The Lost Treasure of Eris, inside page. Courtesy of Alfred Vitale.The Lost Treasure of Eris, cover page. Courtesy of Alfred Vitale.The Lost Treasure of Eris, back page. Courtesy of Alfred Vitale. Thanks to Alfred Vitale for sharing these scans of a rare and for the most part unknown Discordian tract entitled The Lost Treasure of Eris: Or How Eris Found Me, and What She Did to Me, When She Found Me !?! published by KALLISTI Productions in 1987 with an introduction by Episcopos BOB Invisibilus Invinsicilus—which seems like an appropriate name for someone introducing a Discordian book due to the fact that darn near ⅓ of the first wave of Discordians were named Bob—and trust me that’s no exaggeration. This early Discordian Bob Cabal included Wilson, Shea, McElroy, Yeager, Newport (and I’m probably forgetting 2 or 3)—not to mention Roger Lovin, whose middle name was Robert. (Bob Dobbs is another story.)
The Lost Treasure of Eris also happens to be dedicated to a number of Bobs—including the aforementioned Wilson and Shea—not to mention a certain someone named Banner. In this case, I assume Episcopos BOB was referring to Bob Banner, former editor and publisher of the late, great conspiracy magazine Critique that during the course of its run would occasionally feature articles by RAW.
The Illuminoids and Critique magazine. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Here’s an excerpt from Jesse Walker’s The United States of Paranoia (Amazon) that talks about Bob Banner and Critique.
The Lost Treasure of Eris dedication page also acknowledges Neil Wilgus, author of The Illuminoids, another must-have book for one’s Illuminati Discordian-library back in the day when the Eye in the Pyramid had suddenly become all the rage.
Den of Discordian Iniquity: Magickal Childe Bookstore, late 1980s.Alfred informs me that he discovered The Lost Treasure of Eris at the Magickal Childe book store in NYC in the 1980s. If memory serves me correctly, this is where Mark Philip Steele (creator of the Illuminatus! comix) told me he came across a copy of the ultra rare Revisionist Edition of the Principia Discordia (circa ’76.)
So it appears that the Magickal Childe had an affinity for Discordian obscurities such as these.
Alfred and I would like to track down the origins of this strange relic—The Lost Treasure of Eris—that was supposedly first published 10 years or so before its ’87 re-publication. So if you have any info please let us know!
Cover of Off The Deep End #4 zine by Tim Cridland. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.One of my all time fav zines was Tim Cridland’s Off The Deep End (OTDE) that could best be described as… well, I don’t know, exactly. A mix of all kinds of weird information that sometimes came across as a hip-conspiratorial-countercultural spin on the The World Weekly News.
OTDE never took itself too seriously, which also appealed greatly to yours truly, neither endorsing nor dismissing the mind-bending mishmash of material that Tim cobbled together in the ten or so issues published between 1987-1991—simply letting the readers make up their own minds as to the validity of the content. OTDE was a great peek into the conspiracy and paranormal scenes of the period, predating The X-Files, Art Bell, etc., before such topics as underground bases and shape shifting reptilians became overly trendy.
Tim has always impressed me as a topnotch researcher, much of this research conducted off hours/in between shows while touring the country as Zamora the Torture King.
Tim is co-author of Weird Nevada (Amazon) with Joe Oesterle, and was recently interviewed on Greg Bishop’s Radio Misterioso.
To follow is Tim’s interview with Robert Anton Wilson that first appeared in OTDE #4 sometime in the late-80s/early-90s.
Off The Deep End #4 interview with RAW, Page 00001. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Off The Deep End #4 interview with RAW, Page 00002. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Off The Deep End #4 interview with RAW, Page 00003. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Off The Deep End #4 interview with RAW, Page 00004. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
There Is No Enemy Anywhere card by Greg Hill. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Week 24 of the Illuminatus! Group Reading: On Page 236 of Illuminatus! (Amazon) , a mysterious business card that says
THERE IS NO ENEMY
ANYWHERE
is discovered by some cops while searching the room of an apparent suicide victim named Oedipuski.
The late Mr. Oedipuski had been a former member of the ultra right-wing militant Christian group God’s Lightning before suddenly turning into a radical left-wing revolutionary (or something to that effect) and then was found shortly after floating tits up in the Chicago River, presumably murdered for switching allegiances from the radical right to the radical left.
It can be further presumed that the Legion of Dynamic Discord had a hand in Oedipuski’s sudden transformation—from Jesus Freak to just plain FREAK—the LDD probably blowing his brain with a heavy dose of AUM, the anti-MK-Ultra psychedelic mind control drug used to deprogram/reprogram guys like Oedipuski from their previous fucked-up programs.
Envelope for the There Is No Enemy/Friend Anywhere cards by Greg Hill. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Another LDD programming tool—although not explicitly described as such in Illuminatus!—is the
THERE IS NO ENEMY
ANYWHERE
card, which was another method to deliver a new imprint to Oedipuski’s head—that neither the radical right or radical left were “real” enemies of one another—and that to become truly free, one needed to escape the Us-Against-Them groupthink matrix, which appears to have been (maybe) the intended purpose of this mysterious business card discovered at Oedipuski’s pad.
In the “real world” of Discordianism, this cryptic card concept was something Greg Hill played with ala Operation Mindfuck, as under the guise of Professor Iggy he’d occasionally send out just such cards—without explanation—with “There is no enemy anywhere” or “There is no friend anywhere” printed on them, each particular card going to a certain person/mindset to jolt them awake—like a zen koan, Discordian-style.
Envelope by Greg Hill: TOP CONSPIRATORIAL (Illuminated Seers). Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.The above set of photos was an odd little item I only discovered after several run-throughs/reviews of the Discordian Archives; a “There is no enemy anywhere” card inside a small envelope with “TOP CONSPIRATORIAL (Illuminated Seers)” typed on it, topped off with a red “Military” stamp.
I had intended this little oddity for inclusion in Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordia Society (Amazon), but it failed to make the final mix because the publisher requested that I re-shoot the photos again because they were too dark to display well. Unfortunately (Hail Eris!) I was unable to track down this little item, although rummaging several times through the archives to re-locate it. However, I was able to secure a couple of “There is no enemy anywhere” cards, one of which is reproduced in the book.
A pad of Discordian Inter-Office Memos by Greg Hill. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Although a Discordian, sometime anarchist and full time anti-establishmentarian, Greg Hill was also a product of the corporate world.
Due to this Dilbert-like influence, Greg created a form letter of sorts modeled after inter-office memos one would see in corporate offices of the period.
The memo in question was produced some time after the mysterious disappearance of Malaclypse the Younger when Hill adopted the persona of Dr. Ignotum P. Ignotius to oversee the Office of the Polyfather.
Discordian Inter-Office Memo by Greg Hill dated July 15, 1971, Back. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.Discordian Inter-Office Memo by Greg Hill dated July 15, 1971, Front. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
For your approval, a membership affirmation that Kerry Thornley concocted in the mid-70s while attending Georgia State University as a method to induct members of the student body into the dreaded Bavarian Illuminati.
Bavarian Illuminati Membership Affirmation by Kerry Thornley, mid-1970s. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
