SOURCE: “Strangers in a Strange Land,” in Newsweek, Vol. 129, No. 14, April 7, 1997, p. 49.

In the following essay, Ellison discusses the correlation between cult suicide and obsession with science fiction.

Exactly one year ago, my heart tried to kill me. Before I could die, doctors cracked my chest open and performed a quadruple bypass. But for an instant I came close to the end, and I know that in the Rancho Santa Fe cultists' last moments, as they were descending into their death sleep, they were thinking, “Please help me; I'm going into the darkness, and I need to know.”

We all want to know. Traditionally, we have sought answers in philosophy, religion or mysticism, even in the concepts that you find in fantastic literature. These images have the magical capacity to inspire dreams, to enrich reality. At best, the literary genre called science fiction tells us we must be...