Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology

by William S. Burroughs

  FACT: Surely not, Mr. Sorrell. And why should you assume that they are? Psychiatrists are the ENEMY. 'Mr. Burroughs has criticized us. Therfore he must be a friend of psychiatrists?' I recall that Mrs. Hubbard in her answer to my Mayfair article was on and on about psychiatry as if I were preparing to defend these dubious practicioners with my last breath. I said at that time: 'In my opinion 90 percent of those engaged in the so called profession of psychiatry schould be broken down to veterinarians.' Does it seem likely that I would call these as my experts?

  The experts I would call are those working with polygraphs, brain waves, electric brain stimulation, bio feed-back and the feed-back between brain and computer. Experts who could determine precisely what brain waves accompany auditing on the E-Meter. What changes in heart beat, blood pressure, muscle relaxtion accompany auditing. Whether there are brain waves that are not picked up on the E-Meter.

  Experts who could define the uses and limitations of this instrument: Dr. Grey Walter of the Neurological Foundation in Bristol.

  Dr. Joe Kamiya who is working with bio feed-back at the Langley Porter Institute in San Francisco.

  Dr. Barbara Brown, Chief of Experimental Physiology at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, Calif.; also working in bio feed-back.

  Professor Delgado working with electric brain stimulation.

  5) Item: Condition of Treason

  'Fact': Mr. Burroughs fails to say that if he returned to St. Hill the order would be lifted immediately.

  FACT: On this point both Mr. Sorrell and your reporter are in error. I was not placed in a condition of treason because of the Mayfair article. The condition was imposed prior to the article, was then lifted and not so far as I know reimposed after the article. When I have made an error I do not mind a dmitting it. I am an individual, not an organization.

  6) Item: To his financial advantage

  'Fact': The Church fo Scientology is a non profit organization. L. Ron Hubbard does not make any money from it.

  FACT: I have listed some of the assets of this church. Mr. Hubbard has boats, villas, manors at his disposal. I submit that he profits from this non profit organization. If he is not a rich man, he certainly lives like one.

  7) Item: Wog

  'Fact': A term not used by the Church. After all, all Scientologists were once non-Scientologists. I could see it being used to describe a person like Mr. Burroughs whose unwillingness to be honest has led him to spy on a Church.

  FACT: I have heard Mr. Hubbard use the term Wog on taped lectures. I have heard him define the term as a 'Worthy Oriental Gentleman'. I have seen bulletins that speak of the Wog World and Wog Law. As is well known, the term Wog has come to mean Non White. Mr. Sorrell could see it being used to describe a person like Mr. Burroughs? Thank you for that, Mr. Sorrell. I should be glad to change a color that has disgraced itself from the Conquistadores to Hiroshima. To spy on a church? I am not religious, Mr. Sorrell. I find it impossible to communicate with any one that is religious. Whether the religion be Communism Catholicism, or Scientology. They have all the answers. Facts are irrelevant. When I found out that Scientology is a religion that has nothing to do with scientific research on a subject that interests me, I withdrew.

  8) Item: Getting the clearing course out to millions

  'Fact': It would work about as well as giving someone an electric carving knife and then telling them...(watch your grammar, Mr. Sorrell) they are a fully qualified surgeon.

  FACT: Except in the event of a power failure, I presume? In any case I fail to see the analogy.

  9) Item: The whole subject has been made virtually inaccessible.

  'Fact'; Public lectures are given daily around the world. There are some 40 books and 150 taped lectures you can buy - at the bookstore, or by post. The courses are open to anyone not there for criminal purposes.

  FACT: I'll give you that one. It was an overstatement on my part.

  10) Item: Security Checks

  'Fact': Security checks have not been used since 1968.

  FACT: We have already batted that around. The article refers to my experience of St. Hill in 1968.

  Security Checks were used at that time.

  11) Item: Polly Stathis fair game order.

  'Fact': Fair game has not been used since 1968. This particular order has been canceled.

  FACT: I refer to the particular order issued in 1968. Subsequent cancellation was unknown to me.

  12) Item: Smoking pot

  'Fact': Auditing does not work if a person is on drugs.

