Robert Anton Wilson, the man who influenced and still does different generations, the guy who opened my third nostril with the multi-layered wisdom in his books, the master who made my grass green again, the rising Prometheus offering the fire for those who dare, the person thanx to whom I entered the Maybe Logic Academy and finally started this blog, seems in financial turmoil.
I was honoured to be taught by him in several online classes in the MLA, from the seminal Quantum Psychology course last year to the Tale of the Tribe (supposed to be the title of his next book), and the Non-Euclidean Politics.
During the first course Bob became siriusly ill. He has post-polio syndrome which, regarding his age (74) seems irreversible and quickly degenerative. The man with a mind the size of a continent and an ego the size of a grain of sand was lying in bed, quickly losing his capacity to move and with speech difficulties.
A few months ago some people who know him put out the news he was dying. A few weeks later he put out the mail-koan "I'm still not not" and seemed to recover a bit. His good temper and inexhaustible humor gave his fans a bit of hope… But his physical condition remains critical.
Now it seems because of the amount of health care he needs in a country with no social help (he has only the income from the sell of his books), Bob Wilson is unable to pay the rent.
In this crazy world, a sleek bad writer like Dan Brown can virtually rip off some of Bob Wilson's lesser ideas and get away with it (believe me he did) and become horribly rich; but the Discordian Pope who invented Guerilla Ontology, developped further Timothy Leary's 8 Circuit Model of the Mind, elaborated on E-prime, on Maybe Logics, Quantum Psychology, the cybernetic trickster who married NLP to Crowleyian Magick, the encyclopedic mind who examined almost every possible conspiracy (and invented some), the world authority on the mystery of number 23, the founder of Operation Mindfuck is sick in bed waiting to get evicted by his landlord.
Ffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkk!
Something seems very wrong with this picture indeed.
What can be done?
You can start by buying Bob's books.
Most are published by New Falcon Press. Check out their catalog offering his 20+ books, from philosophical essays to mind-opening novels. My favourite for this moment are his both Illuminati trilogies:
Cosmic Trigger and The Historical Illuminati Chronicles, the Schrodinger Cat Trilogy, Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology. I only miss three of his books in my library. By buying one of his books for the first time not only the royalties will help him survive, but by reading it you'll feel like to start to think at last. As one critic wrote about Bob's writings: "Like swallowing a hand grenade coated with LSD: it will either expand your mind or blow it to Kingdom Come." Or as Bob himself wrote: "think for yourself, schmuck".
You can become a member of the Maybe Logic Academy.
This is a private forum with lots of on-line courses. For a nominal fee, you can get taught 'Angel Tech' right now, by Antero Alli; 'Meta-magick' by Philip H. Farber; 'Modern Visionary Art' by Erik Davies; 'Running Your Own Cult' by reverend Ivan Stang of the Subgenius foundation, and more to come. Read here a review of the MLA. To enter the forum either you apply for one course and it comes for free, either you pay 60 $ for one year. Join me and meet some of the finest minds this side of the Pecos. Discussions about belief systems, Korzybski, kaballah, Wilhelm Reich, conspiracies, weird stuff, fun stuff, magick, and virtually whatever makes one tick. I understand some of the income goes to Bob; in fact the Academy started to help him out when he was too ill to travel around giving workshops to survive. So he started to give courses online.
If you want to know more (maybe more than you want to know), buy the Maybe Logic DVD: "The lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson". Gives the effect of the movie Videodrome to the conscious mind. Here the royalties for Bob should be a bit larger.
Finally, for those who bought all his books already, you can give a donation through paypal. All you need to do is set up a paypal account, log in and click on 'Send money'. Bob's paypal account is olgaceline@gmail.com
If you think this is a hoax, you can read more about this in Douglas Rushkoff's blog.
Update 6th october 2006
Great news. The call for help on BoingBoing gave up more than could be expected. In three days sharp, 68.000 $ were collected. This means Bob can stay in his home, he will have the health care he needs (several thousands $ a month in the USA), and especially, he feels happy again. Read his own words - and his daughter's - at
BoingBoing.
But let's not stop sending him material help. I hope I'll be able to send him (maybe even ridiculously small amounts) a bit for the years to come.
