The Devils of Loudun, by Aldous Huxley

'The Devils of Loudun', by Aldous Huxley ‘The Devils of Loudun’ is a historical account of religious fanaticism and sexual hysteria in seventeenth century France, and an investigation into the circumstances that led to the torture and execution of a local parson who, during a farcical ecclesiastical trial, was accused of having ‘commerce with devils’, and of bewitching a whole convent of nuns. Huxley’s erudition was legendary (it was even said of him that …showed first 75 words of 2348 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2348 total…had not been taught to be contemptuous of by Jesuit theologians. Huxley ends the book with an essay ‘in amplification’ of his earlier topics of ‘vertical’ and ‘downward’ self-transcendence. In it he discusses the dangers of lowlier substitutes for divine grace, such as drug abuse, ‘elementary’ sexuality (i.e. orgiastic & excessively promiscuous), and ‘her-intoxication’ (i.e. mob-mentality). The essay intelligently pre-empted any accusations of ‘irresponsible promoting of drugs’ that came after ‘The Doors Of Perception’.