OT: RIP Robert Anton Wilson

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle18281.html

AICN: Robert Anton Wilson Has Left His Body! Hail Eris!
posted by alex
on Jan 13, 2007 - 11:51 AM
Send this story to a friend Email this to a friend Printer friendly page Print this story


'Normally, I find it depressing to write obituary notices for the site, but Robert Anton Wilson was one of those guys who didn’t see death as something to be depressed by, and I’d like to remember him the way he’d want to be remembered. He was days away from his 75th birthday when he "left his body," as his family puts it. It sounds like he was surrounded by people he loved, a great way to go.

'He was a novelist, a philosopher, an anarchist, and deeply suspicious of every government or corporate interest. I consider his ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY to be one of the great counterculture novels of all time, dense and brilliant and funny and scary. His work connected the dots on things that may well have never been related, but in doing so, he managed to not only lampoon conspiracy nuts but also illustrate just how terrifying the truth behind conspiracy theory can be.' (Ain't It Cool News article (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31220)).

[alkemical]

Robert Anton Wilson, 74, Who Wrote Mind-Twisting Novels, Dies (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/obituaries/13wilson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)


Robert Anton Wilson, 74, Who Wrote Mind-Twisting Novels, Dies
By DENNIS HEVESI

Robert Anton Wilson, an author of “The Illuminatus! Trilogy” — a mind-twisting science-fiction series about a secret global society that has been a cult classic for more than 30 years — died on Thursday at his home in Capitola, Calif. He was 74.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Christina Pearson.

The author of 35 books on subjects like extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs and what he called quantum psychology, Mr. Wilson wrote the trilogy with his friend Robert J. Shea in the late 1960s, when both were editors at Playboy. The books — “The Eye in the Pyramid,” “The Golden Apple” and “Leviathan” — were all published in 1975 by Dell Science Fiction. They never hit the best-seller lists, but have never gone out of print. Mr. Shea died in 1994.

Inspired by a thick file of letters that the authors received from conspiracy buffs, the trilogy traces the conflict between the Illuminati and the Discordians. The Illuminati are elite authoritarians who pull the puppet strings of the world’s political establishment while seeking to become super-beings by sucking the souls from the masses. The Discordians resist through convoluted tactics that include a network of double agents.

“There are lots of drug references in the book,” said Mark Frauenfelder, a co-editor of boingboing.net, a pop culture Web site that started as a print magazine in the 1980s and for which Mr. Wilson wrote many articles. “In part because it dealt with conspiracies in a science-fiction way, the trilogy achieved a cult following among science fiction readers, hippies, the psychedelic crowd.”

Mr. Wilson was born in Brooklyn on Jan. 18, 1932. He attended Brooklyn Polytechnical College and New York University. He worked as an engineering aide, a salesman and a copywriter, and was an associate editor at Playboy from 1965 to 1971.

Besides his daughter Christina of Santa Cruz, Calif., Mr. Wilson is survived by another daughter, Alexandra Gardner of Eugene, Ore., and a son, Graham, of Watsonville, Calif. His wife of 39 years, the former Arlen Riley, died in 1999.

After completing the trilogy, Mr. Wilson began writing nonfiction books. Perhaps his most famous is “Cosmic Trigger” (Pocket Books, 1977), a bizarre autobiography in which, among many other tales, he describes episodes when he believed he had communicated with extraterrestrials — while admitting that he was experimenting with peyote and mescaline.

Mr. Wilson contended that people should never rule out any possibility, including that lasagna might fly. On Jan. 6, in his last post on his personal blog, he wrote: “I don’t see how to take death seriously. I look forward without dogmatic optimism, but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.”

[alkemical]

From RAW's Blog:

Robert Anton Wilson Defies Medical Experts and leaves his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11.

All Hail Eris!

On behalf of his children and those who cared for him, deepest love and gratitude for the tremendous support and lovingness bestowed upon us.

(that's it from Bob's bedside at his fnord by the sea)

RAW Memorial February 2007
date to be announced


http://robertantonwilson.blogspot.com/2007/01/raw-essence.html

[alkemical]

last bump before i sign off the mane.

This guy had a HUGE influence in how i "applied" the knowledge i had. Much Appreciated RAW!

[DeusExManning]

He will be missed, I was deeply saddened to hear this. I will have to go back and read the Cosmic Trigger and the Illuminatus trilogy again.

