In the process of spinning this "theory" Wilson touches on everything from the Illuminati, mythology, religion, psychology, physics, the occult, etc.

This is my first exposure to Wilson and in this book he comes across as highly intelligent and well read, but also very ego-centric and paranoid.

Also, - he makes the excellent point about how our sensory perception is intricately associated with our specific chemical biology - thus hallucinagenic drugs (chemicals) alter our perceptive ability and open us up to perceiving reality in a whole new way. And it's hard not to agree with that up to a point because we, as physical beings, are awash in a cosmic sea of signals, and are only consciously aware of a tiny, tiny percent of all of that information that is around us. However, Wilson, at least in this book, never seems to question the validity of the extra information that is processed when you wack your brain out on drugs and every conceivable occult activity. Nor does he seem to question very seriously the bizarre conclusions he reaches based on this information received. And while acknowledging Leary's ideas regarding the dose, set and setting as having a strong effect on one's experience with psychedelics Wilson didn't seem to catch on that this whole UFO-alien scheme could simply have been the result of a bunch of overworked imaginations and wacked out perceptive abilities operating in a very free-thinking, government hating, ego-centric, paranoid "set and setting".

This myopic approach also is evident to the reader in that Wilson seems to raise every coincidence in his life to the spiritually significant level of "syncronicity". For example, several times during the book he mentions that it is a meaningful coincidence of great import that his daughter's first menstrual cycle came on the same day that Timothy Leary was arrested in Afghanistan?! But he never mentions WHY this coincidence is meaningful. Similarly, he is convinced that "23" is an important number in his life so any day, date, book, time, place, story, picture, conversation, etc. that includes the number 23 in any way, shape or form is taken to have some special "meaning". And because 2 + 3 = 5, the number 5 is treated likewise - as are the numbers 33,333, 666 and others. A plethera of symbols are also given meaningful status (birds of prey, etc.) So it's not hard to see why Wilson can find sychronicities wherever he looks.

It's also interesting to note that the book is packed with wild assertions about where science would be at the turn of the century (year 2000) such as people living hundreds of years, commuicating routinely via telepathy, and regular space travel via spaceships to other planets. These things, obviously having not occurred could be forgiven as overly optimistic imagining, but to the extent that they are all part and parcel of his alien theory they cast doubt on the validity of much of what he says.

Wilson struck me as an intelligent, well-read, thinker with interesting perspectives on the meaning of life. His emotional state throughout the book seemed to oscillate between loving optimism and paranoia. And while I found his ideas a good springboard to thought, it was hard ultimately to take his conclusiond very seriously. And it was clear that, while writing this book, he was so wrapped up in his own conspiracy theories and wacky ideas that he couldn't properly step outside of that box in order to objectively evaluate them, which was strange given his obvious intelligence.

Overall it's worth reading to get a strange perspective on things and I'll probably read some related material (Timothy Leary)



MEANT to be "a well-intentioned mess"   September 26, 2000
 49 out of 52 found this review helpful

First, let me say that this book is thoroughly engaging, thought-provoking, multi-layered, and completely worthy of all the praise that it's been given. Why am I giving "Cosmic Trigger" only 4 stars? Because not everybody will be ready for it. And even those who are will need to read it more than once for the full effect. Like James Joyce, who RAW seems extremely fond of quoting and whose "Ulysses" I suspect he seeks to emulate, Wilson has written a book that you just can't take in all at once.

One of the deeper "surface" lessons, the one Wilson shouts the loudest and at the same time refuses to do any more than tease you with, is that you have to decide for yourself what to believe -- but that deciding to believe anything limits what you will be able to observe in the world around you. This is heavy stuff, and ground-breaking to the average reader. As such, I've walked away from reading sessions alternately convinced that:

* Wilson is completely serious about all and sundry, straining to persuade you to approach the world with a more open mind; and

* Wilson is shoveling good-sounding but meaningless drivel on his readers for the sole purpose of a good belly laugh.

But even in this he's got a multi-layered agenda. Interpreting the book in line with one of the theories above -- as an earlier reviewer has done, with the former -- goes completely against the point of the book. WILSON IS NOT TRYING TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE. He presents no evidence nor standards of evidence (which the earlier reviewer did correctly note), EXACTLY BECAUSE his entire "surface" thesis is that one must constantly question THEIR OWN beliefs, within their own frameworks and based on their own observations (which the earlier reviewer seems to have missed).

