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Italian-born Laura Huxley, a teenage violin virtuoso, played for European royalty and made her American debut at Carnegie Hall before leaving the concert stage to become a renowned psychotherapist and author. In 1956, Laura married Aldous Huxley, a famous writer and prophet of the 20th century.[1] His 1933 novel Brave New World had established him as an English literary giant. Laura was his muse but also tripped right alongside him. Together they explore the experiences of LSD and mescaline. These sessions helped spark the psychedelic movement of the 1960s.[2] The Huxley home in the Hollywood Hills was a center of the west coast avant garde.[3] Regulars at their Saturday luncheons included celebrities such as Orson Welles, Igor Stravinsky, George Cukor and Christopher Isherwood. Laura guided Aldous through the psychedelic sessions that inspired his final novel, Island.[4] Aldous, in turn, encouraged Laura to become a psychotherapist and write her first book, You Are Not the Target,[5] which became a national bestseller. In 1960, the Huxleys began experimenting with Dick Alpert (now Ram Dass) and Timothy Leary, from whom Aldous later split over his free wheeling approach to psychedelics.[4] The following year, Aldous’s lectures at UC Berkeley on the Human Potential Movement became the inspiration for the founding of the Esalen Institute, a gathering place for developers of revolutionary ideas, transformative practices and innovative art forms.[6]