The Cosmic Trigger is Pulled and Robert Anton Wilson Departs
above: Robert Anton Wilson recently.
Robert Anton Wilson, January 18, 1932 - January 11, 2007
Last night, as it said on the mans blog, Robert Anton Wilson Defied Medical Experts, who expected him to live for another two months, and left his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11.
Wilson was a driving force of energy and optimism, that even up to the transition of that energy to other form(s), never failed or weakened. Right up to the end he remained a force of love, humour, energy and perhaps most of all, intelligence.
Wilson was also, among other things a Mystic, Magician, Guerilla Ontologist, Activist, Libertarian, Drug Taker, Scientist, Joycean Scholar, Fortean, musician, stand up comedian and also, as described by himself and others, a philosopher. Over a forty year career Bob waged war against dogma, idiocy, fear and ignorance.
He was more successful on this mission than anyone else I can name. He wrote many books, including:
Prometheus Rising
Cosmic Trigger
Quantum Psychology
Sex, Drugs and Magic
Reality is what you can get away with
Ishtar Rising
The New inquisition
Everything is Under Control
These books, like Wilson himself, are all beacons of light, humour and a wonderful rationality, both mystical and mischievous, magickal and scientific. I could and will recommend them to anyone who is interested in the future positive evolution of humanity, from the macrocosm of the species to the microcosm of the individual. He educated all of us that came in contact with his work, that, as he said himself, “the universe contains a maybe.”
Wilson, I think I can say without doubt, was to me, one of the most influential and positive authors and thinkers, his ideas about what we as a species are capable of opened many doors that I would not otherwise have known existed, and put new light and a new way of perceiving on a few that I knew about already.
Wilsons last blog entry on January 6th of this year reflects his lifelong commitment to good humour and good sense, and is, a very great example to us all.
"Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. 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."
Of all the eulogies that I have posted on this blog, none has moved me more, or left me with a greater or more profound feeling of emptiness than having to write Wilson's.
I can only hope that anyone who reads this post that has not come into contact with his writings searches out and reads his books.
They will not tell you what to think, they will allow you to think for yourself.
Fnord!!
Take a trip to the Robert Anton Wilson homepage.
Finally, I would like to say, Goodbye Bob, and thanks for everything.
The most appropriate way to finish this post I think, is to leave you with two quotes that Bob himself attached to the end of every email, well those he was good enough to send to me anyway.
I think God is sending us a message: "If you can't take a joke,
go fuck yourselves."
--Woody Allen
Events which appear crude or offensive in the instant
may become, with a change of perspective, somewhere between
droll and riotously funny.
Hannibal Lecter, M.DPeace and HopeFatherCrow.
posted by fathercrow at 2:18 PM
6 Comments:
amfnorden.
Which of his books would you consider the best starting point for someone who is indeed interesting in the future positive evolution of humanity?
Heya:
The Two that really knocked me out were first "Cosmic Trigger" and the second provided some great techniques for ridding yourself of dualistic thinking "Quantum Psychology".
Enjoy the mindfuck.
FatherCrow.
Sweet. I love all that psychological stuff.
Lee
So long, Bob, and thanks for all the fish! We are a poorer planet for losing you.
I consider "Cosmic Trigger" in my top 5 books that actually made me USE my brain, and therefore aided in its fuller installation.
To quote Malaclypse the Younger, "'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."
going to use your blog to decide if keeping myownmuse01 or moving to myownmuse02.
for those of the sudden school. love your words.
/myth
The following can be found in "Mask of The Illuminati" (pg. 183-7, copyright 1981 Robert Anton Wilson)
Class A Publication
Hermetic Order of the G ... D ...
1. This is the Book of the Opening of the Eye of Horus, of which the symbol in the profane world is the eye in the triangle, and of which the meaning is Illumination.
2. Thou who readest this doth not read; thou who seeketh not attain; thoe who understandeth doth not understand. For attainment and understanding cometh only when thou art not thou, yea, when thou art nothing1.
3. Once there was a monk, a disciple of that great Magus of our Order whom men name the Buddha which signifieth He Who Is Awake. For men asked the Lord Gotama, Are you a God? And he answered, NO. And they asked again, Are you a saint? And he answered again, No. And they asked him then, What are you? And he answered: I am awake. Thence is he known as the Buddha, the Awakened One.
4. And the monk, in order to awaken himself, practised the Art of Meditation as taught by Buddha, which in its original form before being distorted by False Imaginings and Elaborations of Theologians, was but this: To look upon all incidents and events and Remember to Say Unto Thine Soul of each: This is transitoy.
5. And the monk looked upon all incidents and events, Reminding himself always: This is transitory.
6. And the monk came close to Awakening, and therefore was he in great peril, for the Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations, whom Buddhists call Mara, the Tempter, cometh quickly to one near Awakening, to hypnotize him again into the Sleep of Fools which is the ordinary consciousness of Men.
7. And Mara did sorely afflict the monk with death of offspring, and insanity of loved ones, and eye-troubles, and slander, and malice, and the great curse of Law Suits, and diverse sufferings; but the monk thought only: This is transitory. And he was closer to Awakening.
8. And Mara, the Lord of the Abyss of Hallucinations, then caused the monk to die and reincarnate as an almost mindless creature, a Parrot, which flitted from tree to tree deep in the jungle; and Mara thought, Now he has no chance of Awakening.
9. But a brother Monk of the Buddhist order came one day through the jungle, chanting the Teachings, and the Parrot heard, and repeated the one phrase over and over: This is transitory.
10. And Mental Activity began in the Parrot, and the memories of his past life came to him, and the meaning of the teaching, This is transitory; and Mara cursed horribly in frustration, and caused him to die again and reincarnate as an Elephant, even deeper in the jungle and further from the languages of men.
11. And many years passed, and there seemed no chance of Awakening for that soul; but the effects of good karma, like those of bad, continueth forever, and eventually Men came to the jungle, and took the Elephant captive, to sell him to a great Rajah.
12. And the Elephant lived in the courtyard of the Rajah, and many years passed.
13. And another monk of the Buddhist order came to Rajah, and taught in the courtyard, and his teaching was: This is transitory. And memories awoke in the Elephant, and meaning was understood in the memories, and Awakening again came close.
14. And Mara cursed wrathfully, and caused the Elephant to die; and this time Mara took good care that reincarnation would recur at the furthest possible remove from all chance of Awakening, for Mara caused the monk to be reborn as an American Evangelist.
15. And the Evangelist was of the Moral Majority bocca grande giganticus and he journeyed across the American Nation, North and South and East and West, preaching that all were in danger of hellfire, and that there was only One Path to Salvation, and that this Path lay in believing All he Said and doing All he Demanded.
16. And he enslaved many, who became mental Automatons, and these Automatons went about crying, Hallelujah, We Are Saved2.
17. And Mara was gleeful, for now the sould of the monk was furhter from Illumination than ever; for previously he had been a Subjectively Hopeless Idiotid est, one who is aware of his own hopeless idiocybut now he was an Objectively Hopeless Idiotid est, one who Thinks that he Knows when in fact he doth Know Nothing.
18. But the Evangelist met with others of the Clergy to discuss sending Missionaries to the Heathens of the East; and there One spoke of the superstitions of the Orient, and he mentioned the Buddhist teaching that All is transitory.
19. And Mental Activity began in the Evagenlist, and memories of Past Incarnations stirred; and Mara in bitter frustration, attempted the Last Trap of All, and caused the Evangelist to become Mahabrahma, Lord of Lords, God of all possible Universes.
20. And Mahabrahma abode in Divine Bliss for billions of billions of years, creating many lesser Brahmas who created Their own universes and were Gods to them; and Mahabrahma watched all this Activity and rejoiced in it with High Indifference; for Mahabrahma was Consciousness Without Desire.
21. And the monk now seemed at last cut off from Illumination forever.
22. But finally Mahabrahma observed, after watching many Gods come and go, and all Their universes grow and flourish and perish, that the great Law of Laws is that All is transitory.
23. And Mahabrahma realized that He, too, was transitory.
24. And Mahabrahma achieved Illumination.
25. And Mahabrahma came back to ordinary consciousness in the mind of the monk practising the Buddhist meditation of looking on all things and thinking, This is transitory.
26. And the monk did not know if he was a monk imagining he had been Mahabrahma or Mahabrahma playing at being a monk; and thus was his Illumination perfect.
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