  FACT: You would have to define more precisely what you mean by 'on drugs'. What drugs? Does weekend drinking mean being 'on alcohol'?

  13) Item: I felt my self-respect slipping away from me and finally completely gone.

  'Fact': Mr. Burroughs was degraded by his own self confessed dishonesty.

  FACT: I was indeed. Degraded by the dishonesty of being there and condoning with my presence organization practices and policies of which I could not honestly approve. The fact that some of these practices and policies have been discontinued would seem to indicate that these practices and policies are no longer approved by Scientologists.

  14) Item: ...been in the movement since 1945.

  'Fact': The Church of Scientology was incorporated in 1954.

  FACT: The movement antedates the Church.

  15) Item: Dirty unshaven, grey rags

  'Fact': Grey arm bands, not grey rags. And never dirty or unshaven.

  FACT: I saw the bulletin in 1968 which said those in a condition of liability or worse...'may not bathe or shave.'

  16) Item: Same results through self-auditing

  'Fact': The aim of Scientology is not to discover fresh writing material but to gain spiritual awareness and freedom.

  FACT: Here we have the official pronouncement on the arts. Fresh writing material is incompatible with spiritual awareness and freedom. Mr. Sorrell is also violating the Scientology Auditing Code: "

  1. I promise not to evaluate for the pre-clear..." Now he will tell me what I should and should not get out of Auditing?

  17) Item: I have made magic against Ron.

  'Fact': The E-Meter is not a lie detector. Mr. Burroughs has shown that. Counselling demands a degree of honesty from the parishoner. Betrayal by the parishoner of that request for some honesty will make the parishoner feel guilty and he will accuse others of his own misdeeds as Mr.

  Burroughs has done.

  FACT: ...Hold on there, Reverend. I am not your parishoner. Mr. Hubbard says that the E-Meter is a lie detector. I refer you to "E-Meter essentials". page 21: Security Checking -

  "10. If the preclear hasn't told all, the meter won't clear.

  12. The E-Meter is right."

  I submit that if the E-Meter is not a reaction detector which is a lie detector, that it is nothing.

  18) Item: ...Scientology is a model control system.

  'Fact': Mr. Burroughs has it arse about face...(Come now, Reverend, don't get coarse)...Scientology reveals the control system; seeing what it is you are then free from it.

  FACT: An organized Church is a control system by its hierarchical nature.

  19) Item: The clerk puts you in a condition of doubt.

  'Fact': Similar to saying: "If you live in England, you are tried for High Treason."

  FACT: I lost you there, Reverend, but it sounds ominous.

  20) Item: The E-Meter is a relieable lie detector.

  'Fact': Mr. Burroughs by his own action has shown the E-Meter to be a poor lie detector.

  FACT: Look here, Sorrell, are you saying that L. Ron Hubbard was wrong? According to his own statement already quoted from E-Meter Essentials (1961) he considered the E-Meter to be a relieable lie detector..."The E-Meter is right." Indeed he must have considered the EMeter a relieable lie detector since crucial decisions involving the lives and futures of his 'parishoners' were based on security checks carried out on the E-Meter. Are you now saying that Security Checks were discontinued
because they were found to be ineffective? That for at least 7 years from 1961 to 1968

  Security Checks were carried out on an instrument which is, by your own admission, a poor lie detector? That staff members lost their positions, that parishoners were expelled, put in conditions of Treason and Enemy, some with a Fair Game order on them, as a result of Security Checks carried out on a poor lie detector? An instrument you say in item 17 is not a lie detector at all?

  Quite an admission, Mr. Sorrell.

  21) Item: Repetitive commands.

  'Fact': Scientology practices are not hypnotic.

  FACT: I quote from Mr. Kaufman's book. I do not answer for the accuracy of his statements.

  22) Item: So perhaps he really audits you all.

  'Fact': All 5 million at once?

  FACT: Don't you know when you're having your leg pulled, Reverend?

  23) Item: Magic

  'Fact': If this is so then Mr. Burroughs should be directing his message to the press and television media.

  FACT: Have done on various occasions.

  24) Item: Mr. Girodias

  'Fact': Mr. Girodias has been no stranger to police raids for many years.

