'Lost' Beethoven work found

Classical music lovers like to try to figure out who was the greatest composer of all time. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven are usually nominated for the honor, and scholars have been studying the three for years. So it's a surprise to periodically read about a lost work by Beethoven being found.

Here is the latest such article, about a lost hymn that Beethoven modified. The article includes links to pieces about other lost works. (Hat tip, John Merrit).

It would be great if a really major Beethoven work could be found, but alas, this NPR story about the discovery of Beethoven's 10th Symphony came out on April 1.

Eric Wagner's 'Cat' course

With Eric Wagner's Maybe Logic Academy course on the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy drawing near (it starts Nov. 19) I thought I'd note that for me, one of the highlights of Eric's Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson was his essay on The Homing Pigeons.

Lots of other Maybe Academy courses that are coming up look interesting, too; Erik Davis has a class on Cosmic Trigger and classes also will be offered by David Brown, the Rev. Ivan Stang and Lon Milo  Duquette. Full list of upcoming offerings is here.

Quantum Psychology, Chapter 19

[In this chapter, I have mostly copied the exercise, modifying just a bit for the online circumstances. -- The Mgt.]

Let each member of the study group say aloud, "I do this exercize because ... "and then attempt to state "all" the reasons. For instance, you will do this exercize because you are participating in this online discussion group. Why did you join it? How did you get interested in the topics discussed in this book? How  did you find the discussion? How did you arrive at this particular blog among all of the Internet sites around the world?

Carry the analysis further. How did you happen to be born? That is, how did your parents come to meet and mate? How did they come to be born? Amid all the wars, earthquakes, famines and other disasters of human history how did those genetic strains which combined in you survive when so many other genetic strains disappeared?

How did this continent emerge in geological evolution? Can you estimate how many migrations, wars of conquest, economic upheavals etc. led to the genetic strains of your father and mother coming together?

Attempt in at least a rough, vague way to account for the formation of the planet Earth and the appearance of life on Earth.

When each  member has had a chance at this game consider the improbability of all of you coming together at this location on the Internet, at this time, to do this exercize.

It will probably prove necessary to do this exercize at least three times before the full meaning sinks into the neurons.

Fly's RAW radio show

I finally got a chance to sit down and listen to Steve 'Fly' Agaric's recent radio show, COZCON: Fly by Night with Steve the Fly 06,  an episode from Radio Amsterdam, produced by Steve and John Sinclair. (It's hard for me to find time to listen to a streaming program uninterrupted. I don't have a smart phone, so I have to do it at home, rather than during my long daily work commute.)

Anyway, I enjoyed it. The show artfully mixes music with RAW sound bites, and the music is mostly jazz of the sort that RAW enjoyed. (Pretty bitching Charlie Parker track on the show, by the way. I have quite a bit of Bird's music but didn't recognize "Cosmic Rays.")

 Steve's other RAW shows on Radio Amsterdam are SCHROEDINGER'S CAT: Fly by Night 09,  and Nutty Logic With Steve Fly.

I like the Facebook group

I said some grumpy things about Facebook in my last posting on Dan Clore's new group, but I do like the group and hope more of y'all will join.

At the end of the day, the main virtue of Facebook in 2012 is that it's where the people are. The group already has 137 members, and it's fun to join the group just to go through the list and see who's there. I saw some familiar names, and also some names that were  unfamiliar to me, such as Donald Meinshausen, who "Helped found the current libertarian movement by act of ceremonial magick or the draft card burning at the 1969 YAF convention," and folks such as Gavriel Discordia PsyIndustries, George Dorn (he's listed as a member), Raw Fnord, Zanryu Darkheart and Johnny Occupy Lemuria.

It's worth pointing out, I think, that being connected can involve not being on Facebook very much. One I joined, all of the postings on the wall were emailed to me. I only have to log in if I want to make comments and post something myself. You can join and still prefer Twitter, as I do, or join and still hold social media in general in disdain.

UPDATE: Mr. Dorn has now confirmed me as a Facebook friend. Thanks, George!

