Name: Prometheus Rising
ISBN: 9781561840564

Prometheus Rising

Prometheus Rising is a book by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1983. It is a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, relativity, and quantum mechanics, amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us, and claiming to be a short book (under 300 pages) about how the human mind works and how to get the most use from one. Wilson describes it as an "owner's manual for the human brain". The book examines many aspects of social mind control and mental imprinting, and provides mind exercises at the end of every chapter, with the goal of giving the reader more control over how one's mind works. The book has found many readers among followers of alternative culture, and discusses the effect of certain psychoactive substances and how these affect the brain, tantric breathing techniques, and other methods and holistic approaches to expanding consciousness. It draws a parallel between the development of one's mind and the development of higher intelligence theorized by biological evolution. Prometheus Rising was copyrighted and published in 1983 but began as Wilson's Ph.D.

What Hacker News says

ryandvOct 2024

- Neuromancer, William Gibson

- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

- The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson

- Anathem, Neal Stephenson

- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

- Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Jon Erickson

- The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

- Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson

- Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune

- Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling

thread

balder1991Jun 2024

This is one reason I really enjoyed reading Prometheus Rising. A significant part of the book is dedicated to show you just how little you actually know about reality when you discount beliefs you acquired either extrapolating experiences or simply adopting some dogma (even if it’s simply believing Positivism in science). In the end it’s impossible for us to even assess whether there is a reality out there.

thread

SirensOfTitanJun 2023

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson, surprised to be the first to mention him in this thread, but in high school his ideas changed how I think about everything from mysticism to subjectivity to how I engage with ideas and being wrong.

thread

tompstonAug 2022

RAW is great!

Haven't read Illuminatus trilogy, but the first chapters of Prometheus Rising had an interesting framework for how you can view the world. Definitely recommend!

thread

hackingthelemaNov 2021

> There are a few non-fiction books, though I'm blanking on the key author's name.

I don't know if he is who you had in mind, but Robert Anton Wilson -- who was one of the writers on the Illuminatus! trilogy -- has at least two non-fiction books on it. One is Prometheus Rising, the other is Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World. They are both a series of essays with exercises at the end of each chapter. If I remember correctly, Quantum Psychology was more about language and semantics, and Prometheus Rising was more about belief systems and viewpoints.

Quantum Psychology is both written in and a guide to E-Prime, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime (Edit, via wiki: 'E-Prime refers to a version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be, including all conjugations, contractions and archaic forms. Some scholars advocate using E-Prime as a device to clarify thinking and strengthen writing.')

thread

davidwfSep 2021

I'm reluctant to even mention it, but I'll bite. :-)

I found the first half of "Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson to be incredibly useful for understanding human dynamics -- I use the framework presented there every day. The core of this is in my opinion just a very straightforward computer-focused analogy that gives me insight into the behaviour of other people and myself that I haven't found elsewhere.

Of course, outside the core is a LOT of wild new age, Crowley-Leary-Regardie syncretism that provokes strong negative throw-the-book-across-the-room reactions in most people. A lot of very reasonable people would look at the wikipedia page or the cover of this book and not only think that the book is crap, but also that I'm a crazy hippie for even considering reading it.

thread