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|  File Name      : INCUNAB2.ASC     |  Online Date     :  11/06/94          |
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    The following is the second of a two part file (INCUNAB1 and INCUNAB2).
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27.   Lorde, John. Maze of Treason (Red Knight Books, Wildwood, NJ, 1988), Pb,
      204 pp, $10

You may remember that after the Patty Hearst kidnapping it was discovered that
a cheap pornographic thriller, published before the event, seemed to foretell
every detail of the story. Jungian synchronicity? Or did the Symbionese
Liberation Army read that book and decide to act it out? It remains a mystery.
   Maze of Treason is also a pornographic thriller, complete with tawdry 4-
color cover, sloppy printing on acidulous pulp, and horrendous style. It's
marketed as Science Fiction, however. And there is no mystery about the
author's inside knowledge. "John Lorde" not only knows about the Conspiracy,
he's obviously been there. This book is probably a roman a clef, as it appears
to contain distorted portraits of Sohrawardi and Harjanto (depicted as
Fu-Manchu-type villains) as well as several actual agents of both the GFP and
PCF - and even a character apparently based on the real-life "X", author of
several titles in our list (#s 24 & 25).
   The hero, Jack Masters, is an agent of an unnamed spyforce of American
patriots who jokingly call themselves the Quantum Police. Their mission is to
regain control of the alternate worlds for "the forces of reason and order"
and "make trouble for agents of chaos in every known universe." The Q-Cops'
secret underground HDQ contains a number of Eggs granting access to hidden
bases on the other worlds, including "the Other America" and "the Other
Indonesia".
   Jack Masters is investigating the activities of a Chaote named Ripley
Taylor, a "child-molester and black magician, who runs a Travel Cult out of a
comic book store in a "racially-mixed neighborhood" of New York. The Cops hope
to catch Taylor with his "juvenile delinquent girlfriend", blackmail him and
turn him into a double agent.
   The hero now becomes involved with Amanita, a beautiful woman performance
artist from the Lower East Side who seems to know a lot about Taylor and the
Travel Cult, but also seems quite attracted to the virile Jack Masters. At
first he suspects her of duplicity, but soon decides he needs to "convert" her
by making her "fall for me, and fall hard." Jack's problem is that his own
"talent" will not suffice for solo Travelling, and in fact he has never
managed to "get across" - since the Cops do not practice Tantrik techniques!
He suspects her of being an "Other-Worlder" and hopes she can convey him
thence via the "infamous 'double-yolk' method."
   Meanwhile Taylor has laughed off the blackmail attempt, burned down the
comic shop and escaped "into the fourth dimension - or maybe the fifth."
Masters heats up his affair with the artist Amanita, and finally convinces her
to "translate" him - after three chapters of unininterrupted porno depicting
the pair in many little-known ritual practises, so to speak. (The author rises
above his own mediocrity here, and attains something like "purple pulp", an
inspired gush of horny prose, especially in the oral-genital area.) Masters
now rises to the occasion for yet a fourth chapter in which a "government-
issue Egg" becomes the setting for a "yab-yum ceremony of searing obscenity."
   Immediately upon arrival in "Si Fan" (the author's name for Hurqalya),
Amanita betrays our hero and turns him over naked to one of the tribes of
"chaos-shamans who inhabit these Lemurian ruins". At this point Maze begins to
add to our knowledge of the real-life situation by depicting more-or-less
accurately the state of affairs and mode of life in present-day Hurqalya - at
least, as seen through the eyes of a paranoid right-wing spy.
   The thousand or so inhabitants have made few changes in Hurqalya,
preferring a life of "primitive sloth" and minimal meddling with Nature. Sex,
hallucinogenic mushrooms and song-improvisation contests comprise the
night-life, with days devoted to the serious business of "sorcery, skinny-
dipping, flintknapping and maybe a couple of hours of desultory fishing or
berry-picking." There is no social order. "People with bones in their noses
sitting around arguing about Black Hole Theory or recipes for marsupial stew -
lazy smoke from a few clan campfires rising through the hazy blue-gold
afternoon - children masturbating in trees - bees snouting into orchids -
signal drum in the distance - Amanita singing an old song by the Inkspots I
remember from my childhood..."
   Masters - or rather the author - claims to be disgusted by all this
"anarchist punk hippy immorality - all this jungle love!" - but his
ambivalence is revealed in his continued desire for Amanita, and the ease with
which he falls into his own curmudgeonly version of dolce far niente in "Si
Fan".
   We won't give away the rest of the plot, not because it's so great, but
because it's largely irrelevant (Taylor flees to distant dimensions, Masters
gets Girl and returns to Earth-prime in triumph, etc.,etc.) - the book's true
value lies in these pictures of daily life in Hurqalya. Sadly, Maze of Treason
is still our only source for such material.
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   The Conspiracy to deny the world all knowledge of the Many Worlds is
maintained by both the forces active in the parallel universes - the GFP and
PCF both have their reasons for secrecy, evasion, lies, disinformation,
distortion and even violence. Maze of Treason is not our only source for
claiming that people have lost their lives as a result of getting too deeply
involved in all this. But we at INCUNABULA believe that truth will out,
because it must. To stand in the way of it is more dangerous than letting it
loose. Freedom of information is our only protection - we will tell all,
despite all scorn or threat, and trust that our "going public" will protect us
from the outrage of certain private interests - if not from the laughter of
the ignorant!
   Remember: parallel worlds exist. They have already been reached. A vast
cover-up denies YOU all knowledge. Only INCUNABULA can enlighten you, because
only INCUNABULA dares.
                                                       Thank You,
                                                       Emory Cranston, Prop.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     ONG'S HAT: GATEWAY TO THE DIMENSIONS!

