Editing Robert Anton Wilson (section)

==The ''Cosmic Trigger'' series and other books==
In his nonfiction and partly autobiographical ''[[Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati]]'' (1977) and its two sequels, as well as in many other works, Wilson examined [[Freemasons]], Discordianism, [[Sufism]], the Illuminati, [[Futurology]], [[Zen Buddhism]], [[Dennis McKenna|Dennis]] and [[Terence McKenna]], [[John Whiteside Parsons|Jack Parsons]], the occult practices of [[Aleister Crowley]] and [[G. I. Gurdjieff|G.I. Gurdjieff]], [[Yoga]], and many other [[esoteric]] or [[counterculture]] philosophies, personalities, and occurrences.

Wilson advocated [[Timothy Leary]]'s [[8-Circuit Model of Consciousness]] and neurosomatic/linguistic engineering, which he wrote about in many books including ''[[Prometheus Rising]]'' (1983, revised 1997) and ''[[Quantum Psychology]]'' (1990), which contain practical techniques intended to help the reader break free of one's [[reality tunnel]]s. With Leary, he helped promote the futurist ideas of [[Colonization of space|space migration]], [[Transhumanism|intelligence increase]], and [[life extension]], which they combined to form the word symbol [[SMI²LE]].

Wilson's 1986 book, ''[[The New Inquisition]]'', argues that whatever reality consists of it actually would seem much weirder than we commonly imagine. It cites, among other sources, [[Bell's theorem]] and [[Alain Aspect]]'s experimental proof of Bell's to suggest that mainstream science has a strong materialist bias, and that in fact modern physics may have already disproved [[materialist]] [[metaphysics]].

Wilson also supported the work and [[utopian]] theories of [[Buckminster Fuller]] and examined the theories of [[Charles Fort]]. He and [[Loren Coleman]] became friends,<ref>[http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/23-skidoo-raw/ 23 Skidoo] Cryptomundo.</ref> as he did with media theorist [[Marshall McLuhan]] and [[Neuro Linguistic Programming]] co-founder [[Richard Bandler]], with whom he taught workshops. He also admired James Joyce, and wrote extensive commentaries on the author and on two of Joyce's novels, ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' and [[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']], in his 1988 book ''[[Coincidance: A Head Test]]''.<ref>{{cite video | people=Bray, Faustin / Wallace, Brian (interviewers)/ Wilson, Robert Anton (speaker) | title=Robert Anton Wilson On ''Finnegans Wake'' and Joseph Campbell | medium=Audio CD | publisher=Sound Photosynthesis | location=Mill Valley | date=1988 | ISBN=1569648018 }}</ref>

Although Wilson often lampooned and criticized some [[New Age]] beliefs, bookstores specializing in New Age material often sell his books. Wilson, a well-known author in [[occult]] and [[Neo-Pagan]] circles, used [[Aleister Crowley]] as a main character in his 1981 novel ''[[Masks of the Illuminati]]'', also included some elements of [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s work in his novels, and at times claimed to have perceived encounters with magical "entities" (when asked whether these entities seemed "real", he answered they seemed "real enough", although "not as real as the IRS" but "easier to get rid of", and later decided that his experiences may have emerged from "just my right brain hemisphere talking to my left").<ref>''Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson''.</ref> He warned against beginners using occult practice, since to rush into such practices and the resulting "energies" they unleash could lead people to "go totally nuts".<ref>"Robert Anton Wilson". Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything. 2000.</ref>

Wilson also criticized scientific types with overly rigid belief systems, equating them with [[Religious fundamentalism|religious fundamentalists]] in their [[fanaticism]]. In a 1988 interview, when asked about his newly published book ''[[The New Inquisition|The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science]]'', Wilson commented:

{{blockquote|I coined the term irrational rationalism because those people claim to be rationalists, but they're governed by such a heavy body of taboos. They're so fearful, and so hostile, and so narrow, and frightened, and uptight and dogmatic ... I wrote this book because I got tired satirizing fundamentalist Christianity ... I decided to satirize fundamentalist materialism for a change, because the two are equally comical ... The materialist fundamentalists are funnier than the Christian fundamentalists, because they think they're rational! ... They're never skeptical about anything except the things they have a prejudice against. None of them ever says anything skeptical about the AMA, or about anything in establishment science or any entrenched dogma. They're only skeptical about new ideas that frighten them. They're actually dogmatically committed to what they were taught when they were in college.<ref>[http://www.nii.net/~obie/1988_interview.htm 1988 interview transcript] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060331111500/http://www.nii.net/~obie/1988_interview.htm |date=March 31, 2006 }}, KFJC, David A. Banton.</ref>}}