“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.