Robert Anton Wilson tapes new to Internet

‘No-one can imagine a divinity more intelligent than themselves.’ (Wilson’s first law of psycho-theology) – RAW, interview tape, 1991

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Finally got around to digitising several hours of old RAW cassette tapes. Please check out the resulting MP3 files below. I’ve looked everywhere online to see if these talks/interviews have previously been uploaded (eg at RAWilsonFans.org or RAWilsonFans.de or Youtube. I also checked commercially available RAW recordings). As far as I can see, the digitised tapes below seem “new” to the Internet (please let me know if I’ve overlooked anything).

Optional long-winded background

After I moved to North Wales in 2007, I lent a box of old Robert Anton Wilson cassette & VHS tapes to my mountain hermit pal, Marky Moon. I’d acquired the tapes in the 1980s/90s, but I’d gone digital, whereas Marky and his wife still used ancient cassette and video machines.

While visiting, I decided to take the old mountain railway to the summit of Snowdon. Unfortunately, the orange smoke billowing from the train sent me into a continuous sneezing fit, which frightened the local feral goats, and didn’t stop until I got to the chemists at Llanberis, where I took anti-histamines. A bit drowsy after that, and don’t remember much, but I do recall a German tourist at the top of Snowdon remarking, “This is the most crowded mountain I’ve ever been on”. It did seem a busy summit – I’ve been in quieter supermarkets.

Fast-forward to a few months ago. I was trying to remember a RAW quote from one of those 1980s tapes: in which he talks of being “seduced by the Goddess”, in a kind of “guru” comedy routine with E.J. Gold, in which E.J. plays the “no pain, no gain” strict-father Sufi, in contrast to Wilson’s nurturing “flow state” Surrealist sage. I hadn’t listened to the tape in decades, and I wanted to get the exact quote. But no prob – I’d seen online versions available at both the RAW Fans archive sites (US & Germania).

Or so I thought. Turns out that the Goddess quote – the section that stuck in my mind – doesn’t appear there. But those online versions definitely sound like the same Wilson/Gold session. What the feck? I decided to get the tapes back from Marky. And now they’ve arrived, they seem more of a treasure trove of RAW content than I remember. (I’d assumed it’d all be on Youtube by now, but apparently not). The quote I remembered is present in all its glory – it appears to be the same RAW/E.J. Gold session, but an extra “missing” hour of it.

The tapes

Aside from the above-mentioned talk featuring E.J. Gold (titled ‘Secrets of the Illuminati’), of which I’ve digitised the second hour* (the first hour being already available here & here – update: now removed, see below*), the only other tape with a (barely) readable printed label is titled “Why I’d like To Make Hot Jungle Love To Hilary Clinton” (that’s the exact wording/spelling – “Hilary” with one “l”). Another tape – an interview – was titled ‘Self Defining Space’, when it still had its label. Only the RAW/EJ Gold tapes have their original printed sleeves.

(*Update: I’ve now removed the EJ Gold/RAW audio, sorry, as I’ve been informed that it’s available for purchase – see comments section. The first hour of this recording has also now been removed from the RAW Fans sites/Youtube channels).

Note: In addition to the tapes I’ve uploaded as MP3 files, there’s a whole bunch that I’ve left – other RAW tapes that appear to have versions already on the web (or commercially purchasable in some form), plus miscellania with only indirect RAW connections – some old Israel Regardie Golden Dawn cassettes, and a few recordings of talks by Phil Laut and others, etc. Maybe I can upload some of those if any interest is expressed and there are no issues arising (intellectual property rights, etc – I try to be sensitive to such matters, and I don’t want to disadvantage anyone by making this stuff available). I have the full set of Trajectories audio cassette tapes – #11 (1992), #13 (1994), #15 (1995/6), #18 (1997) – and of those I find only #13 & #15 available online. But, for the above reason, I’m not sure about uploading the others, In any case, the transcripts are now available in Beyond Chaos and Beyond, although, as Scott Apel points out, in edited, excised form (and without sound effects and background atmospherics).

Highlights

Bob covers several of his signature ideas/motifs, and many outstandingly interesting diversions also arise – often from questions asked (someone wants to know what he thinks of the Olympics; a guy asks if he draws; somebody prompts his fascinating comments on Olaf Stapledon, etc – to give a few relatively minor examples. I’ve left the best ones for the listening).

And some perhaps surprising factual tidbits/trivia – The New Inquisition originally planned for hardcover publication by Thames and Hudson in England; The Earth Will Shake in fact originally published in hardback in 1982 (by J.P. Tarcher), etc.

The Unabomber and Ayn Rand both have prose styles that remind RAW of Joseph Stalin. He elucidates why, exactly, he rates crime author George V. Higgins so highly on fictional dialogue. He talks about UMMO and libertarianism and FIJA (“I agree with the libertarians on some things, and I disagree with them on some things.”).

The remaining (uploaded) ‘Hilary’ tape unfortunately doesn’t contain his remarks about Hillary Clinton, but we know Bob liked her a lot from his Trajectories newsletter commentaries, and elsewhere. (I wonder what he’d make of the apparently overwhelming spread of the “Hillary Clinton Is Evil Personified” MIND VIRUS that’s had so many millions of dollars pumped into its dissemination by creepy right-wing US “think-tanks”. It looks like a kind of mass insanity to many of us over here in the UK, even given the general low regard we hold for most politicians).

The Sausalito tapes remain, for me, a stand-out. RAW seems like he’s really cookin’ with rocket fuel here – enough of it to migrate to other star systems just by listening! The ethnomethodological aspects of Bob’s longevity and “immortality” interests get an airing. The S.M.I².L.E. thing always had an important non-“literal” (or “psychological”) side to it.

‘Secrets of the Illuminati’ – Tape 2, sides 1 & 2
Robert Anton Wilson & E.J. Gold, Cosmicon Convention, San Francisco, 1980.

(Update: I’ve now removed the MP3s for this recording, sorry, as I’ve been informed that it’s available for purchase – see comments section below)

“Why I’d like To Make Hot Jungle Love To Hilary Clinton” (sic)
Recording of RAW in 1996. This is tape 2 (side A & very brief side B combined). Tape 1 got mangled in a cassette recorder years ago, unfortunately.

Sausalito talk, 1984 – tape 1, side A
Bob talks about the future & other things, leading to a Q&A section.

Sausalito talk, 1984 – tape 1, side B

Sausalito talk, 1984 – tape 2, side A

Sausalito talk, 1984 – tape 2, side B

Interview with RAW, 1991 – side A
(Originally titled, ‘Self-defining Space’)

Interview with RAW, 1991 – side B