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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Artificial lighting gave, according to the author, a new visionary quality to what form of ancient art?

2. According to the author, what is "one of the most magical and transporting of spectacles"?

3. What substance is produced when adrenalin decomposes?

4. Why is the first technique in Appendix 1 even less understood than mescalin use?

5. What discovery was made about the substance being tested in the early 1950s?

Short Essay Questions

1. How and why has the diet of most people changed over time?

2. How does the author feel about the explanations for visions which he presents in Appendix 2?

3. Why is the author eager to participate in the study of peyote and mescalin?

4. What is the author's view of heaven and hell, as described at the end of the second essay?

5. What personal story is related by the author concerning the second vision-inducing method in Appendix 1?

6. What other practices commonly incorporated into religious ceremonies produce results similar to the first vision-inducing method discussed in Appendix 1?

7. What metaphor does the author use at the beginning of "Heaven and Hell" to describe the unexplored regions of the human psyche?

8. What does the author say about the history of fireworks, in Appendix 3?

9. What is different about the two forms of visionary art discussed in Appendix 3?

10. What are the author's expectations regarding what he will experience during the mescalin trial?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Color and light are both crucial aspects of a visionary experience, according to Huxley. Why? In what natural objects are color and light often seen in an intense concentration? How are these objects part of religion and spirituality? In Huxley's opinion, why are color and light so important to visionary experiences?

Essay Topic 2

Huxley claims that people are so used to Nature, as it is seen from an everyday perspective, that they are fooled into thinking they know everything about it. What changes for people, according to Huxley, when this perspective is altered?

Essay Topic 3

Huxley describes the vision-inducing powers of different visual arts. What are the arts which he mentions? How does each of these arts help to induce visionary experiences in the viewers? What relationship to these arts have to one another, and what technological developments took place for the advancement of these arts?

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