Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author,
futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...
, psychologist, and self-described agnostic
mystic. Recognized within
Discordianism as an
Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews.
Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal was "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
In addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs and what Wilson called "
quantum psychology".
Following a career in journalism and as an editor, notably for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', Wilson emerged as a major
countercultural
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
figure in the mid-1970s, comparable to one of his coauthors,
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 ...
, as well as
Terence McKenna
Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including ...
.
Early life
![Robert Anton Wilson, 1977](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Robert_Anton_Wilson%2C_1977.jpg)
Born Robert Edward Wilson in
Methodist Hospital, in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, he spent his first years in
Flatbush, and moved with his family to
lower middle class Gerritsen Beach
Gerritsen Beach is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, located between Sheepshead Bay to the west and Marine Park to the east. The area is served by Brooklyn Community Board 15. The population of the neighborhood is 4,797 as ...
around the age of four or five, where they stayed until relocating to the steadfastly middle-class neighborhood of
Bay Ridge
Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...
when Wilson was thirteen. He suffered from
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
as a child, and found generally effective treatment with the Kenny Method (created by
Elizabeth Kenny
Sister Elizabeth Kenny (20 September 1880 – 30 November 1952) was a self-trained Australian bush nurse who developed an approach to treating polio that was controversial at the time. Her method, promoted internationally while working in Austra ...
) which the
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016.
The AMA's sta ...
repudiated at that time. Polio's effects remained with Wilson throughout his life, usually manifesting as minor muscle spasms causing him to use a cane occasionally until 2000, when he experienced a major bout with
post-polio syndrome
Post-polio syndrome (PPS, poliomyelitis sequelae) is a group of latent symptoms of poliomyelitis (polio), occurring at about a 25–40% rate (latest data greater than 80%). These symptoms are caused by the damaging effects of the viral infection ...
that would continue until his death.
He attended Catholic grammar schools before securing admission to the selective
Brooklyn Technical High School. Removed from the Catholic influence at "Brooklyn Tech," Wilson became enamored of
literary modernism (particularly
Ezra Pound and
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
), the Western philosophical tradition, then-innovative historians such as
Charles A. Beard, science fiction (including the works of
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) – known as Olaf Stapledon – was a British philosopher and author of science fiction.Andy Sawyer, " illiamOlaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds. ''Fifty Key Figures ...
,
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
and
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...
) and
Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski (, ; July 3, 1879 – March 1, 1950) was a Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of s ...
's interdisciplinary theory of
general semantics
General semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral respons ...
.
He would later recall that the family was "living so well ... compared to the Depression" during this period "that I imagined we were
lace-curtain Irish at last."
Following his graduation in 1950, Wilson was employed in a succession of jobs (including ambulance driver, engineering aide, salesman and medical orderly) and absorbed various philosophers and cultural practices (including
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
,
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
,
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
,
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...
,
Wilhelm Reich,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and
Ayn Rand, whom he later repudiated) while writing in his spare time. He studied
electrical engineering and mathematics at the
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...
from 1952 to 1957 and English education at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
from 1957 to 1958 but failed to take a degree from either institution.
After having smoked
marijuana for nearly a decade, Wilson first experimented with
mescaline in
Yellow Springs, Ohio
Yellow Springs is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,697 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to Antioch College.
History
The area of the village had long b ...
, on December 28, 1961.
Wilson began to work as a freelance journalist and advertising copywriter in the late 1950s. He adopted his maternal grandfather's name, Anton, for his writings and told himself that he would save the "Edward" for when he wrote the
Great American Novel. He later found that "Robert Anton Wilson" had become an established identity.
He assumed co-editorship of the
School for Living's
Brookville, Ohio-based ''Balanced Living'' magazine in 1962 and briefly returned to New York as associate editor of
Ralph Ginzburg's quarterly, ''
fact:'', before leaving for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', where he served as an associate editor from 1965 to 1971. According to Wilson, ''Playboy'' "paid me a higher salary than any other magazine at which I had worked and never expected me to become a conformist or sell my soul in return. I enjoyed my years in the Bunny Empire. I only resigned when I reached 40 and felt I could not live with myself if I didn't make an effort to write full-time at last."
Along with frequent collaborator
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 ...