  25) Item: Similar incidents

  'Fact': Since the first piece of 'magic' is no more than the normal hazard of Mr. Girodias' particular profession the other un-named pieces of 'magic' remain in doubt.

  Item 24 and 25 refer to my old friend and publisher Maurice Girodias. I will invite him to answer.

  26) Item: Deeper hypnotic states

  'Fact': Scientology is not hypnotic.

  27) Item: Mr. Kaufman "...no grades or levels".

  'Fact': False. Disproved by the hundreds of thousands of people who have gained exactly what was promised them - and more.

  Items 26 and 27 refer to Mr. Kaufman's book. These objections are for Mr. Kaufman to answer.

  28) Item: Visfeedback control

  'Fact': The parishoner cannot see the meter when he is being audited. Therefore it cannot be a feedback. It is spiritual counselling and does not involve the brain. It is not a control like hypnosis. It is a freedom, a spiritual awareness.

  FACT: The word is bio-feedback indicating a feedback between an electronic device and psychophysiological events. It is true that the parishoner cannot see the meter in the early grades of auditing...(Perhaps. auditing would be more effective if he could). However, from the solo auditing course onwards, he audits himself and does see and record the E-Meter reads. He asks himself questions and reads an electronic device that records his reaction to these questions. If that isn't bio-feedback the term will have to be redefined. Mr. Hubbard says the E-Meter reads on THOUGHT. Mr. Sorrell says it does not involve the brain nor presumably any changes in heartbeat or blood pressure. What then does the E-Meter actually register if it has nothing to do with the brain or the body? The E-Meter, Mr. Hubbard tells us, reads on resistance. On resistance to a half volt of electricity passed through the brain and body. Where then does this resistance originate if not in brain and body? One of the mysteries, no doubt.

  Ali's Smile

  The set is a country house, young man with brief-case at the door. The door is opened by a gray-haired man dressed in a blue dressing gown.

  "Yes?"

  "I am your local Scientologist...what can I do for you?"

  "Drop Dead!"

  The door slams. The man, Clinch Smith, totters back to the living room and collapses on the sofa.

  The set is a crater-like valley in the suburbs of a middle-sized English city. There are authentic cottages with moss on the roofs. There is "Ye Olde Bramble Tyme Motel", high prices, thin walls.

  Over the valley towers a vast gray slag heap, a mine tip. The camera moves at a purposeful trot. A peasant steps placidly in a field. Huntsmen in red coats have stepped from a print in the "Olde Marl Hole Tavern". An eccentric Lesbian attacks them with her umbrella. She is cheered on by hippies.

  Now uncouth local youth erupt from "Ye Olde Marl Hole Tavern"; and soon fights are in progress between the hippies and the locals.

  Smith re-read the letter. "Your flippant attitude towards Scientology makes you a downstate suppressive person. I disconnect from you. Don't ever get on my comlines again. Harry."

  Clinch buried his face in his hands, sobbing. "Ingrates, every one of them ingrates, why I paid for his Scientology courses." He looked up through his histrionic tears and there was Ali's kris on the wall.

  It was thirty years ago on Malaya. The first time he saw Ali was in the market. He noticed a crowd, curiously divided, the men sullen and down-cast, the women laughing and radiant. He pushed through the crowd and there in the center of the circle was a slender boy of eighteen dressed in a curtain, his face crudely made-up. In front of him a toothless old hag does a toothless obscene dance. He imitates her every movement. Looking into the boy's eyes Clinch saw that he was helpless in there, watching in agony what his body was doing. He was, in fact, a Latah, that is a condition where the victim must imitate every movement, once his attention has been attracted by a special signal.

  'My God', Clinch thought. 'Suppose one has to let a fart in front of the Queen? His body doesn't belong to him.'

  "Stop this!", he said firmly in the thundering tones of an English Lesbian preventing some rude tribesman from maltreating a donkey. The old hag shot him a look of such malevolence he felt the air stir on the back of his neck. She spat out the Malay word for "queer" in Betel Nut. Clinch made Ali his houseboy and gave him an amulet to protect him from the market woman.