           A full color brochure for the Institute of Chaos Studies
           and the Moorish Science Ashram in Ong's Hat, New Jersey.

Introductions
------------

You would not be reading this brochure if you had not already penetrated half-
way to the ICS. You have been searching for us without knowing it, following
oblique references in crudely xeroxed marginal 'samsidat" publications,
crackpot mystical pamphlets, mailorder courses in "Kaos Magick"-a paper trail
and a coded series of rumors spread at street level through circles involved
in the illicit distribution of certain controlled substances and the
propagation of certain acts of insurrection against the Planetary Work Machine
and the Consensus Reality-or perhaps through various obscure mimeographed
technical papers on the edges of "chaos science"-through pirate computer
networks-or even through pure syncronicity and the pursuit of dreams.

In any case we know something about you,your interests, deeds and desires,
works and days-and we know your address.  Otherwise...you would not be reading
this brochure.

Background
----------

During the 1970s and '80s, "chaos" began to emerge as a new scientific
paradigm, on a level of importance with Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. It
was born out of the mixing of many different sciences-weather prediction,
Catastrophe Theory, fractal geometry, and the rapid development of computer
graphics capable of plunging into the depths of fractals and "strange
attractors; "hydraulics and fluid turbulence,evolutionary biology,mind/brain
studies and psychopharmacology also played major roles in forming the new
paradigm.

The slogan "order out of chaos" summed up the gist of this science,w hether it
studied the weird fractional-dimensional shapes underlying sworls of cigarette
smoke or the distribution of colors in marbled paper-or else dealt with
"harder" matters such as heart fibrillation, particle beams or population
vectors.

However,by the late '80s it began to appear as if this "chaos movement" had
split apart into two opposite and hostile world-views, one placing emphasis on
chaos itself, the other on *order*.  According to the latter sect-the
Determinists-chaos was the enemy, randomness a force to be overcome or denied.
They experienced the new science as a final vindication of Classical Newtonian
physics, and as a weapon to be used *against* chaos, a tool to map and predict
reality itself. For them, chaos was death and disorder, entropy and waste.

The opposing faction however experienced chaos as something benevolent, the
necessary matrix out of which arises spontaneously an infinity of variegated
forms-a pleroma rather than an abyss-a principle of continual creation,
unstructured, fecund, beautiful, spirit of wildness. These scientists saw
chaos theory as vindication of Quantum indeterminacy and Godel's Proof,
promise of an open-ended universe, Cantorian infinities of potential...chaos
as *health*.

Easy to predict which of these two schools of thought would recieve vast
funding and support from goverments, multi-nationals and intelligence
agencies. By the end of the decade, "Quantum/Chaos" had been forced
underground, virtually censored by prestigious scientific journals - which
published only papers by Determinists.  The dissidents were reduced to the
level of the *margin* - and there they found themselves part of yet another
branch  of the paradigm, the underground of cultural chaos-the "magicians"-and
of political chaos-extremist anti-authoritarian "mutants".

Unlike Relativity, which deals with the Macrocosm of outer space, and Quantum,
which deals with the Microcosm of particle physics, chaos science takes place
largely within the Mesosphere-the world as we experience it in "everyday
life"., from dripping faucets to banners flapping in the autumn breezes.
Precisely for this reason useful experimental work in chaos can be carried on
without the hideous expense of cyclotrons and orbital observatories.

So even when the leading theoreticians of Quantum/Chaos began to be fired from
university and corporate positions, they were still able to pursue certain
goals. Even when they began to suffer political pressures as well, and sought
refuge and space among the mutants and marginals, still they perservered. By a
paradox of history, their poverty and obscurity forced them to narrow the
scope of their research to precisely those areas which would ultimately
produce concrete results- pure math, and the mind-simply because these areas
were relatively inexpensive.

Up until the crash of '87, the "alternative network" amounted to little more
than a nebulous weave of pen-pals and computer enthusiasts, Whole Earth
nostalgists, futurologists, anarchists, food cranks, neo-pagans and cultists,
self-publishing punk poets, armchair schizophrenics, survivalists and mail
artists. The Crash however opened vast but hard-to-see cracks in the social
and economic control structures of America. Gradually the marginals and
mutants began to fill up those fissures with the wegs of their own networking.

Bit by bit they created a genuine black economy, as well as a shifting
insubstantial "autonomous zone", impossible to map but real enough in its
various manifestations.  The orphaned scientists of Q/C theory fell into this
invisible anti-empire like a catalyst-or perhaps it was the other way around.
In either case, something crystallized. To explain the precipitation of this
jewel, we must move on to the specific cases, people and stories.

History
-------

The Moorish Orthodox Church of America is an offshoot of the Moorish Science
Temple, the New World's first Islamic heretical sect, founded by a black
circus magicain named Noble Drew Ali in Newark, New jersey in 1913. In the
1950s some white jazz musicians and poets who held "passports" in the M.S.T.
founded the Moorish Orthodox Church, which also traced its spiritual ancestry
to various "Wandering Bishops" loosely affiliated with the Old Catholic Church
and schisms of Syrian Orthodoxy.