, Wilson edited the magazine's ''Playboy'' Forum, a letters section consisting of responses to the ''Playboy'' Philosophy editorial column. During this period, he covered
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 ...
and
Richard Alpert
Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author. His best-selling 1971 book '' Be Here Now'', which has been d ...
's
Millbrook, New York-based Castalia Foundation at the instigation of
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...
in ''
The Realist
''The Realist'' was a Humor magazine, magazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire", intended as a hybrid of a grown-ups version of Mad (magazine), ''Mad'' and Lyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthly ''The Independent.'' Edited and ...
'', cultivated important friendships with
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
and
Allen Ginsberg, and lectured at the
Free University of New York on 'Anarchist and Synergetic Politics' in 1965.
He received a BA, MA (1978) and PhD (1981) in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
from Paideia University, which was an accredited university in California at the time he graduated in 1981 but later on became unaccredited and then closed.
Wilson reworked his dissertation, and it found publication in 1983 as ''
Prometheus Rising''.
Wilson married freelance writer and poet Arlen Riley in 1958.
They had four children, including Christina Wilson Pearson and Patricia Luna Wilson. Luna was beaten to death in an apparent robbery in the store where she worked in 1976 at the age of 15, and became the first person to have her brain preserved by the
Bay Area Cryonics Society. Arlen Riley Wilson died on May 22, 1999, following a series of strokes.
The ''Illuminatus!'' Trilogy
Among Wilson's 35 books,
["The author of 35 books on subjects like extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs and what he called quantum psychology ..." ''The New York Times'' obituary.] and many other works, perhaps his best-known volumes remain the cult classic series
["...an author of ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''—a mind-twisting science-fiction series about a secret global society that has been a cult classic for more than 30 years ..." from "Robert Anton Wilson, 74; Wrote Mind-Twisting Novels"; bituary (Obit)Dennis Hevesi. '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: January 13, 2007. p. A.16 ''
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), co-authored with Shea. Advertised as "a
fairy tale for paranoids," the three books—''The Eye in the Pyramid'', ''The Golden Apple'', and ''Leviathan'', soon offered as a single volume—philosophically and humorously examined, among many other themes, occult and magical symbolism and history, the
counterculture of the 1960s,
secret societies
A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...
, data concerning author
H. P. Lovecraft and author and occultist
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
, and American
paranoia
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy co ...
about
conspiracies and
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
. The book was intended to poke fun at the conspiratorial frame of mind.
Wilson and Shea derived much of the odder material from letters sent to ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'' magazine while they worked as the editors of its Forum. The books mixed true information with imaginative fiction to engage the reader in what Wilson called "
guerrilla ontology", which he apparently referred to as "
Operation Mindfuck" in ''Illuminatus!'' The trilogy also outlined a set of
libertarian and
anarchist axioms
An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...
known as
Celine's laws
Celine's Laws are a series of three laws regarding government and social interaction attributed to the fictional character Hagbard Celine from Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's ''Illuminatus! Trilogy''. Celine, a gentleman anarchist, serve ...
(named after Hagbard Celine, a character in ''Illuminatus!''), concepts Wilson revisited several times in other writings.
Among the many subplots of ''Illuminatus!'' one addresses
biological warfare
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. ...
and the overriding of the
United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rai ...
, another gives a detailed account of the
John F. Kennedy assassination (in which no fewer than five snipers, all working for different causes, prepare to shoot Kennedy), and the book's climax occurs at a rock concert where the audience collectively face the danger of becoming a mass human sacrifice.
''Illuminatus!'' popularized
Discordianism and the use of the term "
fnord
"Fnord" () is a word coined in 1965 by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill in the Discordian religious text '' Principia Discordia''. It entered the popular culture after appearing in '' The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975) of satirical and parody consp ...
". It incorporates experimental prose styles influenced by writers such as
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
, and
Ezra Pound. Although Shea and Wilson never co-operated on such a scale again, Wilson continued to expand upon the themes of the ''Illuminatus!'' books throughout his writing career. Most of his later fiction contains cross-over characters from "The Sex Magicians" (Wilson's first novel, written before the release of ''Illuminatus!'', which includes many of his same characters) and ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.