[alkemical]

Myself as well. Prometheus rising was the first book i read by him "knowingly". I had illuminatus given to me before i could grasp it all.

[bombquixote]

I do not believe it, sir. It's a hoax. Shenanigans. A conspiracy.

[alkemical]

Fnord!

[alkemical]

Today's Quote: “My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered clinically dead under current medical standards, where absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended.”
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger I: Preface

[alkemical]

10 Highlights of Robert Anton Wilson's Life

10. Discovering the universe contains a "maybe".

9. Collaborating with Timothy Leary on the "8 circuit" model.

8. Resurrecting the careers of Nikola Tesla and Wilhelm Reich.

7. Phenomenological experiences with drugs and tantric sex.

6. Communicating with Dogon-like gods from Sirius.

5. Influencing global conspiracy and alternative subcultures.

4. Developing the new field of Quantum Psychology.

3. Defining the Power Elite as yourself and your friends.

2. Documenting the malfunctions of "social reality".

1. Deciphering the Final Secret of the Illuminati.

[alkemical]

Robert Anton Wilson Memorial Celebration February 18 (http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle18393.html)


Robert Anton Wilson Memorial Celebration February 18
posted by alex
on Jan 25, 2007 - 01:16 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email this to a friend Print this story

Join Together at the Robert Anton Wilson Cosmic Meme-Orial & Lasagna Levitation Celebration! Hail Eris! All Hail Bob! Celebrate the life, work and continued multi-dimensionality of Robert Anton Wilson by joining us in a giant, jammin' Translation Celebration and 8th Circuit Soiree! . Reconnect with old friends. Make new, like-minded friends. Share ideas. Exchange email addresses. (It's like the Internet, only in person.) . Be a part of Bob's Raucous Processionary Send-Off as his ashes sail out of the cove and rejoin his beloved's in the Pacific! . Watch continuous video clips of RAW from Deepleaf Production's "Maybe Logic" documentary and from his numerous Trajectories videos. . Expand your mind (and your tummy) with hors d'ourvres, soft drinks, and a cash bar. . Expand your neighbors' minds by sharing remembrances and anecdotes at the open mic! (Brevity and levity are appreciated!) . Mingle, nosh, remember, appreciate, celebrate! . And above all, Keep the Lasagna Flying! RAW DATA: Where: The Cocoanut Grove, on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA When: Sunday, February 18, 2007 Time: 1 - 6 PM Tickets: $23 each [Proceeds go to Amnesty International] Limited number available! To purchase tickets, or for additional information, click here: Link (BoingBoing blog entry & RAW Remembered blog).

[alkemical]

"The shock of discovering that most of the power in the world is held by ignorant and greedy people can really bum you out at first; but after you've lived with it a few decades, it becomes, like cancer and other plagues, just another problem that we will solve eventually if we keep working at it." ~ Robert Anton Wilson

[Denver Crush]

I guess I have some reading to do. Ive heard of Wilson, however I'm not really familiar with his work. Peace be with him.

[Los Broncos]

All i can say is that there has been way to many deaths since new years, RIP.

[alkemical]

I don't always agree with him, but i find his views stimulating and he always made me think. I also appreciated his sense of humor.

[alkemical]

"The most thoroughly and relentlessly Damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all Damned Things is the individual human being. The social engineers, statistician, psychologist, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this Damned Thing into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the Damned Thing will not fit into the slot assigned it. The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. the psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the Damned Thing will not fit into their slots." ~ Robert Anton Wilson

[Orange_Beard]

All i can say is that there has been way to many deaths since new years, RIP.

LOL

How many is to many?

[Los Broncos]

LOL

How many is to many?

Since dwill died there had been celebrities, family members and senseless deaths happening and its pretty sad. I mean dying is part of life, but dwill being shot down was worthless.

[alkemical]

"Every fact of science was once Damned. Every invention was considered impossible. Every discovery was a nervous shock to some orthodoxy. Every artistic innovation was denounced as fraud and folly. The entire web of culture and "progress," everything on earth that is man-made and not given to us by nature, is the concrete manifestation of some man's refusal to bow to Authority. We would own no more, know no more, and be no more than the first apelike hominids if it were not for the rebellious, the recalcitrant, and the intransigent. As Oscar Wilde truly said, 'Disobedience was man's Original Virtue'." ~ Robert Anton Wilson