In the '60s the church acquired a new direction from the Psychedelic Movement,
and for a while maintained a presence at T.Leary's commune in Millbrook, New
York. At the same time the discovery of sufism led certain of its members to
undertake journeys to the East.  One of these Americans, known by the Moorish
name Wali Fard, travelled for years in India, Perisa, and Afghanistan, where
he collected an impressive assortment of exotic initiations: Tantra in
Calcutta, from an old member of the Bengali Terrorist Party; sufism from the
Ovayssi Order in Shiraz, which rejects all human masters and insists on
visionary experience; and finally, in the remote Badakhshan Province of
Afghanistan, he converted to an archaic form of Ismailism (the so-called
Assassins) blended out of Buddhist Yab-Yum teachings, indigenous shamanic
sorcery and extremist Shiite revolutionary philosophy-worshippers of the *Umm
al-kitab*,the "Matrix Book."

Up until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the reactionary orthodox
"revolution" in Iran, Fard carried on trade in carpets and other well-known
Afghan exports. When history forced him to return to America in 1978, he was
able to launder his savings by purchasing about 200 acres of land in the New
Jersey Pine Barrens. Around the turn of the decade he moved into an old rod &
gun club on the property along with several runaway boys from Paramus, New
Jersey, and an anarchist lesbian couple from Brooklyn, and founded the Moorish
Science Ashram.

Through the early-to-mid-'80s the commune's fortunes fluctuated (sometimes
nearly flickering out). Fard self-published a series of xeroxed "Visionary
Recitals" in which he attempted a synthesis of heretical and antinomian
spirituality, post-Situationist politics, and chaos science. After the Crash,
a number of destitute Moors and synpathizers began turning up at the Ashram
seeking refuge. Among them were two young chaos scientists recently fired from
Princeton (on a charge of "seditious nonesense"), a brother and sister, Frank
and Althea Dobbs.

The Dobbs twins spent their early childhood on a UFO-cult commune in rural
Texas, founded by their father, a retired insurance salesman who was murdered
by rogue disciples during a revival in California. One might say that the
siblings had a head start in chaos-and the Ashram's modus vivendi suited them
admirably. (The Pine Barrens have often been called "a perfect place for a UFO
landing.") They settled into an old Airstream trailer and constructed a crude
laboratory in a rebuilt barn hidden deep in the Pines.  Illegal sources of
income were available from agricultural projects, and the amorphous community
took shape around the startling breakthroughs made by the Dobbs twins during
the years around the end of the decade.

As undergraduates at the University of Texas the siblings had produced a
series of equations which, they felt certain, contained the seeds of a new
science they called "cognitive chaos."  Their dimissal from Princeton followed
their attempt to submit these theorems, along with a theoretical/philosphical
system built upon them, as a joint PhD thesis.  On the assumption that brain
activity can be modeled as a "fractal universe," an outre' topology
interfacing with both random and determined forces, the twins' theorems showed
that consciousness itself could be presented as a set of "strange attractors"
(or "patterns of chaos") around which specific neuronal activity would
organize itself.

By a bizzare synthesis of mandelbrot and Cantor, they "solved the problem" of
n-dimensional attractors, many of which they were able to generate on
Princeton's powerful computers before their hasty departure. While realizing
the ultimately indeterminate nature of these "mind maps," they felt that by
attaining a thorough (non-intuitive and intuitive) grasp of the actual
*shapes* of the attractors, one could "ride with chaos" somewhat as a
"lucid dreamer" learns to contain and direct the process of REM sleep.

Their aborted thesis suggested a boggling array of benefits which might accrue
from such links between cybernetic processes and awareness itself, including
the exploration of the brain's unused capacities, awareness of the
morphogenetic field and thus conscious control of autonomic functions, mind-
directed repair of tissue at the cellular/genetic level (control over most
diseases and the aging process), and even a direct perception of the
Heisenbergian behavior of matter (a process they called "surfing the wave
function").

Their thesis advisor told them that even the most modest of these proposals
would suffice for their expungement from the Graduate Faculty-and if the whole
concept (including theorems) were not such obvious lunacy, he would have
reported them to the FBI as well.  Two more scientists-already residents of
Ong's Hat-joined with Fard and the twins in founding the Institute of Chaos
studies.

By sheer "chance" their work provided the perfect counterparts to the Dobbs'
research. Harold Acton, an expatriate British computer-(and reality-)hacker,
had already linked 64 second-hand personal computers into a vast ad-hoc system
based on his own _I_ Ching_ oriented speculations. And Martine Kallikak, a
native of the Barrens from nearby Chatsworth, had set up a machine shop.

Ironically, Martine's ancestors once provided guinea pigs for a notorious
study in eugenics carried out in the 1920s at the Vineland NJ State Home for
the Insane. Published as a study in "Heredity and Feeblemindness," the work
proclaimed poverty, non-ordinary sexuality, reluctance to hold a steady job,
and enjoyment of intoxicants as *proofs* of genetic decay-and thus made a
lasting contribution to the legend of bizarre and Lovecraftian Piney backwoods
people, incestuous hermits of the bogs.

Martine had long since proven herself a *bricoleuse*, electronics buff and
back-lot inventor of great genius and artistry. With the arrival of the Dobbs
twins, she discovered her tre metier' in the realization of various devices
for the implementation of their proposed experiments.

