Note from Robert’s friend, Denis Berry: Sadly, we have to report that wizard-author-intelligence increase agent is in trouble with his life, home and his finances. Robert is dying at his home from post polio syndrome. He has enough money for next months rent and after that, will be unable to pay. He cannot walk, has a hard time talking and swallowing, is extremely frail and needs full time care that is being provided by several friends-fans-volunteers and family. We appeal to you to help financially for the next few months to let him die at his home in peace.

Below is an email from the Discordian mailing list.

Hail Eris!



Robert Anton Wilson needs your help. Badly.



The man who popularized Discordianism and created a juicy crazy paradigm for us to live in is dying. Yes, dying. What’s worse is that he is dying peniless, though thankfully not alone. Robert Anton Wilson is dying, and so broke he cannot pay next month’s rent.



If Discordianism has given you anything, now is the time to give back. Any funds you can spare will be appreciated (the greater the better), particularly monthly contributions to help pay his rent and expenses for the next few months while he completes his transition out of this world and into the great unknown.



I will be contributing, and I hope this message reaches some who will join me.



All monies will go directly to Robert and can be sent to his PayPal address olgaceline@gmail.com. You can also send a check to RAW c/o Futique Trust, P.O. Box 3561, Santa Cruz, Ca 95063.



This information taken from the Boing Boing post here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/02/robert_anton_wilson_.html



And from Douglas Rushkoff’s blog here:

robert-anton-wilson-needs-our-help.php



Step up, Discordians. RAW needs you.



All hail Discordia.





–St. Mae, Discordian.com

Robert Anton Wilson or RAW was born January 18, 1932, in Methodist hospital, downtown Brooklyn, New York and spent his first years in Flatbush, moving with family to Gerrison Beach around the age of 4 or 5, where they stayed till he turned 13. He is known for his work as a novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurist, anarchist, and conspiracy researcher.



His best-known work—The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975), co-authored with Robert Shea—humorously examined American paranoia about conspiracies. These books mix true information with imaginative fiction to engage the reader in what Wilson called "Operation Mindfuck". (Much of the odder material derived from letters sent to Playboy magazine while Shea and Wilson worked as editors of the Playboy Forum.) It was advertised as "A fairy tale for paranoids." Although Shea and Wilson never partnered on such a scale again, Wilson has continued to expand upon the themes of the Illuminatus! books throughout his writing career.



Ironically, considering Wilson has long lampooned and criticized new age beliefs, his books can often be found in bookstores specializing in new age material. He has claimed to have had encounters with magical ‘entities,’ and when asked whether these entities were ‘real,’ he answered they were ‘real enough,’ although ‘not as real as the IRS’ since they were ‘easier to get rid of.’ He warned against beginners using occult practice, since to rush into such practices and the resulting ‘energies’ they unleash can lead people to go ‘quite nuts.’ Instead, he recommends beginners start with NLP, Zen Buddhism, basic meditation, etc., before progressing to more potentially disturbing activities.



RAW holds the post of American director of the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON) and has appeared at Disinformation events. He has summed up his attitude towards life as one of optimism, cheerfulness, love, and good humor.

R.A.W. books & media:

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan

Prometheus Rising
Email to the Universe

Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World

Cosmic Trigger I : Final Secret of the Illuminati (Cosmic Trigger)

Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy: “The Universe Next Door”, “The Trick Top Hat”, & “The Homing Pigeons”
Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
The Earth Will Shake: The History of the Early Illuminati (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles)
Tale of the Tribe
TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution
Coincidance : A Head Test

Cosmic Trigger.

The Book of the Breast
Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati (Visions Series)
Sex, Drugs & Magick
Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words
The Widow’s Son Volume 2 (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles)
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
Wilhelm Reich in Hell
The Illuminati Papers
Nature’s God (The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles)

Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death

New Inquisition
Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups

Quantum Psychology

On Finnegans Wake and Joseph Campbell
(Audio CD – 2002)

Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything: Or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance (Audio CD – Jul 30, 2005)

Robert Anton Wilson – Maybe Logic (DVD)

Sources:

http://www.discordian.com/discordian.html
http://www.rushkoff.com/2006/10/robert-anton-wilson-needs-our-help.php

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/02/robert_anton_wilson_.html

http://maybelogic.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_maybelogic_archive.html

Related links:

Discordian site
Robert Anton Wilson @ Wikipedia

RAW on eBay

Robert Anton Wilson’s Homepage