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Monday 5 December 2011

Rules, The Cons and The Formula Of The Great Game

 In previous articles I have discussed The Great Game being played by nations for ultimate control of strategic locations, such as Tibet and Afghanistan. The game is also played for the hearts and minds of the people they wish to control. Make no mistake - that is everyone.
In Popular Culture
Since then I have received innumerable emails from people detailing personal and family experiences of this Great Game, as well as many emails pointing out how The Great Game is highlighted in some modern movies such as the first movie in “The Matrix” trilogy and “V for Vendetta.” However, by far the most important of these is a brave offering from writer/producer Guy Ritchie called “Revolver” In this movie he openly highlights the treasured formula for the control and manipulation of others as individuals or groups that has been studied and written about by every statesman from Cesar through Machiavelli to SunTsu.
It is vital at this time and at this point in our history that we begin to understand the rules of this Great Game, how it affects us as individuals, what we are being manipulated for and how we can defend ourselves from it. We can no longer ignore what is happening around us to postpone taking action.
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of your opponent. Miccolo Machiavelli – 1502
The Great Game, so named by Rudyard Kipling in his book “Kim,” follows simple rules and a formula that has proven effective over millennia.
A Formula
This formula is still being used today in an open con by most governments. Most governments seek to gain more advantage and control of their people by applying this formula.
The objective of the game is to have totally controlled populations by the year 2012, which means no individual is to have control over the decisions relating to their own life. Governments are using this formula to facilitate total control into reality. Instead of helping the people they govern, they become their opponents.
The formula is subtle yet blatant in effect. The huge scale on which it is played stops most people from seeing it because they can’t believe it can be that big. Yet, the vast majority of people follow this formula blindly, playing their role of victim perfectly. Like sheep, without question the majority of the population continue to give over more and more control to their opponents.
The trick to the formula is that in the end the victims are responsible for buying into and playing the game on themselves. The success of the trap relies on the self-serving part of human nature that asks: “What’s in this for me?” This grasping side of human nature takes a bait or a pay-off and doesn’t realise the consequences until it is too late. Many find it hard to believe that the formula to controlling the world can be that simple, but it is!
Still those that wish to buy out of the game can turn the tables. To do this you must be able to clearly identify the game. Those who learn the rules can see the areas in their life that are affected by The Great Game, and then they can say “No” to it. It is not necessary to play the counter game, even though individuals are often more effective at this than large controlling organizations, because individuals have more freedom to move. The simplest way out of the game is to not take the payoffs or bribes and to vocally let our governments know that we will no longer swallow the bait.
A Monkey Trap
The formula is essentially a monkey trap for humans. A monkey trap is a simple device made from a whole hollow coconut tied to a log. A small hole is drilled into the side of the shell, small enough for a monkey to slip its hand in and grasp a bait placed inside. However, when the monkey makes a fist around its bait, it cannot withdraw its hand through the small hole. The greedy stubborn monkey will refuse to let go of the bait, which allows the trapper to walk right up to it and catch it in a sack.
For humans the bait is not a lolly in a coconut. It is offers of money, prestige or security by governments that keep us hanging on so tightly. Like the monkeys, all we have to do to be free is let go of our attachment to these things.
The monkey trap is a simplified illustration yet this formula can be applied to many situations; this is because “the formula has infinite depth in its efficacy and application”(Guy Ritchie 2002) and can be played by anyone, not just large controlling organizations. More importantly anyone can refuse to play it. Refusing to participate in the game gives you back your power and freedom. You can’t refuse to play the game if you refuse to accept that there is one. The first counter trick to keeping control over your own life is to be aware that there is a game afoot and that you are a part, an integral part of it.
Rules to the Game
These are rules that apply to any game. Firstly, in every game and con there is always an opponent and there is always a victim. Which are you going to choose to be? It is a choice, and you must choose to be either one or the other. If you are currently playing the victim role, you must choose to be an opponent instead. Secondly, do not be intimidated because you think that your opponent is bigger or has more experience at the game. Each time they play they are giving you a chance to learn it from them. Each time they attempt to play it with you, you can get better. Each move they make allows you to see the game, the playing field and the objective more easily. If you can see it clearly you can avoid it.
Rule number 1:
You can only get better by playing a smarter opponent. Never underestimate any opponent. Government appears to be banal, yet look how much control over your life you have willingly given up to them. They are smart but with sufficient study and practise you will win.
“The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent.” – The Fundamentals of Chess - 1883
The art in the game is for the opponent to feed things to the victim and to make the victim think that they want them. As with chess, the opponent will offer pieces to be taken, to lead the victim into a trap. When the victim takes the things being offered, the victim feels they acquired them because they are smarter and the opponent is dumber. Caution. This is fiction. Don’t buy into this fantasy giving an illusion of control.