The synergy level at the ICS exceeded all expectations. Contacts with other
underground experts in various related fields were maintained by "black modem"
as well as personal visits to the Ashram.  The spiritual rhythms permeating
the place proved ideal:periods of dazed lazy contemplation and applied
hedonics alternating with "peak" bursts of self-overcoming activity and
focused attention. The hodgepodge of "Moorish Science" (Tntra, sufism, Ismaili
esotericism, alchemy and psychopharmacology, bio-feedback and "brain machine"
meditation techniques, etc.) seemed to harmonize in unexpectedly fruitful ways
with the "pure" science of the ICS.

Under these conditions progress proved amazingly swift, stunning even the
Institutes founders. Within a year major advances had been made in all the
fields predicted by the equations. Somewhat more than three years after
founding there occurred *the* breakthrough, the discovery which served to re-
orient our entire project in a new direction:the Gate.

But to explain the Gate we must retrace some step, and reveal exactly the
purposes and goals of the ICS and Moorish Science Ashram-the curriculum upon
which our activities are based, and which constitutes our *raison d'etre.*

The Curriculum
--------------

The original and still ultimate concern of our community is the enhancement of
consciousness and consequent enlargement of mental, emotional and psychic
activities. When the Ashram was founded by W.Fard the only means available for
this work were the bagful of oriental and occultist meditational techniques he
had learned in Central Asia, the first-generation "mind machines" developed
during the '80s, and the resources of exotic pharmacology.

With the first successes of the Dobbs twin's research, it became obvious to us
that the spiritual knowledge of the Ashramites could be re-organized into a
sort of prearatory course of training for workers in "Cognitive Chaos." This
does not mean we surrendered our original purpose-attainment of non-ordinary
consciousness-but simply that ICS work could be viewed as a prolongation and
practical application of the Ashram work.

The theorems allow us to re-define "self liberation" to include physical self-
renewal and life-extension as well as the exploration of material reality
which (we maintain) remains *one* with the reality of consciousness. In this
project, the kind of awareness fostered by meditational techniques plays a
part just as vital as the *techne'* of machines and the pure mentation of
mathematics.  In this scenario, the theorems-or at least a philosophical
understanding of them-serve the purpose of an abstract *icon* for
contemplation. Thus the theorems camn be absorbed or englobed to the point
where they become part of the inner structure (or "deep grammar" ) of the mind
itself.

In the first stage, intellectual comprehension of the theorems parallels
spiritual work aimed at refining the faculty of *attention*. At the same time
a kind of psychic anchor is constructed, a firm grounding in celebratory body-
awareness.The erotic and sensual for us cannot be ritualized and aimed at
anything "higher" than themselves-rather, they constitute the very *ground* on
which our dance is performed, and the atmosphere or *taste* which permeates
our whole endeavor.
We symbolize this first course of work by the tripartite Sanskrit term
*satchitananda*, "Being/consciousness/bliss"-the ontological level symbolized
by the theorems, the psychological level by the meditation, the level of joy
by our "tantrik" activity.  The second course (which can begin at any time
during or after the first) involves practiacl instruction in a variety of
"hard sciences", especially evolutionary biology and genetics, brain
physiology, Quantum Mechanics and computer hacking.

We have no need for these disciplines in any academic sense-in fact our work
has already overturned many existing paradigms in these fields and rendered
the textbooks useless for our purposes-so we have tailored these courses
specifically for relevance to our central concern, and jettisoned everything
extraneous.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limited Details of the EGG

At this point a Fellow of the ICS is prepared for work with the device we call
the "egg." This consists of a modified sensory-deprivation  chamber in which
attention can be focused on a computer terminal and screen. Electrodes are
taped to various body parts to provide physiological data which is fed into
the computer.

The explorer now dons a peculiar helmet, a highly sophisticated fourth-
generation version of the early "brain machines," which can sonically
stimulate brain cells either globally or locally and in various combinations,
thus directing not only "brain waves" but also highly specific mental-physical
functions.

The helmet is also plugged into the computer and provides feedback in various
programmed ways.  The explorer now undertakes a series of exercises in which
the theorems are used to generate graphic animations of the "strange
attractors" which map various states of consciousness, setting up feedback
loops between this "iconography" and the actual states themselves, which are
in turn generated through the helmet simultaneously with their representation
on the screen.

Certain of these exercises involve the "alchemical" use of mind-active drugs,
including new vasopressin derivatives, beta-endorphins and hallucinogens
(usually in "threshold" dosages).  Some of these tinctures are simply to
provide active-relaxation and focused-attention states, others are
specifically linked to the requirments of "Cognitive Chaos" research.

Even in the earliest and crudest stages of the egg's development the ICS
founders quickly realized that many of the Dobbs twins' PhD thesis predictions
might be considered cautious or conservative.  Enhanced control of autonomous
body functions was attained even in the second-generation version, and the
third provided a kind of bathysphere capable of "diving "down even to the
cellular level.

Certain unexpected side-effects included phenomena usually classified as
paranormal.  We knew we were not hallucinating all this, quite bluntly,
because we obtained concrete and measurable results, not only in terms of
"yogic powers" (such as suspended animation, "inner hearing," lucid dreaming
and the like) but also in observable benefits to health: rapid healing,
remission of chronic conditions, *absence of disease*.

