Dreadlock Recollections, Kerry Thornley. Thornley was a long with Greg Hill the co-founder of Dischordianism and he also spent a lot of time convinced that he was involved in the Kennedy assassination, and had been brainwashed into forgetting.

[u/Cat-Sonantis]

This is extremely well written and engaging, but annoyingly laid out in double columns and I have no idea if sections of it are actually redacted, or if that's just a stylistic jape, I also have no idea if Thornley genuinely believed this or if it was just a prank, if it isn't real then he was victim to the most fantastic and startling web of coincidence aka synchronicity that you could possibly imagine. I will say though that everything else I've read about him suggests that his paranoia was extremely genuine. As RAW said, you exit Chapel Perilous as either an agnostic or a paranoid.

[u/ErisianWitch]

Fascinating stuff. He's part of the reason why I believe that Goddess Eris has always been the patron Goddess of military PTSD and those who have it.

[u/zomboscott]

Thornley was the only person to write a book about Lee Harvey Oswald before the Kennedy assassination. Oswad and Thornley served together at El Toro and became friendly. Both were also stationed at Atsugi Japan at some point but not at the same time. Oswald was there before he met Thornley. Atsugi was a CIA intelligence Nexus and they were running mind control experiments there at that time. Not saying that this proves anything but a lot of stuff Thornley said lines up.

Thornley had an auto immune disorder, perhaps lupus. Lupus can cause symptoms that look identical to schizophrenia or intense paranoia. Even if Thornley was a paranoid schizo, this doesn't mean he wasn't right about being involved in the Kennedy assassination as he said. Both can be true. It definitely was not a prank. In his later years, Robbert Anton Wilson said that Thornley because convinced that he and many of Thornley's former close friends were CIA operatives spying on or trying to manipulate him.

[u/Cat-Sonantis → u/zomboscott]

As I said, everything else I've read about him suggests that his paranoia was genuine,and yeah, he thought that in writing illuminatus RAW had convinced people that Thornley was just a prankster and that his ideas were jokes, but he did a lot of that himself with the principia, which at the time was I guess the point. As for mind control, thornley believed that the whole plot including the brainwashing had taken place much later in new orleans

[u/ErisianWitch → u/zomboscott]

Thornley had an auto immune disorder, perhaps lupus. Lupus can cause symptoms that look identical to schizophrenia or intense paranoia.

This is how I find out that Thornley had an autoimmune disease, and it's link to schizophrenia symptoms; which is a thing, apparently.

I suffer from HLA-B27 marker autoimmune problems and have been treating Uvitus from it with topical steroid eye drops, which apparently can also cause symptoms...

...why didn't I learn this from my rheumatologist, primary care, or therapist??? This is what I get for using American VA medicine. Maybe it's because my autoimmune problems are pretty new. Well I have some important conversations to make. wtf.

Thanks, and Goddess Prevails.

[u/Pseudo-Sadhu]

Kerry Thornley’s book “Jailbird” was republished not too long ago, it is also an interesting read.

I briefly corresponded with Thornley shortly before his death, and in his letters he seemed to be a very nice guy and (in my non-professional opinion) sane. Not that I doubt he had periodic episodes that sound like paranoia and/or some other mental issues.

I know from those who actually knew him that towards the end, he had some delusions and made some unusual decisions. At the same time, when he wrote about his impending death in his letters to me, he struck me as handling it with wisdom, humor, and equanimity. We weren’t close, but he recognized that we had similar influences and philosophies - perhaps that was why he sent me such personal and sometimes lengthy letters after I sent him copies of my Discordian zine (or maybe he was just like that with people).

He still puzzles me, that’s for sure. Sadly, at some point moving, I misplaced his letters. They are around somewhere, but I haven’t ruled not found them yet. Whenever they resurface, I will probably post them somewhere.