''Illuminatus!'' won the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction, voted by the Libertarian Futurist Society for science fiction in 1986, has many international editions, and found adaptation for the stage when
Ken Campbell produced it as a ten-hour drama. It also appeared as two card based games from
Steve Jackson Games, one a trading-card game (
Illuminati: New World Order). Eye N Apple Productions and
Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like '' The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' and ''Rip Off Comix'', as well as many other seminal publications from ...
produced a comic book version of the trilogy.
''Schrödinger's Cat'' Trilogy, ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', and ''Masks of the Illuminati''
Wilson wrote two more popular fiction series. The first, a trilogy later published as a single volume, was ''
Schrödinger's Cat
In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead, while it is unobserved in ...
''. The second, ''
The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', appeared as three books. In between publishing the two trilogies Wilson released a stand-alone novel, ''
Masks of the Illuminati'' (1981), which fits into, due to the main character's ancestry, ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles timeline and, while published earlier, could qualify for the fourth volume in that series.
''Schrödinger's Cat'' consists of three volumes: ''The Universe Next Door'', ''The Trick Top Hat'', and ''The Homing Pigeons''. Wilson set the three books in differing
alternative universes, and most of the characters remain almost the same but may have different names, careers and background stories. The books cover the fields of
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...
and the
varied philosophies and explanations that exist within the science. The single volume describes itself as a
magical textbook and a type of
initiation. The single-volume edition omits many entire pages and has many other omissions when compared with the original separate books.
''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', composed of ''The Earth Will Shake'' (1982), ''The Widow's Son'' (1985), and ''Nature's God'' (1991), follows the timelines of several characters through different generations, time periods, and countries. The books cover, among many other topics, the history, legacy, and rituals of 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 ...
and related groups.
''Masks of the Illuminati'', featuring historical characters in a fictionalized setting, contains a great deal of occult data. Intermixing
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 theory ...
,
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
,
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
,
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
,
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...
,
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and others, the book focuses on
Pan and other occult icons, ideas, and practices. The book includes homages, parodies and pastiches from both the lives and works of Crowley and Joyce.
Plays and screenplays
Wilson's play, ''
Wilhelm Reich in Hell
''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' is a play written by Robert Anton Wilson and published as a book in 1987. The play has been staged several times, with productions in University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Dublin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco ...
'', was published as a book in 1987 and first performed at the
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...
Theatre in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
, in San Francisco, and in Los Angeles. It features many factual and fictional characters, including
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...
, and
Wilhelm Reich himself. Wilson also wrote and published as books two
screenplays, not yet produced: ''
Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: an Illustrated Screenplay'' (1992) and ''
The Walls Came Tumbling Down'' (1997).
Wilson's book ''
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' has been adapted as a theatrical stage play by Daisy Eris Campbell,
daughter of
Ken Campbell the British theatre maverick who staged ''
Illuminatus!'' at the Royal National Theatre in 1977.
The play opened on November 23, 2014, in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
before transferring to London and Brighton.
Some of the costs were met through
crowdfunding.
Wilson's book is itself dedicated to "Ken Campbell and the Science-Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool, England."
The ''Cosmic Trigger'' series and other books
In his nonfiction and partly autobiographical ''
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977) and its two sequels, as well as in many other works, Wilson examined
Freemasons, Discordianism,
Sufism, the Illuminati,
Futurology
Futures studies, futures research, futurism or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will li ...
,
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), an ...
,
Dennis and
Terence McKenna
Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including ...
,
Jack Parsons, the occult practices of
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
and
G.I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (; rus, Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, r=Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf; hy, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև; c. 1 ...
,
Yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...
, and many other
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...
or
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
philosophies, personalities, and occurrences.
Wilson advocated
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 ...
's
8-Circuit Model of Consciousness
The eight-circuit model of consciousness is a holistic model originally described by Timothy Leary, later expanded on by Robert Anton Wilson and Antero Alli, that suggests "eight periods ircuitsand twenty-four stages of neurological evolution". ...
and neurosomatic/linguistic engineering, which he wrote about in many books including ''
Prometheus Rising'' (1983, revised 1997) and ''
Quantum Psychology'' (1990), which contain practical techniques intended to help the reader break free of one's
reality tunnels. With Leary, he helped promote the futurist ideas of
space migration,
intelligence increase, and
life extension, which they combined to form the word symbol
SMI²LE.
