Scientology in the Novels of William S. Burroughs

A new book by David S. Wills, Scientologist!: William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' goes into considerable detail about William Burroughs' relationship with Scientology and the effect it had on its writing. The book is excellent and provides real insight into the man and his writing. The article below which is essentially an overview of the book was written for the excellent William Burroughs web site, Reality Studio

Scientology in the Novels of William S. Burroughs

by David S. Wills

William S. Burroughs at the Saint Hill Scientology Bookstore, 1968

In Ted Morgan’s biography, Literary Outlaw, he says that in 1968, Scientology was a “new obsession” for William S. Burroughs, and Barry Miles’ El Hombre Invisible claims that Burroughs’ interest came about in 1967 — the year Miles mistakenly has Burroughs studying at Scientology’s sprawling training center, Saint Hill. James Grauerholz, in his editorial comments throughout Word Virus, also understates the importance of Scientology in Burroughs’ work and life, saying that he “became interested” only after writing an essay for Mayfair in 1967, and there is no mention of it in A Man Within or Commissioner of Sewers, the two documentaries about his life. 
The evidence is there, in the two volumes of his collected letters, in small press publications from the sixties, and in his archives. But little commentary exists that doesn’t just focus on the fallout, citing the material published in Ali’s Smile / Naked Scientology.