English Archives

 

Interviews

 
SMI²LE: An Interview with Robert Anton Wilson (The Mighty 90 News, 1976)
Robert Anton Wilson is virtually impossible to describe. He has been characterized as a cross between a Chicago street version of Elmer Fudd and Buckminster Fuller, but that does Justice to neither Wilson nor Bucky Fuller nor (by some accounts), to Elmer Fudd.

Leary trades Drugs for Space Colonies (Berkeley Barb, 1976)
Timothy Leary, former-Harvard professor, LSD-guru and federal prisoner, is one of the most controversial figures to emerge from the halcyon days of the Sixties. In the following interview, Leary answers critics, recalls prison experiences and talks about his space colonization ideas.

An Interview with Robert Anton Wilson (City Miner, 1977)
When I was growing up in the ’50’s people used to jest, “STOP the world, I want to get off!” Now, twenty years later, individuals like Steward Brand, Jerry Brown, Tim Leary, and Robert Anton Wilson have joined the chorus only in earnest.

Half Witness at the Trigger: An Inter-Review with Robert Anton Wilson (The Advocate, 1978)
Bob Wilson has got to be one of the happiest people I’ve ever encountered in print or in person. It’s a happiness that borders on the zany and the half-witted.

The Future Created: An Interview with Robert Anton Wilson (Damage, 1981)
The Conspirator-General of the lunatic fringe and one of the most intelligent men alive today, author of the Illuminatus! trilogy and Cosmic Trigger, is here himself illuminated in an interview with Dean Gengle.

The Enchantment of P. L. Travers (New Age Journal, 1984)
Mary Poppins wasn’t created, but “summoned,” says her elusive author—and mythology is always “right here, right now.”

Quantum Leaps: An interview with David Bohm (New Age Journal, 1985)
Physicist David Bohm’s brilliant scientific investigations are reshaping our notion of the universe.

The Fifth Path Magazine Interview (The Fifth Path Magazine, 1991)
Robert Anton Wilson is a living example of the old tao theory of opposing forces livilng in harmony. The enigmatic author of more than twelve books and two plays seems to be a very up front person when you speak with him.

Cosmic Trickster: An Interview with Robert Anton Wilson (Electric Shock Treatment, 1991)
James Wallis interviews the coauthor of the Illuminatus! trilogy, prolific writer and arch-neophile, Robert Anton Wilson.

Throwing Shoes Down The Rabbit Hole With Robert Anton Wilson (New Dawn Magazine, 2006)
NON-GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING: This interview is best viewed using the windows of an open mind. Previous reading of “Robert Anton Wilson” material will help with this. Even so, it may seriously affect your vision of the world we live in — resulting in permanent hilarity!

 

 

Articles & Essays

 
Modern Attitudes toward Sex (The Encyclopedia of Sexual Behavior, 1961)
Sexual attitudes, like other attitudes, generally derive from unspoken and often unconscious premises. Creative thought, which is always articulate and precise, results from frustration: a man sees that a problem must be solved and he creates new thoughts in solving it. But the overwhelming preponderance of human „thought“ is not of this purposive, articulate, and creative kind.

The Most Hated Woman In America (Fact, 1964)
Her sons are beaten up regularly, abusive mail and phone calls pour in, bricks are thrown through her windows—yet nothing seems to faze the country’s No. 1 atheist, Madalyn Murray.

Of Transcendental Beauty and Crawling Horror (Fact, 1964)
Four or five years ago I tried marijuana for the first time. I experienced a heightened visual awareness and a sort of nongenital sexuality. Every color I looked at was several degrees brighter than its usual luster, and my entire body had a delightful tingle, as if it were one undifferentiated erogenous zone.

The National Enquirer: “All the News That’s Unfit to Print” (Fact, 1964)
By catering to America’s growing thirst for sadism, the National Enquirer has become the nation’s best-selling weekly newspaper.

Wild Sex Freaks Of History (Photo, 1965)
Due to prudery and censorship, our school books, popular magazines and most newspapers have deliberately hidden most of the facts about deviant sexual behavior.

The Orgasm-Death Gimmick (The East Village Other, 1966)
Cardinal Spellman, as we all know, is somewhat mis-named—the real cardinal is a rather peaceful bird; it might be more fitting if the Vatican gave him a special title, more appropriate to his disposition, such as Hawk Spellman.

Werewolf Bridge (The East Village Other, 1967)
Lawrence Talbot came down the stairs into the laboratory. “My name is Harry Haller. The name of the game is Kadath.” Buzz-saws, boxes of dynamite, whips, Ku Klux hoods and electronic machinery. Talbot tried to make out the figure in the shadows of the room. “An experiment in Authority and Submission,” the buzzing voice whispering.

