It is Necessary to Travel...

by William S. Burroughs

'It is necessary to travel. It is not necessary to live.' These

words inspired early investigators when the vast frontier of 

unknown seas opened their sails in the fifteenth century.

Space is the new frontier. Is this frontier open to youth? I quote

from the London Daily Express, December 30, 1968: 'If you 

are a fit young man under twenty-five with lightning reflexes

who fears nothing in heaven or on earth and has keen appetite

for adventure don't bother to apply for the job of astronaut.'

They want 'cool dads' trailing wires to the 'better half' from an

aqualung. Dr Paine of the Space Center in Houston says: 'This

flight was a triumph for the squares of this world who aren't

ashamed to say a prayer now and then.' Is this the great

adventure of space? Are these men going to take the step into

regions literally unthinkable in verbal terms? To travel in space

you must leave the old verbal garbage behind: God talk,

country talk, mother talk, love talk, party talk. You must learn

to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to

live it alone in silence. Anyone who prays in space is not there.

The last frontier is being closed to youth. However there are

many roads to space. To achieve complete freedom from past

conditioning is to be in space. Techniques exist for achieving 

such freedom. These techniques are being concealed and

withheld. We must search for and consider techniques for

discovery.

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