Prometheus Rising is a book by Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1983. It 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, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us.
Claiming to be a short book (under 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.
The book draws a parallel between the development of one's mind and the development of higher levels of intelligence throughout the course of biological evolution.
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 University Paideia. 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 the tenth printing of Prometheus Rising.
The current edition also includes an introduction by Israel Regardie.
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Famous quotes containing the words prometheus and/or rising:
“Man, became man through work, who stepped out of the animal kingdom as transformer of the natural into the artificial, who became therefore the magician, man the creator of social reality, will always stay the great magician, will always be Prometheus bringing fire from heaven to earth, will always be Orpheus enthralling nature with his music. Not until humanity itself dies will art die.”
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