Rule number 2:
The more control that a victim thinks he has, the less he has. If the victim continues on this course of feeding the feeling of being clever, he will hang himself. All the opponent has to do is just help him along.
Rule number 3:
The more sophisticated the game the more sophisticated the opponent. If the opponent is very good they will place their victim in an environment that they can control. The bigger the environment, the easier it is to control. Governments attempt to construct the biggest possible environments for their games. Then they start manufacturing additional rules for their constructed environments. Eventually the victim will start playing the game by the rules that he is told to play by and he will be controlled by those rules. A victim asks what the rules are rather than thinking for themselves.
Rule number 4:
All the opponent has to do to achieve this is to distract their victim by getting them consumed by their own consumption. A good opponent will toss the dog a bone, find their weakness and give them just a little of what they think they want. The excited and hungry victims greedily pursue this small reward and voluntarily fall into a much larger hole.
An Australian Game
We had these aspects of the game highlighted for us recently in Australia with the application of a gift by the government of a $940 stimulus package handed out to 7.6 million Australian taxpayers.
The idea of the stimulus package originated with actor Russel Crowe. On an American chat show he joked that if our governments gave each person $1,000,000 the economic downturn would be over. Overnight our government was quick to implement a form of this idea; in fact most western governments around the world did so.
Many people, thinking the government was stupid, were keen to put their hand out and accept the offer of free money. Yet this gift has not proven to be free. In one fowl swoop, it has enslaved many nations.
The Australian population is now being told that the stimulus package has blown out and that we are indebted as a nation and must pay back a staggering $42 billion that this stimulus package has cost the economy. At $42 billion, each of those 7.6 million people should have received a hand out of  $5,530 each. That is over five times what was offered to us. Instead of those who received the hand out having to pay it back, suddenly all Australians are now being told that they have to pay increased and extreme taxes for the next twenty years to pay back something that we didn’t need or want until a greedy desire was artificially created for it in the media. Over 20 years with the interest being charged we will have paid back approximately 100 times what was offered to each of us.
Ironically it is estimated that ¾ of this stimulus package to low-income earners was spent on gambling. Gambling institutions have to hand 70% of their revenue back to the government in tax. Which means a cool $5,250,000,000 went straight back to where it came from. Why didn’t that figure come off our national debit? Additionally, the package was only paid to those who had filed their income tax for the year. Billions of dollars in unpaid back taxes were also collected, yet this collection of additional revenue was not reflected in the bottom line either. We are being tricked and conned and if it was a business, the government would have had to answer to auditors long ago about the mishandling of funds. Yet has there been any reaction to this? Why do we shrug it off and accept that the government will do this to us? Do you realise that we don’t have to. We can demand answers. If we demand answers there will be a back-peddling, we will have had a win, it can be remedied. We just have to step out of this collective victim consciousness that allows us to accept this untenable situation.
This scenario has played out in all western economies. Has this ludicrous situation caused a public outcry? Are people rioting in the streets about this injustice? No. The world has moved a step closer to slavery without demur. I ask you who has been conned and who really was the clever one. We still have the opportunity to not let this one slide. Will we?
Governments should never get themselves involved in any aspect of business. If this happens it is like servants dictating how the household will be run. Left alone the economy would have recovered more quickly.
Why Do So Many People Buy Into This Game?
Rule number 5:
The bigger the trick and the older the trick the easier it is to pull. Simply because the victims think it can’t be that old nor can it be that big for that many people to have fallen for it.
Some of the oldest governmental confidence tricks are still being used very effectively today. One of the oldest forms of population control across vast empires was to misdirect the people away from important issues by using their basic daily consumer needs, (which harks back to rule number four.) Julius Cesar was said to have used Wine, Women and Song to very successfully control his empire. This hedonistic tripartite motto has been a standard consumption distraction to prevent uprising against the ruling classes for millennia in all parts of the world: -
* Bengali/Hindi/Sanskrit - "Sur, Sura, Sundari" (music, wine and woman)
* Czech - "Víno, ženy a zpěv" (wine, women and song)
* Danish - "Vin, kvinder og sang" (wine, women and song)
* Finnish - "Viini, laulu ja naiset" (wine, song, and women)
* German - "Wein, Weib und Gesang" (wine, woman and singing)
* Urdu - "Kabab, Sharab aur Shabab" (meat, wine and women/beauty)
* Norwegian - "Piker, vin og sang" (women, wine and song)
* Polish - "Wino, kobiety i śpiew" (wine, women and song)
* Swedish - "Vin, kvinnor och sång" (wine, women and song)
* Spain - "Naipes, Mujeres y Vino, Mal Camino" (cards, women and wine, bad ways)
* Common British “Rum, bum, and concertina"
