LAURA ARCHERA HUXLEY

November 2, 1911 – December 13, 2007

www.laurahuxley.com   

“A succession of explorations and discoveries - that is what my life has been,” said Laura Huxley, whose life continued to be a series of investigations uncovering answers for her ceaseless questions about the nature and quality of life until the day she died.

 Laura Archera Huxley was a visionary who touched the lives of thousands of people and will continue to do so with her legacy for many years to come.

Born to her father, Felice Archera and mother, Fede Belini, on November 2nd of 1911, Laura Archera and sister, Rossana, two years and nine months older, were raised in Torino.  When Laura was nine years old her brother, Franco, was born.  Franco’s arrival was a wonderful and unexpected surprise however, at four years of age, Franco died of Scarlet Fever.  Laura’s mother died soon after.  Franco’s death was a tragic loss for the family and Fede had never recovered.

 

Mrs. Huxley lived and moved in the universe of the violin from the age of ten.  It soon became evident that she was a child prodigy, leaving school at the age of fourteen to study the violin more seriously and even performed in front of the Queen of Italy at that young an age.  Although she underwent some tutoring from home for Math and French, most of her time was spent practicing her instrument.  She then went on to study in Berlin, Paris and Rome, where she earned a Professor of Music degree by the age of 17.

 

Mrs. Huxley then sailed to the United States where she made her teenage debut at Carnegie Hall, playing Mozart’s violin concerto n.5 and continued her music education at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia.  For four years she traveled to America to play the violin every winter.   

 

While visiting America, during World War II, Italy joined Hitler.  Because the Nazis were bombing civilian ships, Laura decided to remain in the United States as an “enemy alien”, and was cared for by many friends, the closest of which was a woman by the name of Virginia Pfeiffer.  They remained friends until Virginia’s death in 1973.  Laura later stated that she felt she had “never been treated so well” in her life as during that time.  She played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1944 until 1947. 

 

At that time, Laura decided she knew little of life other than that of the concert violinist.  After a long and painful deliberation she put her Guarneri into its case and set out to discover wider horizons. 

 

Seeking other means of creativity and development, in the following years she went on to pursue a career as a documentary filmmaker and became assistant film editor at RKO.

 

The diagnosis of cancer in her close friend, Virginia, prompted Mrs. Huxley to pursue her interests in Health, Nutrition and Psychotherapy.  Laura’s research added twenty years to Virginia’s expected life span.  After Virginia’s cancer when into remission she adopted two children, Paula Pfeiffer (who later changed her name to Kathy) and Juanito Pfeiffer, both of whom became prominent people in Laura’s life, as years later Mrs. Huxley obtained guardianship of Kathy’s daughter, Karen Pfeiffer, and raised her from the age of five.  During the fifties Laura worked as a psychological counselor, a lecturer, and a seminarist of the Human Potential Movement, in which she remained involved until the day she died. 

 

In 1948 Laura met renowned writer and philosopher, Aldous Huxley and then wife, Maria.  A wonderful friendship blossomed.  In 1956, a year after Maria’s death, Aldous and Laura were married and lived near Virginia in Hollywoodland until a fire burned their house to the ground.  They then moved in with Virginia and her two children.  Virginia lived there until her death in 1973; Aldous, until his death in 1963; Laura, until her death in 2007.  

 

Together Laura and Aldous explored ways of opening the mind to new levels of consciousness and became prominent representatives of the Psychedelic Movement, always advocating the use of psychedelics in a controlled environment for personal enrichment and always warning against the dangers of the mindless and indiscriminate use of drugs.

 

While married, Aldous wrote Island and Laura wrote You Are Not The Target, both of which became national bestsellers. The “recipes for living and loving” contained in Laura’s successful self-help book ask you to imagine attending your own funeral; visualizing your favorite flower; putting yourself in another person’s position; dancing naked to music.  Throughout her life and out of her dedication to the Human Potential Movement she wrote a number of other books including, Between Heaven and Earth, OneADayReason To Be Happy, and The Child of Your Dreams, which she co-authored with Dr. Piero Ferrucci.  After Aldous Huxley’s death on November 22, 1963, Laura wrote about their life together and Aldous’s death in her touching book, This Timeless Moment.  Just before Mrs. Huxley’s death on December 13, 2007, she wrote her last book, Let’s Die Healthy only available online at www.children-ourinvestment.org and www.laurahuxley.com.

 

The ever present common denominator that impressed Mrs. Huxley were the problems in human relations and the vast amount of avoidable unhappiness with which people are affected.  Because of this, combined with the birth of Karen Pfeiffer, her passionate love for children, as well as her career as a lay therapist and interest in the realization of human potentialities,  Laura Huxley devoted herself in later years to childhood which, in her view is the most vulnerable and fertile time of our life.  As a result, in 1977 she founded OUI (Our Ultimate Investment), later to become COUI (Children: Our Ultimate Investment). This non-profit Foundation is dedicated to the nurturing of the “possible human” from before conception, with particular attention given to preventing unwanted teenage pregnancies - “Love Before the Beginning”.  “The predicament of the human situation,” she said, “begins not only in infancy, not only before birth, but also in the physical, psychological and spiritual preparation of the parents, before conception”.

 

In 1978, as a grand opening for Our Ultimate Investment, Mrs. Huxley held the Foundation’s first Conference.  In April of 1994, in Los Angeles, Laura’s Foundation sponsored the highly successful four day Conference entitled, Children: Our Ultimate Investment.  This event, honoring the centenary of the birth of Aldous Huxley, addressed the issues of children’s conditions in our present society.

 

COUI’s central project, Teens and Toddlers, joins teenagers with toddlers as part of its curriculum, and is presently carried out both in California and in the UK, effectively preventing unwanted teenage pregnancies, STDs and much more; transforming the lives of many young people.

Until she died, Laura continued to fulfill her role as grandmother to her adopted child, Karen Pfeiffer, born in 1974, and Karen’s daughter, Kaya Pfeiffer, born in 1999, and received widespread recognition for her humanistic achievements.  Some of these include an Honorary doctor of Human Services from Sierra University, Honoree of the United Nations, Fellow of the International Academy of Medical Preventics, and Honoree of the World Health Foundation for Development and Peace, from which she received the Peace Prize in 1990.

     In December 2003, the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health honored Laura Huxley with the Thomas R. Verny award.  Laura was the 6th recipient of the Very award, chosen for outstanding contributions to the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology both as an author and as the founder of Children: Our Ultimate Investment.

 

 In the “Prayer of the Unconceived” which came to her in a dream, Laura wrote:

 

If you are ready to love and to be loved,

Invite us to this Earth

Of the thousand wonders,

And we will be born

To love and to be loved.

 

Laura Huxley’s favorite quote of Aldous’ words was: “One never loves enough”. 


LAURA HUXLEY / HISTORY / TEENS & TODDLERS / PROJECT CARESSING
COUP / COUI UK / PHILOSOPHY / BUY LAURA'S BOOKS / 1978 CONFERENCE
1994 CONFERENCE / 2000 FUNDRAISER / RESEARCH / LINKS / DONATE / CONTACT
PRAYER OF THE UNCONCEIVED