How RAW helped Eric Wagner

[ Mike Gathers recently asked on Facebook how Robert Anton Wilson's books discussing the Eight Circuit model helped people and how they changed their lives; here is Eric Wagner's answer, reprinted by permission. 

In other "Eric Wagner news," the new and updated edition of his Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson apparently will be released soon; I will have a full announcement on this blog when I know more. -- The Management.]

Eric Wagner: I bought Prometheus Rising in 1985. My roommate Jai said, "This book seems perfect for you." I started looking for quarters and did some of the exercises in the book. Around 1988 I did most of the exercises I hadn't already done. Some I repeated many times. I spent a few years focusing on chapters from the associated day on the first 19 days of each month. (On the fifth of the month I would work on chapter five, etc.) I have found these exercises and the book in general very useful in understanding myself and my world and in changing my behavior. In the late 90's I started to translate the book into E-Prime, but just after I started I got a copy of Bob's revision of the text. He didn't put the whole thing into E-Prime, but I think he did radically improve the text. I struggled with Exo-Psychology when I first tried to read it around 1982. I came to love it, and I loved the revision Info-Psychology even more. I loved how WIlliam Gibson, etc., helped Leary's thought to evolve. I did a lot of the exercises in "Game of Life" and I found it very useful. I loved Neuropolitics and its revision Neuropolitque. I enjoyed Antero's books and I did a number of the exercises in them.

When Quantum Psychology came out, I formed a group which started the book. Then I started another group that did the whole book, and then a few years later I formed another group that worked through the whole book. I started an online group with Bob Wilson that worked through the first few chapters, and then Tom Jackson formed a group I participated in which did the whole book online. I found the exercises useful especially in seeing how differently Bob's readers interpret his ideas and how to implement them.