Wilson's 1986 book, ''
The New Inquisition
''The New Inquisition'' is a book written by Robert Anton Wilson and first published in 1986. ''The New Inquisition'' is a book about ontology, science, paranormal events, and epistemology. Wilson identifies what he calls "Fundamentalist Material ...
'', argues that whatever reality consists of it actually would seem much weirder than we commonly imagine. It cites, among other sources,
Bell's theorem and
Alain Aspect
Alain Aspect (; born 15 June 1947) is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement.
Aspect was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, "for experiments with entangl ...
's experimental proof of Bell's to suggest that mainstream science has a strong materialist bias, and that in fact modern physics may have already disproved
materialist metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
.
Wilson also supported the work and
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
theories of
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
and examined the theories of
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold w ...
. He and
Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman (born July 12, 1947) is an American cryptozoologist who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including the pseudoscience and subculture of cryptozoology.
Early life
Coleman was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up ...
became friends, as he did with media theorist
Marshall McLuhan and
Neuro Linguistic Programming co-founder
Richard Bandler
Richard Wayne Bandler (born 1950) is an American consultant in the field of self-help. With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s.
Education and background
Bandler was born in Te ...
, with whom he taught workshops. He also admired James Joyce, and wrote extensive commentaries on the author and on two of Joyce's novels, ''
Finnegans Wake
''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...
'' and
''Ulysses'', in his 1988 book ''
Coincidance: A Head Test''.
Although Wilson often lampooned and criticized some
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
beliefs, bookstores specializing in New Age material often sell his books. Wilson, a well-known author in
occult and
Neo-Pagan circles, used
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
as a main character in his 1981 novel ''
Masks of the Illuminati'', also included some elements of
H. P. Lovecraft's work in his novels, and at times claimed to have perceived encounters with magical "entities" (when asked whether these entities seemed "real", he answered they seemed "real enough," although "not as real as the IRS" but "easier to get rid of", and later decided that his experiences may have emerged from "just my right brain hemisphere talking to my left"). He warned against beginners using occult practice, since to rush into such practices and the resulting "energies" they unleash could lead people to "go totally nuts".
Wilson also criticized scientific types with overly rigid belief systems, equating them with
religious fundamentalists
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...
in their
fanaticism
Fanaticism (from the Latin adverb ''fānāticē'' ren-''fānāticus''; enthusiastic, ecstatic; raging, fanatical, furious is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm.
Definitions
Philosopher George Santayan ...
. In a 1988 interview, when asked about his newly published book ''
The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science'', Wilson commented:
I coined the term irrational rationalism because those people claim to be rationalists, but they're governed by such a heavy body of taboos. They're so fearful, and so hostile, and so narrow, and frightened, and uptight and dogmatic ... I wrote this book because I got tired satirizing fundamentalist Christianity ... I decided to satirize fundamentalist materialism for a change, because the two are equally comical ... The materialist fundamentalists are funnier than the Christian fundamentalists, because they think they're rational! ... They're never skeptical about anything except the things they have a prejudice against. None of them ever says anything skeptical about the AMA, or about anything in establishment science or any entrenched dogma. They're only skeptical about new ideas that frighten them. They're actually dogmatically committed to what they were taught when they were in college. ...
Probability reliance
In a 2003 interview with ''
High Times
''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade.Danko, Danny"Norml Founder Retires – Exha ...
'' magazine, Wilson described himself as "model-agnostic" which he said
consists of never regarding any model or map of the universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities, not absolutes ... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts and, of course, conspiracy theory.
Wilson claimed in ''Cosmic Trigger: Volume 1'' "not to believe anything", since "belief is the death of intelligence". He described this approach as "Maybe Logic."
Wilson wrote about this and other topics in articles for the
cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...
magazine ''
Mondo 2000
''Mondo 2000'' was a glossy cyberculture magazine published in California during the 1980s and 1990s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs. It was a more anarchic and subversive prototype for the later-founded ''Wi ...
''.
Economic thought
Wilson favored a form of
basic income guarantee
Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...
; synthesizing several ideas under the acronym RICH. His ideas are set forth in the essay "The RICH Economy," found in ''The Illuminati Papers''. In an article critical of capitalism, Wilson self-identified as a "
libertarian socialist
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (20 ...