At this point in development of the egg (third generation) the researchers
attempted to "descend" (like SciFi micronauts) to the Quantum level.  Perhaps
the thorniest of all Quantum paradoxes involves the "collapse of the wave
function"-the state of Schrodinger's famous cat.

When does a wave "become" a particle? At the moment of observation? If so,
does this implicate human consciousness in the actual Q-structure of reality
itself?  By observing do we in effect "create?"

The ICS team's ultimate dream was to "ride the wave" and actually experience
(rather than merely observe) the function-collapse. Through "participation" in
Q-events, it was hoped that the observer/observed duality could be overcome or
evaded.  This hope was based on rather "orthodox" Copenhagian interpetations
of Quantum reality.

After some months of intensive work, however, no one had experienced the
sought-for and expected "moment"...each wave seemed to flow as far as one
cared to ride it, like some perfect surfer's curl extending to infinity.  We
began to suspect that the answer to the question"when?" might be "never!"

This contingency had been described rigorously in only one interpretation of
Q-reality, that of J.Wheeler-who proved that the wave function need never
collapse provided that every Q-event gives rise to an "alternating world" (the
Cat is both alive and dead).

To settle this question a fourth generation of the egg was evolved and tested,
while simultaneously a burst of research was carried out in the abstruse areas
of "Hillbert space" and the topology of n-dimensional geometry, on the
intuituve assumptions that new "attractors" could thereby be generated and
used to visualize or "grok" the transitions between alternate universes.

Again the ICS triumphed...although the immediate success of the fourth-
generation egg provoked a moment of fear and panic unmatched in the whole
history of "Cognitive Chaos."

The first run-through of the "Cat" program was undertaken by a young staff-
member of great brilliance (one of the original Paramus runaways) whose
nickname happened to be Kit-and it happened to take place on the Spring
Equinox.  At the precise moment the heavens changed gears, so to speak, the
entire egg vanished from the laboratory.

Consternation would be a mild term for what ensued.  For about seven minutes
the entire ICS lost its collective cool.  At that point however the egg
reappeared with its passenger intact and beaming...like Alice's Cheshire Cat
rather than Schrodinger's poor victim.  He had succeeded in riding the wave to
its "destination"-an alternate universe.  He had observed it and-in his words-
 "memorized its address."  Instinctively he felt that certain dimensional
universes must act as "starnge attractors" in their own right, and are thus
far easier to access (more "probable") than others.

In practical terms, he had not been dissolved but had found the way to a
"universe next door." The Gateway had been opened.

Where is Ong's Hat?
-----------------

According to Piney legend, the village of Ong's Hat was founded sometime in
the 19th century when a man named Ong threw his hat up in the air, landed it
in a tree and was unable to retrieve it (we like to think it vanished into
another world).  By the 1920s all traces of settlement other than a few
crumbling chimneys had faded away.  But the name appealed so much to
cartographers that some of them retained it-a dot representing nothing in the
midst of the most isolated flat dark scrub-pines and sandy creeks in all the
vast, empty and perhaps haunted Barrens.
W. Fard's acreage lies in the invisible suburbs of this invisible town, of
which we are the sole inhabitants.  You can find it easily on old survey
maps, even trace out the the old dirt road leading into the bogs where a
little square represents the decrepit "Ong's Hat Rod & Gun Club," original
residence.  However, you might discover that finding the ICS itself is not so
simple.

If you compare your old survey map with the very latest, you will note that
our area lies perilously close to the region infamous in recent years, the
South Jersey Nuclear Waste Dump near Fort Dix.  The "accident" that occurred
there has made the Barrens even more empty and unpopular, as any hard-core
Pineys fled the pollution melting into the state's last untouched wilderness.

The electrified fence shutting off the deadly zone runs less than a mile above
our enclave.  The Accident occurred while we were in the first stages of
developing the fourth-generation egg, the Gate.  At the time we had no idea of
its full potential.  However all of us, except for the very youngest (who were
evacuated), had by then been trained in elementary self-directed generation.

A few tests proved that with care and effort we could resist at least the
initial onslaught of radiation sickness.  We decided to stick it out, at least
until "the authorities" (rather than the dump) proved too hot to endure.

Once the Gate was discovered, we realized the situation had been saved.  The
opening and actual interdimensional travel, can only be effected by a fully
trained "cognitive chaote;" so the first priority was to complete the course
for all our members.  A technique for "carrying" young children was developed
(it seems not to work for adult "non-initiates"), and it was discovered that
all inanimate matter within the egg is also carried across with the
operator.

Little by little we carted our entire establishment (including most of the
buildings) across the topological abyss.  Unlike Baudelaire who pleaded,
"Anywhere! - so long as out of this world!" we knew where we were going.

Ong's Hat has indeed vanished from New Jersey, except for the hidden
laboratory deep in the backwoods where the gate "exists." On the other side of
the Gate we found a Pine Barrens similar to ours but in a world which
apparently never developed human life.

Of course we have since visited  a number of other worlds, but we decided to
colonize this one, our first newfoundland, we still live in the same
scattering of weather-gray shacks, Airstream trailers, recycled chicken coops,
and mail-order yurts, only a bit more spread out-and considerably more
relaxed.

We're still dependent on your world for many things-from coffee to books to
computers-and in fact we have no inclination of cutting ourselves off like
Anchorites and merely scampering into a dreamworld.  We intend to spread the
word.

