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The Discordian Ordination of Jefferson Poland

Discordian Ordination Certificate for Jefferson Fuck Poland into the POEE, signed by Malaclypse the Younger, April 1970.
Courtesy of Michael Marinacci.

Just received news from Michael Marinacci that he’s currently working on a book about “the history of the Psychedelic Venus Church and its associated people, groups, and activities.”

Mike recently received copies of materials on the Psychedelic Venus Church from the special collection at the University of Santa Barbara, and among the materials was “the ordination certificate for Jefferson Poland in the POEE, signed by Malaclypse the Younger!”

Check out our previous post about Psychedelic Venus Church here:

The Discordian Society Meets the Psychedelic Venus Church by Adam Gorightly and Mike Marinacci

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Early Discordian Camden Benares discovered in a 1980s news program about the Vectrex home video game console

Discordian writer and illustrator Bwana Honolulu contacted Adam Gorightly about an incredible find he made regarding Early Discordian and author Camden Benares:

Just yesterday I was watching a YouTube video about some old tech, the Vectrex video game console from the 80s ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlRyE4ru1S8 ), and stumbled upon a curious detail. In that YouTube video, there were some bits from old TV reports about the engineering team that developed the console, and all of a sudden at 1:57, my screen was filled with the image of the cover of Zen Without Zen Masters.

Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.

Huh. And the voiceover said “[…] you see authors on Zen Buddhism writing toy instruction manuals. […]”, while the view zoomed out, showing said author, though unfortunately from behind without showing his face. White guy, balding brown hair, glasses. Could it be that this is Camdes Benares, I asked myself? I kept watching, hoping to hear a name or see a face, and when I got to the end, I started over.

Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.

And yes, there he was, at around 1:10 – the face, the glasses, the beard, it all matched the “happy birthday” photo I’ve seen on historiadiscordia.com! I’m pretty much 100% sure this is Camden Benares in the video.

Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.

This discovery really made my day, and… now you can see it for yourself, and maybe you wanna share it with the rest of the world. I couldn’t find anything about it on the Interwebs, so I guess it’s not (widely) known yet.

Here are links to the full original segments with timestamps:



The Vectrex Story



Zen Without Zen Masters and Camden Benares’ back



Camden Benares laughing

Have a nice day and ewige Blumenkraft!

–Bwana Honolulu

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Tales of Illuminatus! #1 “The Hidden Light” by Bobby Campbell

Discordians reJoyce!

Bobby Campbell presents his first issue of the official comic book adaptation of Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea’s Illuminatus! Trilogy, Tales of the Illuminatus!

First, you may want to check out the Kickstarter for the project and consider contributing to this Erisian delight.

If you would like a taste of Campbell’s comic, you can sample the first 12 pages of issue #1, and if you approve, help spread the fnords to the Others with some federal funds or flaxscript to the project.

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New Podcast: THE SECOND OSWALD with Andrei Codrescu

Podcast: The Second Oswald

A new podcast, THE SECOND OSWALD sheds light on a little known aspect of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

Could the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, have been set up to be the “patsy?”

This four-part podcast series focuses on Discordian co-founder, author, self-proclaimed possible assassin Kerry Thornley who served with Lee Harvey Oswald in the US Marines and wrote a novel about him a year before Oswald was claimed to have killed JFK.

The limited podcast series and play is written by former National Public Radio (NPR) commentator and Peabody award winner Andrei Codrescu and features interviews with our very own Lone Gunman, Adam Gorightly.

Listen to it on all major podcast platforms and at https://secondoswald.podbean.com/ or https://www.rattapallax.com/oswald.

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Illuminated Care Package

I recently received a very generous care package (that synchronistically weighed in at exactly 23lbs) from the fine folks at Illuminated Brew Works, that included some cool swag along with a selection of their top-notch beer adorned with some of the coolest artwork/labels you’ll find on this or any other planet.


Cool Brew Crew
A selection of swag and brew from the Illuminated Crew.

My fav among this trove of tasty of whistle-wetter’s was “Your Soul, A UFO” which includes these illuminating words featured below from the renowned academic psychonaut, Dr. Jeffrey Kripal.

The Old Kripal

Not only does Illuminated Brew Works offer a rotating selection of great beers with ingenious packaging, but they also have their very own Lodge (in the Windy City) where you can be initiated as a club member if you pass through all the required rituals/degrees, which will then earn you a set of wings and a Passport to Magonia. Having already earned a 33rd degree grandmaster rating at several magical orders, the Illuminated Ascended Masters (ASM) at Illuminated Brew Works (IBW) went ahead and awarded yours truly my very own set of wings without ever having to actually cross the Abyss and travel to Chicago and down a pint of Adrenochrome in under 23 seconds.

My very own pair of Illuminated wings (on my very own bomber jacket from Spain) courtesy of the ASM at IBW.

Whatever the case, I definitely hope to travel to the windy city at some point in the near future to meet up with my illuminated beer enthusiast brethren and sistern.

A photo from inside the inner sanctum of Illuminated Lodge #1, ripped from the pages of Yelp.

Thank you Illuminated Brew Works for all you do!

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Disco Road 3

Hot off the digital presses is the latest edition of Disco Road (issue 3 to be exact), a Discordian zine and podcast produced by Leigh Wright, which just so happens to be 23 pages long and 23 minutes in length, and features a contribution from yours truly as well as an essay by Brenton Clutterbuck entitled ‘Who is John Guilt?’

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Three New Discordian Related Books

I’m happy, and also somewhat saddened, to announce the release of 3 new books for which I played a role, either large or small, in the same manner that the authors of these three titles—Kerry Thornley, James Shelby Downard and Antero Alli—themselves had their own roles, both large or small, in the annals of Discordia.

