This week’s links and readings add up to an exceptionally rich and varied smorgasbord. Topics include: planetary environmental Armageddon plus other modes of doom, along with the American psychology of denial regarding the true direness of our present situation; the authentic rise of an American totalitarian state along the lines of Nuremberg; the egregiously overlooked…
Tag: Robert Anton Wilson
The muse and the paranormal: Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson
[UPDATE May 2014: The article described here is no longer available online (nor is the Demon Muse blog). A slightly abridged version of it can be found in the book Daimonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence, edited by Angela Voss and William Rowlandson (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013). The same version can also be found in Paranthropology, Vol….
This I Believe: An uber-agnostic on religion, psychology, consciousness, the paranormal, and the meaning of life
It has come to my attention that although I write all the time about religion, philosophy, spirituality, psychology, consciousness, culture, the paranormal, and other idea-based subjects, my own position on any or all of them generally comes off as obscure. ITEM: My friend Kim Paffenroth, the religion scholar and zombie horror author, has characterized me…
On clarity of language, thought, consciousness, and being
As a professional writer and English teacher for the past decade, I’ve been prone to think frequently about the role of language in life. One of the recurring themes in my thoughts — occasioned at least in part by some of my grad school studies in philosophy, anthropology, and sociolinguistics, and also by my being…
Robert Anton Wilson and reality tunnels: a retrospective reflection
About a week ago, horror writer Mark Samuels — who’s a friend of mine, and whom I interviewed here at the Teeming Brain a couple of years ago — started a discussion thread at the Shocklines message boards about the concept of “reality tunnels” as expressed and examined in the work of one of my…
R.I.P. Robert Anton Wilson and Douglas Harding, 1/11/07
I was rather stunned to receive the news today that two of my most cherished philosophical and spiritual influences have just died. Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) was an American author, philosopher, wiseguy, and all-around mega-genius who co-wrote, along with Robert Shea, the legendary Illuminatus! trilogy that became an instant counterculture classic when it was published…