", saying that "I ask only one thing of skeptics: don't bring up Soviet Russia, please. That horrible example of
State Capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital ...
has nothing to do with what I, and other libertarian socialists, would offer as an alternative to the present system." By the 1980s he was less enthusiastic about the socialist label, writing in ''Prometheus Rising'' that he "does not like" the spread of socialism. In his book ''
Right Where You Are Sitting Now
''Right Where You Are Sitting Now'', fully titled ''Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati'', is a 1982 book of philosophical writings written by Robert Anton Wilson. Dedicated to William S. Burroughs and Philip K. Dick ...
'', he praises the
georgist economist
Silvio Gesell. In the essay ''Left and Right: A Non-Euclidean Perspective'', Wilson speaks favorably of several "excluded middles" that "transcend the hackneyed debate between monopoly Capitalism and totalitarian Socialism"; he says his favorite is the mutualist anarchism of
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was an American individualist anarchist and libertarian socialist.Martin, James J. (1953)''Men Against the State: The Expositers of Individualist Anarchism in America, 1827–1908''< ...
and
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Socia ...
, but he also offers kind words for the ideas of Gesell,
Henry George
Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...
,
C. H. Douglas, and
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
. Wilson also identified as an anarchist and described his belief system as "a blend of Tucker,
Spooner, Fuller, Pound, Henry George,
Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...
, Douglas, Korzybski, Proudhon and
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
." Wilson spoke several times at conventions of the American
Libertarian Party
Active parties by country
Defunct parties by country
Organizations associated with Libertarian parties
See also
* Liberal parties by country
* List of libertarian organizations
* Lists of political parties
Lists of political part ...
. He included Benjamin Tucker's ''
Instead of a Book'', Henry George's ''
Progress and Poverty
''Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy'' is an 1879 book by social theorist and economist Henry George. It is a treatise on the questions of why pover ...
'', and Gesell's ''The Natural Economic Order'' in a list of 20 book recommendations, "the bare minimum of what everybody really needs to chew and digest before they can converse intelligently about the 21st Century."
Other activities
Robert Anton Wilson and his wife Arlen Riley Wilson founded the ''Institute for the Study of the Human Future'' in 1975.
From 1982 until his death, Wilson had a business relationship with the
Association for Consciousness Exploration, which hosted his first on-stage dialogue with his long-time friend Timothy Leary
[Lesie, Michele (1989) "High Priest of LSD To Drop In", '']The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'' entitled ''The Inner Frontier''. Wilson dedicated his book ''The New Inquisition'' to A.C.E.'s co-directors, Jeff Rosenbaum and Joseph Rothenberg.
Wilson also joined the
Church of the SubGenius
The Church of the SubGenius is a parody religion that satirizes better-known belief systems. It teaches a complex philosophy that focuses on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, purportedly a salesman from the 1950s, who is revered as a prophet by the Church. SubG ...
, who referred to him as Pope Bob.
He contributed to their literature, including the book ''Three-Fisted Tales of "Bob"'', and shared a stage with their founder, Rev.
Ivan Stang
Ivan Stang (born Douglass St. Clair Smith; August 21, 1953) is an American writer, filmmaker and broadcaster, best known as the author and publisher of the first screed of the Church of the SubGenius. He is credited with founding the Church wi ...
, on several occasions. Wilson also founded the Guns and Dope Party.
As a member of the Board of Advisors of the
Fully Informed Jury Association, Wilson worked to inform the public about
jury nullification
Jury nullification (US/UK), jury equity (UK), or a perverse verdict (UK) occurs when the jury in a criminal trial gives a not guilty verdict despite a defendant having clearly broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the ...
, the right of jurors to nullify a law they deem unjust.
[Interview of Robert Anton Wilson](_blank)
(conducted August 1997) ''Paradigm Shift'', Vol. 1 No. 1 (July 1998). Retrieved January 11, 2007.
Wilson advocated for and wrote about
E-Prime
E-Prime (short for English-Prime or English Prime, sometimes denoted É or E′) denotes a restricted form of English in which authors avoid all forms of the verb ''to be''.
E-Prime excludes forms such as ''be'', ''being'', ''been'', present ...
, a form of English lacking all forms of the verb "to be" (such as "is", "are", "was", "were" etc.).
