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Cosmic Trigger #1

Cosmic Trigger - Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati

robert anton wilson john thompson

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Deals with a process of deliberating induced brain change. This book explores Sirius, Synchronicities, and Secret Societies; Crowley, Christ and Karma; Dope, Death and Divinity; and The Illuminati.

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1977
Series
Cosmic Trigger

This edition

Format
269 pages, Paperback
Published
March 3, 2016 by New Falcon Publications
ISBN
ASIN
B0DSY2VGSN
Language

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About the author

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robert anton wilson

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Robert Anton Wilson 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 addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs, and what Wilson called "quantum psychology".
Following a career in journalism and as an editor, notably for Playboy, Wilson emerged as a major countercultural figure in the mid-1970s, comparable to one of his coauthors, Timothy Leary, as well as Terence McKenna.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
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36(36%)
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30(30%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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Natsuki_JP
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I was ready to put this book in the 2-3. star range - at first glance, it’s filled with overly optimistic predictions of the future based on little more than conjecture and pontification. I did enjoy the imaginative tributaries of human potential that Wilson explores, but it eventually started to come across as naive. That all changed in the last section of the book when Wilson reveals it was written during a period of extreme grief due to very tragic circumstances. I realized I was reading a personal diary of a person navigating loss, and all the starry eyed hopes for the future was really form of negotiation. It humanizes the whole experience, and you immediately connect with Wilson’s vulnerability.
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Archejoiyo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Awesome, amazing, a must read, and a perfect follow-up for Illuminatus! Only that this book is a non-fiction analysis of the same weird things, for clear headed hard-hat science-type thinkers. I'm still not sure if I can believe everything it says, although he makes sure to emphasize again and again that he'd been just as skeptical about all the incredible stuff he's confronting the reader with.
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Anonymours
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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An autobiographic novel about RAW early years. Esoterism, skepticism, exploration of consciouness, philosophy, science, ufology, psychedelics, the friendship with Tim Leary and... some strange communication with other worlds. A lot more also, the cream of the cream. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a skeptic Carl-Sagan-fanboy and i'll never jump off the windom, but now it´s open and i can enjoy the views and the wind =).

And the final, when The Final Secret of Illuminati is revealed, OMG... just heartbreaking. What a tragedy. Deep, touching, but absolutely heartbreak. What a lovable and sensible man RAW is. Got me crying like a lil' bitch.
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Shara-d
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Not a single one of Wilson's predictions actually occurs within the time-frame he's suggested in this work. This serves best as a first hand account of the various stages a person intentionally manipulating their conciousness into different states in order to map meanings onto the Universe and Experience.

It also serves as a bold warning against the optimism of massive advances in technology and how that sort of personal quest for immortality ultimately ends in heartbreak and disillusionment. Wilson was savvy, but at least in this first volume, he lacks wisdom.
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Lolicon
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Cosmic Trigger is an excellent companion piece for the RAW reader, essential but also part of a larger picture. Obviously, read Illuminatus! first. And if you want to utilize metaprogramming 'magikal' powers, Prometheus Rising may be more useful.

But for a summary and rehash of all the essential philosophical takes by the great Robert Anton Wilson, enjoy this. All over the place, it covers Crowley and telepathy theories and much autobiography (sad at the end, but is what it is). Learn about the Timothy Leary 8 circuit model and how all psychedelics fit in that. Tragically, when the book gets into life-extension medical optimism the book sure feels dated as we've definitely not made the progress that was expected.

In a way, the book is a window into what was cutting edge in the 1970s, and there is value in that.

Perhaps it's still too ahead of its time, and perhaps it's not always best to be that ahead of your time that 40 years later readers are still waiting for the world to catch up to all those post-2012 space migration theories.

It is fun to refresh on Wilson every so often, because there's still no mind quite like his after all this time!
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DeN11
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Quite a naive story about the 60s simulacra with a great deal of hero worshiping of Temple's Sirius Mystery, published a short time before. The most real thing about the book is the incredibly sad retelling of the death of Wilson's daughter near to the end.
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twerking-corpse
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Robert Anton Wilson gave the modern world a great gift : a compass to navigate it with. In our increasingly complex, highly polarized modern world. I think this is the best book to get to know Robert Anton Wilson, and I think the best version is the one with the John Higgs introduction as it gives you insight on what you should expect.
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