A new Kennedy assassination theory

Over the years since President John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, there have been many theories about what actually happened. The conflicting ideas are not easy to summarize in a short blog post. But most of these theories fall into two categories: (1) Oswald did it all by himself (2) There was a conspiracy involving other folks.

Well, now you don't have to choose! There's a new theory — propounded by a former British diplomat in Moscow, Robert Holmes — that Oswald was the assassin, but was controlled by a KGB rogue element that wanted revenge for the Soviet Union's humiliation the previous year in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Holmes believes that if Oswald hadn't been shot by Jack Ruby, the KGB somehow would have disposed of Oswald to keep him from talking. A new book by Holmes, A Spy Like No Other, advances the theory. It's apparently only out in Great Britain now, but if you're in the U.S. and you can't wait, Amazon will connect you with some sellers.

Thanks to John Merritt for calling the book to my attention.

"Who the hell was Zelenka?"

In the first chapter of The Homing Pigeons, the first book of the Schroedinger's Cat Trilogy, Frank Dashwood turns on the radio and hears a catchy Baroque tune:

Zelenka, he said. Who the hell was Zelenka? Same period as Bach, I'm sure.

I asked Eric Wagner if RAW was a particular fan of composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. Eric's reply is here.

The Allmusic bio of Zelenka makes the composer sound like someone RAW would like: "Zelenka was best known, in his own time as in ours, for his harmonic and dynamic daring. An indefatigable experimentalist, he pushed the often conventional harmonic language of the Baroque to its limits, frequently using chromaticism in general and unresolved chains of suspensions in particular. Zelenka's dynamic markings, quite unusual for the Baroque, bring to mind a composer of the Romantic era. It is to his credit that the unusual devices he employed were woven into a composition's basic concept, and not treated as mere tricks."

For more, see Discover Zelenka.

Pot legalization issues on ballot in three states

Three western states in the U.S. have marijuana legalization issue on the ballot on Nov. 6, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. Jacob Sullum has a roundup on the latest polls at Reason's Hit and Run blog. Sullum is consistently excellent in covering "war on some drugs" issues; you can follow him on Twitter.

RAW on General Semantics and sex

Bruce Kodish, a General Semantics expert who is writing the first full length biography of Alfred Korzybski and who blogs at Korzybki Files, has generously shared a previously "lost" Robert Anton Wilson article with me, "Sex1, Sex2.......etc." which I have posted under "Feature Articles and Interviews." It's taken from a 1959 issue of the "Training Division Newsletter" of the Institute of General Semantics. (Incidentally, Wilson refers at the end of his article to a planned sequel, but Mr. Kodish has not found any sign of it in the archives.)

Quantum Psychology, Chapter 18

[I reproduce the exercizes unchanged here. As with many of them, they will likely make the most sense of you have actually read the chapter in question. -- The Mgt.]

1. J. Edgar Hoover, head of our secret police for over 50 years, now appears to have lived the life of an active homosexual. He kept files on the sexual behavior of politicians, business people, actors and anybody who could advance or harm his career, and used these files for blackmail.

Try to figure out Mr. Hoover's imprinted and conditioned selves, according to the above analysis.

2. Try the same on Jesus Christ.

3. Try Thomas Jefferson.

4. Let each member of the study group pick some subject or victim -- not part of the group, but someone the member sees daily. Let the member study that person carefully and analyze which selves appear most often, how frequently the selves shift, and which self (if any) appears dominant most of the time.

5. This exercize will seem the hardest in the group, but try it, anyway. Observe yourself for a week, and try to see which selves appear most often, if one self appears dominant, etc.

alt.fan.rawilson members mull a move

The folks who participate at the alt.fan.wilson Usenet group have been discussing whether their platform is cool because it's old school or a crummy old platform that makes them less visible to the Internet at large. The discussion was kicked off by Brian Shields, who wrote, "I love interacting with you guys but I just never go to Usenet anymore (most of my friends under the age of 25 have never HEARD of Usenet).

"So can we reform this as a Facebook group or some other platform that people actually use and thus we might reach a new audience instead of just talking to ourselves?

"Or am I being unrealistic?"

The gist of the discussion that follows is whether the group should increase its visibility by migrating to Facebook. The downside of this is that everyone would have to hang out on Facebook.