A decades-long researcher into drugs and a strong opponent of what he called "the war on some drugs", Wilson participated as a Special Guest in the week-long 1999 Annual
Cannabis Cup
The ''High Times'' Cannabis Cup is a cannabis festival sponsored by ''High Times'' magazine. The event features judges from around the world who sample and vote for their favorite marijuana varieties, with cups (trophies) being awarded to the ove ...
in Amsterdam, and used and often promoted the use of
medical marijuana
Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...
. He participated in a protest organized by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz in 2002.
Death
On June 22, 2006, ''
Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' blogger
Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...
reported that Wilson was under
hospice care
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...
at home with friends and family. On October 2,
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sourc ...
reported that Wilson was in severe financial trouble.
Slashdot
''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...
,
Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twic ...
, and the Church of the SubGenius also picked up on the story, linking to Rushkoff's appeal. As his webpage reported on October 10, these efforts succeeded beyond expectation and raised a sum which would have supported him for at least six months. Obviously touched by the great outpouring of support, on October 5, 2006, Wilson left the following comment on his personal website, expressing his gratitude:
On January 6, 2007, Wilson wrote on his blog that according to several medical authorities, he would likely only have between two days and two months left to live. He closed this message with "I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd."
Wilson died peacefully five days later, on January 11 at 4:50 am. Pacific time, just a week short of his 75th birthday. After his cremation on January 18 (also his 75th birthday), his family held a memorial service on February 18 and then scattered most of his ashes at the same spot as his wife's—off the
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an oceanfront amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 1907, it is California's oldest surviving amusement park and one of the few seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States.
Description
...
in
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...
.
A tribute show to Wilson, organized by
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...
and
Mixmaster Morris
Mixmaster Morris (born Morris Gould, 30 December 1965) is an English electronica DJ and underground musician who has also recorded as The Irresistible Force. His work in the 1990s blended ambient music and chill-out influences with UK dance ...
and performed in London as a part of the "Ether 07 Festival" held at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall on March 18, 2007, also included
Ken Campbell,
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond (born 29 April 1953) is a Scottish artist, musician, writer, and record producer. He was a co-founder of the late-1980s avant-garde pop group the KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with wh ...
and
Alan Moore
Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...
.
Cultural references
Wilson appears as a fictional version of himself in
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 ...
's 1979 book, ''The Intelligence Agents''. It features a full
facsimile reproduction of an article ostensibly authored by Wilson, titled Marilyn's Input System, from ''Peeple Magazine'' of March 1986.
[ Leary, Timothy. ''The Intelligence Agents''. Culver City, Calif.: Peace Press (1979). pp. 100–103. Republished in 1996 by New Falcon Publications in Tempe, Arizona.]
Bibliography
Novels
* ''
The Sex Magicians
''The Sex Magicians'' is the first novel by Robert Anton Wilson, released in 1973. It revolves around the goings-on at the Orgasm Research Foundation. The Illuminati take a major role in its plot; its main protagonists are Josie Welch and Dr. Ro ...
'' (1973)
* ''
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) (with
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 ...
)
** ''The Eye in the Pyramid''
** ''The Golden Apple''
** ''Leviathan''
* ''
Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy
The ''Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'' is a trilogy of novels by American writer Robert Anton Wilson consisting of ''The Universe Next Door'' (1979), ''The Trick Top Hat'' (1980), and ''The Homing Pigeons'' (1981), each illustrating a different inte ...
'' (1979–1981)
** ''The Universe Next Door''
** ''The Trick Top Hat''
** ''The Homing Pigeons''
* ''
Masks of the Illuminati'' (1981)
* ''
The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''
** ''The Earth Will Shake'' (1982)
** ''The Widow's Son'' (1985)
** ''Nature's God'' (1988)
Autobiographical / philosophical
* ''Cosmic Trigger Trilogy''.
** ''
Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977)
** ''
Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth'' (1991)
** ''
Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death'' (1995)
Non-fiction
* ''
Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words'' (1972)
* ''
Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits'' (1973)
* ''
The Book of the Breast'' (1974)
** Revised as ''Ishtar Rising'' (1989)
* ''Neuropolitics'' (1978) (with
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 ...
and
George Koopman)
** Revised as ''Neuropolitique'' (1988)
* ''The Game of Life'' (1979) (with
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 ...
)
* ''
Prometheus Rising'' (1983)
* ''
The New Inquisition
''The New Inquisition'' is a book written by Robert Anton Wilson and first published in 1986. ''The New Inquisition'' is a book about ontology, science, paranormal events, and epistemology. Wilson identifies what he calls "Fundamentalist Material ...
