The Air in the Room

In the early winter of 1968, William S. Burroughs, father of the Beat Generation and author of Junkie and Naked Lunch, rented a room in a country cottage near the British Headquarters of the Church of Scientology in Sussex, England. It was there that the author of this memoir, George Rollins (b. 1944), got to know Burroughs beyond the London course room where they had met and began their direct inquiry into the subject in the fall of 1967.

In The Air in the Room: LSD, William S. Burroughs & Scientology, Rollins recollects growing up in white, 1950s America and contrasts that experience with the Counter-Cultural explosion of the mid-1960s, which was propelled by a revolution in popular music, the ugly prospect of the Vietnam War, and the widening availability of psychedelic drugs. It was while attending Cornell University that Rollins experienced an LSD trip which set him on a path of inquiry that would lead him to London in 1967, studying Scientology alongside William Burroughs, who would become a lifelong friend.

Rollins recalls Burroughs affectionately, painting an intimate picture of his unique character and presence. Rollins details the practice of "auditing" within the context of Scientology, a method of spiritual inquiry developed by L. Ron Hubbard, and explains why Burroughs may have been drawn to the subject.

Included in the book are all of their surviving correspondences, warm and humorous notes written on Burroughs' infamous typewriter.

A concluding manifesto details the LSD trip that started Rollins on his journey of discovery, his experience of "Extra-Ordinary Non-Sexual Orgasm," and the utterly profound and unforeseen world beyond the realm of ordinary perception.