In related news, Dan Clore has created a new Facebook group for Wilson fans. I've joined, although to tell you the truth, I don't like Facebook very much. The upside is that is where the people are, although the Usenet group would never been completely invisible as long as sites such as this one and Maybe Logic Academy link to it. I guess nobody wants to hang out at Google Plus? I should add that there are lots of postings already at the Facebook group, which I guess validates Mr. Shields' original point. High drama -- will Eric Wagner and Michael Johnson join Facebook?

More Illuminatus! bibliography items from Andrew Crawshaw

Andrew Crawshaw, who has been posting a series of entries on his blog that provide a bibliography for Illuminatus!, has posted a new entry, for for Malkuth (i.e, the Tenth Trip, in Leviathan.) His previous Illuminatus! entries, including previous bibliography posts, are here. I've added a link under "Resources."

No Governor No. 10 posted

I have posted issue no. 10 of "No Governor," Robert Shea's "Zine of Illuminated Anarchism," in the "Feature Articles and Interviews" links on the right side of the page. Issue No. 10 has no Robert Anton Wilson material this time, but there are discussions about RAW and about topics explored in Illuminatus! That said, I would add that my interest in Shea has grown since I began this blog and that Shea, and not just Wilson, is worth paying attention to. Issues of "No Governor" are posted with the permission of Robert Shea's son, Mike Shea, who maintains the official Robert Shea web site. Again, I would like to thank the kind folks at the University of Michigan library for making these materials available.

Assorted Links

Bobby Campbell is maintaining a page where he posts links to all of the episodes of Agnosis posted so far. (Also posted, for your convenience, under "Resources."

A book on Ezra Pound's economics theories. (Hat tip, John Merritt.)

Timothy Leary's prison correspondence with Carl Sagan. 

Video of Leary interviewed at Folsom Prison.  (Thanks again to Mr. Merritt.)

Jack Sarfatti's VALIS experience. (He's mentioned in Cosmic Trigger I, and probably also other RAW books.) Via Ted Hand, on Twitter,

"It very quickly turned into a very strange book."

John Higgs (aka JMR Higgs, the byline for his excellent novel The Brandy of the Damned) has written a new book about Robert Anton Wilson. Do we get to read it? Maybe, maybe not.

In a blog post following up on the announcement that Higgs has written an essay on RAW and the KLF for a new book, Higgs reveals that the new article is adapted from a new book:


The essay as adapted from a book I wrote earlier in the year called KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money. That book was intended as a response to the burning of a million quid on the isle of Jura by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. It is a story about Discordianism, Dada, Situationists, Alan Moore, Ken Campbell, Robert Anton Wilson and the alchemical properties of Doctor Who.

Now I won't lie; it very quickly turned into a very strange book and it troubles me. The original plan was to put it out around now but at the moment I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it. I'm toying with the idea of only printing five copies that you can't buy, but which you can borrow. In this network era when everything is available to anyone - or it's not available to anyone - that seems strangely appropriate for a book about The KLF.

I don't have to make a decision for a few weeks, however, when it returns from its final copy edit. On the one hand I want it out as a record of the influence Robert Anton Wilson had here in the UK, because I'm very fond of Robert Anton Wilson. On the other hand, I would do much better shelving it to concentrate on the new novel that will be finished by the end of the year, The First Church on the Moon, because that is turning into something truly peachy.

So, we'll see.

Obviously, I'm hoping both books eventually are released. 

The Beatles and magick

Not sure how much of this to credit yet, but Oz Fritz has a fascinating, trippy post that explores the connections between The Beatles, Aleister Crowley and magick. The Beatles do seem to have more of an interest in Crowley than I realized, and I've read a lot of books about the group.

Quantum Psychology, Chapter 17

[The first exercize does not seem doable in an online discussion, but here is the second and third. -- The Mgt.]

