given the book by a colleague soon after returning from Mexico where he had first taken psilocybin mushrooms in the summer of 1960. He found that The Doors of Perception corroborated what he had experienced 'and more too'. Leary soon set up a meeting with Huxley and the two became friendly. The book can also be seen as a part of the history of entheogenic model of understanding these drugs, that sees them within a spiritual context. William Blake William Blake (1757–1827), who inspired the book's title and writing style, was an influential English artist most notable for his paintings and poetry. The "doors of perception" was originally a metaphor written by Blake in his 1790 book, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The metaphor was used to represent Blake's feelings about mankind's limited perception of the reality around them: Cultural references This book was the influence behind Jim Morrison naming his band The Doors in 1965. In his 2014 Scientific American article, skeptic Michael Shermer closed his story about an "anomalous and mystifying event[s] that suggest the existence of the paranormal or supernatural" with the statement advising that "we should not shut the doors of perception when they may be opened to us to marvel in the mysterious." The event was that his wife's grandfather's transistor radio, which had been broken, started playing without being touched just before their wedding ceremony. In the 2016 film Doctor Strange, Stan Lee's character is seen reading the book, calling it, "hilarious." Publication history The Doors of Perception is usually published in a combined volume with Huxley's essay Heaven and Hell (1956) The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, 1954, 1956, Harper & Brothers 1977 Harpercollins (UK), mass market paperback: 1990 Harper Perennial edition: 2004 Harper Modern Classics edition: 2004 Sagebrush library binding: 2009 First Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition: The Doors of Perception, unabridged audio cassette, Audio Partners 1998, See also Psychedelic literature References External links 1954 non-fiction books William Blake Aesthetics books Books about drugs Books by Aldous Huxley Chatto & Windus books Harper & Brothers books Literary autobiographies Neo-Vedanta Philosophy of mind literature Philosophy of religion literature Psychedelic drug research Psychedelic literature Psychology-related autobiographies