With the recent release of Historia Discordia, the first book of several from the Erisian materials preserved in the Discordian Archives, multi-instances of unauthorized Discordian activity have been observed. Each and every fnord has been inappropriately cataloged for future chaos repercussions. Hail Eris!
The following is a semi-listicle of Authorized Discordian Society Activity for your re-education and amusement:
For semi-daily shameless promotion of Historia Discordia, a dreaded (but fun and foul!) Facebook page has been manifested by Goddess: https://www.facebook.com/historiadiscordia
Like it, then once “Liked,” be sure to also “Get Notifications” to keep the fnords-a-fnording in your Fnordbook feed!
Binall of America Historia Discordia Interview: Esoterica’s crackpot historian and longtime friend of BoA:Audio, Adam Gorightly returns to the program to discuss his new book Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society. Adam shares the amazing tale of how the book all came together and then provides listeners with a tremendously detailed history of how the Discordian Society started and subsequently evolved. He takes us through Operation Mindfuck as well as explains the Principia Discordia and how it changed over the years.
Expanding Mind Interview On Historia Discordia: Anarchism, synchronicity, and the joke religion spawned by the vision of a Goddess in a bowling alley: a talk with “crackpot historian” Adam Gorightly about his new book Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society.
John Higgs Review of Historia Discordia:
“Adam Gorightly’s new book is hardcore. The most battle-hardened historian would blanch at writing a history of Discordian Society.”
In the interview I mentioned Arlen Wilson—who I’ve heard was as brilliant as RAW, and was a large influence on his thinking—and lo and synchro-mystically behold, an interview with Bob and Arlen popped up on my radar this morning, which is certainly a joy, as I had never heard Arlen talk before.
Anarchism, synchronicity, and the joke religion spawned by the vision of a Goddess in a bowling alley: a talk with “crackpot historian” Adam Gorightly about his new book Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society.
The above interview of RAW on Aleister Crowley was a real eye opener for me when I initially heard it back in the 90s, as RAW was the first observer (that I recall) who drew a comparison between Crowley’s portrait of Lam and the alien gray illustration on the cover of Whitley Strieber’s Communion (Amazon), which of course suggested that maybe dear old Uncle Al had once upon a time summoned certain entities (of the gray skin Zeta Reticuli variety) onto the earth plane that over the last few decades have been abducting and probing and doing such things that alien grays are wont to do.
Crowley's Lam vs. Strieber's Gray Alien.
The obvious difference between Lam, and Strieber’s alien gray, is the eyes. However, Fortean researcher Regan Lee made a keen observation recently pointing out that if you look above Lam’s eyes you will see alien gray eyes on his forehead, and that once you notice this, it’s impossible NOT to see them.
Lam—as the story goes—was the apparent product of a magick ritual called the Amalantrah Working that Crowley performed way back in 1917. There are even those who suspect that Crowley intentionally opened a Stargate by the practice of such ritual workings which allowed the likes of Lam and other otherworldly entities a passageway onto the earth-plane. It was through a similar Crowleyean ritual that RAW made contact with what he perceived as entities from the star system Sirius—but that’s a rabbit hole we won’t go any further with at the moment.
RAW's article on Aleister Crowley in The Realist, September-October 1971 issue. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.As noted in the Youtube interview, RAW’s interest in Crowley dated back many years, and he in fact first wrote about the Great Beast in 1971 for Paul Krassner’s The Realist.
A noted protégé of Crowley’s was Jack Parsons, a renowned rocket scientist and co-founder of Jet Propulsions Laboratory. In 1946—with the aid of the future founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard—the two men contacted beings not unlike Crowley’s Lam while performing a series of rituals called the Babalon Working in California’s Mojave Desert, a hotbed of UFO activity throughout the early days of UFO sightings.
Around the time that Hubbard and Parsons began the Babalon Working, a lady named Marjorie Cameron showed up at Parsons’ house (also known as The Parsonage), which served as the OTO Agape Lodge headquarters for Southern California, as well as a notorious bohemian hangout and purported drug den. A couple weeks after arriving at The Parsonage, Cameron claimed that she witnessed a silver cigar shaped UFO. To Parsons this incident was a sign that Cameron was the chosen one with whom to conduct the Babalon Working, the intent of which was to create a “child” in the spiritual realms who would be “called down” and directed it into the womb of a female volunteer. When born, this child would incarnate the forces of Babalon and become the Scarlet Woman of Revelations, symbolizing the dawning of the Age of Horus, the coming new age.
Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron.The Babalon Working ended just before the ‘Great Flying Saucer Flap’ of 1947 when the modern age of UFO sightings began. In this regard, some have suggested that Parsons, Hubbard and Cameron opened a door and something flew in. (Insert creepy organ music here.)
As with Crowley, RAW was also an admirer of Jack Parsons, as can be seen in the following Youtube interview, which is broken up into four parts.
By the late-80s, Kerry had become a major player in the Church of SubGenius, a spoof religion influenced to a great degree by its predecessor, Discordianism. Ever the sexual exhibitionist, Kerry once sent a photo of himself nude, fucking a chair, to Rev. Ivan Stang’s SubGenius mag Stark Fist of Removal. Stang, of course, published it, albeit with Kerry’s dick blacked out. As Stang later noted: “Kerry had love in his heart for all things, even chairs.” The Prankster and the Conspiracy, page 237.
During the course of penning The Prankster—and coming across the aforementioned photo of Kerry carrying on with a chair—I contacted Stang for permission to use the photo, which he graciously granted. For his assistance, I sent the good Reverend a copy of The Prankster. In return, he shortly after dissed the book whenever he got the chance, basically on account of the above paragraph. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to criticism and tend to keep an open mind about such things. However, Stang’s main (only) bone of contention about The Prankster concerned this single paragraph and the remark that Kerry had been “a major player in the Church of SubGenius” which he apparently took as some sort of slight (I think) as it suggested (perhaps erroneously) that Kerry had done a lot of the heavy lifting in creating the myth of Bob Dobbs. To this end, Stang went off on yours truly in a recent interview on Greg Bishop’s Radio Misterioso radio show, even though, conversely, he suggested in his 1987 Hour of Slack interview with RAW that Kerry was “…a famous Subgenius.”
During the same Radio Misterioso episode, Stang suggested that I’d ripped off the title for my latest book, Happy Trails To High Weirdness: A Conspiracy Theorist’s Tour Guide from his 1988 book High Weirdness By Mail, which I must admit is one of my fav all time books. Perhaps if he hadn’t got his panties all in a bunch over The Prankster and The Conspiracy ten years or so ago, Stang would have cut me some slack over the apparent indignity of using the phrase “High Weirdness” in the title of my book. However, it should also be mentioned that my publisher at Feejee Press actually came up with “High Weirdness” as part of the title to replace the bland working title I’d suggested: “On The Road With Adam Gorightly.”
Anyway, enough of me venting about the diabolical Rev. Ivan Stang. At the end of the day I consider him a great American, even though he gets a bit whiny at times.
Robert Anton Wilson first met Ireland’s most fnord notorious “psychedelic/garage/trash punk” band, The Golden Horde, while on vacation in Dublin in the early-80s. In 1985, The Golden Horde released their first LP, The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy!, on Hotwire Records with co-credit to Wilson, who provided lyrics and spoken word vocals on several tracks.
The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy! had four weeks on the 1986 UK Indie Charts, peaking at, you guessed it, #23. Hail Eris!
Early Discordian Louise Lacey. Photo courtesy of Faith Echtermeyer, Copyright 1980.
I recently happened upon an interview I did with Louise Lacey back in 2007 and thought it’d make a good addition to Historia Discordia, including — as it does — Louise’s recounting of the halcyon days of Discordianism along with some fond remembrances of Robert Anton Wilson, Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley.
At one point in the interview, Louise corrected (as she is wont to do!) my apparent butchering of the pronunciation of Eris — “Ear-reese” — which is how Robert Anton Wilson invoked the Goddess, and so often times I’ll use that pronunciation. Wilson was also the first person I heard pronounce “Principia” with a hard “c,” which is the correct way of saying it in Latin. (Just so ya know I’m not a total dodo!)
Elsewhere in the interview I state erroneously that Kerry Thornley did NOT appear before the Orleans Parish Grand Jury (during the Jim Garrison Investigation madness) which at the time of our interview was my understanding. However, I was wrong, which seldom happens to your humble Discordian reporter, but when it does I’m the first to admit it!
Hail Eris! All Hail Imperfection!
On to the Untamed Dimension’s Louise Lacey fnord Interview…