The Permanent Universal Rent Strike (Other Scenes, 1971)
“Rent,” wrote Benjamin R. Tucker succinctly, “is the tribute paid by the non-owning user of land to the non-using owner of land.” Rent is a claim against you, asserting (implicitly) that you are extra-terrestrial or alien. It is a demand that you pay the real natives of Earth, the “owners,” a certain tribute for residing on “their” planet. Science-fiction writers have never dreamed up anything weirder.

How To Wage Nonviolent Revolution! (Other Scenes, 1971)
There are many techniques of non-violent revolution which have never been given an adequate trial yet, but they have succeeded dramatically in all partial trials. Most impressive of these are the general strike, the boycott, the organized mass tax refusal, and the permanent universal rent strike.

John Dillinger Died For You! (Mobster Times, 1972)
John Herbert Dillinger—you remember, the big 1930’s hold-up man who looked like Humphrey Bogart—lit a flame in the hearts of Ma and Pa America which no other major criminal has equalled, unless you include a few recent Presidents.

Do What Thou Wilt! (Gnostica News, 1973)
Shall we join Max Stirner and Ayn Rand, and seek to escape the paradoxes of altruism by merely elevating egotism to the rank of an alternate First Principle? This is what many people think is meant by Do what thou wilt.

Objections to Objectivism (The Match!, 1973)
This article will have missed some of its intended effect if Anarchists just nod happily over it and say, “Well, Ayn Rand has been disposed of.”

Angels and Extra-Terrestrials (Gnostica, 1974)
This article will consider three of the most interesting contactees, not mentioned in any of the UFO literature I have read. Curiously, all three were trained scientists; all three were multi-disciplinary in their interests, but basically oriented to psychology-psychiatry; all three are brilliant men and also erratic and heretical, so that more conservative scientists have denounced them as cultists or “messiahs.”

All Hail the Goddess Eris (Gnostica, 1974)
It will be understood by the Cabalistic reader that Discordianism is a system of transcendental Atheism, agnostic Gnosticism, skeptical Monotheism, and unified Dualism.

Why is Dr. Timothy Leary in Prison? (Green Egg, 1974)
Dr. Leary is in prison because his bail has been set so high that he cannot pay it and get out while his case is under appeal. Nobody accused of the same “crime” as Dr. Leary (possession of less than one ounce of marijuana) has had such a high bail in living memory.

Scientific and Experimental Magick (Gnostica, 1975)
To remain in the neuro-semantic insanity of larval society, without laughing hysterically or otherwise giving away the secret of one’s mutation, is the path of the Boddhisattva, who, like Father Demian going to live among the lepers, steels himself against the risk of contagion and returns to the madhouse of Circuit I-IV humanity.

Hefner vs. The Narcs (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
In America’s millionaire class, nobody else spoke up for youth, for pot, for pacifism, for the cultural transformation, except Hugh Hefner.

The Starseed Signals (Gnostica, 1975)
In which the author states his belief that the Dog Star has been beaming messages to earthly shamans, occultists and psyche­delic researchers for millenia. Surely, he can’t be serious …

Age of Psi (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
Government consists of a monopoly on the use of force. Governments agents have a license to use violence and the threat of violence to coerce others with clubs, MACE, guns, bombs, nuclear devices, biological warfare etc. — to batter others into submission. If any person not licensed by government uses these methods, she or he is legally defined as a criminal and psychiatrically diagnosed as a sociopath.

Politics of Psi, Part Three (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
Occultists, psychedelicsists and parapsychologists are all, in the Illuminati phrase, “fighting in the dark,” and swinging wildly at phantoms a lot of the time.

Politics of Psi, Part Two (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
THE LAW OF THE STRONG: that is our law and the joy of the world.

Politics of Psi (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
Why would the military be interested in a young psychic who paints like Picasso, heals like Edgar Cayce and bends metal better than Uri Geller?

Mind messages (The Witches‘ Almanac, 1976)
Many traditional methods of meditation used by witches (and Oriental mystics) are unsuitable today solely because their language reflects a prescientific philosophy which many of us cannot take seriously.

Atlantis: 20,000 theories under the sea (OUI, 1977)
Originally Atlantis was the name of an alleged lost continent that sank into the Atlantic Ocean around 9000 B.C. This version, which is the origin of all Atlantis lore and theories, cannot possibly be true, but that doesn’t really matter, because if Atlantis isn’t an underwater continent, maybe it’s an island or even a lost city on dry land.

The End of the Work Ethic … The Dawn of the Work Esthetic (City Miner, 1978)
If there is one proposition which currently wins the assent of nearly everybody it is that we need more jobs. “A cure for unemployment” is promised, or earnestly sought, by every Heavy Thinker from Jimmy Carter to the Communist Party-USA, from Ronald Reagan to the head of the economics department at the local university, from the Birchers to the New Left.

