What do you think?
Rate this book
Ali's Smile / Naked Scientology
Nonfiction. NAKED SCIENTOLOGY contains articles and letters by Burroughs critiquing Scientology, a religion with which he was involved for some time and toward which he maintains a reserved curiosity. According to Burroughs, some of the techniques are highly valuable and warrant further study and experimentation, while on the other hand he is in flat disagreement with the organizational policy. ALI'S SMILE is a hallucinatory dream-tale that loosely takes as its subject the negative effects of Scientology. Bilingual, in English and German.
106 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1973
3 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
William S. Burroughs
449 books7,028 followersWilliam Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 22, 2013
William S. Burroughs was always looking for new answers. He even looked into Scientology, and was one of the first people to write an expose about the wallet-draining cult. This book collects the letters he wrote doing just that (though it manages to avoid revealing any of the halfwit dogma that you have to pay $20G's to hear about in the Centers; Evil Thetans preserved in glycol in volcanos and all that crap that makes other religions look believable). Also included is a short story he wrote that is based on his less-than-stellar experiences with the organization.
February 25, 2013
Superbly written and absolutely hilarious. Burroughs' tongue-in-cheek humour has never been better and more bitter.
If you ever have any interest in checking out Scientology, first read this. You will be amazed by how whacko it is.
Burroughs does praise some of the techniques and apparatuses that the organization uses but in terms of the initiation process and punishment that members have to go through, he exposes it for the dangerous cult that it is. If you need just one book of Burroughs which highlights his sardonic humor, apart from Naked Lunch of course, this is it. This is one of those great secrets of literature that you sometimes stumble upon and wonder 'why is this not more well-known'?
One of my favourite parts of the book: "I find it impossible to communicate with any one who is religious. Whether the religion be Communism, Catholicism or Scientology. They have all the answers. Facts are irrelevant. When I found out that Scientology is a religion that has nothing to do with scientific research on a subject that interests me, I withdrew".
The actual 'Ali's Smile' story is interesting but I don't know what it is supposed to mean.
If you ever have any interest in checking out Scientology, first read this. You will be amazed by how whacko it is.
Burroughs does praise some of the techniques and apparatuses that the organization uses but in terms of the initiation process and punishment that members have to go through, he exposes it for the dangerous cult that it is. If you need just one book of Burroughs which highlights his sardonic humor, apart from Naked Lunch of course, this is it. This is one of those great secrets of literature that you sometimes stumble upon and wonder 'why is this not more well-known'?
One of my favourite parts of the book: "I find it impossible to communicate with any one who is religious. Whether the religion be Communism, Catholicism or Scientology. They have all the answers. Facts are irrelevant. When I found out that Scientology is a religion that has nothing to do with scientific research on a subject that interests me, I withdrew".
The actual 'Ali's Smile' story is interesting but I don't know what it is supposed to mean.
September 10, 2011
I'm a huge fan of Burroughs, but the one thing I really dislike about the guy is that he is really into weird new age bull and when he talks about it you feel like slapping him. Great artistic genuises shouldn't be won over by new age garbage!! You can argue that maybe he is just a little bit too open to new ideas.
Here he interestingly talks about how this particular new-age thing he tried is a scam. While I like burroughs a lot(as I want to reiterate!) this is probably his worst book.
Written at a time when Scientology was not well known he basically just documents the generic, they are a scam blah blah blah without adding anything interesting or new to the table on them. Just generic, these guys are up to no good talk. While this was probably pretty new for the time when there was no wikipedia or other books on the subject of this startup cult, you can easily learn everything he says here by asking someone on the street their opinions and common knowledge of Scientology.
If you want a good book on Scientology look elsewhere, this one is bad. The two stars are simply because it happened to be penned by WSB.
Here he interestingly talks about how this particular new-age thing he tried is a scam. While I like burroughs a lot(as I want to reiterate!) this is probably his worst book.
Written at a time when Scientology was not well known he basically just documents the generic, they are a scam blah blah blah without adding anything interesting or new to the table on them. Just generic, these guys are up to no good talk. While this was probably pretty new for the time when there was no wikipedia or other books on the subject of this startup cult, you can easily learn everything he says here by asking someone on the street their opinions and common knowledge of Scientology.
If you want a good book on Scientology look elsewhere, this one is bad. The two stars are simply because it happened to be penned by WSB.
