Only one person in the history of the world did all of the below:
- Co-founded a well-known if eccentric religion and helped write its first book
- Wrote a book about Lee Harvey Oswald before Oswald was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy
- Got officially investigated in the JFK assassination
- Posthumously influenced the naming of a planet
That person was Kerry Thornley, aka Ho Chi Zen, aka Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst.
Today, April 17, 2023, would have been his 85th birthday.
Personal life
Kerry Wendell Thornley was born on April 17, 1938 in Los Angeles to Kenneth and Helen Thornley. He had two younger brothers, Dick and Tom. In 1965, he married Cara Leach with whom he one child, a son named Kreg Thornley. Kerry Thornley passed away at age 60 on November 28, 1998.
During his 60 years, Thornley frequently shifted his ideology. While raised Mormon, he explored atheism, anarchism, Objectivism, neo-paganism (a term some claim he coined), Kerista, and Buddhism.
Thornley is perhaps best known as the co-founder, with Gregory Hill aka Malaclypse the Younger, of Discordianism. Discordianism began around 1958-59 and is often called either “a joke disguised as a religion, or a religion disguised as a joke.” Discordia, also known as Eris, is the Roman and Greek goddess of strife and discord.
Hill, with Thornley and help from others, wrote Principia Discordia. The first edition was allegedly printed using District Attorney Jim Garrison’s Xerox printer in 1963. Other editions followed, with the fourth being the best known. The religion/philosophy was quite obscure until publicized by Discordian Playboy editors Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in their popular The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Versions of the fourth and best-known edition of Principia Discordia, which was made “kopyleft” (public domain), were published by several companies including Loompanics in 1979, and Steve Jackson Games in 1994.
While the book is widely regarded as humorous, it contains actual philosophy. It recognizes disorder as being as important as order. And the book includes this:
“With our concept making apparatus called ‘mind’ we look at reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled ‘reality’ and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other cultures, see ‘reality’ differently. It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper than is the level of concept.”
Oswald and Kennedy
In early 1959, just about the time Thornley and Hill were creating Discordianism, Thornley served in the same United Marine Corps radio operator unit as Lee Harvey Oswald. This was in Santa Ana, California. The two quickly became friends, discussing philosophy, society, culture, literature, and politics. Militaristically, it was an idle time for the two trained “warriors.”
Thornley later wrote a fictional work based on his experiences called The Idle Warriors. The main character, Johnny Shellburn, was heavily inspired by Oswald. Thornley completed it in February 1962, a year and a half before Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That was the first book written about Oswald, and the only one finished before the Kennedy assassination.
Thornley’s connection with Oswald, his time living in New Orleans, and his anti-Kennedy feelings caught the attention of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Garrison suspected the assassination was part of a New Orleans-based conspiracy, and wanted to find a “second Oswald.” Thornley and Oswald were noted for having a similar appearance.
Garrison had mentioned a second Oswald in an October 1967 Playboy interview. “A young man approximating Oswald’s description and using Oswald’s name — we believe we have discovered his identity—engaged in a variety of activities designed to create such a strong impression of Oswald’s instability and culpability in people’s minds that they would recall him as a suspicious character after the President was murdered.”
In 1968, Garrison questioned Thornley before a grand jury. Thornley said he had been in contact with a couple of mysterious men in New Orleans who went by “Gary Kirstein” and “Slim Brooks.” There was some suspicion they had been associated with the Kennedy assassination. But when Thornley said he hadn’t had contact with Oswald since 1959, Garrison charged him with perjury. The charge was later dropped.
Thornley later said in an interview on A Current Affair that he had wanted to see Kennedy dead. But that’s during a time he was apparently suffering from paranoia.
There has been some conjecture that both Thornley and Oswald may have been subjected to mind-altering experiments. Those were performed on some military personnel as part of Project MKUltra (also called MK-Ultra). MK-Ultra was a secret project of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It tested the effects of various drugs in mental weakening and “brainwashing.” Most of the records of MK-Ultra were destroyed before they could be released. So whether or not Thornley and Oswald were test subjects will likely never be known.
Planet X
But what does Discordianism co-creator Kerry Thornley have to do with the naming of a planet?
A Palomar Observatory-based team discovered a large outer Solar System body in January 2005. Michael E. Brown led the team which also included Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz.
The heavenly body was nicknamed Xena after the character appearing in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. (Xena starts with an X as in “Planet X”). A debate about whether to classify it as a planet or minor planet led to naming campaigns—amidst the strife and discord of Pluto being reclassified from planet to dwarf planet. Some pushed to have the planet named “Bob” after the central figure of the Church of the SubGenius1. Meanwhile, the Discordian/Erisian known as Professor Mu-Chao began a campaign to name the dwarf planet “Eris.”
In September 2006, the dwarf planet was officially named 136199 Eris. The successful naming campaign then became known as “The Jake that Changed a World.”
Mike Brown later published a memoir about the naming of Eris and demotion of Pluto called How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. Several Discordians noted the similarity between that and the subtitle of the best-known edition of Principia Discordia. That includes How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her.
