Robert Anton Wilson

Apr 17, 2025

“There are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind. This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.”


Field: Author, Philosopher, Orator.

Born: Robert Edward Wilson, 18 January 1932, Brooklyn, New York.
Departed: January 11, 2007, Berkeley, California

Background: RAW worked as an associate editor for Playboy magazine from 1966-71 and wrote several dozen mind-expanding books, including the infamous Illuminatus! Trilogy (co-authored with Bob Shea). Wilson described his writing 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.” He said “My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.”

Works: Wilson wrote 35 books, and many other works. Most are highly recommended, and none are bad. His works include:

  • Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words (1972)
  • The Sex Magicians (1973)
  • The Book of the Breast (1974)
  • The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) (with Robert Shea)
  • The Eye in the Pyramid
  • The Golden Apple
  • Leviathan
  • Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977)
  • Neuropolitics (1978) (with Timothy Leary and George Koopman)
  • The Game of Life (1979) (with Timothy Leary)
  • The Illuminati Papers (1980)
  • Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy (1980–1981)
  • 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 (1991)
  • Right Where You Are Sitting Now (1983)
  • Prometheus Rising (1983)
  • The New Inquisition (1986)
  • Wilhelm Reich in Hell (1987)
  • Natural Law, or Don’t Put a Rubber on Your Willy (1987)
  • Coincidance (1988) {ISBN 1561840041}
  • Neuropolitique (1988) (with Timothy Leary & George Koopman) [[revision of Neuropolitics]]
  • Ishtar Rising (1989) [[revision of The Book of the Breast]]
  • Semiotext(e) SF (1989) (editor, with Rudy Rucker and Peter Lamborn Wilson)
  • Quantum Psychology (1990)
  • Three-Fisted Tales of “Bob” (edited by Ivan Stang) (1990) (one of several contributors)
  • Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth (1991)
  • Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: An Illustrated Screenplay (1992)
  • Chaos and Beyond (1994) (editor and primary author)
  • Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death (1995)
  • The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1997)
  • Everything Is Under Control (1998)
  • Email to the Universe (2005)

Lesson: We can’t get beyond words; what we’ve got to do is get more cynical about our words.

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