The colonization of new worlds-even an infinity of them-can never act as a
panacea for the ills of Consensus Reality-only as a palliative.  We have
always taken our diseases with us to each new frontier...everywhere we go
we exterminate aborigines and battle with our weapons of law and order against
the chaos of reality.

But this time, we believe, the affair will go differently-because this time
the journey outward can only be made simultaneously with the journey inward-
and because this bootstrap-trick can only be attained by a consciousness
which, to a significant degree, has overcome itself, liberated itself from
self-sickness-and "realized itself."

Not that we think ourselves saints, or try to behave morally, or imagine
ourselves a super-race, absolved from good and evil.  Simply, we like to
consider ourselves awake when we're awake, sleeping when we sleep, we enjoy
good health.

We have learned that desire demands the *other* just as it demands the self.
We see no end to growth while life lasts, no cessation of unfolding, of
continual outpouring of form from chaos. We're moving on, nomads or monads of
the dimensions.  Sometimes we feel almost satisfied...at other times,
terrified.

Meanwhile our agents of chaos remain behind to set up ICS courses,distribute
Moorish Orthodox literature (a major mask for our propaganda) to subvert and
evade our enemies...We haven't spoken yet of our enemies.  Indeed there
remains much we have not said.  This text, diguised as a sort of New Age
vacation brochure, must fall silent at this point, satisfied that it has
embedded within itself enough clues for its intended readers (who are already
halfway to Ong's hat in any case) but not enough for those with little faith
to follow.

CHAOS NEVER DIED!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
For further research in this area refer to:

incunabula-  gopher.well.sf.ca.us

"Advances in Skin Science" Joseph Matheny interviews
Nick Herbert about Quantum Tantra.     bOING-bOING #11
Oct,1993.
Journal entry
1/23/94

After interviewing Nick Herbert and being stuck with the check for lunch, I
discovered that Mr. Herbert had scribbled a phone number on the back of the
reciept before leaving. It was a New Jersey exchange, I recognized it almost
instantly, and underneath it the letters E.C. were scrawled. Finally, a lead!

This had to be the phone number for none other than Emory Cranston, proprietor
of INCUNABULA books. So, Cranston was still on Earth Prime, and accessible by
phone. I went back to my motel room and dialed the number.

[ring]

[ring]

EC: Hello ?

JM: Hi, is this Emory Cranston ?

EC: Who wants to know ?

JM: My name is Joseph Matheny. I got your phone number from Nick
Herbert.  I'm a reporter investigating the Ong's Hat story, and I thought you
might give me some insight into where you came across all the material in
INCUNABULA. I got the catalogue from a group of Culture Hackers in San
Francisco.
(silence)
Is this Emory Cranston ?

EC: Who did you say you were again ?

JM: A freelance investigative reporter, doing a story on the travel cults and
the Ong's Hat Institute.

EC: And who gave you this phone number ?

JM: Nick Herbert. I was trying to find out where INCUNABULA is located now.

EC: (Audible sigh on other end of line) Oh, well. At least he could have
warned me. But it doesn't really matter...after all,there's no "here" here
anyway, so I won't be here tommorrow. Does that answer your first question ?

JM: You mean INCUNABULA is located in "virtual space" ?

EC: As far as your concerned, yes.

JM: Well, in the introduction to the INCUNABULA catalogue, you stated that you
had uncovered "...a conspiracy so deep that no other researcher has yet become
aware of it (outside of certain intelligence circles, needless to say)..." Is
that still true? Why hasn't this become a more popular conspiracy theory?  How
did you come across this information?

EC: No, it's no longer true. Since I published the catalogue, everthing has
changed. Everthing! And look, this is no longer a "theory". I admit, when I
first published, I really didn't know jack-shit  about anything.  Yes, I was a
"conspiracy theorist", how pathetic! Let me ask you, what kind of
epistemological black hole...I mean, if the conspiratoligists "know" anything
it wouldn't be a "theory" anymore, would it? It'd be "fact".  Who killed
Kennedy? Where are the UFOs from? They don't "know", do they?

JM: You have answers to these questions ?

EC: Pal, I've got lots of answers ! Alternative answers. Get it? But that's
not important. You ask why "my theory" isn't better known or more "popular" ?
Why aren't they discussing it at UFO conferences, eh? Why isn't it on TV?
Well, there's an easy answer to that. The truth is never popular, and it's
never seen on TV ! You know in your heart I'm right about this don't you? If
you think about what's really important to you, you'll realize it's not
popular and it's never been seen on TV (or if it has...well then I'm sorry for
you). It's true, when I first came across the information...I was living in
Chatsworth, in the Pine Barrens, near Ong's Hat...I was doing a
catalogue...Tesla, Reich, Bioshamanics, Hollow Earth, crop circles, Mae
Brussell...that sort of thing. Strange stories were circulating about the
Institute out at Ong's Hat. They wouldn't talk to me. Then they disappeared.
That's when I got "really" interested, and began collecting the literature. A
few years later I published the catalogue to see if they'd get in touch with
me. I wanted to flush them out. I wanted to know.

JM: So what happened?

EC: Let's just say I succeeded in stirring the shit beyond my wildest
expectations. You know, most conspiratologists would die of shock if they
suddenly received proof that their thoeries were real. You'll notice that not
one UFO "expert" has ever been abducted. And not one Kennedy-Conspiracy nut
has ever been assassinated. These things happen to *other people*, not to
Conspiracy Theorists, right? Well, let's just say...that's what I mean when I
say...this isn't a "theory" anymore.