Has Contact Already Been Made? A Synergetic Theory of UFO’s (Second Look, 1978)
The UFO Experience is the title of a book by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former scientific advisor to the Air Force’s Project Bluebook and now director of the civilian Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois. It is an excellent title, and the purpose of this brief article is to take that title seriously—more seriously than Dr. Hynek has taken it himself, in fact.

Morality Mania (City Miner, 1978)
As I write, a group of Berkeley moralists is out on the streets each night harassing prostitutes. What they hope to accomplish is far from clear, at least to my simple mind.

The Unconscious Conspiracy (Second Look, 1979)
hat the most intelligent and scientifically-trained conspiracy buffs have gradually learned is that conspiracies are always plural and at minimum two.

Facing the Future Fearlessly (Magical Blend, 1980)
Nobody dares to say a word against the past or the present these days. After all, whether we have been involved in the “Consciousness Movement” or not, we have all heard about the psycho-spiritual necessity of accepting the past, right?

Adventures in the HEAD Revolution (Critique, 1989)
I consider myself a typical survivor of the HEAD Revolution. I have participated in every aspect of the “Human Potential Movement” and—remarkably—I have not been clapped into a nut-house yet, and I haven’t even become a disciple of any “Guru.”

Technological Masturbation (TOTAL, 1993)
We can encounter ecstasy over and over by learning the neurosciences that orchestrate all incoming signals into ecstatic tape loops. The contact has already happened right where you are sitting now. Whether it is tuned-in or not tuned-in depends on your skill as metaprogrammer.

PKD Deconstructed and Reconstructed (The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick 1977-1979, 1993)
Long ago, when my youth burned green and wild with oats (as Dylan Thomas, or a bad parodist of Dylan Thomas, might write) I picked up a sci-fi magazine and read a very short story called “Roog.”

Introduction to a Malign Fiesta (Dark Destiny, 1995)
When I think of the external or “historical” events of my childhood, everything seems like faded old newsreels of the Great Depression. Worried faces, run down buildings, violent strikes with cops smashing workers upside the head with billy clubs: all have that grainy look and that bad sound quality of NEWS ON THE MARCH—which always served us kids as a signal to run out and buy our candy so we wouldn’t miss the cartoon coming next.

 

 

Reviews

 
Proudhon’s Economics: Socialism without Tyranny (Way Out, 1962)
Benjamin Tucker considered The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century Proudhon’s best book—“the most wonderful of all the wonderful books of Proudhon”—and he may well have been right in that judgment. Like many of the greatest works of the last century this “most wonderful book” comes to us from a prison cell.

The Misfits (Way Out, 1963)
Some people think Arthur Miller has been declining since Death of a Salesman; I am more inclined to think that he has been improving.

The Dharma Bums (Way Out, 1963)
If you are looking for a story to fill your hours with gimmicks and surprises, go elsewhere (TV will even save you the trouble of turning pages), but if you are looking for a poetic (i.e., simple; i.e., holy) truth about the universe, then read Kerouac, read him slowly, and re-read him carefully.

Death Universe: A Review of Mondo Cane (American Atheist, 1964)
With great and Nietzschean contempt for his audience, the director has made this movie into an imitation of the popular travelogues of the past thirty years, complete even to the moronic narration that such epics usually have, skillfully “written down” to the 12-year-old level that the mass audience is supposed to possess.

The Ego and His Own (Jaguar, 1965)
Ayn Rand disciples will not like Stirner, who ends up his book as a socialist, albeit a peculiarly egotistic socialist. (No socialist party around today would accept Stirner, except the anarchists, and even most of them reject him.) Who will like this book? The man who has the guts to think for himself and who refuses to bow to any authority except his own independent judgement.

The Burning Gorilla (The East Village Other, 1966)
Last night I dreamed I was writing an article about the greatest movie of the year, Morgan and I called it “The Burning Gorilla.” When I woke up the title was suddenly meaningless.

Chappaqua: A Non-Review of a Non-Movie (The East Village Other, 1967)
William S. Burroughs is not only a great writer but also a great actor — His performance as Opium Jones, the spirit of addiction, is the creepiest characterization since the late great Bela appeared as the Transylvanian Count.

2001: The Secret Doctrine Revealed (The Chicago Seed, 1968)
It is all laughing on the gallows of absolute reality. Consider the dual unities: yab-yum, wig-wack, weck-wack, a noble shit and an everyday miracle. The True The Good and The Beautiful would be perfect naming for the Platonic Ideal of a rock-and-roll group. Anything would be a good name for a rock group, Yab-yum is Tibetan. Male and female, light and dark, creation and destruction.