September 26, 2025
A lot of William S. Burroughs’ readers don’t realize how much Scientology influenced his writings, especially the science-fiction novels of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In those years, Burroughs was introduced to Scientology by Brion Gysin and the two of them unofficially practiced those techniques outside the cult. This actually is not as bizarre as you might think at first since a lot of science-fiction authors of the 1950s were heavily influenced by Scientology as well. This is largely because the cult’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, started out as a science-fiction writer and moved in the circles of those other authors. But none of those writers took their interest to such an extreme as William S. Burroughs did. In the 1970s he was still convinced of the veracity of Scientology so he decided to join the organization and receive the official teachings and methods. According to biographers, he specifically thought they could cure him of his homosexuality and his heroin addiction. Of course, he continued being a gay junky until he died so that doesn’t reflect well on the efficacy of Scientology. While being a member of the cult, Burroughs wrote three magazine articles and some brief columns about being a member. Along with a Scientology-themed short story, two of these articles were published as Ali’s Smile/Naked Scientology.
The first articles included in this slim volume originally appeared in the L.A. Free Press and the East Village Other, two underground newspapers spawned by the hippie counter-cultural generation. Burroughs here wrote polemically against the Church of Scientology because of their rightward leaning political values. He accuses them of being an authoritarian organization that is racist and politically aligned with the values of the John Birch Society. He laments this because he thinks that Scientology has a lot to offer the psychonauts of the LSD generation with their taste for drugs, occultism, meditation, yoga, and altered states of consciousness in general. He argues that Scientology would be better off aligning with the Esalen Institute rather than the Barry Goldwater wing of the Republican party. Burroughs’ writings on this subject are more interesting than convincing, though he is right about the disturbing nature of the Church’s quasi-fascist political leanings.
The other article of most interest in this collection appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. Previous to its initial publication, Burroughs had written an in depth article about life in the Church of Scientology for the British porn magazine Mayfair. The cult sued the publishers for defamation and all remaining copies of that issue were ordered destroyed. Under British law, that article, unfortunately, could not be included in this book. But anyhow, a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology wrote a response to it which is published here. In response, Burroughs dissects the Scientology representative’s critique line by line and point by point in the article for Rolling Stone. The first thing to notice about the Church’s representative is that he has poor spelling and grammatical skills; his reading comprehension skills are almost as bad. Burroughs doesn’t comment on this, but it fits in with other things he has said in other places about the shabbiness of the whole Scientology operation. Burroughs does respond in an overly polite manner by pointing out the representative’s misinterpretations of the Mayfair article, along with criticisms that he stands by. He even points out some places where he said he felt some degree of satisfaction with the results of Scientology auditing and e-meter techniques. This article is brief, simple, and doesn’t qualify as something you would read if you wanted any real information on Scientology.
The standout piece in this book is the short story “Ali’s Smile” which previously appeared in Burroughs’ novel Exterminator. It involves a British colonial linguist, stationed in Malaysia, who takes a local boy home, presumably for sexual purposes although that isn’t clearly stated. The linguist inherits a kris from the boy whose name is Ali. A “kris” is a tribal and ceremonial dagger carried by males in some Islamic cultures. Meanwhile back in an unnamed village, which is probably in England, an aristocrat hires a private espionage agent to infiltrate the Church of Scientology and return to administer the techniques to the aristocrat who doesn’t want to join the cult. Meanwhile, a riot starts in the village center. A gang of hippies begin fighting with locals and an army of uniformed Scientologists show up to fight too. The previously mentioned linguist attacks the rioters with Ali’s kris and they all end up dead. My knowledge of Scientology is limited, but I do know that they believe negative thoughts and behaviors are caused by spirit invaders from outer space. Burroughs appears to be saying that such a spirit is possessed in the kris and it causes those who bear the kris to become violent. But this is a William S. Burroughs story so he also appears to be saying that such a spirit can be useful when used against your enemies. Making sense of this story requires some thinking outside the box. In fact, you may have to destroy the box altogether. But it’s a story that is both acerbic and horrifying for those who care to grapple with its obscure meaning.