The Italian saying throws drugs into the mix - "Bacco, tabacco e Venere" (Bacchus, tobacco and Venus) highlighting the obsessive use of consumable tobacco, the most addictive and destructive recreational drug in popular culture. On the 26th of August 1977, punk rocker Ian Dury showed us that this standard distraction of wine, women and song still applies in our modern times with drugs, rather than alcohol now being the stupefier of choice. His song “Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll" was adopted as an anthem of a generation lost in the grip of The Great Game.
We don’t have to allow ourselves to be distracted away from the important issues. We are giving up our power if we do.
The Turkish saying highlights another couple of time-honoured distractions – “At, Avrat, Silah” (horse, woman, weapon) which these days are cars, the ultimate consumable item, sex as always, and fighting. Over 90% of our media is devoted to the idea of violent conflict in some form or another.
Fear of Violent Conflict
By this constant bombarding of us with images of violence, the media promulgates a fear of conflict, used to control the public. We don’t have to be afraid of manufactured fiction. This fictional fear has recently led to the implementation of new anti-terrorism laws universally adopted by most western nations. This new legislation has effectively removed our right to fair trial and legal process as well as gagging our freedom of speech and our right to draw attention to or criticise our own supposedly democratic governments. Are we really going to accept that without saying anything?
Also, the very sad case of the massacre in Port Arthur, which led to reforms on gun control, has been used as a tool to increase the victim consciousness of the population. This crime and the resulting increased gun control laws were duplicated within a short period of time in both the U.S. and The U.K. Is this a case of the game being played on a vast scale strategically in three western countries? Is this a manufactured problem that was given enough media to produce a public reaction till these three governments all came up with the same solution, being to make the public even more vulnerable and more open to victimisation by taking away the rights of the individual to defend themselves? These rights were established in the Magna Carta, and grandfathered into the constitutions of these three countries to specifically prevent victimisation by governments. Can we see The Great Game afoot here too?
To maintain our personal freedom we must be careful not to buy into any manufactured ‘problem,’ ‘reaction,’ and ‘solution’ scenarios. They are another form of bait.
Personal Investment
Rule number 6:
Get the victims to invest in their own demise.
“The first rule of business is ‘Protect Your Investment.’” – Etiquette Of The Banker – 1775
The media, The Great Game’s ultimate weapon of control, convinces people to invest huge amounts of themselves in these highly effective consumable distractions, as can be witnessed in any westernised city on any Saturday night.
People begin to believe that these distractions are what give life meaning. They build their egos on what a great time they had last night, how fantastic their cars or other material possessions are, the quality or quantity of their sex life, how tough they are, how much they weigh, how well they are dressed, how good they look, how much money they can make, how much of the latest slow release technology they currently have, how popular they are on Facebook, etc. People so easily believe that these ego driven pursuits are their best friends because it makes them feel good. Why do people put so much effort and time into feeling good about such things? The reality is they are only feeding an artificially created need. This feeling is only ever temporary, as next week there will be a new desire to feed, created by the media, to keep the victim as a slave to The Great Game.  The personally empowering solution: - Be yourself. Find out whom you are and what you really want to achieve and don’t invest financially nor emotionally in every new gimmick. In fact try letting go of, or giving away your investment in these things.
“I go around doing nothing else than persuading you, both young and old, not to care about the body nor money more seriously than the soul… you give your attention to acquiring as much as is possible… and reputation and honour, but you do not care and think about truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul.” – Socrates in Plato’s Apology 29
Why The Victim Defends The Opponent
Together these manufactured distractions are used as more than just bait for the trap. They are used to get the victim to defend The Great Game itself. People heavily invest in these things financially and emotionally. When this occurs the trap is almost inescapable. Because the victim so willingly falls into the opponent’s trap, you will often find victims defending their opponents. If the opponent is questioned or challenged it means the victim’s investment and thus his intelligence is questioned.
Then if a true ally challenges the opponent on the game and trap constructed around these things used as bait, this calls into question the victim’s investment and thus their intelligence. No one can accept that. Not even to themselves. Because of this media created conditioning the victim will find that their biggest opponent hides in the very last place that they would ever look... Inside themselves.
The Greatest Enemy In the Great Game
Rule number 7:
The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you will ever look. (Julius Caesar 75 B.C.) Make sure that you are not playing against yourself. Check your emotional investments. Your ego can turn you into a victim and become your biggest opponent.
If you have become a victim, the good news is that it is a simple matter to begin to break the chains. The process begins by firstly, becoming aware of the game. Victims have been lulled into a fantasy world created by the media and their own ego. WAKE UP!