2. Rewrite the following sentences in E-Prime:

A. Dr. Reich was a quack.
B. Sister Kenny was a quack.
C. "Everybody is a bit queer except me and thee, and sometimes I wonder about thee."
D. Cancer is caused by worry and depression.
E. Cancer is caused by a virus.
F. The cause of schizophrenia is sexual repression.
G. Schizophrenia is caused by genetic predisposition.
H. She is a Catholic, so therefore she is against abortion.
I. "Evolution is no longer a theory. It is a proven fact." (Variations on this came forth from several biologists during recent controversies with Bible Fundamentalists.)
J. "The whole New Age is Satanic." (Rev. Pat Robertson.)
K. "Reality is whatever you think it is."
L. "Nothing is. Nothing becomes. Nothing is not." (Aleister Crowley, Book of Lies (falsely so called).
M. "Bob is. Bob becomes. Bob is not. Therefore, Bob is nothing." (Ivan Stang, Book of the Sub-Genius.)

3. Re-write the following questions in E-Prime.

A. Are all diseases psychosomatic?
B. Are some UFOs really alien spaceships?
C. What is Justice?
D. What is Art?
E. What is the cause of poverty?
F. What is the cause of war?
G. Why are there so many homeless people in this rich country?
H. "It's pretty,  but is it Art?" (Kipling.)

Higgs on the KLF and Robert Anton Wilson

Darklore 7, an anthology of original articles covering "hidden history, fringe science and general Forteana," has just been released. It includes an article on Robert Anton Wilson and The KLF by the excellent John Higgs. It's available via the usual online outlets, including the U.S. and British Amazon sites. Higgs posted the fine illustration for his piece by IsoBan, so I'm posting it here.

'Lost Studio Session' now a free listen

I ran out and bought Robert Anton Wilson's The Lost Studio Session as soon as Joseph Matheny found it and made it available, but now you can listen to it for free. Matheny has posted it for free streaming at the wonderful Robert Anton Wilson Fans site.

If you still want to buy  your own copy, follow Matheny's links.

Robert Shea on 'Natural Law'

The Connections column in September/October 1987 Nomos quotes Carl Watner's response to the moral riddle posed by Robert Anton Wilson in his book, Natural Law, or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy.

After quoting Wilson's account of Conchis's dilemma in The Magus: either he beats three prisoners of war to death or the Nazis execute every male in the village, Watner proceeds to give us what he deems the correct answer to the question:

If the principle of "no aggression against non-aggressors" (that is, libertarians all agree that it is morally improper to violate the rights of innocent persons) can be used to identify libertarians, then why does Wilson find this such a riddle? Doesn't he agree that it is wrong to kill innocent men? Of course, it is hard to think that 300 people may die but shouldn't libertarians be prepared to let justice be done, though the heavens may fall?

I took down my copy of Natural Law or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy, just to see if Watner was being fair to Wilson. I re-read Wilson's full explanation of why he poses this riddle:

The totally hypnotized, of course, have an answer at once; they know beyond doubt what is correct, because they have memorized the Rule Book. It doesn't matter whose Rule Book they rely on -- Ayn Rand's or Joan Baez's or the Pope's or Lenin's or Elephant Doody Comix -- the hypnosis is indicated by lack of pause for thought, feeling and evaluation. The response is immediate because mechanical. Those who are not totally hypnotized -- those who have some awareness of concrete events in sensory space-time -- find the problem terrible and terrifying and admit they don't know any correct answer.

I don't know the "correct" answer either and I doubt that there is one.

In the light of the above, it would appear that Watner either failed to understand, or chose not to address, Wilson's point. In any case, with a ringing cry of, "Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall!" he appears to have impaled himself upon it.

[From No Governor issue No. 10, which I will post next week -- The Mgt.]

Libertarian power trio

Bobby Campbell sent me this link, commenting, "I found a video you might particularly enjoy."

Indeed, I did (although in fact I downloaded the handy MP3 file, so that I could listen to it during my commute). It's a video of Walter Block (author of the libertarian classic, Defending the Undefendable), Robert Anton Wilson and Dr. Demento, in a panel discussion on "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll" at the Libertarian Party's 1987 national convention in Seattle. Each panelist speaks for about 20 minutes (in the order I listed them,) then they took questions. Lasts about half an hour.

I did not know that Dr. Demento is (or at least was) a libertarian; his show is no longer nationally syndicated but is still available here.  Dr. Block's book is available as a (legal) PDF download here.