JM: Do you feel endangered in anyway, being so outspoken about info that has
obviously gotten some people killed? How do you deal with the danger, what
precautions have you taken? Why are you talking to me for example?

EC: Why am I talking to you? There are reasons...reasons you don't really need
to know. Just go ahead and do what ever you intend to do.  Publish. But be
careful. At this point, the cat's out of the bag, as Alice Schroedinger would
say, (laughs).I doubt they...I don't think anyone would bother anymore...it's
gone so far beyond that. Now, as to my state of savvy when I published the
INCUNABULA catalogue...you know how conspiracy buffs like to pretend they're
running a great risk...that hidden forces will try to silence them, blah blah.
So buy my stuff *now*, before it's *too late*, etc.,etc. Not one of them
really believes it. I didn't believe it. I was extremely fortunate. The
catalogue fell into the right hands...just about five minutes before it fell
into the *wrong* hands. I was contacted. I was protected.  Literally whisked
away. In the *nick* of time. Next question, please.

JM: But...

EC: No no no. Read the catalogue. Think about it. Chance are you'll figure it
out. You were smart enough to find this phone number, after all. *That's* why
I'm talking to you. Next question.

JM: Ok. How many books have you sold? How many people do you think you've
convinced?

EC: I'm not really running the catlogue anymore. It can't be suppressed -it's
*out* there, it's *circulating*. But I'm not selling the books now. Those who
*need* the books, get the books. I don't need the money, after all. Those who
can really *read* the catalogue and figure out the next step...well, not
everything in INCUNABULA is accurate, of course. But the clues are there.
Follow the garden of forking paths. Ah, how many, you ask? I can tell you
exactly. The answer is precisely 16 people have followed the thread so far.
We're aware of another dozen or so who are working on it. At a certain point
in their researches they'll be *helped*...if possible. One may *blunder*, you
see. Some tracks lead to the Minotaur, know what I mean? And some of those
dozen or so are working for the wrong people. They won't be helped.

JM: How did you obtain the more "esoteric" material, like _Alternate_
Dimensions_  by "Jabir ibn Hayaan" aka Nick Herbert?

EC: Oh, _Alternate_Dimensions_ can hardly be called one of the more "esoteric"
titles in the list. After all, Herbert was still a *Theorist* when he wrote
it. The book is actually wrong on a number of points, though quite brilliant
as an *approach*. The fact is, I tracked down Dr. Herbert when I was
assembling the catalogue. I'd read his other work, and realized he *must* be
heading in the right direction. At first he wouldn't talk to me at all. He
suspected I was an agent of whatever Shadowy Forces were trying to suppress
the book, and *succeeding*. From various angry remarks he dropped I was able
to piece together the story. His manuscript and files had been stolen right
out of his house, and the publishers refused to return their copies, or any of
the page proofs. They were stonewalling him. So I...well, I stole it.

JM: What?

EC: I went to the publisher. I had a very strong intuition as to which group
was blocking publication. I posed as an agent of that group. Apparently I was
correct, and it seems I knew enough to convince the publisher of my *bona
fides*, so to speak. He was so glad to hand over the book you'd've thought it
was a bomb ! Later he was fired. I suppose he's lucky to be alive, the
schmuck. I copied the proofs and returned the originals to Dr. Herbert. He
agreed to let me list it. After all, it was the only way his work was ever
going to be distributed. Of course it's a moot point now. I mean, the book is
seriously out-of-date and there's not going to be a revised edition.

JM: Well, it's obvious that you've been in contact with some of the travel
cult members. Can you tell me who?

EC: That would be telling.

JM: Aw, come on ! This is not turning out to be much of an interview.

EC: Nonsense, young man. What I'm giving you is gold, pure gold. All right,
then...would it surprise you to hear that you've already met a fair number of
"cult members"? The heiress in the Berkeley Hills who knows all about
Tarantula venom? That Irish humorist who lives in James Joyce's Martello tower
in Howth, outside Dublin? The aging psychedelic guru...the so called Persian
Anarchist...the so called Satanic rock-star...the Montana cowboy-secret-agent-
hacker...the cyberpunk SciFi Surrealist...

JM: No ! They would've told me...

EC: Guess again.

JM: I believe you're...you're disinforming me here, Mr. Cranston.

EC: Check it out.

JM: I will.

EC: Do. Next question.

JM: Um, ok. Uh...what new information have you come across since the catlogue
was published? What new developments have there been in this "science" of
travel?

EC: I can't really tell you that. "Cult member" means nothing now. All the
players know who the other players are. I'm not giving anything away.
But...new developments on the tech end? No. Certain people could gain an edge
just from a vague description...well, I can tell you a few things. A paper
came out right after my catalogue, so it's not listed, but everyone knows
about it by now. It's by Suhrawardi, it's called _Not_the_Egg,_the_Joke_, a
bad pun on yoga. Eggless travel has become S.O.P. for advanced travellers.
Some permanent doorways have been constructed which work even for non-
initiates, sort of like _The_Lion_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe_ . They're very
nicely camouflaged-Fu Manchu couldn't do better. And of course they're
guarded.

JM: Raiders of the Lost Ark...

