Comments on: Scientology in the Novels of William S. Burroughs

By: Matthew Levi Stevens

Matthew Levi Stevens — Sun, 05 May 2013 15:54:49 +0000

Just for the record – I’ve written a review of ‘Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the “Weird Cult”‘ by David Wills, that can either be read as an Amazon Customer Review or else here:
http://whollybooks.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/occult-burroughs-part-1/
Can’t recommend it enough!

By: David

David — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:17:27 +0000

Thanks, Graham. In my book I deal with just why Burroughs got so hooked on Scientology, and part of it was due to the influence of Korzysbki on L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was notorious for his theft of other people’s ideas, but he did actually give Korzybski credit for some of Dianetics. Hubbard took it further and proclaimed silence as absolutely important in avoiding causing or triggering engrams, and this is something Burroughs held on to for a long time. When his son was in a coma, years after turning against Scientology, he was appalled at the thought of anyone speaking near his unconscious body because of the engrams it would create.

One of the interesting things about Burroughs’ worldview is that as he went along, it sort of sucked in and adapted many of his – shall we say – fringe beliefs. Korzybski, Reich, Castaneda, etc etc. They all just morphed into his outlook and even when he turned against something, parts of it stayed with him, like Hubbard’s reactive mind.

By: Graham Rae

Graham Rae — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:31:16 +0000

All that stuff about sub-vocal speech and silence is lifted straight from Korzybski in Science and Sanity, which I unfortunately read a few years ago. The Korzybski influence in Hubbard must have really resonated with WSB, in that it was fitting into an already-formed proto-theology that he was developing, and had been for 20 years (in 1959, when you say he was introduced to Scientology in Tangier) since reading Science and Sanity in 1939 and attending the Korzybski lectures in Chicago that same year. Fascinating piece though.

By: David

David — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:46:35 +0000

Gary – Thanks and good luck to you. WSB said the Mayan Calendar told us what to do, and so I guess the real destroyers will be ourselves.

Sara – I actually was referring to Lee’s essay near the start, when talking about misguided explanations. His one certainly was well written – but not well researched.

Matthew – I think we’re all looking forward to ‘Academy 23.’ I’m really excited to get my copy.

By: Matthew Levi Stevens

Matthew Levi Stevens — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:03:51 +0000

Really looking forward to David’s book, as it is so close to my own researches on ‘The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs’. By ‘strange coincidence’ the press-cutting of WSB at the Saint Hill bookshop is exactly the same one I sourced to accompany David’s piece promoting his book in our anthology, aptly named ‘Academy 23’ (forthcoming shortly from http://www.whollybooks.wordpress.com – an ‘unofficial’ tribute to William S. Burroughs & The Final Academy, of which it is the 30th aniversary right about now) – great minds think alike?!

‘Academy 23’ includes a range of contributions from Joe Ambrose, John Balance of Coil, Michael Butterworth of Savoy Books, John Coulthart, Emma Doeve, Paul A. Green, Phil Hine, Spencer Kansa, John May on a Burroughs interview that got never got published, and also my own conversation with Burroughs at the time of The Final Academy and new additons by Mike Stevens (no relation!) to his revised ‘Road to Interzone’.

It will be officially ‘launched’ at The Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury, on October 27th, alongside a showing of ‘Words Of Advice: William S. Burroughs On The Road’, among Other things.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:53:46 +0000

io9/Lee Konstantinou covered this ground much more effectively over a year ago:

http://io9.com/5800673/william-s-burroughss-wild-ride-with-scientology.

Fail.

By: Gary Lee-Nova

Gary Lee-Nova — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:04:19 +0000

A fascinating expansion and extension of – The Weird Cult: How Scientology Shaped the Writing of William S. Burroughs – from your blog, 04th March, 2012.

This has added a measurable quantity of excitement to my expectation of reading your forthcoming publication, right after I recover from the end-of-the-world, so astutely foretold by the Mayans after all the warnings given about the arrival of the Spanish… wait… no… they screwed that one up!

Never mind. There are now more than enough retarded thugs from outer space to last us for another century or two.