Prometheus Rising
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| Prometheus Rising | |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert Anton Wilson |
| Cover artist | Stan Slaughter |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Self-improvement/philosophy & morality; publisher description: "Psychology/Social Commentary" |
| Genre(s) | Nonfiction |
| Publisher | New Falcon Publications |
| Publication date | 1983 |
| Media type | Softcover |
| Pages | 262 |
| ISBN | 1561840564 |
| OCLC Number | 38328352 |
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson 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, Christian Science, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us.
Claiming to be a short book (nearly 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, which examines many aspects of social mind control and mental imprinting, 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, which has found many readers among followers of alternative culture, also 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.
Copyrighted and published in 1983, Prometheus Rising began as Wilson's Ph.D. dissertation called "The Evolution of Neuro-Sociological Circuits: A Contribution to the Sociobiology of Consciousness" in 1978-79 for Paideia University. In 1982, while in Ireland, Wilson rewrote the manuscript for commercial publication, removing footnotes, bolding up the style, adding chapters and exercises, and sketching out diagrams for the illustrations. Eventually Wilson submitted the work to New Falcon Publications, which accepted it within 48 hours. Wilson received his advance 48 hours after that, according to his preface in tenth printing of Prometheus Rising.
