %lti!ate &nest!ent "onferencethat is coming upJ =oure planning it for late April or early +ayJ

LH:'hatNs right. 3t will be from April )5th to +ay !st of this year. 1ur 8ltimate 3nvestment is the namef the non>prot foundation for the nurturing of the possible human, which 3 founded in !944.

'o create a new life is the most important single action of a human being > and one should be aware ofhis before the child is conceived, not as a chance happening. A future human being should be lovedefore its beginning, which means before conception.

%e have gathered extraordinary spea&ers and seminar leaders, scientists and educators who willddress, reparation ;or onception, onscious onception, regnancy, #irth and 'he ;irst ;ive =ears.

'he conference is in honor of Aldous*s birth centenary > it is mind boggling to thin& of what hasappened in this one hundred years > revolutionary years for our society. Aldous spo&e about thisevolution sixty>two years ago, when he wrote #rave $ew %orld.

He showed us the danger of a mechaniBed society without ethics and without vision. +any peoplehought then that #rave $ew %orld was incredible or grotesIue we &now now that some of itsrophecy Gfor instance over>population and over>organiBation are true now much, much sooner than

Aldous thought.

n the last years of his life, he wrote 3sland, the description of a society who*s citiBens are given allhe possibilities to develop their creative potentialities.

BE:'here was an anthropologist that had studied some tribe on an island and they had discovered >> 3emember this from AldousNs audio tapes >> where they raised the children without inCicting any fearn them.

LH:1h, thatNs right. :ducation through fear is less e@ective than education through recognition ofood behavior. +oreover much of psychotherapy is the attempt to lessen the damaging and sometimesragic and anti>social conseIuences of fear and punishment. 3n &sland*s education there was recognitionf the fact that there are many &inds of di@erent energies within us > Aldous said that we are multiplemphibians. 'he children were made aware with theater games and dances that they could use andransfer their negative energy into a positive, even a creative way.

1n unday, the whole day is dedicated to Aldous. /ean Houston will be the +istress of eremonies and>(rae )ew *orld and &sland. %hich are we going tohooseJ 1r are there other choicesJ 'he premiere of the ## documentary, on AldousN life, will behown. ;riends and scholars will spea& about their relationship with Aldous and his inCuence on theirves. 3t is going to be an extraordinary dayO %e will nish with the sub2ect of gratefulness, which is soasic, #la&e expressed it very simply7 Fratefulness is heaven itself, #rother avid teindl>natal period,


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arly enough >> often, we would nd the basis for present>day disturbance or neurosis or whatever youwant to call it.

was a musician and had not studied psychology > 3 devised my own method which 3 called Nnatal period was considered by mosteople, rather visionary. pea&ing of preparation for conception might stimulate the same reactionow, but in a few years 3 believe it will be accepted as a logical fact.

BE:;rom tal&ing to you today, it seems to me that the way that childbirth and child>rearing are done inur culture and in the world right now is very di@erent than what your organiBation has promoted. 3nther words, a lot of childbirth is very unconscious . . .

LH: 1h my goodnessO 3t is not 2ust unconscious, it*s unnaturalO r. ;loyd, a culturalnthropologist, will give a seminar on dis>embodied childbirth, meaning that hospital technologyisassociates women from their bodies as though they were dysfunctional machines, which cannot giveirth without the assistance of other, more perfect machines. 'hus, the baby is treated as separaterom the mother, which is a deep trauma which no animal would thin& of inCicting on their newborn.

an you imagine the di@erence between a person who*s rst moment of life was greeted with respectnd love and &ept in contact with the mother*s or father*s s&in and one who is put in a little lonely crib

n solitary connement. ;ortunately, mid>wives are being slowly recogniBed and many people now haveheir babies at home.

BE:'here are the LamaB +ethod and the water births recently . . .

LH:1h yes, all of those. r. +ichel 1dent is going to spea& about water birth and human nutrition. andhe use of water during labor. %e come from the sea and 4 R of our body is made of water. %eevelop in a watery medium during pregnancy. Having a water birth lessens the shoc& of changingrom a liIuid to a dry environment.

=ou &now who is going to sing for usJ 0enny Loggins. He and his wife are going to spea& about theirreparation for conception and about this very same approach to birth and babyhood as we areresenting in this conference. 3t is encouraging that there are many people in all strata*s of society thatave become aware of the holiness of birth and of the nobility of the unborn baby.

BE:3n some third>world countries, itNs the same sort of thing as here, isnNt itJ

LH:%ell, everyone is imitating America. :veryone has videos now and has seen the popular showswhere people are all beautiful, rich and happy. 1n the other hand in our country there are threehildren &illed every wee& by other children, in the street. o many people have guns and it has beenroved that if you have a gun you have a great probability of using it.

BE: 3tSs very scary. 3n your boo& 'his 'imeless +oment, you say that the boo& 3sland wasmisunderstood. 'hat it was not a science>ction story, but a guide for living based on the way you lived. .