'' (1986)
* ''
Natural Law, or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy'' (1987)
* ''
Sex, Drugs and Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits'' (1988) revision, with new introduction, of ''Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits''
* ''
Quantum Psychology'' (1990)
* ''
Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-ups'', with Miriam Joan Hill. New York:
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
(1998)
* ''
TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution'' (2002)
Articles
"Three Authors in Search of Sadism."''
The Realist
''The Realist'' was a Humor magazine, magazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire", intended as a hybrid of a grown-ups version of Mad (magazine), ''Mad'' and Lyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthly ''The Independent.'' Edited and ...
'', no. 67 (May 1966), p. 1. . .
Plays and screenplays
* ''
Wilhelm Reich in Hell
''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' is a play written by Robert Anton Wilson and published as a book in 1987. The play has been staged several times, with productions in University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Dublin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco ...
'' (1987)
* ''
Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
''Reality is What You Can Get Away With'' is an illustrated screenplay by Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-des ...
'' (1992; revised edition—new introduction added—1996)
* ''
The Walls Came Tumbling Down'' (1997)
Essay collections
* ''
The Illuminati Papers
''The Illuminati Papers'' is a collection of essays and other works by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1980 ().
Overview
The book expands upon characters and themes from his earlier ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (written with Robert Shea) a ...
'' (1980) collection of essays and new material
* ''
Right Where You Are Sitting Now
''Right Where You Are Sitting Now'', fully titled ''Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati'', is a 1982 book of philosophical writings written by Robert Anton Wilson. Dedicated to William S. Burroughs and Philip K. Dick ...
'' (1983) collection of essays and new material
* ''
Coincidance: A Head Test'' (1988) collection of essays and new material
* ''Email to the universe and other alterations of consciousness'' (2005) collection of essays and new material
* ''More Chaos and Beyond'' (2019) posthumous anthology of previously uncollected material
As editor
* ''
Semiotext(e) SF'' (1989) (anthology, editor, with
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...
and
Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson (October 20, 1945 – May 23, 2022) was an American anarchist author and poet, primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control. During the 1970s, Wils ...
)
* ''Chaos and Beyond'' (1994) (editor and primary author)
Discography
* ''A Meeting with Robert Anton Wilson'' (ACE) cassette
* ''Religion for the Hell of It'' (ACE) cassette
* ''H.O.M.E.s on LaGrange'' (ACE) cassette
* ''The New Inquisition'' (ACE) cassette
* ''The H.E.A.D. Revolution'' (ACE) cassette and CD
* ''Prometheus Rising'' (ACE) cassette
* ''The Inner Frontier (with Timothy Leary)'' (ACE) cassette
* ''The Magickal Movement: Present & Future'' (with
Margot Adler
Margot Susanna Adler (April 16, 1946 – July 28, 2014) was an American author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess, and New York correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR).
Early life
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostly ...
,
Isaac Bonewits
Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010) was an American Neo-druidry, Neo-Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic (paranormal), magic. He was a public speaker, liturgist, singer ...
&
Selena Fox
Selena Fox (born 20 October 1949 in Arlington, Virginia) is a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fields of pagan studies, ecopsychology, and comparative religion.
Fox is a trained c ...
) (ACE) Panel Discussion – cassette
* ''Magick Changing the World, the World Changing Magick'' (ACE) Panel Discussion – cassette
* ''The Self in Transformation'' (ACE) Panel Discussion – cassette
* ''The Once & Future Legend'' (with Ivan Stang, Robert Shea and others) (ACE) Panel Discussion – cassette
* ''What IS the Conspiracy, Anyway?'' (ACE) Panel Discussion – cassette
* ''The Chocolate-Biscuit Conspiracy'' album with
The Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmen ...
