If you’ve heard me speak for more than five minutes you’ve probably caught me dropping a Robert Anton Wilson reference (or several). Wilson is one of the most interesting (and underappreciated) writers I’ve ever come across — a Nostradamus for modern times.

I was delighted to sit down with Gabriel Kennedy, author of the excellent biography Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. I could talk about this stuff for days, and we had a blast discussing Wilson’s ideas, influence and impact. Consider it a beginner’s guide to avoiding cosmic schmuckery.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson; by Gabriel Kennedy
• The Thinker and the Prover; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Gabriel’s Substack

Show Notes:

• The most interesting man of the last fifty years?
• How can we escape chapel perilous?
• The anti-determinist, rock & roll philosophy of Bob Wilson
• Tune in: a 30 minute masterclass on the influences, ideas and impact of Robert Anton Wilson
• How to avoid becoming a cosmic schmuck
• Who influenced Wilson the most?
• Why you should read Wilson
• Gabriel as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• The Thinker and the Prover; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson; by Gabriel Kennedy
• Prometheus Unbound by Robert Anton Wilson
• Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
• Cosmic Trigger Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science by Robert Anton Wilson
• Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
• Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
• From Ritual to Romance by Jessie L. Weston
• Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
• Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics by Alfred Korzybski
• On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox; by John S. Bell
• How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser
• Character Analysis by Wilhelm Reich
• Man Meets Dog by Konrad Lorenz