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Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson.jpg
Robert Anton Wilson in 1991
Born
Robert Edward Wilson

January 18, 1932
Brooklyn, New York
DiedJanuary 11, 2007 (aged 74)
Spouse(s)
Arlen Riley Wilson
(m. 1958; died 1999)

Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized by Discordianism as an Episkopos, Pope, and saint, Wilson helped publicize the group through his writings and interviews.

Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."

Wilson was a major figure in the counterculture, comparable to one of his coauthors, Timothy Leary, as well as Terence McKenna and others.

Early life