The Ticket That Exploded (Burroughs, William S.) (24 page)

is this being done

obviously it is not only way to break the inexorable down spiral of ugly uglier ugliest recording and playback is with counterrecording and playback the first step
is
to isolate and cut association lines of the control machine carry a tape recorder with you and record all the ugliest stupidest things cut your ugly tapes in together speed up slow down play backwards inch the tape you will hear one ugly voice and see one ugly spirit is made of ugly old prerecordings the more you run the tapes through and cut them up the less power they will have cut the prerecordings into air into thin air

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Reference to the orgone accumulators of Doctor Wilhelm Reich — Doctor Reich claims that the basic charge of life is this blue orgone-like electrical charge — Orgones form a sphere around the earth and charge the human machine — He discovered that orgones pass readily through iron but are stopped and absorbed by organic matter — So he constructed metal-lined cubicles with layers of organic material behind the metal — Subjects sit in the cubicles lined with iron and accumulate orgones according to the law of increased returns on which life functions — The orgones produce a prickling sensation frequently associated with erotic stimulation and spontaneous orgasm — Reich insists that orgasm is an electrical discharge — He has attached electrodes to the appropriate connections and charted the orgasm — In consequence of these experiments he was of course expelled from various countries before he took refuge in America and died in a federal penitentiary for suggesting the orgone accumulator be used in treating cancer — It has occurred to this investigator that orgone energy can be concentrated to disperse the miasma of idiotic prurience and anxiety that blocks any scientific investigation of sexual phenomenon — Preliminary experiments indicate that certain paintings — like Brion Gysin’s — when projected on a subject produced some of the effects observed in orgone accumulators —

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The most successful method of sense withdrawal is the immersion tank where the subject floats in water at blood temperature, sound and light withdrawn — Loss of body outline, awareness and location of the limbs occurs quickly, giving rise to panic in many American subjects — Subjects frequently report feeling that another body is floating half-in and half-out of the body in the first part — Experiments in sense withdrawal using the immersion tanks have been performed by Doctor Lily in Florida — There is another experimental station in Oklahoma — So after fifteen minutes in the tank these Marines scream they are losing outlines and have to be removed — I say put two marines in the tank and see who comes out — Science — Pure science — So put a marine and his girl friend in the tank and see who or what emerges —