Francis Huxley is a British anthropologist, the son of Sir Julian Huxley, and the author of several books. He was educated in the United Kingdom at Gordonstoun School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained degrees in Zoology and Social Anthropoly. For five years he was a Research Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford. He has traveled widely, particularly in the Americas, as an anthropologist working for various universities and institutions. Huxley undertook major field work among a tribe of Brazilian Indians, exploring 17,000 miles of the Amazon basin and studying its native populations; he did early work with Humphrey Osmond in Canada, has reported on the use of psychedelic snuff by Yanomamo Indians, and documented the early use of LSD in the West and in the third world. Francis Huxley lives in Santa Fe, NM.

(Abridged)

Seminars, Lectures, Symposia

Conference on Inter-Disciplinary Studies (1961)
Held at St. Paul de Vence, France, this conference was devoted to the potential contribution of a variety of disciplines to the problems of parapsychology. Some of the topics discussed were research at the Soviet Union, the effects of LSD on ESP, and the psychoanalytic approach to the study of ESP. The participants included Douglas Dean, Martin Ebon, Aldous Huxley, Jan Kappers, Marcel Martiny, and W. Grey Walter.

The Study of Precognition: Evidence and Methods (1959)
Held at New York, this conference focused on the methodology in the study of precognition. Some of the topics discussed were the definition of precognition, and the history of research on spontaneous and experimental precognition. The participants included C.J. Ducasse, Francis Huxley, Gardner Murphy, Joseph Rush, Robert Van de Castle, and Rhea White.

Affable Savages: An Anthropologist Among the Urubu Indians of Brazil
(Capricorn Press,1956). For some months Francis Huxley travelled and lived alone among the natives in a district seldom penetrated by Europeans and, as he slowly grew proficient in the language, he began to collect the fascinating material which a clean style and a shrewd eye have enabled him to present so lucidly. This book is a summary and interpretation of an intricate system of myths and customs, so curious and so different from our own and yet so beautifully natural, that they throw a fresh light on our own lives and beliefs. An extremely revealing work of anthropology.

A definitve reference to the rutals of magic as they are practiced by the indigenous peoples of Haiti. Francis Huxley holds in view throughout the pages, the vivid human-ness of the subject of this work, and the result is a compelling and intimately beautiful narrative.

Peoples of the World in Colour
Blandford Press, 1964. 321 coloured illustrations of the people of the world in typical or national costumes.

Tribes of the Amazon Basin in Brazil 1972: Report for the Aborigines Protection Society
(Charles Knight & Company, 1973). With E. Brooks, R. Fuerst, and Hemming, John. A report by the Aborigines Protection Society on a mission led by the author. With a foreword by Sir Douglas Glover and some observations of the report by the president of FUNAI, Oscar Bandeira de Mello. The mission visited tribes in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Surinam.

TheWay of the Sacred
(Aldus/Doubleday, 1974)
Through the sacred, man tries to achieve communion with the divine, and also with his own physical nature. He sets apart, physically or ritually, things that overwhelm him. In particular, Huxley explores the symbolism of the sacred, because it is really in symbolic terms that the sacred can be approached. But because of man's susceptibility to them, symbols can weild their own power: the enactment of a sacred rite can bring about supernatural experience, an actual experience of the sacred. These shared human experiences - as in rites of reproduction, puberty the seasons, the stages of life and death - become a primary basis for man's relationship with other men. Huxley shows how through celebrations of the sacred men have discovered their origins and understood the meaning of their lives.

The Raven And The Writing Desk(NY: Harper & Row, 1976).
As all readers of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will know, when Alice sat down (uninvited) at the Mad Tea-party, the Hatter opened his eyes very wide and asked, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?" The riddle is famous because when Alice in turn asked "What's the answer?" the Hatter replied that he hadn't the faintest idea. It has provoked ingenious possible answers from many Great Minds, but in this "recondite enquiry into the Dodgsonian convention of Nonsense.." Francis Huxley has undertaken the first investigation in depth.

The Dragon: Nature of Spirit, Spirit Of Nature.(New York,Collier 1979).
Covering the dragon in all its mysterous glory. The seductress in the waters, weather maker, slaying it, first parents and a host of others. Drawing on the great tradition of the Chinese and European dragon history & lore.

The Eye: The Seer And The Seen(Thames & Hudson, 1990) In this book, Francis Huxley blends science, art, mythology, and religion to demonstrate the layers of meaning in the image of the eye. The text is interspersed with drawing, diagrams, and color plates throughout, so the entire book is quite visually engaging. Huxley explores the eye as a symbol of the Sacred, as a praeternatural attribute of monsters, as a weapon (e.g. "the evil eye"), and as an emblem of what is highest in human nature. The images in the book draw from ancient and modern sources worldwide. This is a wonderful and thought-provoking book about this ubiquitous symbol.

Shamans Through Time: 500 Years On The Path To Knowledge(Thames & Hudson, 2001)
With Jeremy Narby. An anthology of excerpts from 64 previously published works to illustrate how shamanism has been perceived through the centuries. The essays are divided into seven parts, each including an introductory essay that identifies the prejudices of the researchers and shows how preconceived notions influenced both their methodology and the evolution of the study of shamanism. Many of the authors included in this anthology, such as Black Elk and Claude Lévi-Strauss, are familiar to those interested in the subject. What makes this work unique is that it also includes translations of relevant materials that were previously available only in foreign languages.

Tantra of Gyuto (Video.1985)Monks of the Gyuto Tantric College perform sacred Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies in a style of chanting that expresses the ecstasy of true meditation. Through ritual and mantric power and by their sheer inherent potency and disciplined execution, these concentrated essential energies bring about direct spiritual phenomena. The rituals, introduced by the Dalai Lama, are interwoven with powerful images of Tibetan sacred art. The film is prefaced by an account of Tibetan history that incorporates rare footage from the 1920s until the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959. Narrated by Francis Huxley. A film by Sheldon Rochlin and Mark Elliott.

An interview in three parts (1997)
1. The old culture: 'Affable Savages' and Cannibals, 2. Contact and Collapse, and 3. Lourival de Freitas, and Urban Shaman. Stephen Miller interview for the GaiaLounge. Library