(1984)
* ''Twelve Eggs in a Basket'' CD
* ''Robert Anton Wilson On Finnegans Wake and Joseph Campbell'' (interview by Faustin Bray and Brian Wallace) (1988) 2-CD Set Sound Photosynthesis
* ''Acceleration of Knowledge'' (1991) cassette
* ''Secrets of Power'' comedy cassette
* ''Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything: or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance'' (2001)
Sounds True
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
Filmography
Actor
Robert Anton Wilson appeared in the 1998 German film ''
23 Nichts ist so wie es scheint''. He has approximately two minutes featured as himself, with the main actor, portraying hacker
Karl Koch, meeting Wilson at the annual German Computer Hackers Convention in 1985. The film is a biographical piece about Germany's infamous computer hackers, and the 1985 meeting in Germany between Wilson and Koch is authentic. Wilson spoke at the 1985 German Computer Hackers Convention, warning of a future in which governments would have total digital control over the citizen. He signed one of his books for Koch. These events are depicted in the film.
Writer
* ''Wilhelm Reich in Hell'' (2005) (Video) Deepleaf Productions
Himself
* ''Children of the Revolution: Tune Back In'' (2005) Revolutionary Child Productions
* ''The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick'' (2001) TKO Productions
*
''23'' (1998) (''23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint'') Claussen & Wöbke Filmproduktion GmbH (Germany)
* ''Arise! The SubGenius Video'' (1992) (''Recruitment Film'' #16) The SubGenius Foundation (USA)
* ''Borders'' (1989) Co-Directions Inc. (TV documentary)
* ''Fear in the Night: Demons, Incest and UFOs'' (1993) Video – Trajectories
* ''Twelve Eggs in a Box: Myth, Ritual and the Jury System'' (1994) Video – Trajectories
''Consciousness, Conspiracy and Coincidence''(1995). Interview with Robert Anton Wilson. ''New Thinking Allowed'', with Jeffrey Mishlove.
* ''Everything Is Under Control: Robert Anton Wilson in Interview'' (1998) Video – Trajectories
Documentary
* ''Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson'', a documentary featuring selections from over 25 years of Wilson footage, released on DVD in North America on May 30, 2006.
See also
*
23 Enigma
*
Chaos magic
Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a modern tradition of magic. It initially emerged in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and magical subculture.
Drawing heavily from the occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spar ...
*
General semantics
General semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral respons ...
*
List of Discordian works
Discordian works include a number of books, not all of which actually exist. Among those that have been published are ''Principia Discordia'', first published in 1965 (which includes portions of ''The Honest Book of Truth''); and ''The Illuminat ...
*
List of occult writers
__NOTOC__
This is a list of notable occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherwo ...
* ''
The Sekhmet Hypothesis
''The Sekhmet Hypothesis'' was first published in book form in 1995 by Iain Spence. It suggested that pop trends of an atavistic nature could be analysed in relation to Dr. Timothy Leary's interpersonal circumplex model. It also suggested that m ...
''
*
Smart drugs (Nootropics)
* ''
Trajectories
A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete traj ...
''
References
External links
* , now maintained by his family
RAW Data 2.0 Wilson's blog, now maintained by his daughter, Christina
RAW Data Wilson's first blog
Guns and Dope Party Political party created by Wilson and Olga Struthio
Right Where You Are Sitting Now PodcastExtensive two-hour Robert Anton Wilson tribute podcast, featuring audio clips, and interviews with friends of Wilson
A collection of RAW audio/video from his publisherA collection of RAW audio/video from his publisher
*
*
*
Robert Anton Wilson on the Literature Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Robert Anton
1932 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American novelists
20th-century essayists
American agnostics
American anarchists
American anti-capitalists
American expatriates in Ireland
American futurologists
American logicians
American psychologists
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male novelists
American male poets
American modern pagans
American occult writers
American political party founders
American science fiction writers
American SubGenii
Anarchist writers
Brooklyn Technical High School alumni
American consciousness researchers and theorists
Counterculture of the 1960s
Critics of Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Critics of religions
Critics of the Catholic Church
Discordians
Epistemologists
Former Roman Catholics
Futurologists
Jury nullification
Libertarian socialists
Logicians
Metaphysicians
Mutualists
Mystics
Psychologists
Modern pagan novelists
Novelists from New York (state)
Ontologists
People from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
People from Capitola, California
People from Flatbush, Brooklyn
Philosophers from California
Philosophers from New York (state)
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of language
Philosophers of law
Philosophers of logic
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of religion
Philosophers of social science
Playboy people
Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni
American cannabis activists
Wilhelm Reich
Writers about activism and social change
Writers from Brooklyn
People with polio
American psychedelic drug advocates