On page 12, paragraph 3 of Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception
“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies- all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”- Aldous Huxley
In this passage AH speaks of the nature of human experience, and how, we as humans feel and think and yet are unable to share these thoughts and feelings except through symbols…second hand. Why this speaks to me is because I feel that deep desire for someone to understand me, and who I am, yet there is this obvious trouble standing in my way. It is a feeling that I share with most, if not all, humanity. It is a part of being human, being alone in a crowd. Public solitude. We are bound by our physical universe, and only able to communicate through it. People in “Christian” circles talk of there being a “God-shaped hole” in every member of the human race, but they just seem to assume that that is something that is beyond comprehension. But what if it is the simple fact that we all know that none of us are capable of transcending the confines of our physical existence and experiencing true fellowship. That is why we need a transcendent God. It is how He built us, but this may explain why we feel the way we do. Why we need Him. He is the only link we have to any other person, and to Himself. Think about it. The affection of love is by most considered to be the strongest bond between persons. It says in the Bible that God is love. God is the connection between individuals. It is another reason why we need God…
In this passage AH speaks of the nature of human experience, and how, we as humans feel and think and yet are unable to share these thoughts and feelings except through symbols…second hand. Why this speaks to me is because I feel that deep desire for someone to understand me, and who I am, yet there is this obvious trouble standing in my way. It is a feeling that I share with most, if not all, humanity. It is a part of being human, being alone in a crowd. Public solitude. We are bound by our physical universe, and only able to communicate through it. People in “Christian” circles talk of there being a “God-shaped hole” in every member of the human race, but they just seem to assume that that is something that is beyond comprehension. But what if it is the simple fact that we all know that none of us are capable of transcending the confines of our physical existence and experiencing true fellowship. That is why we need a transcendent God. It is how He built us, but this may explain why we feel the way we do. Why we need Him. He is the only link we have to any other person, and to Himself. Think about it. The affection of love is by most considered to be the strongest bond between persons. It says in the Bible that God is love. God is the connection between individuals. It is another reason why we need God…
posted by Eric Luke | 3:52 PM
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