The Strange Case of Dr. Timothy Leary (Gnostica News, 1974)
Timothy Leary’s Neurologic reviewed by Robert Anton Wilson

Growing Your Own Psilocybin (Berkeley Barb, 1976)
It is indeed a splendid dream. Imagine: every Head in the country begins growing his or her own magic psilocybin mushrooms. Funny fungi sprouting everywhere. Millions, then billions of golden-headed darlings bringing the most ancient Mayan secrets to meta-phase nervous systems, coast to coast.

The King is Dead: Long Live the King (New Libertarian Weekly, 1977)
What we have here is just what the advertisements promise: an astonishingly original motion picture. It is also the most mythic, psychedelic and mind-boggling cinematic extravaganza since 2001.

‘Junky’ is Back — Pure and Uncut (Berkeley Barb, 1977)
In 1957, looking at 100 pages of an unpublished book by William S. Burroughs called „Naked Lunch“, I said, “This man is the greatest prose stylist since James Joyce.” I believe that my opinions on every other subject in the galaxy have changed in the two decades since I made that judgement, but my opinion of Bill Burroughs hasn’t changed.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma (New Libertarian, 1978)
A sports car races down a highway. The driver’s face is grim and determined. He parks before a government building, strides angrily down a long hall, slams something onto a desk. Thunder crashes ominously as he paces back and forth, obviously making a denunciatory speech to an unseen official. A computer-operated system moves his photo into a file marked “Resigned.”

Coincidence Or Cosmic Conspiracy (Berkeley Barb, 1978)
There are a lot of allegorical and arty interpretations of The Prisoner going around, all of which may be true in some sense, but what seems most interesting to me about that particular episode is that similar experiments have been conducted by both the CIA and the Army.

 

 

Letters

 
Letters to the Playboy Forum (Playboy, 1966-1975)
Mostly, in the Playboy Forum, we followed the ACLU’s positions, which Shea and I passionately shared (as does Hefner, or he wouldn’t have started the Forum and the Foundation) but often we pushed a bit further and sneaked in some anarcho-pacifist propaganda – never in Playboy’s voice, of course, but as the voice of a reader.

Mr. Wilson Disagrees (The Match!, 1973)
The Western world has known since Galileo (and the Eastern since Buddha) that the green of grass is in our brains, not in the grass.

Letters to the SRAFederation Bulletin for Anarchist Agitators (1974-1976)
Dear SRAFers: Do what thou wilt should be the whole of the law. Robert Anton Wilson’s Letters to the SRAFederation Bulletin for Anarchist Agitators.

Letters to Leary (1974-1982)
To Leary in Prison – Dear Dr. Leary (May Day 1974), To Leary in Prison – Dear Mr. Brown, Jimmy Carter may be one of us (Letter to Joanna), I definitely believe in Higher Intelligences, Thanks for the GLORIOUS introduction!!! (July 6, 1977), Circuits and the Cabalistic Sephira, The ‘Dogs of War’ plot (1978), Off to Ireland (June 10, 1982)

Author Argues Sci-Fi “Typos” (Berkeley Barb, 1975)
I am sincerely grateful for the wonderful review of Illuminatus! by Xavier Hammerberg (Soul Food for Paranoids) in the Barb for December 19.

A letter from the DNA Society (The Lansing Star, 1975)
A letter expressing concern about the „disappearance“ of Timothy Leary while in federal custody. Signed by Michael Horowitz, John James, Robert Newport, Carl Spann, Carol Tickner and Robert Anton Wilson.

Love and Celtic Law: A letter from Ireland (PLAYBOY, 1985)
PLAYBOY readers may be amazed to learn that all forms of contraception were illegal in Ireland until five years ago.

 

 

Discordian Bits & Pieces (1969-1976)
Most Discordians, at this time, were contributors to underground newspapers all over the country. We began surfacing the Discordian Society, issuing position papers offering non-violent anarchist techniques to mutate our robot-society.

The Death of Marilyn Monroe & other Poems (Quiote, 1968)
Two Laments (1. Obit for Malcom, 2. Ode to a Segregationist), Permutations to be fed into a War-Game Computer, Malign Fiesta, The Death of Marilyn Monroe

A Cosmic Trigger Companion
Sombunall items mentioned in Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger (© 1977). Excerpts from the book with permission from the Robert Anton Wilson Trust. Page numbers are from the actual edition by Hilaritas Press. Page numbers are from the actual edition by Hilaritas Press.

Dali’s Clocks (1997)
“Giant red ants,” Simon Moon said. “I thought it was just the acid at the non-millennial party, but now I believe it. Several reality-tunnels collided. I talked to one of those red ants. They seem to think Christians are especially tasty.”

Robert Anton Wilson on Timothy Leary (Audio, 2006)
Robert Anton Wilson discusses his coverage of Leary’s career and their friendship which started in 1965 up to Leary’s passing.