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Underground > Temple >

Psychedelic Fascism

lord nuneaton savage

12:36 / 07.11.06

I bow before the denizens of the Temple and bother them with another request for aid. Pray, look up from your grimoires for a moment and help this seeker of knowledge.

I've been aware of the concept of psychedelic fascism for what feels like years now. It's one of those phrases that I've always heard being kicked about, but I'm not sure what it means on a practical level.

The person it seems to be used about most is Charles Manson, probably 'cos he was a product of the hippy counter-culture and an acid champion, as well as being connected with a load of murders and mind control and all that jollity (as well as being a noxious racist, of course) but there are other names about who I know less. Such as Nickolas Schreck: This guy ran something called the Werewolf order, who were apparently a Neo-Mansonite occult group. I can't find much about them. Does anyone have any info?

Basically I'm interested in finding out about the way that magic and psychdelia (for which read altered states) interlink with fascism and mind control. I'm using psychedelia as my term because if these groups/folks/nobbers intersect with the sixties (or its violent death-throes) then so much the better, but my remit is pretty wide.

Any groups, personalities, events, books I should be looking at? I should point out that this is being done for research purposes, of course. I'm not about to go joining some Gnostic Aryan society, or anything like that.

Also: What is psychedelic Fascism? Does it exist? Can it exist? It sounds like a contradiction, but...

I hope this is in the right place. Thanks for your attention.

12:51 / 07.11.06

Such as Nickolas Schreck: This guy ran something called the Werewolf order, who were apparently a Neo-Mansonite occult group.

Hm. Schreck was (or still is) a member of the Temple Of Set and i seem to recall that the Werewolf order was a sub-order of that group. Whilst Schreck ,and other TOS members such as Stephen Flowers and Don Webb, have had accusations of being right-wing leveled against them i think calling the Werewolf order a Neo-Mansonite (whatever that means) group is maybe stretching it. Maybe try and get hold of the book he wrote with his partner Zeena, 'Demons of the Flesh' published by Creation for info on him.

The Process group led by Robert Grimston in the 60s is worth looking into and seems to match your interest.

12:52 / 07.11.06

Intriguing- but surely Fascism? Unless you're intent on examining only racist fascist hippy mind controllers on acid rather than all fascist hippy mind controllers on acid...

lord nuneaton savage

13:15 / 07.11.06

Oh, they'll all do. I'm just searching in the bins for the well dodgy fuckers...

I've read "Demons of the Flesh" and, while it does occasionally feature some incredibly po-faced sheeple-isms, it's pretty much a very straight forward book about Sex Magic.

The Process are an interesting bunch. I've read a fair amount about them and they were often accused of being fascistic. Marrianne Faithfull is quoted as saying "There was something very much like fascism about the Process" but this generally seems to have more to do with the fact that they wore black all the time and had a four pointed logo.

Their philosphies revolve around the idea of reconciling the three points of the human psyche (represented as Jehova, Satan and Lucifer) ad identifying with one in particular, in order to live your life in a more fulfilled manner. Or something like that.

Despite their "dodgy" reputation I wouldn't call them fascist per-se. They were basically a breakaway bunch of scientologists with a robe fetish, despite the (pretty unreliable) alleged Manson connections.

lord nuneaton savage

13:21 / 07.11.06

Also, I remember hearing (or reading) something about The Werewolf Order having Manson as a patron saint because he was responsible (in their 'umble) for the death of the "decadent" sixties. Which is, y'know, nonsense, but compelling nonsense...

13:23 / 07.11.06

Fascism has an S in it dude, just sayin'.

13:24 / 07.11.06

I don’t know if Schreck would be happy to be called a psychedelic fascist. As Ghadis says, he’s someone who’s still around and publishing. I’ve only flicked through “Demons of the Flesh” but I didn’t see anything notable nazish in it. Definitely look at the Process Church, fascinating stuff. A kind of weird 60s acid theology, which got smeared hideously in Ed Sanders Manson book “The Family”. Not really dodgy just strange. Steven Sennit published a lot of stuff on them, which I still have, lurking in the big black occult suitcase under my bed.

Also in there is an old copy of Vauge which has a 60s reprint about an acid mind control cult running around at free parties in the sixties. They were called something like the Solar Lodge of the OTO (no relation) and were later involved in a court case or two.

All this is hearsay. I will haul out the big black suitcase (I don’t do that for just anyone you know) and see what juicy bits I can find.

13:41 / 07.11.06

I've got this book:

link

13:50 / 07.11.06

Not really psychedelic though moggy. Unless Hitler was secretly mucking about with body paint and blowbacks with Eva to relax of an evening.

13:54 / 07.11.06

I was thinking more about a magician/astrologer type that is mentioned in the book who worked for Hitler. I was going to edit my post with more details when I'd had a look at the book at home.

14:02 / 07.11.06

Cool. I havn't read the book but i see by the decription that it also traces the Nazi groups and ideas after the war.

lord nuneaton savage

14:38 / 07.11.06

Oh fokkit, a spelling blackspot. Can somebody alter the thread title? I feel like a right twat now...

Yep, sixties acid mind control cults are the kind of, erm, cults I'm after. Especially if they have an OTO in their name. Let me know what you find.

Nazi occultism is an interesting phenomenon and was very popular in the 6ts (Hollow Earth theory etc). As such I would include it in this threads (very wide) remit.

trouser the trouserian

15:01 / 07.11.06

Savage, you might want to get ahold of The infernal texts: Nox & Liber Koth edited by Stephen Sennitt - contains a selection of essays relating to Nicholas Schrek's werewolf order. Stephen also did a book on the Process Church years back which I still have in a box somewhere.

Also: radio werewolf tribute page complete with flyers & scans from publications.

