doors of perception

English

Etymology

From a quote from William Blake's book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793): If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.

Noun

doors of perception pl (plural only)

1. The ability to perceive more than the normal input of our senses; the means of achieving altered states of consciousness.
   • 1958, Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership:

     Those who have gotten their doors of perception open wide enough often enough know that this statement of Blake's is not mere poetic exaggeration.

   • 2015, William Indick, The Digital God: How Technology Will Reshape Spirituality, page 60:

     We go about our lives perceiving one reality, while an infinite number of alternate realities exist just outside our doors of perception.

   • 2015, William Austin Moore, The Keys to the Doors of Perception:

     Helplessly hoping to open doors of perception To the mysteries and the quandaries of mankind; The secrets of the universe are all we wish to find.

   • 2016, Anthony Peake, Opening The Doors of Perception: The Key to Cosmic Awareness, page 83:

     In my opinion, Myron's epilepsy is of a particular sort, something known as SLPE [schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy], a form of spilepsy in which the Pleroma is only a stone's throw away and the doors of perception are wide open.

   • 2022, Ian McEwan, Lessons, page 509:

     He could not take seriously these chaps in ties and suits or tweeds who wore brogues and cardigans when at home all day, who belonged to the Garrick and the Athenaeum, who lived in solid north London villas or Costwold mansions, who spoke loftily, as one might after a lifetime pontificating from All Souls, Oxford; who had never risked a peep round the doors of perception by taking a drug other than tobacco or alcohol, which they peevishly refused to accept were psychoactive addictive sustances;