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s_x and Rockets, the occult world of Jack Parsons.
By John Carter (preface by Robert Anton Wilson).
As a boy, Parsons got interested in science and - although without a degree - became an explosives expert, and a co-founder of the world famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (now part of NASA). His JATOs helped airplanes take off during WW2, and his solid state rocket design is used in sub launched ICBMs, and for the space shuttle booster rockets.
He was also a sci fi fan, part of the same "circle" as Williamson and Heinlein, and even appeared in a few sci fi novels himself (under a different name, of course!).
He was also an ardent occultist, early on in life discovering Alistair Crowley, and thereafter openly and devoutly practised various "magical rites", as per the Golden Dawn order, etc.
In the end, he got shunned because of his occult practises (which included "s_x magic", as a serious subject, but of course this was a "no no" for most people!). Eventually, he blew himself up (an occupational hazard, if you constantly handle explosives!).
This book has some interesting stuff on Parsons' early life, and his rocket experiments, particularly the reproduced contemporary newspaper articles. He first experimented with liquid rockets, just prior to WW2 and approx 10 years after Goddard had, but then became famous for designing working solid fuel rockets, which nobody else had managed to.
There's also some interesting sci fi stuff. Apparently, Parsons shared a house quite a long time with L Ron Hubbard (founder of scientology), and they practised occult rites together. Which throws some light on Hubbard's later invention of Dianetics (later became scientology), originally a sort of "poor man's psychoanalysis" (Freudian therapy was ridiculously expensive, so only for rich people!). Dianetics has some bizarre "literal words" stuff, but this is very much a characteristic of occult thought (numerology, power of spoken names and words, etc), so we can see where it originally came from.
I found this book difficult going! Unfortunately, there's only a limited amount about Parsons' scientific pursuits, and most of the book is instead about his occult practises, with huge lists of various occult orders, etc. No doubt this is all the results of long research, and great worthy stuff, but I found it horribly boring!
There's also a rather long and ranting preface from famous conspiracy theorist and sci fi author Wilson. Largely about Christian fundamentalists, and their attempts to restrict other peoples' freedom. I agree with what he says, but it's a bit inappropriate for this particular book. However, at least his name on the cover should get more people reading it, which is a good thing!
PS, John Carter is - of course! - one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' most famous characters, so I very much doubt it's the author's real name!
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:...ml+132_parsons.shtml&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1 .
http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/oto/ .
http://fusionanomaly.net/robertantonwilson.html .
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/j/joncartr.htm .
s_x and Rockets, the occult world of Jack Parsons.
By John Carter (preface by Robert Anton Wilson).
As a boy, Parsons got interested in science and - although without a degree - became an explosives expert, and a co-founder of the world famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (now part of NASA). His JATOs helped airplanes take off during WW2, and his solid state rocket design is used in sub launched ICBMs, and for the space shuttle booster rockets.
He was also a sci fi fan, part of the same "circle" as Williamson and Heinlein, and even appeared in a few sci fi novels himself (under a different name, of course!).
He was also an ardent occultist, early on in life discovering Alistair Crowley, and thereafter openly and devoutly practised various "magical rites", as per the Golden Dawn order, etc.
In the end, he got shunned because of his occult practises (which included "s_x magic", as a serious subject, but of course this was a "no no" for most people!). Eventually, he blew himself up (an occupational hazard, if you constantly handle explosives!).
This book has some interesting stuff on Parsons' early life, and his rocket experiments, particularly the reproduced contemporary newspaper articles. He first experimented with liquid rockets, just prior to WW2 and approx 10 years after Goddard had, but then became famous for designing working solid fuel rockets, which nobody else had managed to.
There's also some interesting sci fi stuff. Apparently, Parsons shared a house quite a long time with L Ron Hubbard (founder of scientology), and they practised occult rites together. Which throws some light on Hubbard's later invention of Dianetics (later became scientology), originally a sort of "poor man's psychoanalysis" (Freudian therapy was ridiculously expensive, so only for rich people!). Dianetics has some bizarre "literal words" stuff, but this is very much a characteristic of occult thought (numerology, power of spoken names and words, etc), so we can see where it originally came from.
I found this book difficult going! Unfortunately, there's only a limited amount about Parsons' scientific pursuits, and most of the book is instead about his occult practises, with huge lists of various occult orders, etc. No doubt this is all the results of long research, and great worthy stuff, but I found it horribly boring!
There's also a rather long and ranting preface from famous conspiracy theorist and sci fi author Wilson. Largely about Christian fundamentalists, and their attempts to restrict other peoples' freedom. I agree with what he says, but it's a bit inappropriate for this particular book. However, at least his name on the cover should get more people reading it, which is a good thing!
PS, John Carter is - of course! - one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' most famous characters, so I very much doubt it's the author's real name!
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:...ml+132_parsons.shtml&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1 .
http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/oto/ .
http://fusionanomaly.net/robertantonwilson.html .
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/j/joncartr.htm .