@RUTGERS.ARPA,@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA:Lippard.Multics@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA (02/18/85)
From: "James J. Lippard" <Lippard@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA> My copy of "Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati" is labeled as "S/F", but it is written as a nonfiction book about Robert Anton Wilson's observations about "space migration, extraterrestrial visitation, UFO contact, meditation, witchcraft, shamanic revelation, Immortalists, and hallucinatory drugs". "Masks of the Illuminati" is more similar to the Illuminatus! trilogy. It is about a man named Sir John Babcock who, with the help of an "unknown physics professor, Albert Einstein" and a "wild and obscure Irishman, James Joyce" come up against the "ancient, terrible order" of Aleister Crowley.
tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (02/19/85)
I strongly recommend Robert Anton Wilson's fiction, such as Illuminatus!, Masks of the Illuminati, and Schrodinger's Cat. I strongly counter-recommend his non-fiction except insofar as it pertains to the interesting (though unproven) neurological models of Dr. Leary. Wilson is incredibly gullible, believing in (for example) Uri Geller's psychic powers and intervention in Earth history by aliens from Sirius. He also has an extremely inflated view of himself: for example, he claims that a few weeks' depression after his daughter's murder is equivalent to having passed the supreme ordeal of "crossing the Abyss" in Western Magick. He is a dabbler, not an expert, when it comes to Magick, and as such his views on the subject must be viewed with extreme skepticism. -=- Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim CompuServe: 74176,1360 audio: shout "Hey, Tim!" "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." Liber AL, II:9.
crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) (02/22/85)
In article <261@cmu-cs-k.ARPA> tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) writes: > ... Wilson is >incredibly gullible, believing in (for example) Uri Geller's psychic powers >and intervention in Earth history by aliens from Sirius. Or else he simply has fooled you with a better "willing suspension of disbelief" than you expect. > He also has an > ... He is a dabbler, >not an expert, when it comes to Magick, and as such his views on the subject >must be viewed with extreme skepticism. which is more or less the view suggested by Crowley on his own stuff. What the hell, his views make at least as much sense as Billy Graham's. By the way, my direct path to you has ceased to work, I think. If you can figure a new path (assuming you actually see this), let me know. >-=- >Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center >ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim >CompuServe: 74176,1360 audio: shout "Hey, Tim!" > >"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are >but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." >Liber AL, II:9. -- Opinions stated here are my own and are unrelated. Charlie Martin (...mcnc!duke!crm) "I am not a number, I'm a free variable!"