Assorted links

Raw milk farmer acquitted through jury nullification. (Hat tip, John Merritt). Also see the new book put out by the guy who runs the web site, which has an eye in the pyramid on the cover.

The leaked Vatican documents.  (Via Hagbard Celine on Twitter, @amoebadesign, who Tweeted me the link. When I commented, "Thanks, almost like a supplement to Illuminatus!" he replied, "We're all living within the lost 500 pages of Illuminatus!, just waiting to be collated and printed ;")

The sorry truth about military drones. 

The Moby Dick Big Read.

Fly Agaric 23's latest RAW projects

Our Amsterdam correspondent, Steve "Fly" Pratt, (aka DJ Fly Agaric 23), busy as usual, emails his latest news, about a series of radio programs on RAW that he's launched (the first one is up and available to anyone on the Internet) and his new RAW360 site. Here's Fly:

I made 5 new RAW inspired radio shows, to be broadcast/uploaded every Wednesday at radio free Amsterdam:

Kitchen
Cats
Cozcon
Drugs
Politics

The first went up last week, the second tomorrow.

RAW360, the site is still on the edge of launch, and looking spectacular. I have said that before. I keep my fingers crossed that we will launch public within two weeks.

The shows are a joint project of Mr. Pratt and counterculture legend John Sinclair, the guy John Lennon once wrote a song about. I'll also note the Mr. Sinclair was the manager of the band MC5, mentioned in Illuminatus! Steve's show is part of Mr. Sinclair's Radio Amsterdam project. When RAW360 launches, I'll blog and put up a permanent link.

Quantum Psychology, Chapter 16

[The original exercise, with an Internet link added. -- The Mgt.]

Obtain a copy of High Weirdness by Mail, by Rev. Ivan Stang, (Simon and Schuster, 1988), a catalog of dissident groups in the U.S., covering the full spectrum from the fairly plausible (and possibly important) to those that appear totally "nutty" to almost all the rest of  us. Pick out five groups that seem sane and plausible, and five that seem totally crazy, and send for a packet of their literature. (Stang gives mailing addresses for all of the groups he reviews). Study the literature and discuss in the group.

Do some of the plausible groups look less plausible when analyzed operationally and skeptically? Do some of them seem, maybe, as important as a dissident group in Nazi Europe publishing evidence that the moon doesn't consist of ice? And -- do any of the "nut groups" look less nutty when you analyze their arguments?

[The Church of the SubGenius has assembled a handy list of "High Weirdness by Web" links, so that you don't have to track down a revised copy of the book and wait for the literature to arrive! The link is here. All praise to the Rev. Ivan Stang, the Discordian Pope of Cleveland. -- The Mgt.]

Big Dick sale on Amazon

Amazon's Kindle Daily Deal today is a good one -- 14 Philip K. Dick novels for $1.99 apiece.  The books offered included the Hugo Award winning The Man in the High Castle and all three "Valis" novels, so it's a good selection, too.

Now I have to watch 'Chinatown'

Eric Wagner has an interesting post on the influence of the film "Chinatown" on the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy. As per usual, the comments are worth reading, too.

Snippet from Eric: "I remember having dinner with Bob in 1995. I wanted to talk about my Finnegans Wake study group, and he just wanted to talk about his Orson Welles study group."

Jesse Walker discusses libertarianism

I was interested in the dialogue that New York magazine posted the other day between MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Jesse Walker, a Reason magazine editor who often pops up in these pages. I thought the discussion on Walker's libertarian views was particularly interesting, inasmuch as he's trying to explain himself to someone who isn't a libertarian.

I liked this:

Jesse: One thing I've learned from the left is that social movements are ultimately more important than electoral politics. Obviously that isn't an either/or thing. But in the end I'm more interested in building a movement that can pressure politicians who don't agree with me than installing politicians who do agree with me.

Also this exchange:


Jesse: Have you ever voted third party? Not counting fusion votes.

Chris: I have.

Jesse: Who?

Chris: I cast my first vote for president for Ralph Nader in N.Y., in 2000. Had I been in a swing state, I would have voted for Gore.

