I expected Cosmic Trigger Volume 1: Final Secrets of the Illuminati to expand my mind. I expected that once this book was read, it could never be un-read. In the introduction by John Higgs, he states that all great books are both, "utterly of their time," and that, "they transcend their time." While Cosmic Trigger certainly meets the first criterion, I'm not sure that I agree with Higgs that it meets the second. As he states, since the 1970s, history has not been kind to the scientists in this book or their predictions.

Part II of this book is certainly the most interesting. Allow yourself to consider 'what if these models are true'. How does that change your perception of reality, of the universe, of the meaning of life?

However, it is in Part III that we learn the important message of this book. Each and every one of us has the power to stop the 'wheel of karma'. What that means is that when something bad happens to you (you receive negative energy), you don't have to do something bad to someone else. You have the power to be positive, to destroy the negative energy, and instead to pass on positive energy.

On the surface, a book about drugs and magic and contact with aliens. On a deeper level, a book about philosophical agnosticism and the practice of deliberate mental metaprogramming. Entertaining and illuminating on either level.

Interesting read, follows RWA's interactions with many familiar names throughout his life.

Reading this after Prometheus Rising made it somewhat underwhelming but nonetheless, it's still a great book, especially Part 2 of the book.

One thing I didn't like and feel it made the book tiresome at times was the author's choice of "scatter" writing style, it definitely prolonged my reading.

this book... i mean wow. right up there with pkd and mckenna, you'll start having synchronicities like crazy when you read it. it led me to meet a very strange older man in san francisco; the babbling, hippy type who loves the sound of his own voice and might also be mentally unstable enough to kidnap you at the top of a cigar shaped-tower whose interior was painted by frida kahlo's lover... yes, he tried to lure me there after following me around all day talking about the cosmic trigger.
the ending of this book is dreadfully sad and makes me cry every time. the poem written by his daughter about the stars also makes me cry.
this book got me into the sirius mysteries (for which i am forever grateful) and poses many mysteries of antiquity. the sirius mysteries i would recommend over reading this book, in combination with aleister crowley. there's a bit too much pseudoscience in this book as it has aged, but still many takeaways worth the read if you're into a mindfuck initiation.

A fascinating, hilarious, and utterly strange book. Our brain constructs the world as we experience it, we always live in a certain kind of reality tunnel, and this book actively challenges us to stop taking things for granted, to not just exchange one reality tunnel for another, but to actively explore different realities without taking any to be ultimately true.
Sure, things get strange at times, and Wilson seems to take some very unlikely ideas as likely to be true. But, as he says in the newer introduction, do not take anything too seriously.
And that is where the true power of this book lies for me, in showing from a very different perspective how stepping away from our fixed views of self and from reality, opens up a path to kindness and joy, while increasing the tremendous power of humor and mystery.

Let me start by saying this: this dude wrote some serious bangers. or should i say Sirius Bangers?
I really think the reading of this one should be preceded by at least one of RAW's most seminal works, like Prometheus Rising or Quantum Psychology. It touches on some sensitive subjects - and by sensitive, I mean complete and utter maddening, looking-medusa-in-the-eye type shit. It would be best not to get into it unarmed.

This book relies heavily on the author's life experience, and goddamn if those stories aren't all worthy of a movie. There was a big, big part of me that finished the book wanting to believe in all of them - but, at the same time (what the hell is time, anyway?) there's also a small, educated and a little skeptic part of me that thinks a lot of it is bullshit - and the great thing in Wilson's prose, delightful as it is, is that it makes you recognize yourself not as one entity, but as a sort of fractal, with multiple beliefs, coexisting in this complex meat bag of a body. Truly baffling stuff.
The point is, even if it is all bullshit, its the kind of shit that should be used as manure; those are "reality tunnels" (if you don't know what those are, refer to one of the works cited above) that are really thought-provoking and can allow other creative thinking to grow. It's truly a masterclass on how we, as a species, should envision our future, and how you, as an individual, could perceive and rationalize the material world and all of your premises derived from experience.

Also aliens. And time travelling. And a good amount of Tim Leary, another one of the greats.
I choose to believe. It's way more fun.

Bollocks. Often entertaining and occasionally touching (especially at the end), but nonetheless bollocks. RAW exhibits the kind of "open-mindedness" (i.e., credulity) that typically leads one down the path of hopelessly tangled webs of wild conspiracy and overdeveloped synchronicity. This book is definitely a product of the '70s, with its breathless references to psychedelics, Timothy Leary, Aleister Crowley, space exploration, the Kennedy assassination, and so forth. RAW's predictions for the near future (effective immortality, colonization of space, higher planes of consciousness) are laughable fifty years later; like numerous otherwise intelligent "futurists," he ignores many lessons of history and basic facts about human nature. So yeah, while I'm all about open-mindedness and eschewing dogma, this is a book that goes to the other extreme and busts out the red string, connecting anything and everything!

The introductory part of this book seemed more promising than the rest of it really fulfilled. Nevertheless it is a very interesting story, sure. There is much of speculation and too much reliance on technological means. On the other side, there is a lot of information that can really inspire reader to change his view of the life and the universe. The closing part of the book is then highly emotional and, at least I have the impression, it contains the really important message.

It twisted my melon, man.

Much of the data in the book could be mere coincidence and apocrypha. Much of it could even be made up wholesale (but then again, what isn't?)

Some of it went over my head, though I'm perversely pleased that I seem to have understood most of it (which no doubt means I've understood none of it).

I don't know how much I agree with what's being said, but I love the optimism. It's easy to look back and sneer at sentiments like 'human longevity or immortality will be developed by the year 2000' or 'we will have space cities orbiting earth by the 1990s' - but remember: this is a time before Reagan and the shift into late stage capitalism that prioritises production and consumption over anything else.

It's certainly a fascinating read.

Like most books by the late Mr. Wilson, this seems to come not merely from another time, but another planet entirely. He recounts several strange events in his life, and the lives of friends and acquaintances during the 60s and early 70s. Because of their involvement in fringe science and the occult, Mr. Wilson begins to suspect that there may be something more than coincidence or random chance at work. Jung's synchronicity? Communication from extraterrestrials? Gods? Spirits? The awakening of previously dormant portions of the brain? The author remains agnostic, but does offer Timothy Larry's Eight Circuit Model as a possible explanation.

Sadly, most of the people involved are dead, their plans for a better world unrealized. Mr. Wilson made several bold predictions of a utopian future: space colonies and space migration, effortless treatment of mental disorders via pharmacology, increases in intelligence, life extension, even immortality, all before the year 2000, 2012 at the latest. Looking at the world today, the idea of a peaceful, enlightened world of exponential progress seems like a drug induced hallucination. Nonetheless, a thought provoking "what might have been."

Glad I read this book well after checking out Illuminatus!, Prometheus Rising, and Schrödinger’s Cat. It’s a heady one, but it’s also his most personal. Lots of insights into his family life and his friendship with Leary. Bummer we’re never going to get those life extension/simulated death pills.

The most interesting book I've ever read. It's taken me a long time to get Bob Wilson, but it's been worth the wait. Here is the most succinct distillation of all matters illuminated I have had the fortune to stumble upon. He is an extremely humble author, and introduces all the esoteric in a manner intended to make sense to the average reader. His privileged position within the old counter-culture, friendship with Timothy Leary, and status as an investigator of the unusual make him the perfect guide to the world of synchronicity, the paranormal, and consciousness increase.

With a final poignant twist that lifts this work above even the general milieu of New Age masterpieces, Cosmic Trigger I brings it all back home. I wonder what Cosmic Trigger II does...