By Terry Wilson | Introduction by Ian McFadyen
Perilous Passage is an account of Terry Wilson’s lifetime apprenticeship under the master shamanic practitioner, Brion Gysin — the hidden master of the avant-garde, of whom William Burroughs said, “He is the only man I respect.” The book focuses on events as they developed just prior to and after Gysin’s death in 1986 and details the extreme psychic “Third Mind” effects known as The Process. Perilous Passage is a cautionary tale about the uses and abuses of power, a paranoid espionage thriller that includes transcribed audio hallucinations, notes, cut-ups, interview format, and collaged material. Like Gysin and Burroughs, Wilson treats language itself as a parasitic invader which must be resisted, broken up and reassembled.
-
Why this book matters
- A rare firsthand account of apprenticeship under Brion Gysin — the avant-garde master whom Burroughs called “the only man I respect”
- Documents the extreme psychic phenomena of “The Process” — a territory few writers have dared to map
- A formally inventive work that uses cut-ups, collage, and transcribed hallucinations as literary tools in the tradition of Gysin and Burroughs
- A cautionary tale about power, magic, and the transmission of esoteric knowledge across generations
- Essential reading for anyone drawn to the hidden currents of 20th-century avant-garde culture and consciousness exploration
