 | |
| Author | Robert Anton Wilson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Stan Slaughter |
| Language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | New Falcon |
Publication date | July 1983 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 262 |
| ISBN | 1-56184-056-4 |
| 133 | |
| LC Class | AC8 .W719 1983 |
Prometheus Rising is a 1983 guidebook byRobert Anton Wilson. The book includes explanations ofTimothy Leary'seight-circuit model of consciousness,Alfred Korzybski'sgeneral semantics,Aleister Crowley'sThelema, and various other topics related to self-improvement,occult traditions, andpseudoscience. In the introduction written byIsrael Regardie, Wilson's purpose for writing the book is given as unleashing humanity's "full stature".[1]: v.
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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 certainpsychoactive substances and how these affect the brain,tantric breathing techniques, and other methods andholistic approaches to expanding consciousness. It draws a parallel between the development of one's mind and the development of higher intelligence theorized bybiological evolution.
Prometheus Rising was published in 1983, but it began as Wilson's 1979doctoral thesis while a student at Paideia University titled "The Evolution of Neuro-Sociological Circuits: A Contribution to the Sociobiology of Consciousness".[2] In 1982, while in Ireland, Wilson rewrote the manuscript, removingfootnotes, improving the style, adding chapters, exercises, and diagrams and illustrations. An introduction byIsrael Regardie was included.
A brief comment made by Wilson in the book became the main seed thought forThe Sekhmet Hypothesis.[3] Wilson suggested that the gentle angel symbol from Ezekiel in the Bible had its modern correlation with the flower child of the Sixties.[1]: 55 The author ofThe Sekhmet Hypothesis, Iain Spence, went on to compare Ezekiel's other symbols to various pop cultural trends. InPrometheus Rising, Wilson compared the four Life Positions of Transactional Analysis to the four main Life Positions presented in Timothy Leary's earlierinterpersonal circumplex grid. Spence favored Leary's model and used it to describe the moods of atavistic pop culture.
Prometheus Rising is listed as one of the ten seminal works ofextropian thought in the Extropianism FAQ.[4] It was also listed onMax More's reading list forextropians, the Immortality Institute's reading list inThe Scientific Conquest of Death, and other reading lists for extropians andtranshumans.[5][6][7]