Jesse: I almost always vote third party. I have voted for the Libertarian Party's nominee in every presidential election of my lifetime, save one. And more often than not, I think they've put up a terrible candidate. You have to hold your nose pretty tight to vote for a guy like Andre Marrou. But I did it anyway, telling myself I was registering a generic protest vote for liberty rather than a specific protest vote for the standard-bearer. So you could make the case that I'm a lesser-evil voter, too.

Chris didn't ask Jesse the obvious follow-up question: Who was the one Libertarian candidate you couldn't bring yourself to vote for? So I wrote Jesse and asked. His answer:

In my first election I voted for Dukakis. While I had my problems with Ron Paul, I prefer him to most of the nominees that I *did* vote for; I just wasn't ready to fully abandon the major parties yet.

This leads me to post another question. Does anyone know if Robert Anton Wilson ever voted for a Libertarian Party candidate for president?

John Merritt on Mrs. Jesus

John Merritt says he's still working on the Mrs. Jesus problem, but his initial thoughts are worth sharing:  "I may have comments later on the renewal of the "Was Jesus Married?" kerfluffle, but that will take some thinking and maybe trying to figure out how to show Coptic in the blog--rather than being lazy and amateurish and just transcribing it. The Cliff Notes version: Of course he was married, because his parents would have probably have arranged a marriage for him before he got out of his teens. This assumes, of course, the existence of a flesh-and-blood human who had a normal upbringing for Jewish children at the time. Contamination from Gnosticism -- particularly Docetism, the belief that Jesus/Christ had no material component -- has skewed things a bit.

"In the meantime, the Forbidden Gospels and PaleoJudica blogs are places to start. The latter especially has been staying on top of all the mudslinging discussion."

Other interesting stuff in John's posting, which you can find here. My initial posting on the so-called 'Gospel of Jesus' Wife' is here.

Update on the site

I have posted issue no. 9 of Robert Shea's anarchist fanzine, "No Governor," in the Feature Articles and Interviews section of this site. I suspect that any ILLUMINATUS! fan would enjoy going through the issues; you'll see some familiar names. RAW was one of the contributors, and you'll also see bylines such as Neal Wilgus and Arthur Hlavaty. I'll continue posting issues as they become available. I've also put up links to my recent interview with Steve Pratt -- worth checking out if  you missed it -- and posted a link to the letter about the Illuminati published in "Playboy" magazine while RAW worked there.

You have have noticed that I have revamped some of my other links, putting up a new "Sangha" section to highlight new postings on some of my favorite blogs.

If anyone has suggestions for improvements or additions to this site, I will do my best to listen.

Interesting theory of consciousness

[Robert Anton Wilson snippet reprinted from RAW Data, the blog of the official RAW site, July 23, 2010 -- The Mgt.]

Maybe consciousness resides in the nonlocal domain of quantum mechanics, "beyond," "beneath" or "behind" the space-time continuum? Local [ego] conciousness then represents the aspects of the nonlocal filtered thru the local tribal reality-grid as imprinted in neuro-circuits. Looking for conscioussness in the brain then resembles looking for Jay Leno in the TV circuits...

See refs in my books to Bohm, Walker, Herbert and other physicists who have proposed variations on this model. See also Shelldrake's morphogenetic field theory in biology.

This model explains ESP, premonitions, shamanism, psychedelic trips, mystic oneness etc which fundamentalist materialism cannot explain & therefore denies. Said denials seem unconvincing to those who've had said experiences.

Maybe.

amor et hilaritas,

bob

(above quote from an email to Bob's private email group, The GroupMind)

The above is a useful background for the first episode of Bobby Campbell's AGNOSIS comic, posted here.

Quantum Psychology, Chapter 15

[These exercises seem useful for an online group, so I simply reproduce them  here. -- The Mgt.]

1. Each member of the study group had a particular gloss or reality-tunnel imposed in childhood. Discuss your parents' gloss and to what degree this still determines the universe you perceive.

2. Play-act that your group have all grown up in a Moslem nation. Discuss how that would influence the reception of the ideas in this chapter.

3. Try the same exercize with the group play-acting a class of engineers in a Moscow university.