Who are Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea?
In the mid 1970s, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson restarted popular speculation with their fictional Illuminatus! Trilogy . This mixed actual history with conspiracy theory and pure invention, and very deliberately produced doubts in the reader s mind as to the nature of reality–a technique which the authors referred to as “guerilla ontology,” in pursuit of “Operation Mindfuck.” They were apparently introduced to illuminism by some of the correspondance they received while working as letters column editors at Playboy magazine. At the core of Illuminatus! is an aeons-old conflict between the conspiracies representing the forces of order, bureaucracy, and repression, represented by the Illuminati, and the conspiracies representing the forces of chaos, spontaneity and freedom, representing by the Erisians (followers of Eris, the Greek goddess of discord).
In the mid 1970s, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson restarted popular speculation with their fictional Illuminatus! Trilogy . This mixed actual history with conspiracy theory and pure invention, and very deliberately produced doubts in the reader s mind as to the nature of reality–a technique which the authors referred to as “guerilla ontology,” in pursuit of “Operation Mindfuck.” They were apparently introduced to illuminism by some of the correspondance they received while working as letters column editors at Playboy magazine. At the core of Illuminatus! is an aeons-old conflict between the conspiracies representing the forces of order, bureaucracy, and repression, represented by the Illuminati, and the conspiracies representing the forces of chaos, spontaneity and freedom, representing by the Erisians (followers of Eris, the Greek goddess of discord). The plot involves every conspiracy you’ve ever heard of, many you haven’t, monomaniacal midgets, golden submarines, giant squid, a