Secondly, the victim needs to start to question why they are doing and feeling things. Question yourself and question everything. This will allow the victim to become conscious and start making conscious choices. As Socrates said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Thirdly, to conquer this final opponent the victim will have to relinquish their ego. Our ego is the story that we tell ourselves about ourselves. It is our ego that desires status. It is our ego that wants to take the bait, it is our ego that gets offended when it is suggested that we let go of our attachment to these things. Anything that challenges the victim’s self-perceptions or their comfortable notions becomes the opponent. Thus it is the victim’s own ego that defines all opponents. Relinquish the ego and the victim relinquishes all opposition. The easiest way for the victim to relinquish the ego is to do the things they most resist. The victim needs to challenge their own perceptions especially their perceptions about themselves if they wish to cease being a victim. This may cause a little head pain but will create freedom and give the victim back their power by taking the lid off their limitations.
“The wise man unlearns something every day”  - Loa Tzu – 600B.C.
“As for me, there is one thing of which I am certain: that all I know is that I really know nothing.” - Socrates – 399 B.C.
The Great Game gives the victim’s ego an investment in limiting their behaviour. Victims become the fleas in the jar that no longer jump higher than the limiting lid. Victims do not consciously question why they resist some things and why they mindlessly do others. Why do we resist some styles of dress or topics of conversation and yet mindlessly do others like smoke, obsess about food or weight or sex, compulsively watch TV or accept that anything the government does to us is inevitable. Break these chains and victims begin to get their freedom back.
Question authority. Question everything. - It is the responsibility of all citizens to question their government and ask: Why? Socrates – 399 B.C.
Attempts to Re-establish The Opponent’s Control
Rule number 8:
The opponent will attempt to smother, humiliate, ridicule or destroy any threat. There will be a reaction when the victim stops playing the game. Most often the victim just gets ignored. The opponent, in their arrogance, thinks that the victim can only function within its artificially constructed environment. This is not true. It was less than a hundred years ago that people did most things for themselves, without the aid of bureaucracy and computers. Income tax has only been in effect since 1906; this very controversial tax was seen as a necessary temporary measure due to a fiscal crisis. Sound familiar? Yet we managed just fine without it for all of that time. Some might say that we managed better before its introduction.
However, the opponent will try to scare the victim into believing that they need the opponent’s attention and their help or that the victim will lose out on something… respect, status, money, prestige, or the ability to use ‘the system’ (that the victim never needed to begin with, that only tries to enslave the victim the more they try to take advantage of it) if the opponent ignores the victim or closes them out. The reality is just the opposite. Yet, the ego tells the victim that if they relinquish their investment in the constructs of the opponent, they are worthless. But are they really?
If ignoring the victim doesn’t work then the next thing that the opponent will try is humiliation or ridicule. Humiliation is the opponent’s last resort. They only begin this line of attack if everything else has failed. Humiliation and ridicule are forms of propaganda. Propaganda has been effectively used since Roman times to undermine opposition to control, via publicly circulating misinformation about the intended victim. This is the method most often used in contemporary western propaganda machines to remove credibility and not let victims be taken seriously. Whenever there is any attempted public humiliation and ridicule being generated, look for what the opponent is trying to smother. Looking at whom the media attempts to publicly humiliate will allow you to see who has bought out of The Great Game. Refusing to feel any humiliation or embarrassment is the victim’s best defence against this form of propaganda. The opponent will then not be sure how to proceed and the victim cannot be victimised.
Attempting to destroy an enemy is generally not used very often these days, it creates bad public sentiment as it makes everyone feel unsafe and martyrs are the last things any opponent needs. If victims have removed themselves from the game it is wise to maintain freedom of movement. Don’t dig your heels in. Someone who is still in victim consciousness should be prepared to remove themself from harms way just in case the opponent attempts to escalate to violence. A change of location has proven to be the best defence against this line of attack.
Preventing conflict, by not digging in and holding your ground, but by giving way or not being where your opponent expects you to be, is the highest form of martial arts. – SunTzu – 680 B.C.
Winning the Game, One Mind At A Time
However, if the individual is to retain their individual power, there is an urgent need for those who are awake and aware to the tricks, cons and the rules of The Great Game, to make others aware of it. This game will be won and the opponent defeated by simply waking up one mind at a time.
“You will not easily find another such person as me, attached on the city by the gods, like a gadfly on a large and well-bred horse, that by its size and laziness is needing arousing …and persuading and reproaching… Then like the sleeping who are awakened, striking at me… that the rest of your lives you might continue sleeping…Wake Up! …You may not easily find another person who will try and wake you....”. Socrates in Plato’s Apology -399 B.C.
© Copyright Rev. Dr. S. D'Montford, Monday, April 26, 2010 Gold Coast, Australia. - Word Count 4261
Footnote: - “Revolver” is Guy Ritchie's tour de force. Every filmmaker was meant to make one film and he was meant to make this one... Excellent! I highly recommend that everyone see it at least 3 times. It will take a little for you to fully grok it. It is an indictment of our society that more people don't understand what he has created with this piece of popular culture. For those who don't, the message is simple : -
1) Stop tricking and lying to yourself.
2) Take personal responsibility and thus
3) Avoid Armageddon.
This is the message that ALL spiritual teachers like me have been trying to get through to everyone for millennia.
Congratulations on a job well done Mr. Ritchie!