LH:%ell, 3 didnNt say exactly that, yes, we used some of the principles. Li&e (rae )ew *orld, wassed to describe methods to induce unawareness and passive obedience. 3n &sland, methods andeceipes were used by a population thin&ing and acting interdependently with awareness, choice andesponsibility for their actions. +any of these receipes were not invented. 'hey had already been triedn di@erent times and by di@erent cultures and were found e@ective and benecial.

BE:Aldous Huxley was always fond of loo&ing into new ideas in many di@erent areas >> psychology,nthropology, ecology, child>rearing new ways in which people could relate to one another. %hat do


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ou thin& if he were alive today, what &inds of things would he be interested in now that - years havelapsed since he passed onJ

LH:3 thin& he would be interested in the whole > interested in the fantastic technology that we have,nd appalled at some of the ways we use it. ;or instance, it was so easy to &ill ), people in 3raI,

ust by pushing a few buttons. 3 suppose he would be fascinated by computers. He already spo&e aboutomputers long ago. Around !9(5 or *(9 he said one time to > although 3 am

ot in contact with >> 3 understand that there are some small communes that try to incorporate &slandinheir lives. 3 thin& that for one person that has read &sland, probably there are a hundred that have read(rae )ew *orld. (rae )ew *orldis in the schools >> you have to read it. .

BE:> myoodnessO $o, if 3 have any inspirations to &now exactly what is going to happen in )!, 3 will send

ou a fax. Any excuse is good for sending a fax. 3 love that gadget.

BE:3n the latter part of your life, you spent a lot of time doing psychotherapy and also in writing > ofourse, ou Are )ot the Target, and some of the seIuels to that. %hat are some of the mostundamental recipes for living that you have learned during your lifeJ ould you pass some of thoselong to our readersJ

LH:Among those recipes, 3 learned that one always should ac&nowledge the ego, because it is real,nd yet one should not ta&e it too seriously.

BE:=ou should ac&nowledge it but not ta&e it seriouslyJ

LH:$ot try to eliminate it > &ill the ego as they say > it 2ust gives it more strength. #ut instead, &nowhat it is there, it is part of us, but by far, not all of us > we are immense, we are a universe. 1ur ego is little star, even an important, lovely, little star, but it is not all of us.


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'here are certain basic principles7 ! wo years old, so that at times 3 get tired. 'hatNs right, 3 have to lie down or stand on my head oromething. Also, 3 have a young granddaughter who has been part of my life for the last nineteenears. he does not live at home any longer she has to explore life on her own. till, there is a lot of

are and thin&ing about her. =ou &now, at nineteen they have all &inds of ideas and they have to tryhem out. 'hat is so right, but in the meantime, 3 sit and wonder, how the trying>out is going.

And itSs very interesting. 3 have learned so much from her. %hen she came to me she was eight monthsld and 3 was sixty>three years old now 3 am ve times as old as she is. 3t is a tremendous di@erence >ot 2ust two generation*s, but ve generationNs di@erence so you have to learn and adapt a greateal.

BE7 %hat would you li&e to see from a group named after the novel &slandJ %ould you imagine ansland Froup would be a safe place where people could explore a wider range of relationshipsJ

LH:1h, absolutely, yesO An 3sland Froup could adopt the methods described in &sland. 3t can be done in village. 3t is said that it ta&es a village to raise a child and it is true. 3n a small village, a child can gout alone and visit small and adult friends. A child alone in the streets of Los Angeles is in danger bothrom adults and other children. =ou &now about children being &illed in the streets by other children.

'hey have handguns and machine guns. %hen they are little they are given for hristmas these waroys > a lovely way to celebrate the birth of a savior. o very soon they want to have the real guns, and

when they have it they use it. eople ma&e money by selling guns to children and very young people.'hen we are surprised that they use it. #ut in a village where a few families have read and agreed withhe method of education described in 3sland, a child could go out and even leave his family for a feways. o you remember the !utual adoption clubJ :ach family has two or three adoptive families

where the child can go and ta&e a vacation from his own family, who might also need a vacation fromim. 'here is so much which can be done with a small group who want to grow its children in a safe

lace. 'his group must really have something basic in common to start a village of this &ind. And nowwith the technological advances, it might be possible to ma&e a living without going into the city.

n &slandthe children have not only a loving family but also a sane environment in which to grow.

o the message of 1ur 8ltimate 3nvestment is that if we are loved before the beginning > if a humaneing is a loving thought in its parents mind before conception > if the focus of the couple is to improveheir physical and mental health and their relationship before conception > the child will be a healthier,inder, more capable human being on all levels. ertainly the improvement on physical and metalealth would be enormous.

+y basic belief is expressed in a prayer that came to me from somewhere > 3 did not invent it, 3 2ustwrote it down. 3t is the prayer of the unconceived.

Huxley Laura

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