While “Ali’s Smile” is a good story if you are a devoted Burroughs reader, the articles in “Naked Scientology” don’t add up to much. It would have been more compelling if the notorious Mayfair article had been included. I wish Burroughs had written an essay where he goes more in depth into his involvement with the Church of Scientology since it had such a big influence over his writings and most readers would concede that he had a unique mind and a wild imagination. As it stands, this book is probably best for archivists and collectors, not so much for general readers.
I remember the first time I became aware of the Church of Scientology. While walking down Yonge Street in Toronto, I passed by their building. Men wearing suits were standing in front handing out pamphlets to passersby, most of which threw them on the ground creating a giant pile of litter. The front of the building had large plate glass windows so you could see into the reading room. A bunch of men were sitting inside smoking cigarettes. This was back in the day when smoking was common and done freely in public. It looked about as inviting as a bus terminal in a Midwestern city struggling with its economy. I thought it was a trashy looking place. William Burroughs was a man of some intelligence and it seems surprising that he would get so caught up in such a scam of an organization. But he always did have a fascination for pseudoscience and pop occultism like the fake shamanism of Carlos Castaneda. But I’ll forgive him that considering he wrote some of the most imaginative and provocative books in the history of American literature. John Coltrane, one of the greatest jazz musicians ever, was was deeply inspired by junk mysticism like Theosophy. Arthur Conan Doyle was a true believer in Spiritualism. If this kind of stuff serves as inspiration for great art then I’m willing to set my convictions aside for a short time and tolerate a con game or two.
The first articles included in this slim volume originally appeared in the L.A. Free Press and the East Village Other, two underground newspapers spawned by the hippie counter-cultural generation. Burroughs here wrote polemically against the Church of Scientology because of their rightward leaning political values. He accuses them of being an authoritarian organization that is racist and politically aligned with the values of the John Birch Society. He laments this because he thinks that Scientology has a lot to offer the psychonauts of the LSD generation with their taste for drugs, occultism, meditation, yoga, and altered states of consciousness in general. He argues that Scientology would be better off aligning with the Esalen Institute rather than the Barry Goldwater wing of the Republican party. Burroughs’ writings on this subject are more interesting than convincing, though he is right about the disturbing nature of the Church’s quasi-fascist political leanings.
The other article of most interest in this collection appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. Previous to its initial publication, Burroughs had written an in depth article about life in the Church of Scientology for the British porn magazine Mayfair. The cult sued the publishers for defamation and all remaining copies of that issue were ordered destroyed. Under British law, that article, unfortunately, could not be included in this book. But anyhow, a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology wrote a response to it which is published here. In response, Burroughs dissects the Scientology representative’s critique line by line and point by point in the article for Rolling Stone. The first thing to notice about the Church’s representative is that he has poor spelling and grammatical skills; his reading comprehension skills are almost as bad. Burroughs doesn’t comment on this, but it fits in with other things he has said in other places about the shabbiness of the whole Scientology operation. Burroughs does respond in an overly polite manner by pointing out the representative’s misinterpretations of the Mayfair article, along with criticisms that he stands by. He even points out some places where he said he felt some degree of satisfaction with the results of Scientology auditing and e-meter techniques. This article is brief, simple, and doesn’t qualify as something you would read if you wanted any real information on Scientology.
The standout piece in this book is the short story “Ali’s Smile” which previously appeared in Burroughs’ novel Exterminator. It involves a British colonial linguist, stationed in Malaysia, who takes a local boy home, presumably for sexual purposes although that isn’t clearly stated. The linguist inherits a kris from the boy whose name is Ali. A “kris” is a tribal and ceremonial dagger carried by males in some Islamic cultures. Meanwhile back in an unnamed village, which is probably in England, an aristocrat hires a private espionage agent to infiltrate the Church of Scientology and return to administer the techniques to the aristocrat who doesn’t want to join the cult. Meanwhile, a riot starts in the village center. A gang of hippies begin fighting with locals and an army of uniformed Scientologists show up to fight too. The previously mentioned linguist attacks the rioters with Ali’s kris and they all end up dead. My knowledge of Scientology is limited, but I do know that they believe negative thoughts and behaviors are caused by spirit invaders from outer space. Burroughs appears to be saying that such a spirit is possessed in the kris and it causes those who bear the kris to become violent. But this is a William S. Burroughs story so he also appears to be saying that such a spirit can be useful when used against your enemies. Making sense of this story requires some thinking outside the box. In fact, you may have to destroy the box altogether. But it’s a story that is both acerbic and horrifying for those who care to grapple with its obscure meaning.
