Skip to content

Robert Anton Wilson

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

placeholder for RAW

Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson must qualify as one of the most prolific writers of the late 20th century. Tragically, his work is largely underappreciated, especially those nonfiction books of philosophy. One is unlikely to find anything by him in your average corporate bookstore, and will have much better luck going to a specialty new age bookstore. Though many of philosophical works have been published by Falcon Press, they are universally rife with printing errors and poorly bound. Most widely read of these is The Cosmic Trigger. Wilson's best known work of fiction is doubtlessly The Illuminatus Trilogy, co-authored with Robert Shea. His style is decidedly surreal, and heavily influenced by an abiding passion for James Joyce, on whose works he has written extensively. Most widely available at the moment would seem to be Everything is Under Control, an extremely readable encyclopedia of conspiracy theories and other speculative topic. His most recent work of fiction is a screenplay titled Reality Is What You Make of It, which features Betty Boop discussing the theory of parallel universes, the worst monster scene in cinematic history, and a mysterious flying lasagna. Wilson is an author of great wit, imagination and intelligence. He began his career among the highly esteemed editorial board of Playboy's early days, his most notable contribution being a dictionary of swear words. Many of his novels feature actual historical characters in improbable meetings such as Albert Einstein and Aleister Crowely discussing the possibility of a scientific basis for psychic phenomenon while tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms (Masks of the Illuminati). Wilson has a remarkable gift for making the seemingly impossible seem entirely likely, such as his speculation that George Washington was murdered and replaced in a masonic conspiracy to make Adam Weishaupt the real first President of The United States. It would be impossible in a short article to do justice to Wilson's body of work, or overestimate his potential influence on future generations.

Wikipedia's Entry

Robert Anton Wilson or R. A. W. (born January 18, 1932) is a futurist thinker, libertarian, and author of the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy (1979), a complex spoof of conspiracy theories.

He also co-authored (with Robert Shea) 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.) In Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977), he made Discordianism, Sufism, futurism, the Illuminati and other esoteric or counter-culture philosophies accessible to larger audiences. He is also a proponent of Timothy Leary's eight-brain circuit model and neurosomatic/lingustic engineering, which he writes about in Prometheus Rising (1983) and Quantum Psychology (1990), books of practical techniques to break free of one's "reality tunnels," though he is a vociferous critic of James Randi's efforts to break the reality tunnels for which Wilson feels affection. With Leary he helped promote the futurist ideas of space migration, life extension, and intelligence enhancement technologies); he is a more cogent and persuasive exponent of Leary's "imprinting circuit" theory of psychological development than Leary was himself.

Other fictional books by Wilson include The Earth Will Shake (1982) and 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 and Miriam Joan Hill co-wrote Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups (1998), an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories.

In a 2003 interview with High Times magazine, R.A.W. called himself a "Model Agnostic" - a term physicists use to describe someone who does not follow any one model of how the world works 100%. Wilson says that he is the first to apply this to the social sciences.

Books

The Earth Will Shake was published in 1984, and is R.A.W.'s attempt at a historical fiction work. It is set in Naples, in the year 1764 - and follows the adventures of Sigismundo Celine - forefather of Hagbard Celine (one of the main characters of the Illuminatus! Trilogy).

If you like Quicksilver, The Earth Will Shake might just be up your alley.

More

ISBN 1561841625 The Earth Will Shake (Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, Vol 1)

Publisher: New Falcon Publications; (August 2003)

ISBN 1558021779 The Widow's Son (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, Vol 2)

ISBN 0451450590 Nature's God (Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, Vol. 3)

Also

Hunt down the books of Robert Shea as well. Sadly he passed on in 1994.

I enjoyed the two Shike books -- Time of Dragons and Last of the Zinjas

Lastly

Did anyone visiting here see the 10-hour play/performance of the Illuminati Trilogy? His novel Illuminatus! was adapted as a 10-hour science fiction rock epic and performed under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Great Britain's National Theatre, where Wilson appeared briefly on stage in a special cameo role. I remember a Time Magazine write up of this.

More

I also recommend

ISBN 044050306X Masks of the Illuminati which features Albert Einstein and James Joyce acting like Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; And, the 'Historical Illuminati' above books talk about the dead ringer for George Washington -- Adam Weisshaupt!