  That morning Clinch woke up with a malarial headache to find he was out of codeine. He sent Ali to the market and arranged to meet him at eleven in the British Chemist. The door of Ali's room was open and there on the table was the amulet. Clinch felt a sudden chill, "Probably malaria", he thought. He slipped the amulet into his pocket and set off for the chemist, his head pounding in the morning sun. He would ask for water and take two pills in the chemist, he decided, looking to the cool shop, the water, the codeine.

  Someone laid a hand on his arm. He turned around, annoyed, and looked into blue eyes that twinkled a warning. It was a bearded archeologist who had always been mysteriously friendly. He wasabout to plead an appointment and break away but the man looked at him steadily.

  "You're interested in linguistics, thought you might like to have a look at this..."

  There was no stopping the fellow and the clipping was interesting, he saw that at a glance. It was relative to a theory Clinch had written to the effect that every language had a particular cadence or rhythm that could be reduced to a neutral musical score. This score, once learned, would literally pull the language into the student's mind.

  This thesis was coldly received by his superiors; and Clinch's obtuse persistence in pushing it finally resulted in a penal assignment in La Paz.

  An inheritance from an uncle saved him sitting out years of ignominy writing for his pension.

  As he read the clipping he heard the clock strike eleven in the market. He finished the clipping and handed it back. As he turned into the market he heard the cry, "Amok! Amok! Amok!". And there was Ali with his kris in front of the drugstore. The shutters fell like a guillotine. The old market women were scampering off with the agility of rats or evil spirits.

  Three of them were too slow.

  And now Ali was running straight towards him, face blazing like a comet. Clinch Smith stood up. He felt the hair stir on the back of his neck and a shiver spattered his body with goosepimples.

  "Ali, Ali, Ali."

  He walked over and took the kris from the wall. It seemed to leap into his hand. He opened the door and started for the Scientology Center, moving with a purposeful trot, the kris held in front of him.

  And then the shots. Three heavy slugs tore into Ali's body and he kept coming. Three more bullets cut him down and he fell at Clinch's feet. Sun-helmet, shorts, the lean bronze face.

  He shoved the Webley. 45 automatic revolver into his holster and buttoned it
in. It is, far as I know, the only automatic revolver ever made. There are etchings in the cylinder so that each shot turns the cylinder and recocks the revolver. It was sold as the fastest handgun ever made.

  "Come along to the club, old man. You could do with a drink." The officer turned. The policeman had approached reluctantly; and the officer gave him some orders in crisp Malay.

  Clinch Smith: "I'd like the kris as a souvenir, you understand. He was my houseboy."

  "Oh, yes, of course, old chap. Quite understand. I'll have it sent along to your digs."

  The Scientologist, meanwhile, whose name was Reg, walked away in a down-stat condition. He could feel his gains ebbing away in the afternoon streets that were suddenly full of raw menace that seemed to bounce off walls and windows. The arc was flowing out of him and he felt a terrible weakness. He feared the sin of self-invalidation.

  "I must up-stat myself," he told himself, firmly. "I'll make a report to Ethics". He swayed and steadied himself on a tree. Silver spots boiled in front of his eyes. He turned a corner, and there, just ahead, a knot of people. Accident, fight perhaps, here was a chance to prove himself. Perhaps he could save a little girl from dying of burns with a brilliant touch-assist. The words of Ron came back to him: "in any kind of emergency, just be there, saying firmly, 'You are standing in my space.'" And while the Wogs think that over he is past them and right up to the front where he sees some hippies fighting with local youths and landed gentry. He looked up and caught his breath. Five members of the Sea Org resplendent in blue uniforms shoved their way through the crowd.

  "Hey, you're not proper boogies." A gang of boys from Glasgow were closing in, slow hands caressing switchblades in their pockets.

  Lord Westfield had been born intelligent, at the same time very rich. This unusual occurence of retrograde planetary juxtapositions, all agree it was a radioactive day, when everything is ugly and menacing street boys scream insults. Mules foaled and the hooded deal did gibber in the streets in Clayton, Missouri. Four schoolboys caught jacking-off by MacIntosh the druggist who is a self-styled sodomy fighter and goes around looking for the bastards, screaming, "I will D R A A A A G you to the police!" Got five years for sodomy.