William S. Burroughs was one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent magicians, and spent a lifetime experimenting with obscure techniques for altering consciousness. Here’s his seven favorite occult techniques for destabilizing control and smashing reality.

One of my early magical heroes, who I read obsessively in high school and college, was the author William S. Burroughs.

Burroughs is known not only for his prolific literary output but for his lifelong heroin addiction, as documented in his novel Naked Lunch, a perverse, hallucinatory satire of 1950s America inspired by Burroughs’ addiction, his transient and often grim life, and the visions induced when Burroughs ventured to South America to try to kick heroin by quaffing Ayahuasca. Naked Lunch made Burroughs a household name when it was brought to trial for breaking obscenity laws, and Burroughs won, setting a new precedent for free speech in the US.