Gregory Hill (May 21, 1941July 20, 2000), better known by the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Malaclypse the Younger, was an American author. He is listed as author of the ''

Principia Discordia The ''Principia Discordia'' is the first published Discordian religious text. It was written by Greg Hill ( Malaclypse the Younger) with Kerry Wendell Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. The first edition was printed allegedly usi ...

'', which was written with Kerry Wendell Thornley (a.k.a. Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst) and others. He was also adapted as a character in ''

The Illuminatus! Trilogy ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975.''Illuminatus!'' was written between 1969 and 1971, but not published until 1975 according to Robert Anto ...

'' (1975). During the early years of circulation of the ''Principia Discordia'', rumors claimed that the author of the book was

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...

, or

Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilso ...

; or that the book and Malaclypse the Younger were both fictional inventions of Robert Anton Wilson, as with Abdul Alhazred's ''

Necronomicon The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first men ...

''.

Biography

Gregory H. Hill was born in California on Wednesday, May 21, 1941. He worked for Western Union while a young man in the Southern California area of Whittier, California. Around 1958 or 1959 while still a teenager, he, Kerry Thornley and others began working on the Discordian religion. In 1965, the first edition of ''Principia Discordia'' was printed, allegedly in five copies. The most famous edition was the fourth. Hill spent much of his life working for Bank of America as a computer programmer, and moved to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

. He had apparently visited there while a child. Robert Anton Wilson stated, in the lecture "The I in the Triangle" from 1990, that Greg Hill was at the time the head of a large computer facility owned by one of the largest banks in the United States. A designer of one of the early video games, Hill wrote about computers including editing a computer-oriented newsletter. He also published an article proposing using a computer to transmit signals to remotely control robots. He was married to Jeanetta; they later separated and may have divorced. He died in the San Francisco Bay Area of California on the July 20, 2000. A long-time smoker, he died of cancer. In 1994, he and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst were inducted into the Order of the Pineapple. Greg Hill described Mal-2 as a spirit sent into him by Eris that helped him write the ''Principia Discordia'' over the course of ten years in his early adulthood. An interview included in the fourth edition of the ''Principia Discordia'' by

Loompanics Loompanics Unlimited was an American book seller and publisher specializing in nonfiction on generally unconventional or controversial topics. The topics in their title list included drugs, weapons, survivalism, anarchism, sex, conspiracy theories ...

Press reveals that Mal-2 left once the book was finished. He claims Mal-2 returned to leave a fifth and final edition consisting solely of a Western Union telegraph form filled with the letter "M". Greg Hill also reveals that he had access to Western Union forms when he worked at Western Union.

''Principia Discordia''

In 2006, a copy of the first edition of the ''Principia Discordia'' was claimed by Rev. DrJon Swabey to have been discovered in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection in the National Archives, proving Malaclypse the Younger to be Gregory Hill. However, Adam Gorightly, compiler of ''Historia Discordia'' which claims to contain the actual first edition, said this was in error. Gorightly said he received the first edition from Dr. Robert Newport who had overseen the estate of Gregory Hill. Possessing many titles, including "Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold", Malaclypse's true identity or position within the Erisian religion is completely unknown. He is frequently mentioned in the ''Principia Discordia'', credited with wiring telegrams to God from the Celestial Hotel and decrying the usefulness of prayer. These claims are in the nature of the ''Principia Discordia''. Very little is known about Malaclypse the Elder, the namesake of Mal-2. The ''Principia Discordia'' merely mentions him as a "non-prophet" and that he was mistaken for a doomsayer when carrying a sign that read "DUMB."

''Illuminatus!''

Malaclypse the Younger also appears in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' by

Robert Shea Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later turne ...

and Robert Anton Wilson. According to ''Illuminatus!'', he founded the Norton Cabal, and then left the cabal to join the very esoteric Erisian Liberation Front. The character Dr. Ignotum P. Ignotius says the last thing Mal-2 wrote before he left for the ELF was, "Everybody understands

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

. Few understand

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include '' Demian'', '' Steppenwolf'', '' Siddhartha'', and '' The Glass Bead Game'', each of which explores an individual ...

. Hardly anyone understands

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

. And nobody understands

Emperor Norton Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818January 8, 1880), known as Emperor Norton, was a resident of San Francisco, California who, in 1859, proclaimed himself "Norton I., Emperor of the United States". In 1863, after Napoleon III invaded M ...

." This is the slogan of the Joshua Norton Cabal of San Francisco. Malaclypse the Elder has an even larger role in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''. In fact, he is an important shape-shifting character in the book, posing as

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

, and

the Devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood ...

. According to Malaclypse the Elder himself, he is a 4th century B.C. Erisian priest (who was also prepared to perform services to

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orat ...

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

, and

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

) who achieved "transcendental illumination" in the course of the massacre at

Melos Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group. The '' Venus ...

in 415 BC. The

Illuminati The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...

believe that death releases a certain form of energy. Given enough death and a person intent on capturing said energy, a person may be transformed into an immortal, immaterial being, or so the plot element goes. Malaclypse the Elder also posed as

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

after Jesus was crucified. In the form of Jesus, he introduced

Bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

, but asked Luke to not record it.

Bibliography

* Malaclypse the Younger.
Principia Discordia
', 1st Edition, p. A7. *_____. ''Principia Discordia'', 4th Edition, 1980,

Loompanics Unlimited Loompanics Unlimited was an American book seller and publisher specializing in nonfiction on generally unconventional or controversial topics. The topics in their title list included drugs, weapons, survivalism, anarchism, sex, conspiracy theories ...

. Introduction by

. Afterword by Greg Hill. *_____. ''Principia Discordia'', 5th Edition, 1991, IllumiNet Press. Introduction by Kerry Thornley.

References

External links