Thursday 27 October 2011

How Far Does The Rabbit Hole Go???

Robert Anton Wilson
The "rabbit hole" was first used as an allegory for being lost in the maze of society by Robert Anton Wilson. Since the event of "The Matrix," it has been used for as an allegory for finding out about conspiracies  and cover ups. But when we go back to the original Lewis Carol meaning, in Alice in Wonderland, it was an allegory for finding out about one's self, tumbling head long through the twisted vaults of our own ego constructs to get back to the real "YOU."

There are the Irish legends of "The Pooka," a creature from the fairy realms in the form of a large white rabbit, that appears to individuals when they get to be a bit too full of themselves. The Pooka's job was to bring the individual crashing back down to earth, and this theme was extrapolated in the film "Donnie Darko." The protagonist, though highly intelligent and allergic to hypocrisy, is run hard up against the question... "Would the world be better off with out me?"

There are many hard questions that the rabbit hole can pose.... yet the pooka was a creature of fun and mischief. Some times those lessons learned with laughter are the lessons best remembered. This blog will attempt to make us smile as we examine those parts of ourselves we would rather keep hidden and buried deep with in the rabbit warren.

I had the privilege of being the last person to interview Robert Anton Wilson before he passed - I posed some tough and funny questions to him -
 Here I share my interview with you:-


Throwing Shoes Down The Rabbit Hole With
Robert Anton Wilson
Non-Government Health Warning:
This interview is best viewed using the windows of an open mind.
Previous reading of “Robert Anton Wilson” material will help with this.
Even so, it may seriously affect your vision of the world we live in - resulting in permanent hilarity!

Robert Anton Wilson’s legendary books make us laugh at ourselves and our darkest fears and paranoia. I had a similar feeling recently when some of my friends and I were leaving a seaside pub after a fishing tournament where no one caught anything. The pub finally closed and threw us out, one of our number was so drunk he staggered across the road, narrowly missing being run over on the way, banged rather loudly into the glass of the opposing storefront, then collapsed on his backside to the sound of our cheers. He sat there waving his head slowly back and forth in disbelief at what he had just done and yelled some slurring abuse at us to signal that nothing was hurt but his pride. Did we run over to him and fuss and pick him up? No! Though we did not understand one word of what he had just yelled at us, we took off our shoes and threw them across the road at him for the mouthful of abuse he had just served us. Once the first superbly thrown rubber thong struck him on the forehead, he sobered up considerably. He jumped to his feet and defended his honour by throwing all of the shoes back at us. We just caught them and threw them back at him again. In the middle of the barrage of returning foot-ware missiles, a visiting young Irish man ducked past us and dryly said, “Er.. That’s not quite they way we play it back home!” This reduced us all to laughter at our own impulsive inebriated foot-ware folly. Still laughing we gathered our shoes and dispersed to our own boroughs.

When we laugh at others, we are really laughing at the ludicrous and slightly distorted, carnival mirror reflection of ourselves that we see in them. Robert Anton Wilson’s books give us a skewed view of the world in much the same way and for the same reasons as these trick mirrors. Robert Anton Wilson loves to laugh at others and at himself. Moreover, his humour makes people think. To him laughter is the key to pushing the “On” button in the thinking mechanism of the mind and a lesson learnt with laughter is a lesson remembered.

Robert Anton Wilson, or Bob to his friends, has been described by his good friend Dr. Timothy Leary, the famous psychedelics proponent of the 1950-70s, as “…one of the most profound and important scientific philosophers of this century, who has written many important works of fiction and non-fiction. His vast intelligence and sharp wit are sufficient to shock and enlighten the most heavily imprinted domesticated primate nervous system.” And he is probably right! Alternatively, as Mr Wilson says: “Maybe this just proves that we (Wilson and Leary) are crazy in the same way.” Yet the fame of his wonderful irreverent humour that inspires a change of perspective in the listener outshines all of his glowing accolades. This humour has lead him to become the self appointed Pope of “The Church of “Bob” The Sub Genius” and to launch a campaign to make everyone in the world a Pope of their own belief system.
He was born on January 18, 1932, he is the author of the some 36 successful works, if you include his soon to be published, “Tale of The Tribe.” Several of his novels have become cult classics. He began writing at age twelve and worked as a part-time journalist and a full time engineer until he landed a job as the editor of American Playboy magazine
His best-known works, are “The Schrödinger's Cat” trilogy, and a complex spoof of conspiracy theories co-authored with Robert Shea, called “The Illuminatus” trilogy, which spawned the whole “Secret Society” genre of which Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” is the latest example.. These books mix information with fiction so seamlessly it is hard to tell where fact finishes and fiction begins. This engages the reader in what Bob calls "Operation Mindfuck.” Ironically, even though Bob has loudly criticised the gullibility of new-age beliefs, his books are often found in the new age section of bookstores.

His alternate philosophies have led his life in some astounding directions. He is a proponent of Timothy Leary's eight-circuit model of neuro-somatic linguistic engineering. With Leary he helped promote the futuristic ideas of Space Migration, Intelligence squared (i.e. intelligence examining intelligence to increase intelligence) and Life Extension, for which they coined the anagram S.M.I ² . L.E.  Bob is the American director of the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON) and has helped popularize such terms as:-
  • Patapsychology - a field of psychology where nothing is considered normal.
  • Fnord - a system of circulating disinformation using trigger words and phrases.
  • And an alternative belief system called – Discordianism based on chaos and discord.

