Robert Anton Wilson Discussion

The new season of the Member Discord Calls got off to a solid start two weeks ago:

MDC S4 E0 – Ex Machina (20-Jan-2024)

The quality of discussion, both during the call itself and in the comments section following, has been like a throwback to the heyday of johnlebon dot com.

My sincere thanks to all of the participants.

This weekend we are discussing the life and times of Robert Anton Wilson (RAW).

In 2003, a documentary about him was released, entitled ‘Maybe Logic’.

It has been uploaded to several channels on youtube, for example you can find a copy here.

The introduction section on his wikipedia page gives the following overview:

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews. In 1999 he described his work as an “attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth”. Wilson’s goal was “to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything.

In this corner of the internet, RAW is probably best known for his books ‘Cosmic Trigger’ and ‘The Illuminatus! Trilogy’.

The latter was a primary inspiration for the creator of The Illuminati Card Games.

As I wrote in my analysis of the Illuminati Card Game series circa 2018:

In 1995 Steve Jackson released The INWO Book, which provides a detailed analysis of how to play the game (strategies, deck-building, etc) as well as an explanation of how the game came to be, and the effect it had on Steve Jackson Games.

This book is, in its own right, a fascinating exploration of ‘conspiracy’ theories and tropes.

You may be able to download a pdf copy of the book here. Alternatively you can flip through it here.

The ‘bibliography’ (page 145) in particular is insightful. Jackson cites the Illuminatis! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson as ‘required reading for any conspiracy buff’.

He then lists a range of other books, fiction and non-fiction, as inspirations for the game. Names mentioned include Thomas Pynchon, Umberto Eco, and Aleister Crowley.

It is my contention that the contemporary conspiracy subculture can largely be traced back to a few key actors and influencers.

Chief among them is none other than Robert Anton Wilson.

If you are new to the site, you may not have had the chance to read my detailed analysis of the Illuminati Card Game, a multi-part series published in 2018.

I hope to republish it at some point in the future.

Either way, I’m sure you’re familiar with the Illuminati Card Games series.

Some cards from the series.

According to Steve Jackson, the creator of the Illuminati Card Games, ‘The Illuminatus! Trilogy’ was among his chief source material when researching and designing the game.

You may have read my article Truman 23, which I consider t be one of the most important pieces I have published in my ten years of ACT content creation.

Article #43 – Truman 23 (14-Jun-2018)

In that article I compared a range of scenes from ‘The Truman Show’ (1999) and ‘The Number 23’ (2007).

I arrived at the conclusion that the two can be viewed as sister / complimentary films.

This conclusion is based on how many scenes and themes from the two films seem to mirror one another.

Moreover, ‘The Number 23’ entails some serious bleed-through between the screen and ‘real life’.

There are numerous trippy things going on with Jim Carrey, some of his co-stars, and the films he features in.

It is all covered in the ‘Truman 23’ article so I won’t go over it again here.

Suffice to say that the number 23 is significant in sync not merely for its role in Carrey’s 2007 film, but also for the attention afforded it by Robert Anton Wilson of ‘Illuminatus Trilogy’ and ‘Cosmic Trigger’ fame, who describes it as the ’23 enigma’.

Wilson wrote this on the matter:

I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc.

According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident.

That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard.

Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA.

The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.

The story may be real, it may be bullcrap (which is my my suspicion), but either way, the ’23 Enigma’ was born.

It led not only to The Number 23 (2007), which is on our Schedule for later in the year, but also to Jim Carrey’s production company being named JC23.

Give this little news article from the Leader-Post a read if you have a moment, it is about Carrey and his fascination with 23.

It would appear that RAW’s influence can even be traced to Dr Clown (aka Media Bear), who was a guest on Bonversations back in 2021.

Dr Clown on Infowars

When he was a guest on Alex Jones’ show, I noticed a copy of Cosmic Trigger featured prominently on the bookshelf behind Dr Clown.

Naturally, I asked him about this during our Bonversation.

Anyhow, my point with this post was to remind you that we have another Member Discord Call coming up this weekend, and its focus will be Robert Anton Wilson.

If you have seen Maybe Logic (which is available on youtube), or read Cosmic Trigger or The Illuminatus! Trilogy, then your input would be welcomed and most valuable during the call.

If not, all good, you are still welcome to come along to the call and participate in the off-the-record sections.

Or you can skip this weekend altogether and wait for the next MDC which will be focused on Ghost (1990), or the one after that which will look at Dark City (1998).

It’s entirely up to you 👍

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Call times

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Call 1 (suits Aus)

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Call 2 (suits US)

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As always, these are the nominal start times for the calls.

If you arrive a little late, it isn’t a big deal.

I do ask that if you want to be on the recorded part of the call, you come prepared, by either watching Maybe Logic, or reading Cosmic Trigger or The Illuminatus! Trilogy beforehand.

This was a risky choice to put on the schedule so early in the season, there’s a chance nobody will actually turn up to the call.

I’ll come prepared with enough notes to monologue for an hour or two if necessary, no problems.

Let’s se what happens on Saturday, I hope to see you there 👍

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The Schedule

The full schedule for Member Calls for 2024 – here.

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