Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher.
His writing, which often shows a sense of humor and optimism, is described by him as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations--to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models (maps) and no one model elevated to the Truth."
And: "My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything."
I doubt many of you have heard of him, I only stumbled across his work browsing for random interesting things about a year ago. But his work ranges from the severly wacky to the most amazing mind opening writings that have ever been penned.
He's probably most famous for co-writing the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which is a bizarre and amusing.
Description lifted from wikipedia "The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex- and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, which hinge around the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology and Discordianism."
What really got me into his writing was firstly Prometheus Rising: a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, Christian Science, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us. It claims to be a short book (nearly 300 pages) about how the human mind works and how to get the most use of one. Wilson describes it as an "owner's manual for the human brain".
After that I read Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World. It focuses primarily on the metaphysical and epistemological problems of Aristotelean reasoning and its use in everyday language, covering E-Prime and how it addresses many of the semantic (and resulting perceptual) "spooks" that common language lets in.
It also covers, in a way that doesn't end up as discontinuous as it might sound: psychosomatic healing and a possible explanation for it; non-local effects in quantum physics (Bell's Theorem) and the theories of David Bohm.
His work covers a whole mismash of different topics but he puts a humorous spin on everything. I highly recommend anyone to look at his work, he doesn't have all the answers but he certainly raises a hell of a lot of questions.
(Hail Eris!
)
Anyone else a fan of his writings?
His writing, which often shows a sense of humor and optimism, is described by him as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations--to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models (maps) and no one model elevated to the Truth."
And: "My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything."
I doubt many of you have heard of him, I only stumbled across his work browsing for random interesting things about a year ago. But his work ranges from the severly wacky to the most amazing mind opening writings that have ever been penned.
He's probably most famous for co-writing the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which is a bizarre and amusing.
Description lifted from wikipedia "The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex- and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, which hinge around the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology and Discordianism."
What really got me into his writing was firstly Prometheus Rising: a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, Christian Science, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us. It claims to be a short book (nearly 300 pages) about how the human mind works and how to get the most use of one. Wilson describes it as an "owner's manual for the human brain".
After that I read Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World. It focuses primarily on the metaphysical and epistemological problems of Aristotelean reasoning and its use in everyday language, covering E-Prime and how it addresses many of the semantic (and resulting perceptual) "spooks" that common language lets in.
It also covers, in a way that doesn't end up as discontinuous as it might sound: psychosomatic healing and a possible explanation for it; non-local effects in quantum physics (Bell's Theorem) and the theories of David Bohm.
His work covers a whole mismash of different topics but he puts a humorous spin on everything. I highly recommend anyone to look at his work, he doesn't have all the answers but he certainly raises a hell of a lot of questions.
(Hail Eris!
)Anyone else a fan of his writings?