I would not dream of doing an irreverent, interview with anyone else but from what I have heard of this man, it might be fun to play with him. It might be fun to throw something unusual at a man who tells us that the way of surviving unhurt, is by making outrageous statements that few can understand and often offend. So here I go, tossing the shoe at him to see what will come back to strike me in the forehead.
____________________________
S: Mister Wilson, your unique writing style moves around in time where it becomes both self-generating and self-dismantling. So perhaps you are in a good position to answer what is possibly the most profound question of all time, being :-
Which came first the Chicken or the Egg?
RAW: The sound of one hand clapping.
S: Ah! So! Is Discordianisim just ‘Zen Koans’ for the science fiction reader?
RAW: Discordianisim is whatever the reader thinks it is to them. For instance, many regarded it as a complicated joke disguised as a new religion, but I regard it as a new religion disguised as a complicated joke, you may regard it as a Zen koan for sci-fi readers or a pie in the face of the pope, or Krazy Kat’s rebuttal to Nietzsche. It doesn’t matter, Eris doesn’t give a fuck.
S: Someone once asked me that old Koan, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” The look on his face when I slapped him with one hand and said “Something like that!” was much how I felt the look on my face must have been after reading “The Principea Discordia.” Sort of shocked, like being struck on the forehead with a shoe, but with a slight increase in the glint of resentment and understanding in my eyes,  laughing at it despite myself. Many people say similar things about their first experience of it. Is that the intended effect of the book?
RAW: Partially, the major intent it to revive anarchism, nihilism and surrealism, which we badly need. Especially the bozo in the Whitehouse.
S: So which came first Discordianisim or Robert Anton Wilson? Principia Discordia is said to have been written 1959 by Greg Hill also called "Malaclypse The Younger," "Mal-2", or occasionally "The Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold"/"OPOVIG") and Kerry Thornley (also called "Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst") but it has ‘you’ written in invisible ink all over it and your name is always associated with it. Was it you who secretly wrote it, but fearing reprisals got two of your friends to take the blame? Or were they both really you? Perhaps they were two of the pen-names you were using for freelancing whilst working for Playboy Magazine?
RAW: Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley created Discordianisim, the most credit I deserve is that I was an early convert and helped shape early Discordian Atheology but Greg and Kerry deserve credit as the founders definitely.
S: Do you like apples?
RAW:  Not as much as I like pussy.
S: Aaaarr.. OK! But, I thought you really liked bunnies best because of your time spent as the editor of American Playboy magazine. In addition, you are famous for your discussions on “Pookas,” the definition of which is:- “A Europe protective house spirit that manifests in the form of an animal, often as a large white rabbit.” I fell in love with Pookas the first time I saw “Harvey” the 1951 Academy Award winning movie staring Jimmy Stewart, and a talking six-foot tall white rabbit. It highlights the value of politeness rather than intelligence as a superior way to get through life. This also seems to be a theme of your writings. To be humane as this is far more important than being impressed with how cleaver we are.
Another lesson can we learn from large white rabbits, according to your writings, is the “Theory of Poofology," the association of rabbits with UFOs and conspiracies. The pop culture move “Donnie Darko” was a remake on the “Harvey” plot showing a much darker side to the white rabbit phenomenon. In the movie “Harvey,” Jimmy Stewart starts to see the six-foot rabbit after consuming a lot of alcohol and others start to see him after Jimmy Stewart takes off his shoes, Lewis Carol portrays mind altering substances like psychedelic mushrooms and hookah smoking caterpillars after following a large white rabbit down a hole in “Alice in Wonderland.” This theme is carried on in the movie “The Matrix” where Neo is told to “…follow the white rabbit..” and then is invited “..to see how far the rabbit hole goes..” To do this they ask him to choose between two consciousness-altering pills. What do you think of this correlation between psychoactive substances and knowing what is down that rabbit hole?
RAW: The connection seems real to me, for instance, the psychedelic mushroom of Ireland is called Pookeen, which in Gaelic means 'little pookah'.  So apparently the ancient Irish thought the, mushroom was a relative of the pookah. For details see 'The Search For Irish Soma' by Hakim Bey
S: So how far down do you think that the rabbit hole might go Alice?