Wilson's like that. Labyrinthine but consistent. Except he isn't, really. He ... Oh, just read the book.

In conclusion, this is a work that has earned a place on my bookshelf ... although I might have to wait a while to re-read it. "Cosmic Trigger" is a great foil to dogma of all stripes, but going through it too many times in succession makes it a piece of dogma itself, and the message gets lost.


WARNING: MAY CAUSE THOUGHT.   January 21, 1999
 22 out of 26 found this review helpful

...depending on who you are. If you are intelligent, curious, and possessed of a sense of humor, this book will do you great good: it's a very gently humorous and extremely HUMANE examination of All The Weird Things we've been living with these past few hundred years (or more), as filtered through one Robert Anton Wilson.

However... if you respond to the book by slamming it closed and calling R.A.Wilson a liar/fraud/false prophet/agent of Satan/etc., etc., then you have completely missed the point. Wilson is not trying to convert anyone to his specific point of view, but is trying to awaken people to the possibility that their own point of view may simply be very, very small and incomplete. It's big universe out there, and to hide from it in a "dogmatic reality-tunnel" (his words) is, quite simply, counterproductive and stupid. It does not make SENSE to ignore the possibilities, or to smother them with regurgitations of unexamined prejudices.

Wilson is doing something very daring here: he is trying to write a book which is NOT meant to be read by the "converted", but by everyone, really. G'wan, you Bible-pounders -- give it a shot. You could be right and you could be wrong. It's a big universe.


A well-intentioned mess   May 16, 2000
 19 out of 36 found this review helpful

I don't doubt for a minute that Robert Anton Wilson has good intentions. His book "Cosmic Trigger" is paved with them from front to back; his writing style is readable, funny, engaging, and full of charm and wit. What I do doubt is Wilson's self-proclaimed skepticism, because "Cosmic Trigger" is one of the most abhorrently credulous books I've ever read. I liked it the first time, but each time around I've liked it less and less.

The book is basically a kind of autobiography of Wilson's journey through "Chapel Perilous", as he calls it -- or the outer fringes of psychedelic thinking. Some of this material is intriguing and genuinely worth reading about, like Leary's LSD experiments with hardened criminals. But the vast majority of it is intellectual and philosophical Fluffernutter.

Wilson's all-purpose Excuse for wallowing in his "reality is plural and mutable" outlook is that since it's a big universe, anything is possible, so we might as well keep an open mind. Fine. But he doesn't say what the standards of evidence for his observations are, so any hopes of this being anything more than a free-for-all are tossed clean out the window. For someone who claims to have a great deal of respect for science, Wilson doesn't seem particularly interested in practicing it -- he'd rather smoke a blunt, write about how it felt and call that "research". And the worst part is that there are apparently no end of other people who would agree with him.

Incidentally, the follow-ups to the book are dreary and confused, with an inordinate amount of time and ammunition wasted beating the long-dead horse of how Sagan didn't fight fair with Velikovsky when he dismissed most of his claims out of hand. There, Wilson really lays himself bare: a garrulous old man who's more interested in being an iconoclast for iconoclasty's sake than in actually hitting the mark. "Cosmic Trigger" is merely a better-disguised version of the same stance. But the sort of people who are inclined to read this book are probably not interested in science as it's actually practiced anyway, so...


A Challenging Must Read Masterpiece!   January 15, 2000
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Cosmic Trigger is as hard to categorize as it is enjoyable to read.Wilson ties together strands as diverse as qauntum theory,psychology,occultism and good old down to earth skepticism into a fascinating tapestry.Readers may be offended, shocked, or incredulous,but they will also be entertained and ,more likely than not,stimulated from this experience.The main strentgh of Wilsons writing is his ability to offer the reader tools to evaluate any information,and a healthy but not dogmatic skepticism.Mix in a self deprecating sense of humour and you'll have an idea of what Cosmic Trigger 1 has to offer. I believe the great strenth of Wilson is his ability to appeal to a wide range of readers without dumbing down the dialogue.This is a book that I cannot recommend highly enough.