It's possible that the inspiration for Schrek's "Radio Werewolf" came from the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement the Werwolf - composed mainly of Hitler Youth, who engaged in activities such as mining roads and stringing up decapitation wires. A werwolf propaganda radio station did operate for a few weeks.

See this correspondence exchange ('bout halfway down) for some communications from the Werewolf Order's "Minister of Ideological Purity."

Whilst it might be stretching things to label The Werewolf order as fascistic - they certainly - from what I've read of their material when it was being published in the late 1980s in occult 'zines - expounded a right-wing, might=right philosophy.

The Radio Werewolf stuff never really caught on in the UK, 'cos at the time, right-wing satanic wannabes could run off and join the Order of Nine Angles

15:11 / 07.11.06

Wow, I just stumbled across Liquid Sky; Plot Keywords: Marxist | Alien Abduction | New Wave | Psychedelic | Feminism | Punk | Vagina Dentata | Hallucination | Experimental Film | Color Filter | Surreal; "Plot Synopsis: Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin."

There's not many cults to compare to Millbrook or the Merry Pranksters IMHO, this might be a handy general reference.

trouser the trouserian

15:18 / 07.11.06

k-punk on psychedelic fascism

lord nuneaton savage

16:50 / 07.11.06

"Fenris himself, ready to be sewn to any surface"

Ha!
Thanks for the links. The Sennit book looks like a pretty good port of call. (Sennit was the Esoteric Order of Dagon guy, right?)

Interesting stuff from Herr Werewolf in that communique (as I'm certain he would call it). It seems a pretty good summation of the Order's political viewpoints if not their practices/rituals etc.

What's the deal with this 8/8/88 "rally" then? Gavin Baddeley has been quoted as saying that it was the defining moment in 80s Satanism. What were its aims? How many people turned up? Was there enough parking?

trouser the trouserian

05:02 / 08.11.06

Yes, Stephen was in the EOD - but I think he'd be most amused to see himself described as the EOD guy. He's best known for editing NOX magazine and his various small press ventures.

re: the 8/8/88 thing

interview with Blood Axis

interview with Boyd Rice which explains the 888 thing (NB: Boyd is not very complimentary about Schreck here).

trouser the trouserian

08:08 / 08.11.06

Savage

If you want to research the Nazi occult connection then I'd reccomend Nicholas Goodrich-Clarke's Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity - New York University Press 2002. The whole Process-Manson-Solar Lodge of the OTO mythos comes from Ed Sander's rather dubious 1971 book on Charles Manson, The Family. The Process went to court when Sander's book was published, threatening his publishers with a $1.5m libel suit. An out-of-court settlement was agreed and the publishers agreed to withdraw copies and issue a press statement apologising. A court case in the UK over the UK edition of Sander's book failed, however. Maury Terry's 1988 book The Ultimate Evil goes even further, attempting to link The Process (and the OTO) to the 'Son of Sam' killings. Harvey Bainbridge's Satan's Power: A deviant psychotherapy cult is probably the most 'balanced' book dealing with The Process.

I believe it was Stanley Kubrick who first coined the phrase "psychedelic fascism" speaking about drug-related brainwashing (as shown in Clockwork Orange) - a charge that was levelled against The Process on numerous occassions throughout the late 1960 & early 70s - particularly after Sanders explicitly linked The Process to Charlie Manson et al. See here for a selection of articles examining "brainwashing" in relation to conversion to New Religious Movements. Of course by the mid-1970s details of CIA-run programmes such as MK Ultra began to emerge, and there have also been attempts to link Timothy Leary's early LSD research to CIA-sponsored programmes.

Some of the murkier waters of 1960s psychedelia are probed by Gary Lachman in his Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius.

09:34 / 08.11.06

Savage, I can lend you a copy of that if you want (Lachman I mean).

lord nuneaton savage

09:52 / 08.11.06

Yeah, that would be magic. Cheers.

trouser the trouserian

10:11 / 08.11.06

Just spotted this section on Peter Koenig's website on the Solar Lodge of the OTO.

11:20 / 08.11.06

The Radio Werewolf stuff never really caught on in the UK, 'cos at the time, right-wing satanic wannabes could run off and join the Order of Nine Angles

Or the Torys.

11:25 / 08.11.06

I once saw a video about Charles Manson which was produced/distributed by a group with 'Werewolf' in the title - a swift Google has brought up this, a DVD of interviews with Manson, directed by and starring Nikolas Schrek and published by 'Video Werewolf'. It may or may not be the one I saw, which consisted of an interviewer putting very respectful questions to Manson, who came across like even more of a loon than I had expected after reading Helter Skelter about twenty times.

trouser the trouserian

11:46 / 08.11.06

Gary Lachman on The Process (from Fortean Times). Fairly consistent with other accounts of The Process (although according to Stephen Sennitt, Marianne Faithful was in the first issue of their magazine).

17:02 / 11.11.06

Some of the murkier waters of 1960s psychedelia are probed by Gary Lachman in his Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius.

Which is a very good book, overall, though I think Lachman is a little too overbroad with his willingness to equate the wider swath of magic and the occult with fascism.

I think people interested in Nazism and mysticism might also want to check out the work of Savitri Devi.

Also, for some reason, I tend to associate the David Lynch version of Dune with a sort of psychedelic fascism. You know, with the psychedelic properties of the spice awakening the will to power in the prophesied god-man and all...

15:31 / 26.11.06

i would recommand researching on julius evola - a "wannabe tibetan" sacred kingdom as "real" social option with "black sun" flavor and, somewhere in his writings, the notion of hitler as a boddhisattva...loads of racism...and personal ties to mussolini

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:48 / 26.11.06

I'm pretty sure I still have a VHS of Charles Manson Superstar knocking around somewhere...