RAW:  At least as far as human imagination. As John Lilly says “No limits allowed, no limits exist."
S: So is “Following the Rabbit” a secret subculture metaphor for expanded consciousness and therefore a symbol of the Illuminati?
RAW: If it wasn’t before it is now.
S: What would you say to the statement that “The Illuminatus” is eerily predictive, almost as predictive and perplexing as Nostradamus
RAW: Since my co-author Bob Shea, is dead, and can’t protest, I hereby declare that he was responsible for all prophecy and anything else of a serious nature. I was only kidding around. Honestly.
S: Yes, people develop very broad shoulders once they die!
It is said that T.H.C. residue form long-term use of Cannabis can cause the levels of paranoia reached in the conspiracy theories of “The Illuminatus Trilogy.” How much of that work can be contributed to the use of that substance?
RAW: I don’t know I never tried it. Honest.
S: Oh! (Wink!) I see! My grand mother used to say to me: “Never trust a man who says “Trust me” and count your fingers after a man says “Honest”” … And you have said “Honest” twice now… hmmm…
When Julius Caesar was asked how he controlled his vast empire, he replied “with Wine, Women, and Song.” If the modern equivalent of that is “Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll.” Do you feel that you may be being used as, what you describe as, a “Useful Idiot” by the CIA to promote the narcotic aspect of that means of control?
RAW: Certainly. They pay well too!
S: An admission! So now we know. We all should have known when you ventured into the Rock and Roll area of control by releasing your own punk rock album called the “Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy.” As a self-confessed chocoholic, I would love to know, what inspired that?
RAW: An Irish rock group called “The Golden Horde” asked me to give them some lyrics and the next thing I knew I was featured on a rock record cover. They never paid me for it either. I’m pretty dumb sometimes.
S: Ah, the fickle world of rock stardom!
How do you feel about the modern Fnords such as “ Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “Terrorists” and “Axis of Evil” and what are they distracting us away from?
RAW: I’m distracted so I can’t answer. What do you think they are distracting me away from?
S: I think all Fnords, ie. trigger words and phrases, and propaganda is designed by spin doctors to distract us away from asking two questions.
·      “Why?” and
·      “Why Not?”
Controlling organisations can’t have people thinking things through all over the place! If they do that, they would ask even more questions, and when they thought about the repetitive, inane, idiocy of the rhetoric dished out by politicians they would not be able to be controlled.
You indicated to me, that you were unaware that your fellow Pope, Pope John Paul II, has just kicked the bucket! It is considered a significant thing; they delayed a royal wedding because of the funeral. I am sure you, as the Pope of your own belief system, would have been on the invitation list for the funeral. However, if you did not know this and didn’t attend, will this be taken as an inter-religious snub?
RAW: I don’t recognize his papacy. I am The Pope of the Discordian society and The Church of the Sub Genius and we don’t pat attention to the competition.
S: Did you ever send him a card from the Discordian Church making him a Pope in that organisation as well?
RAW: Yes. I also sent one to the anti-pope in southern France and he is now a pope and an anti-pope at the same time.
S: That’s very confusing and very Discordian of you. I guess that would make them card carrying “Double Popes” or a “Pope of Popes” or just “Big Poees”! Did the Vatican Pope ever issue an official statement about his double ordination or about your movement to make everyone in the world a Pope of his or her own belief system?
RAW: I never read the news from the Vatican.
S: I guess that’s why you didn’t know about his illness or death! On a slightly more serious note, I know that you are quite ill now. You are currently suffering from a fractured hip as well as your post polio syndrome. In the past you have cured yourself of polio using the Australian ‘Sister Kenny Method.’ Will you do it again?
RAW: Right now I am working on doing it again. Here’s a prepared statement about my condition.
(This statement was written in the third person I rendered it into the first person)
“I think I’m doing very well considering all the circumstances I am facing. I’m pretty candid about my condition. As you may know I have post-polio syndrome. Two years ago I could barely get off the couch because the pain in the muscles of my legs was so extreme, yet through nuero-linguistic programming and an unstoppable spirit of optimism, I have been able to walk round the house and use my electric wheel chair less and less.  It’s rather amazing I would say, I am actually improving in some ways, but my overall condition is not one that promotes great mobility or a surplus of energy.

