Cosmic Trigger

About this book

Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of The Illuminati is the first book in the Cosmic Trigger series, first published in 1977 and the first of a three-volume autobiographical and philosophical work by Robert Anton Wilson. It has a foreword by Timothy Leary, which he wrote in the summer of 1977. The first volume was published without numbering, as the second volume did not appear for nearly 15 years. Wilson is perhaps best known as the co-author of the award-winning science fiction work [The Illuminatus! Trilogy][1]. Cosmic Trigger revisits many of the themes from that earlier work in a more autobiographical fashion. After publishing the first volume of Cosmic Trigger, Wilson wrote two sequels, Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth (1991) and Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death (1995), the title of the first book retroactively changing to reflect the series. Cosmic Trigger I deals with Wilson's experiences during a time in which he put himself through a process of "self-induced brain change" as well as vignettes of his earlier life. The main discovery of this process—which, he tells us, is known in certain traditions as Chapel perilous—is that "reality" (although a noun in most Indo-European language systems, and therefore[citation needed] commonly conceptualized as being a definite, unchanging "'thing") is mutable and subjective to the observer. Wilson employs several models for his experiences, such as the interstellar ESP connection, during which time Wilson enters what he refers to as a 'reality tunnel', in which he claims to communicate telepathically with extrat…

Themes & subjects

About the author

Robert Anton Wilson

18. Januar 1932 – 11. Januar 2007

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized by Discordianism as an Episkopos, Pope, and saint, Wilson helped publicize the group through his writings and interviews. Wilson 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".[1] His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."[2] Wilso…