EC: Eh? Oh yes...booby trapped. Definitely. It's a zero-sum game I'm afraid.
Either you're on the bus or you're not on the bus. The Gateways...that's what
we call them, the Gateways-have to be there for those few who, shall we say,
solve the catalogue without any help from any group. People that smart do
exist- I have to admit I wasn't one of them ! I compiled the catalogue and
even I didn't "get it" ! But people who are capable of such...such quantum
jujitsu, are people we need. For them the Gateways aren't guarded, but
protected.  As for the others who might somehow locate the translational
nexi...well, you know who I mean...

JM: No, who?

EC: The Tri-Lateral Commission ! Read the catalogue ! Figure it out !  Who
knows? Maybe you'll need to know, one of these days.

JM: Is the secret goverment still active in this area, and if so what do they
hope to achieve?

EC: Are you implying that because a "liberal" regime has taken over from a
"conservative" regime, that you people are free of "secret goverment"?
Haven't you heard of the present leader's fascination with "virtual reality"?
Where do you suppose power comes from, an" Invisible College" of "Illuminati"?
(I use the terms metaphorically , of course.) Nothing has changed-only gotten
hotter. In Baghdad...no, forget I said that. Scratch that. Dump the whole
file. Next?

JM: Hmmmm, ok. Have you been to Earth2 or any of the other "worlds" and is
this where you've been hiding?

EC: Well, no harm in telling you I suppose. Yes, in fact I've been spending
quite a lot of time in Java2. It's not even a security thing anymore, really.
Or not always. The truth is that, well, you can't possibly imagine- a whole
world for a utopia, complete with flora, fauna, picturesque ruins, and maybe,
oh, ten people per square continent. Fresh air ! That alone is enough to...a
universe next door, let's go ! (was it e.e.cummings who said that?)

JM: And if that one gets too crowded?

EC: Precisely. A number of Davy Crockett types have already "moved on" where
they can't see the smoke of their neighbors fires, to put it mildly. We have
no idea of the extent of the Series- it may be "infinite" for all practical
(or impractical) purposes.

JM: Why not just tell everbody, then?

EC: Would you want to be responsible for infecting the halls of infinity with,
say the L.A. Police? Do you think the Penatgon deserves infinity? (and what if
it isn't infinite?) Etcetera?

JM: Who were the occupants of Java2 , that left behind the ruins?

EC: Well, that's the biggest news of all really. We found them- or rather
they've found us. They calim to be an alternative evolutionary branch of Homo
Sapiens through h.Javanesis and h.Neanderthalensis.  They look like they're
descended from lemurs rather tha chimps, like us. A bit like the characters
from Javanese shadow puppet plays.  They discovered how to travel long ago, in
a time we might think of as the time of Atlantis or Mu (only we would be
wrong...) It's all rather Lovecraftian, inasmuch as they claim to be
responsible for certain aspects of human culture, aspects which are uncanny,
but not maleficent. Not only in Java. The Tuartha de Danaan of Ireland who
vanished "underground ", and other "faery" and "hollow earth" clues...the
whole idea of another physical world, not a heaven or hell, but a Magickal
universe next door...anyway, we were wrong about them. Travelling in time,
either fast forward or backward. They simply set out to explore the Series.
They think it may be endless, and some decided to return "home" to Java2.
They're a completely non-hierarchic segmentary society, like primitive
hunter/gatherers, but with a highly evolved culture. A lot of Terrans have
completely "converted"  to their way of life, even their language. You should
hear their music ! The returnees brought back some of their artifacts
and...well, "furniture" I guess you'd call it. Their ancestors built a city
during a "High Civilization" period in their history, but they rejected hard
technology for cognitive sciences long ago. Our travel techniques are crude by
comparison and lacking their whole mythopoetic value system. We're planning
soon to release certain archival material here in Earth Prime, certain bits of
art and music, which we expect to act in a viral fashion to produce profound
paradigm shifts. The traveller's culture is now, I believe, our most effective
"weapon".

JM: So what's your bottom line, is this all co-creative or what?

EC: A smartass question.

JM: No, really.

EC: Who can say? What about our own cosmic locale, our own provincial reality?
You can't make it go away by ceasing to believe in it.  "Give me a place to
stand and I'll move the world"-but there *is* noplace-place, no "outside"
vantage point, from which to challenge concensus reality. "Magick" is
notoriously difficult and vague, and terribly incremental- the utopian
imagination seems futile-reforms of consciousness appear to fail, unless they
implement the emergence of new ruling classes or elites. "Religion" is a
perfect case in point. But was religion the cause of "civilization"- or the
effect? Now, however, you see, it's a whole new game. There is an "outside"
now, maybe an infinite number of outsides, places to stand with a lever in one
hand- and a magic mushroom in the other. The disposessed have always believed
in a millenium, a magickal resistance, a heaven on earth, a world turned
upside down. This is it.  Well, time's up.

JM: I had a million more questions. In fact...

EC: This phone number and address will become inoperative. Don't call us,
we'll call you. And don't worry. The Reality check is in the mail.  [click]

(JM's note: the phone was indeed disconnected the next day, and the premises
it was registered to vacated with no forwarding address left)

For further info on the INCUNABULA enigma see:

INCUNABULA and INCUNABULA 2
on gopher well.sf.ca.us

and "Advances in Skin Science" Joseph Matheny interviews Nick Herbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------------