Of course, you all should know well the name Kerry Thornley, without whom this site would have never been imagined. Thornley, as well, was an influence, either large or small—depending on who you talk to—on another religion (or irreligion or spoof religion, as the case may), that being the Church of SubGenius, and it’s the church’s publishing arm—namely The SubGenius Foundation—which brings us the latest installment in the Thornley literary canon in a book called Jailbird: The Dreadlock Recollections that has been compiled by Trevor Blake aka Rev. Onan Canobite and contains what Trevor/Onan describes as “the first publication of the complete text, under the author’s preferred title, with related unpublished essays, annotations and index…” The book also includes an intro by Rev. Ivan Stang, who recounts—among other things—how Kerry photographed himself fucking a chair. 5 (Discordian) stars.

Secondly, we here at Gorightly Publications are pleased to announce the release of the long lost James Shelby Downard magnum opus, Stalking the Great Whore, which I first gave a heads-up about here at Historia Discordia a few years back in a post called When Downard Went Discordia.

And lastly, the sadness I spoke to earlier concerns Antero Alli’s latest, and what he advises us, is his last book: Last Words: Towards an Insurrection of the Poetic Imagination, which as the title states will provide a bookend to the many, many great works of film and literature Antero has produced over the last several decades.

Sad, yes, and at the same time this book is an inspiring, no-nonsense look at how we can make magic in our own individual lives, with the realization that we are all finite beings in an infinite universe of possibilities.

Here is the back cover blurb I provided for Last Words:

“There’s no escaping it; each of us in our time will confront loss in its many forms: loss of love, health, innocence, loss of life; such losses form a tapestry, each thread woven from the next ‘high’ or ‘low’ or ‘in between,’ all part of this mystery we’re passing through. And among the many losses we suffer, life can also be a joyous dance, a game we play, a palette from which to paint—if we choose to frame it that way. Antero Alli’s Last Words represent another loss, one where wisdom can be gained: that by acknowledging our losses head on, in some way we can become larger, deeper, fuller; there’s a silent grace that comes with such knowledge. And as we walk through the next door to whatever may await, with it comes the understanding that there’s little time left to look back at what is or was or what might have been It was all part of the journey that got us here, and what’s immediately in front of us is where we should be right now.” – Adam Gorightly

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Rare Audio of the One and Only Rev. Raymond Broshears

Fred Litkin, author of On The Trail of Delusion: Jim Garrison: The Great Accuser, which details the Garrison investigation boondoggle, has been busy of late unearthing rare audio that overlaps with some of the material you’ll find here on Historia Discordia.

One of these gems is a YouTube video (as above, so below) of the July 8, 1968 broadcast of the Stan Bohrman Show, in which audio of the One and Only Rev. Raymond Broshears is to be found!

If you’ve been reading this website for Discordian information, you may be familiar with Broshears from our fnord-winning, six-part series published a few years ago, The Raymond Broshears Files.

But maybe you are new or shy to Historia Discordia and haven’t a clue as to what we are referring. Don’t worry, traveler, you can find, read, and discuss the first entry of The Raymond Broshears Files here. Have at it!

For more information on the amazing career of newsman Stan Bohrman, who also can be found acting in the film The China Syndrome as a somewhat disillusioned TV news anchor, check out this retrospective about his career:

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Kerry Thornley’s Illuminati Lady

At long last, for your reading pleasure, we present Kerry Thornley’s poem Illuminati Lady, which Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea described in Illuminatus! as “an endless epic poem which you really ought to read.” Of course, the Illuminated Bobs gave no indication about how one would go about doing so, but now you’ll finally have the golden (apple) opportunity, as my crack staff here at Historia Discordia headquarters finally got around to scanning the darn thing.

Page One of Thornley’s Illuminati Lady, courtesy of the Discordian Archives, all rites reversed. Click here to download the whole enchilada.

As far as I know, the only place Illuminati Lady had previously appeared was in a late-60s zine called St. John’s Bread published by Paul Encimer (Discordian name, Dr. Confusion), who I corresponded with many years ago while researching The Prankster and the Conspiracy. While putting this piece together, I did a google search which unfortunately informed me that Paul passed away in January of last year. Encimer led a full and fascinating life, which you can read about here.

In the obit/bio, written by Kym Kemp, it states that Encimer’s “publication Saint John’s Bread reflected all his interests with a combination of entertaining stories and opinion and comic absurdity, he contributed to a friends long running In Light Times and worked with his peers The 7 Mighty Anvils as Dr. Confusion, creating together to distribute regular editions of the Saint John’s Bread Wednesday Messenger and Paranoid Flash Illuminator. These works explored imagined and esoteric spirituality, and current politics, they experimented with early psychedelia, poetry, fiction and surrealistic discordia with multi-hued paper printed cheaply on aging mimeograph machines. A creative impulse that would become the zine movement embraced by young sub-cultures everywhere. He was one of the early ordained ministers of the Universal Life Church in full agreement with it’s free wheeling take on spiritual practice, and always recalled the motto he saw etched at it’s founders enclave during an early gathering: ‘There is no hope, without dope.’ Paul slipped easily into what became known as a Hippy lifestyle, but politically he considered himself one of Abby Hoffman’s Yippies—Just under the wire at the fabled 30 year old cut-off….”

In the video below, Thornley discusses Illuminati Lady.

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Hilaritas Press Podcasts: Episode 5: Kerry Thornley with Adam Gorightly

Our very own Adam Gorightly discusses Kerry Thornley’s friendship with and influence on Robert Anton Wilson with Hilaritas Press Podcasts host and producer Mike Gathers.

For more info, visit Hilaritas Press Podcasts to access show notes, links, and other podcasts.

Enjoy and let us know what you think of the episode.