While “Ali’s Smile” is a good story if you are a devoted Burroughs reader, the articles in “Naked Scientology” don’t add up to much. It would have been more compelling if the notorious Mayfair article had been included. I wish Burroughs had written an essay where he goes more in depth into his involvement with the Church of Scientology since it had such a big influence over his writings and most readers would concede that he had a unique mind and a wild imagination. As it stands, this book is probably best for archivists and collectors, not so much for general readers.
I remember the first time I became aware of the Church of Scientology. While walking down Yonge Street in Toronto, I passed by their building. Men wearing suits were standing in front handing out pamphlets to passersby, most of which threw them on the ground creating a giant pile of litter. The front of the building had large plate glass windows so you could see into the reading room. A bunch of men were sitting inside smoking cigarettes. This was back in the day when smoking was common and done freely in public. It looked about as inviting as a bus terminal in a Midwestern city struggling with its economy. I thought it was a trashy looking place. William Burroughs was a man of some intelligence and it seems surprising that he would get so caught up in such a scam of an organization. But he always did have a fascination for pseudoscience and pop occultism like the fake shamanism of Carlos Castaneda. But I’ll forgive him that considering he wrote some of the most imaginative and provocative books in the history of American literature. John Coltrane, one of the greatest jazz musicians ever, was was deeply inspired by junk mysticism like Theosophy. Arthur Conan Doyle was a true believer in Spiritualism. If this kind of stuff serves as inspiration for great art then I’m willing to set my convictions aside for a short time and tolerate a con game or two.
September 10, 2012
Burroughs reveals a lot of inside information about the church of Scientology. As he was a member. He points out some of it's good points but also the gross lies that are the foundation of this organization which calls itself a non-profit organization (a lie) and a church (another lie).
March 14, 2018
This is a collection of articles and responses to articles by William Burroughs on the matter of Scientology. He was involved in the cult in 1968, this was back before it was so obviously known to be a cult and had a quasi-scientific reputation among the uninitiated. This is Burroughs at his most scathing. The book is half in German, with only about 50 in English, so it will take a reader long to get through it.
It should be noted that Burroughs, while an American genius of a poet, is not that swift when it comes to scientific matters, often his comprehension is addled by years of drug abuse to the point where reality and fantasy blurred. He was a lifelong proponent of the syphilitic ramblings of Wilhelm Reich and his Orgone chamber- a device which caused the death of many cancer patients, whom Reich had convinced that it would cure them. His problem with Scientology is not the techniques, which he states that “10 minutes of Scientology did more than 10 years of psychotherapy”, but the organization surrounding it.
He does not come straight out and call it a cult, perhaps he did not even consider it one, but the descriptions of the inner workings of the group, the paranoia, the necessity of adhering to groupthink on pain of excommunication, all bear the known hallmarks of such an organization.
It also collects the short story Ali’s Smile where the main character, one of the main characters, is a door-to-door Scientologist- sort of. As with most of Burrough’s prose plot, when there is any, tends to be secondary to the flow of the language and the emotions stirring. Fans of Naked Lunch will probably enjoy it.
June 9, 2024
Burroughs's fairly gentle take-down of scientology, praising the tech while condemning the fascist authoritarian statements of its leader, L. Ron Hubbard. Burroughs, surprisingly, found much to admire in Scientology/Dianetics and thought the processes were useful and helpful to him, but Hubbard's leadership and the CoS aggressive behavior towards followers and critics alike ultimately turned him against the organization. His criticisms mirrored those in Inside Scientology as well as those who abandoned the organization in the following years.
May 22, 2022
It's alright,would be an amazing read for critics,scholars etc.,
April 10, 2023
The criticism of Scientology and debates with them, reminded me of The Job. Ali's Smile is vintage apocalyptic Burroughs
February 5, 2009
B side novella features burrough's hilarious attempt to sniff out the creeps who claim to levitate and be smarter than the rest of us.
May 16, 2014
A collection of letters and articles Burroughs wrote after he left the Church of Scientology. There's also a short story in here, but it's not as interesting a read as the non-fiction parts.
April 4, 2022
Burroughs joined the Church of Scientology and then left to write a critique. One of his lesser-known works.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews