Robert Anton Wilson

[The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy]is a trilogy of novels by American writer Robert Anton Wilson consisting of [The Universe Next Door], [The Trick Top Hat], and [The Homing Pigeons], each illustrating a different interpretation of quantum physics. Wilson is also co-author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and Schrödinger's Cat is a sequel of sorts, re-using several of the same characters and carrying on many of the themes of the earlier work. The one-volume edition currently in print is significantly shorter than the original three-volume edition. This is not a difference in print size or removal of redundant "recaps"; it is missing a noticeable amount of material, including many entire chapters. The name Schrödinger's Cat comes from a thought experiment in quantum mechanics. The first book, The Universe Next Door, takes place in different universes in accord with the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics; in the second, The Trick Top Hat, characters are unknowingly connected through non-locality, i.e., having once crossed paths they are joined in quantum entanglement; and the third book, The Homing Pigeons, places characters in an "observer-created universe" in which Consciousness Causes the Collapse of the wavefunction. Taking place in Unistat, which is the novel's parallel to the United States, the novels have intertwining plots involving a wide array of characters, including: Epicene Wildeblood, a.k.a. Mary Margaret Wildeblood, a transsexual woman who throws great parties Frank Dashwood, president of Orgasm Research Markoff Chaney, a prankster Hugh Crane, a.k.a. Cagliostro the Great, a mystic and magician Furbish Lousewart V, author and President of Unistat Marvin Gardens, author and cocaine addict Eve Hubbard, scientist and alternate President of Unistat : :

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Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth is the second book in the Cosmic Trigger series, a three-volume autobiographical and philosophical work by Robert Anton Wilson. First published in 1991, Cosmic Trigger II continues where [Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati]left off, as well as being a set piece in itself. Wilson continues the Illuminati-based synchronicities that have taken place since Cosmic Trigger I was first published. The book is an exploration into the future of cyberspace; the peculiarities of Irish jurisprudence; links to the Mafia, the CIA and the Catholic Church; anal-eroticism in the White House; the Dog Castrator of Palm Springs and more. The book combines humour, twists in logic and zen-like koans to get its messages across. The book is made up of ninety-four short chapters, with the main themes interwoven throughout in a non-linear fashion. In part, this volume of the series outlines Wilson’s intellectual development, from his religious education under the (‘sadistic’) nuns at Catholic school, through to his materialist-atheistic standpoint as an engineering student, and his eventual development of the ‘model agnosticism’ which shapes much of his published work. Along the way he discusses becoming a Trotskyist when he was seventeen, and his time as an Objectivist, while under the influence of the work of Ayn Rand. Other recurring themes relate to conspiracies, involving the Vatican and allegedly freemasonic societies such as P2. He discusses the controversial death of Roberto Calvi; who was known in some quarters of the press as ‘God’s Banker,’ because of his ties to the Vatican Bank. Elsewhere, a plethora of other topics are touched upon, including Aleister Crowleyean magick ritual, Wilson’s love of movies, virtual reality, Jungian Synchronicity, and the exponential growth of global information. Wilson wrote the book while the first Gulf war was in progress, and the dedication at the beginning of the book announces that the work is against the ‘makers of war’. Accordingly, many of the chapters feature anti-war quotes beneath the chapter titles, from figures ranging from William Tecumseh Sherman to Peter Ustinov, as well as more general quotes relating to concepts such as government and the social construction of reality, from people such as Oscar Wilde and H.L. Mencken. Wilson later published the final part of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy, [Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death], in 1995. The first book in the Cosmic Trigger trilogy reveals the enlightening secret of the Illuminati while presenting the daunting metaphor of Chapel Perilous where the unprepared can get lost in a spirited journey. Volume Two of the series presents the metaphor of the Bridge and the lessons of Bob’s early life that brought him to the wisdom of the Model Agnostic’s perspective. In Bob’s typical wide-ranging narratives, we learn, among other mind-blowing anecdotes, about the similarities between the Pope of Rome and the Wizard of Oz. Don’t miss this explosion of thought, when for the second time, Bob pulls the Cosmic Trigger.

Here are images of our culture's absurdities, injustices, violence and desires, shot at you in a machine-gun-like assault on your senses and intellect. The result is hilarious, chilling and irrevocably mind-altering --- a left-brain/right-brain challenge ... a consciousness-raising experience filled with laughter, rage --- and truth.

This, for my money, is the most spectacular non-fiction work that Wilson ever penned, breathtakingly adventurous in both its content and its strikingly experimental form. Uncertain and demonstrably uncaring whether it’s a piece of literary criticism, metaphysical discussion or anthology of diverse esoteric writings, this remarkable compendium is best seen, in the spirit of its title, as a glorious accidental dance of meaning, modernism and mythology. - Alan Moore, from his introduction to Coincidance – The Robert Anton Wilson Trust Authorized Hilaritas Press Edition

Throughout human history, values and behaviors have been colored by language and the prevailing view of the universe. With the advent of Quantum Mechanics, relativity, non-Euclidean geometries, non-Aristotelian logic and General Semantics, the scientific view of the world has changed dramatically from just a few decades ago. Nonetheless, human thinking is still deeply rooted in the cosmology of the middle ages. Quantum Psychology is the book to change your way of perceiving yourself--and the universe--for the 21st century. Review: "Wilson managed to reverse every mental polarity in me, as if I had been pulled through infinity. I was astonished and delighted." --Philip K. Dick, author of Blade Runner

While many of the details of Aleister Crowley's flamboyant life have been well documented, Portable Darkness is the first book to tackle the formidable task of collecting the best of his voluminous lifework. In bringing together Crowley's best writings, editor Scott Michaelsen makes Crowley-an philosophy both accessible and intelligible. As an intellectual and mystic, Crowley devoted his life to the study of Qabalah, gematria, numerology, astrology, myth, glyphs, yoga, and linguistics. His intense, methodical exploration of so immense and arcane a range of knowledge has yielded, not surprisingly, a hugely challenging body of literature. In Portable Darkness, Michaelsen has sifted through this vast, often abstruse oeuvre in search of those works which best display and illuminate the razor-sharp insight for which Crowley has become known. The selections in Portable Darkness are organized thematically according to Crowley's favorite subjects: Qabalah and Magick, Yoga and Magick, Sex and Magick, Magick and Law, Magick and Lies. As accompanied by Michaelsen's cogent essays, these texts represent the essential Aleister Crowley, guiding novice and adept alike through the complexities of his notoriously impenetrable writings. Enlightening and revelatory, Portable Darkness is an indispensable lexicon for all those with an interest in the occult.

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles is a series of three novels by Robert Anton Wilson written after his highly successful The Illuminatus! Trilogy and his 1981 Masks of the Illuminati. His co-author from the first trilogy, Robert Shea, was not involved in this series, providing only a praising blurb. It is composed of three books: [The Earth Will Shake](1982), [The Widow's Son](1985) and [Nature's God](1991). A fourth book, The World Turned Upside Down, was promised at the end of Nature's God but was never written; Wilson also had stated he intended the Chronicles to be a pentalogy.His death in 2007 left the series as a trilogy, incomplete. There is an audiobook of the first novel read by Scott Crisp.They are the most secret of organizations and the most powerful — the Illuminati. They continue to shift the patterns of history to fulfill plans of their own, to open pathways to power which ordinary mortals are never meant to tread. It is 1776, and Sigismundo Celine, a young Neapolitan aristocrat and musician — exiled from his homeland after an unfortunate duel — has fled Europe for the American colonies. Here he will seek to master the next levels of metaphysical magic in the wilderness of the Indian territories. In the meantime, the Irish fisherman, Moon, is caught up in revolution, his fate linked with George Washington and Lafayette. While Sigismundo prepares to contest the most powerful of the Indian medicine men, Moon, Washington, and the troops are waging an equally desperate battle for survival. THESE ARE THE EVENTS WHICH WILL SOON RESHAPE THE WORLD. "The funniest, most incisive social critic around." - Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade "A dazzling barker hawking tickets to the most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway of higher consciousness." - Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume and other great books “I have learned more from Robert Anton Wilson than I have from any other source.” - Comedian George Carlin :

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Prometheus Rising is a book by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1983. It is 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, relativity, and quantum mechanics, amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us, and claiming to be a short book (under 300 pages) about how the human mind works and how to get the most use from one. Wilson describes it as an "owner's manual for the human brain". The book examines many aspects of social mind control and mental imprinting, and provides mind exercises at the end of every chapter, with the goal of giving the reader more control over how one's mind works. The book has found many readers among followers of alternative culture, and discusses the effect of certain psychoactive substances and how these affect the brain, tantric breathing techniques, and other methods and holistic approaches to expanding consciousness. It draws a parallel between the development of one's mind and the development of higher intelligence theorized by biological evolution. Prometheus Rising was copyrighted and published in 1983 but began as Wilson's Ph.D. dissertation called "The Evolution of Neuro-Sociological Circuits: A Contribution to the Sociobiology of Consciousness" in 1978-79 for Paideia University in California.In 1982, while in Ireland, Wilson rewrote the manuscript for commercial publication, removing footnotes, improving the style, adding chapters and exercises, and sketching out diagrams for the illustrations. Eventually Wilson submitted the work to New Falcon Publications, which accepted it within 48 hours. Wilson received his advance 48 hours after that, according to his preface in the tenth printing of Prometheus Rising.

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles is a series of three novels by Robert Anton Wilson written after his highly successful The Illuminatus! Trilogy and his 1981 Masks of the Illuminati. His co-author from the first trilogy, Robert Shea, was not involved in this series, providing only a praising blurb. It is composed of three books: [The Earth Will Shake](1982), [The Widow's Son](1985) and [Nature's God](1991). A fourth book, The World Turned Upside Down, was promised at the end of Nature's God but was never written; Wilson also had stated he intended the Chronicles to be a pentalogy. His death in 2007 left the series as a trilogy, incomplete. There is an audiobook of the first novel read by Scott Crisp. It concerns the adventures of Sigismundo Celine, an ancestor of the Hagbard Celine character from the Illuminatus! Trilogy, as he blunders through Europe and America during the Enlightenment, constantly fighting to escape becoming a part of history. In the first book, Sigismundo is an adolescent in Naples, Italy, where his uncle introduces him to the teaching of the Freemasons. In the second book Sigismundo has been banished from Naples because of a lovers' duel. He lives in Paris and is taken captive twice. The first time he is imprisoned in the Bastille, from which he escapes using Masonic techniques of concentration to help distract himself from the pain involved in climbing down from his tower. The second time Sigismundo is imprisoned by a more mysterious group of captors, who seek to convince him that he is a descendant of Jesus Christ. In the third book, Sigismundo finds himself in further exile, in the wilderness of North America. They have been with us all through history: The "Invisible College" of wisdom, and their adversaries. The history of the world is their story: a conspiracy as vast and all-encompassing as the riddle of time itself.In Naples, Italy, in 1764, a young aristocrat is about to stumble onto one piece of the great pattern. Through a heartless murder and his passion for the beautiful daughter of his enemy, young Sigismundo Celine uncovers the mystery of the Rossi brigade, former M.A.F.I.A. assassins, and the secret agenda of the dreaded Inquisition.In the wind of the raging social storm that will soon tear through Europe and America with the flame of revolution, Sigismundo begins his journey of discovery, joined by the boy Mozart, Dr. Frankenstein, Casanova the spy, lover and magician . . . and a mysterious violet-eyed assassin who calls him "brother." Join him. The journey has just begun."Against the epic backdrop of the French and American revolutions, the inimitable RAW lays bare the secret history of the Enlightenment, while almost casually re-inventing the historical novel in the process. The result is a heady, psychedelic brew of satire, intrigue, magic, high adventure and life-changing philosophy, seasoned with the wry, compassionate humanism which is Wilson's trademark. Astonishing and unforgettable." – Grant Morrison, New York Times best-selling author, Comics Legend, Chaos Magician, creator of The Invisibles and other great graphic novels"Devilish . . . I loved it!" – Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone"Hilarious and multidimensional." — L.A. Times :