Robert Anton Wilson

Roberts Anton Wilson or R. A. W. (born January 18, 1932) is a futurologist, libertarian, and author of the Schrdinger's Cat trilogy (1979), a complex spoof of conspiracy theories. His best-known work, co-authored with Robert Shea, is The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975), which humorously examined American paranoia about conspiracies. These books mix true information with imaginative fiction to engage the reader in what Wilson called "Operation Mindfuck". (Much of the odder material was derived from letters sent to Playboy magazine while Shea and Wilson were working as editors there.) It was advertised as "A fairy tale for paranoids." Although Shea and Wilson never partnered on such a scale again, Wilson has continued to expand upon the themes of the Illuminatus! books throughout his writing career. In (1977), he made Discordianism, Sufism, Futurology, the Illuminati and other esoteric or counter-culture philosophies accessible to larger audiences. He is also a proponent of Timothy Leary's eight-circuit brain model and neurosomatic/lingustic engineering, which he writes about in Prometheus Rising (original copy 1977, most recent 1997) and Quantum Psychology (1990), books of practical techniques to break free of one's "reality tunnels". With Leary he helped promote the futurist ideas of space migration, life extension, and intelligence enhancement technologies; he is arguably a more cogent and persuasive exponent of Leary's "imprinting circuit" theory of psychological development than Leary was himself. Other fiction books by Wilson include The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles (recently republished) - The Earth Will Shake (1982), The Widow's Son (1985), and Nature's God (1991) (a fourth volume has been promised for years) - and the screenplay Reality Is What You Can Get Away With (1996). His nonfiction books include Quantum Psychology, The New Inquisition (1994), and two other volumes of Cosmic Trigger. He co-wrote (1998), an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories, with Miriam Joan Hill. Ironically, considering Wilson has long lampooned and criticized new age beliefs, his books can often be found in bookstores specializing in new age material. In a 2003 interview with High Times magazine, R.A.W. described himself as a "Model Agnostic" - a term physicists use to describe someone who is not entirely committed to any one model of how the world works. Wilson says that he is the first to apply this to the social sciences. R.A.W. is the American director of the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON). You can watch R.A.W interviews here.

Bibliography

See also

External links and references

Wilson, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Anton

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
red shift
rom
race riot
rutherglen
robert johnson
receptive aphasia
rehoboam
rs 232
rms
reloading
relationship
running
rob pike
ren magritte
rudolf diesel
reform judaism
reconstructionist judaism
religion and homosexuality
rpg.net
revelation
rk
rules of evidence
rotterdam
ringworld
rudolf ii, holy roman emperor
radical dreamers
roller hockey
rowley birkin
royal navy
rn
rp
rotary
list of russian language poets
robert m. pirsig
red hat linux
right ascension
roger clemens
root node
robert e. howard
revolutionary association of the women of afghanistan
ruth
railtrack
rock bridge high school
ringwood brewery