In the latter half of the 19th century human beings would break the proverbial bonds of gravity. We would hurl ourselves into the atmosphere, eventually planting flags on the moon, sending six-wheeled rovers to mars, and even transmitting a sort of “personal ad” to hypothetical alien civilizations via unmanned craft. Today space is accessible to (highly wealthy and well connected) tourists, while just over half a century ago the thought of leaving planet earth was regarded as laughable.

Many brilliant, enterprising individuals contributed to this great work.

One of them would go largely forgotten by much of the world due to the outlandish nature of his personal life, and his scientific contributions are still generally unacknowledged (or more accurately, unknown) by the world at large.

As an adult, Jack was an avid practitioner of “sex magick,” which we will not examine in any great detail, but suffice to say is likely exactly what you think it is. He was heavily invested in a sequence of magickal rituals referred to as the “Babalon Working,” (the misspelling of Babylon was intentional) which incorporated many Themelic elements and also involved the use of hallucinogenics.

Jack was also a friend – and purported lover – of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard. In a bizarre twist, Hubbard and Parsons would be close associates for a number of years, but would later have a falling out which involved a love triangle, a stolen boat, massive financial fraud and ended in a crescendo with Parsons allegedly using his magickal powers to summon a hurricane off the Eastern coast of Florida.

In an sadly ironic twist of fate, one such compound would eventually result in Parsons' death. One day, hard at work in his home laboratory on pyrotechnic effects for the film industry – another area in which he was a pioneer – Parsons was literally blown to pieces in an accidental explosion. While he survived he initial blast, he would soon die of his wounds at the tragically young age of 37 in 1952.

Speculation surrounding his death abounds to this day. Even though the police ruled Parsons' death an accident, many contemporary and modern researchers have argued that it may have been the result of murder or suicide. Was Parsons depressed over the loss of his life savings and his separation from the Order of Thelema? Was he unable to reconcile himself from the loss of his beloved Scarlet Woman, Marjorie Cameron? Did someone in his tumultuous and colorful past bear a murderous vendetta against him? Did the government eliminate him due to his knowledge of secret information?

Perhaps this should have been mentioned at the outset, but Jack Parsons (for a time) had a valid government security clearance and worked on projects supervised by Wright Patterson Airbase.

Wright Patterson is another topic which bears greater research, but one popular story about the base is that at least some of the debris and alleged bodies recovered in the UFO crash at Roswell – which actually took place 90 miles from Roswell in the town of Corona – were taken to Wright Patterson and are stored there to this day in a secret facility known as “Hanger 18.” While this proves nothing, it is at least of interest to note that Parsons had connections to a facility rumored to be key in the narrative of the Roswell case. One could wander down the rabbit hole of speculation and guess that perhaps Parsons was in possession of Roswell-related materials and/or information at the time of his death. After all, the Roswell incident occurred in 1947; Parsons died in 1952 (this theory is not supported by any hard evidence and is a purely fantastical and tangential imagining on the part of the writer).

There is much, much more to say about Parsons. He was a business man, writer, artist, ran a boarding house, and was party to numerous personal scandals which would – unfortunately - define his legacy after his death. Through a modern lens his personal activities may still be considered outlandish, eccentric and even immoral depending upon the perspective of the individual, but his scientific contributions cannot – and should not – be overlooked. In addition, his desire to explore the unknown and discover the hidden truths of the universe can be identified with by any modern paranormal enthusiast, and more importantly, many or most human beings.