Another symptom of post-polio is a weakening of the throat muscles, making it harder and harder for me to project my voice so public appearances are becoming less and less. This is why some of the answers in this interview are so short.  I look about ten years older than my peers and I experience a temperature difference of about 20 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the average person, also due to the post-polio. My progress is due to my optimism. I’m not one for pity, though I appreciate concern. I think I checked my ego at the door a long while ago.

The Maybe Logic Academy was created by Cody McClintock and Lance Bauscir, who made the Maybe Logic film also, as a means for providing me with a means of communicating with my fans, creating a stream of income, and providing me an outlet for my ever productive mind.  The M.L.A. has expanded beyond just my classes though they are one of the biggest draws.”

However, you still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if you tried.”””

S: So if I invite you to come and dance at my wedding will you?
RAW: I’m not doing that well yet.
S: I am a pagan marriage celebrant I perform many weddings. I can marry anyone, even you if you like! I have actually performed a Discordian wedding with lots of apples for the fairest who was, of course, the bride! In one of your other interviews, you said that you still feel the presence of Arlen, your deceased wife of 42 years. Will she be your eternal partner or will Robert Anton Wilson ever re-marry?
RAW: It’s more likely that I’ll climb Mount Everest.
S: I wouldn’t put it past you to do that or at least create a rumour that you have. However, we can lay one rumour to bed here and that is; ‘that Robert Anton Wilson is dead’… In fact he is still ‘really living!’ Apart from living, what are you doing now?
RAW: Teaching courses on line through the maybe logic academy. That’s at http://www.maybelogic.org
S: What is your aim with the online school?
RAW: To use internet to accelerate evolution and of course to annoy people who already think evolution has reached its peak.
S: I notice that your other old friend, Oberon (Tim) Zell Ravenheart has just opened up a spiritual online academy as well. You once described him as a ‘Real’ genius. How much influence have you had on each other’s work?
RAW: No funny answer here. I admire him.
S: Did you ever meet the other legendary Robert A. - Robert A. Heinlein?
RAW: Met him once very briefly, I love all of his books.
S: Do you feel that Timothy Leary is the last great Alchemist? Or are there any upcoming contenders or pretenders to his crown?
RAW: Under present circumstances, all the likely candidates would not enjoy being compared to Leary.
S: What are your plans for the future?
RAW: Get rich, get rejuvenated, and then think about getting re-married again.
S: Ah, so you just might climb up Everest after all.
You use the quality of ‘Hilaritas,’ described by Gemestos Pleython, as being the identifying mark of a God. You are so full of it, hilarity that is, are you a God?
RAW: Just a Pookah of the O’Lachlan clan.
S: So if we follow you down that rabbit hole, or just throw our shoes down it, we will be able to tell how far it does go for each of us individually.
Do you have a parting profundity or conundrum to share with my readers?
RAW: A Rabi and a Priest are walking through the park and they see a young boy, the Priest says ‘let’s screw him!’, the Rabi says ‘out of what?’
I love this joke because it offends everybody who has ever offended me.
Even though he is very ill and can barely speak, his eyes smile and glint with mischievousness. Though I have been doing most of the talking and flinging ideas around wildly, it is I who has been struck by a few flying shoes that have sobered me up but I have had a great time. He has worked his magick on me faster than I could say 23! He has shared with me his greatest gift. It is the gift of divine mirth divine, Hilaratis. He has shown, by the example of his life, that by making fun of yourself and not taking yourself too seriously, when the world tries to play jokes on you, you can throw a shoe or two back at whatever system you live in and then the world becomes a saner more divine place.
I take off my shoes and roll my golden apple to him for he has the fairest mind of our time. Kallistié
Interview © Rev. Dr. S. D'Montford – Wednesday, April 06, 2005. Sydney. Australia.
Word Count 3,386 not including Title and intro box- not including Bibliography



R.A.W. Bibliography
·       The Miracles (1944) – was his first unpublished novel at the age of twelve. It was written to be converted into a musical screen play starring Danny Kaye
·       Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words (1972)
·       Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits (1973)
·       The Sex Magicians (1973)
·       The Book of the Breast (1974)
·       The Illuminatus Trilogy (with Robert Shea) (1975)
o       The Eye in the Pyramid
o       The Golden Apple
o       Leviathan
·       Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati
·       Neuropolitics (1978) (with Timothy Leary and George Koopman)
·       The Illuminati Papers (1980)
·       Schrödinger's Cat trilogy(1980-1981)
o       The Universe Next Door
o       The Trick Top Hat
o       The Homing Pigeon
·       Masks of the Illuminati (1981)
·       Right Where You Are Sitting Now (1983)
·       The Historical Illuminati Chronicles:
·       The Earth Will Shake (1983)
·       The Widow's Son (1985)
·       Prometheus Rising (1983)
·       The New Inquisition (1986)
·       Wilhelm Reich in Hell (1987)
·       Natural Law or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy (1987)
·       Coincidence (1988)
·       Neuropolitique (1988) (with Leary & Koopman)
·       Ishtar Rising (1989)
·       Quantum Psychology (1990)
·       Nature's God (1991)
·       Cosmic Trigger II (1991)
·       Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: An Illustrated Screenplay (1992)
·       Chaos and Beyond: The Best of Trajectories (1994)
·       Cosmic Trigger III (1995)
·       The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1997)
·       Everything Is Under Control (1998)
·       TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution (2002)
·       Emails to the world – (Yet to be released)
·       Tale of the Tribe (Yet to be published)  



Robert Anton Wilson's founded his own political party called THE GUNS AND DOPE PARTY. It can be found at http://www.gunsanddope.com . He maintains his own website at http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml, which includes thoughts of the month, jokes, and many links to obscure and alternative internet sites. There is a documentary movie about Robert Anton Wilson - The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson at the Maybe Logic Academy which offers online courses and a forum with regular posts from Bob himself, at the website http://www.maybelogic.com & http://www.maybelogic.org Then there is the Robert Anton Wilson fan site at http://www.rawilsonfans.com which has a bio, comprehensive bibliography, interviews, a book cover gallery, and mp3s of his punk rock record, comedy routines, and more.