Scholarship

  • Esoterica, Scholarship

    Prestigious Demons 1

    The Disappearing Member

    The Disappearing Member

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Scholarship

    Prestigious Demons 3

    Presto!

    Presto!

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Scholarship

    The Magick of H.P. Lovecraft

    from The Occult World (Routledge, 2014)

    from The Occult World (Routledge, 2014)

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Psychedelics, Scholarship

    The Weird Naturalism of the Brothers McKenna

    Esoteric Media and the Experiment at La Chorrera

    Esoteric Media and the Experiment at La Chorrera

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Scholarship

    Prestigious Demons 2

    Hail the Simulacrum

    Hail the Simulacrum

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Scholarship
    29 min

    Profane Illuminations

    Robert Anton Wilson's Hedonic Ascesis

    Robert Anton Wilson's Hedonic Ascesis

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...
  • But what if the medium is the message?
    Quotes

    Quote 1

    But what if the medium is the message?

    But what if the medium is the message?

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Scholarship, Technoculture

    Babalon Launching

    Jack Parsons, Rocketry, and the "Method of Science"

    Jack Parsons, Rocketry, and the "Method of Science"

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Mind and Philosophy, Scholarship
    8 min

    Parsing Gilles Deleuze

    Professor Desire

    Professor Desire

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Religions and Spirits, Scholarship
    11 min

    The Esoteric Scholarship of Antoine Faivre

    Meet Hermes, the god of scholars and techgnostics

    Meet Hermes, the god of scholars and techgnostics

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Psychedelics, Scholarship
    33 min

    The Psychedelic Book of the Dead (Paper)

    Timothy Leary and the Bardo

    Timothy Leary and the Bardo

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...
  • It is too close, too far-out, its sacred transmissions too muddled with the scandalous grit of its concrete historical unfoldment
    Quotes

    Quote 4

    It is too close, too far-out, its sacred transmissions too muddled with the scandalous grit of its concrete historical unfoldment

    It is too close, too far-out, its sacred transmissions too muddled with the scandalous grit of its concrete historical unfoldment

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...

  • Esoterica, Psychedelics, Scholarship
    30 min

    Gnostic Psychedelia

    And the Archetype of the Archons

    And the Archetype of the Archons

    Here is the abstract: The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-program- ming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written...