For their eccentric work, Thornley, Hill, Shea, Wilson, and Brown were named in various years to the tongue-in-cheek Order of the Pineapple. Winners who accepted the award include Alan Moore, Steve Jackson, Professor Mu-Chao, Sondra London, Adam Gorightly, Dr. Demento, and Robert Crumb.
Unfortunately, Thornley didn’t live to see the naming of the dwarf planet Eris. One can imagine that, if he had, he might have recited the Discordian proclamation: “Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!”
Special thanks to the people at KerryThornley.com.
-30-
1 In the 2000 animated film Titan A.E., the new world created to be the new home of humanity was also named “Bob”.
Alden Loveshade first thought of emself as a writer when in 3rd grade. E first wrote professionally when e was 16 years old, and later did professional photography and art/graphic design. Alden has professionally published news/sports/humorous/and feature articles, poems, columns, reviews, stories, scripts, books, and school lunch menus.
http://AldenLoveshade.com
Interesting article about Kerry Thornley. I had never heard of him before so it was interesting to see his ties to Oswald, and the dwarf planet Eris.
As it turns out, I have met David Rabinowitz, the co-discoverer of Eris. Also, I think I first became aware of that particular Greek goddess from the Dreamworks film Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, which came out just two years before the dwarf planet’s discovery.
Thanks for your comments! Yeah, following the story of Kerry Thornley is like following a hare down a rabbit hole. You don’t know what you’re going to find.
I didn’t know you met David Rabinowitz. I wonder how common the name “David” is among astronomers?
A bit more seriously, I did meet Thornley when I was writing for a newspaper, but that’s a story to be told later….
You might also be interested in watching some videos on the subject.
His confession to conspiracy to assassinate JFK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Igre1MFCU&list=PL8DA82E3134103845
Thornley was also at the origin of modern notions of the Illuminati: https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/what-is-the-fascination-with-the-illuminati-conspi/p07q0jd2
Thanks for the links! I plan to check them out.
And thanks again for translating the article I wrote for Yahoo about Thornley into Russian. While I have several connections to people who live in or originated in Russia, I unfortunately never learned the language.
He sounds like quite a character!
That he was!
Hi, Kerry Thornley here
It makes me happy to see people still keeping Discordianism alive even if most of them are pretty close to death themself (sorry about the shite grammar m8 im a lil pissed after downing a coupl ales at the pub)
I would like to point out that throughout my life I was rather open about having been experimented on by the CIA, 3v3n before any documents relating to such experiments had ever been declassified and Soviets were the main target of brainwashing accusations in those days. I also believe that you could’ve played up the chaotic effects of “The Jake That Changed The World” and the ensuing Eristic “debate” (more accurately, WAR) surrounding Pluto’s legitimacy as a “planet”. Or better yet, what even is a “planet”. Your biography on here leads me to suspect you are familiar with the works of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, to some extent. Their radical queerness sowed the seeds for a world where conservatives make documentaries with titles like “What is a Women” and colleges teach (and/or preach) the non-existence of objective reality. Refusing to side with any sides, I will leave with a simple “Hail Eris!”
– Kerry Thornley, Pope John Paul Ringo, Founder of Citizens against Infant Sexuality, High Priestess of the One True Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric (or Erisian) Discordia, ethanmcgowen.com
#OTP23 #TheGame23 #infinity23 #FnordMaze #00AG9603 CTF / WORM
The 1938-born Kerry Thornley pretended to be a number of other people. I have a long list of names and titles i.e. “sockpuppets” he used. So it may be apropos for someone to post-humously claim to be him (or should I say post-humorously?).
As for the CIA’s MK-Ultra drug-using mind control experiments, when I first heard of that I thought it was nothing more than a conspiracy theory. That is until I saw it verified by authoritative sources including the CIA itself.
I am “familiar with the works of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, to some extent.”
I’m checking out your linked website.
The only autograph I ever collected was from Steve Jackson. I had him sign my copy of Principia Discordia.
Cool. I was fortunate enough to talk to him a few times at a gaming convention and then I later wrote for his company. It was through the Steve Jackson Games edition of the PD that I learned about Discordianism.
It’s only tangentially related, but I had to comment. I had completely forgotten about the publisher Loompanics ! It was such a treasured resource during the bookstore days. Looking it up, I discovered that Paladin Press “picked up the reins”, but was dismayed to learn that it too is defunct. I used to get Paladin Press catalogues several times a year. I even placed orders to them for customers.
Which reminds me, one of the workers building my library stumbled across an old Amok catalogue ! She instantly took a two hour break to read it ! It can still be found via your favorite search engine.
I can’t speak for the publisher as I’m just a happy-to-be-here freelancer. But I welcome tangential comments. And Discordians honor the numbers 5 and 23, and your comment was posted at 23:55 on 23/5/2023!
When I first learned of Loompanics, I was blown away by the “weirdness” of their catalog. And I have this vague feeling that I contributed in some way to something published by Paladin Press. But maybe that wasn’t me; maybe it was just one of my sockpuppets (which in the old days were called “pen names….”)