July 23, 1973: Our old pal Robert Anton ("Pope Bob") Wilson, co-author of the
Illuminatus! Trilogy, author of
The Cosmic Trigger,
Prometheus Rising, and countless others, proponent of higher conciousness, laughter, and ridiculousness, Discordian, guerilla ontologist, enemy of "is",
is appeared to be contacted by extra-dimensional beings from the Sirius star system, setting into motion a chain of events that established his legacy as one of high weirdness' finest minds ever since.
Sure, Bob had just finished the aforementioned
Illuminatus! Trilogy and was gobbling high-quality acid like it was going out of style (hint: it was). But he was fully convinced that a Sirian intelligence had entered his mind to enlighten him, and although he later guessed that maybe it was "just his left brain talking to his right brain" and also "an enormous white bunny named Harvey", his interpretations of this Sirian communication guided much of his work thereafter, until his quote unquote DEATH in 2007.
As documented in the film
Maybe Logic, Wilson's refusal to accept or deny any one interpretation of "REALITY" was what defined him as a free thinker, and the concept was one that he fully fleshed out in
Cosmic Trigger.
From
Trigger's Wikipedia (a site which just happens to be an excellent parable for objective
and subjective "truth"):
"Wilson employs several models for his experiences, such as the interstellar ESP connection, during which time Wilson enters a belief system (or as Wilson prefers to call it, reality tunnel) in which he is communicating telepathically with extraterrestrials residing in the Sirius star system. Wilson states, however, that this belief system does not necessarily have any objective truth, which highlights his main point: that all such models—whether spiritual or scientific—are just that: models, or maps, of the world, and they should not be confused with an objective, permanent reality. Throughout the book, he makes references to specific paranormal personal and group experiences, yet he does not allow himself to become convinced of their reality apart from his perception of them. He calls this approach 'model agnosticism'."I should also mention that these are the basic tenets that Illogical Contraption itself has been built upon. But I've said too much already, so to avoid making this any more confusing (Heaven forfend!), I give you Pope Bob's own words on the subjects of Reality, Quantum Psychology, and SIRIUS (from
Maybe Logic):
"Is", "is." "is"—the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment. -RAW
So why SIRIUS? Judging from the title of this post, said star system (it's actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B) plays a central point in today's discussion. Why did a mind as vast and brilliant as Wilson's place so much importance on this one particular point in the Universe? Was it by
choice that he placed that importance, or was the connection established by an alien force indeed? For one, Wilson's cosmic awakening took place on July 23rd, 1973, and Sirius happened to be "rising" at the time. Mid-to-late July = "
the DOG DAYS" right? So what significance does
that fact hold, if any?
Who fucking knows, really? But Sirius isn't done with us yet.
February/March 1974: Another one of science fiction's greatest (and strangest) minds is possessed by Sirian intelligence. I speak, of course, of Philip K. Dick (whom
I've written about at length before), a guy who places so much signifigance on the event that he begins referring to it simply as "2-3-74" and
hand writes an 8,000-page manifesto about it (it's called the
Exegesis).
According to Dick's account, a delivery girl from the pharmacy visited his house one fateful morning in February '74 (he was recovering from the removal of an impacted molar), and an early-Christian symbol she wore around her neck just sort of.... Blew his mind open.
"I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane".
This was the birth of PKD's "VALIS" (Vast Active Living Intelligence System), a nebulous and all-encompassing concept that he wrote about at great length--most notably in the eponymous
Valis, published in 1981. Initially intended as the beginning of a trilogy (much like
Illuminatus!),
Valis was followed by
The Divine Invasion later that year, although the final chapter,
The Owl In Daylight, was unfinished at the time of PKD's death in 1982.
Wikipedia chimes in:
VALIS has been described as one node of an artificial satellite network originating from the star Sirius in the Canis Major constellation. According to Dick, the Earth satellite used "pink laser beams" to transfer information and project holograms on Earth and to facilitate communication between an extraterrestrial species and humanity. Dick claimed that VALIS used "disinhibiting stimuli" to communicate, using symbols to trigger recollection of intrinsic knowledge through the loss of amnesia, achieving gnosis. Drawing directly from Platonism and Gnosticism, Dick wrote in his Exegesis: "We appear to be memory coils (DNA carriers capable of experience) in a computer-like thinking system which, although we have correctly recorded and stored thousands of years of experiential information, and each of us possesses somewhat different deposits from all the other life forms, there is a malfunction - a failure - of memory retrieval."
PS The story of the missing PKD android is pretty nuts too.
More:
At one point, Dick claimed to be in a state of enthousiasmos with VALIS, where he was informed his infant son was in danger of perishing from an unnamed malady. Routine checkups on the child had shown no trouble or illness; however, Dick insisted that thorough tests be run to ensure his son's health. The doctor eventually complied, despite the fact that there were no apparent symptoms. During the examination doctors discovered an inguinal hernia, which would have killed the child if an operation was not quickly performed. His son survived thanks to the operation, which Dick attributed to the "intervention" of VALIS.
Another event was an episode of supposed xenoglossia. Supposedly, Dick's wife transcribed the sounds she heard him speak, and discovered that he was speaking Koine Greek-the common Greek dialect during the Hellenistic years (3rd century BC-4th century AD) and direct "father" of today's modern Greek language- which he had never studied. As Dick was to later discover, Koine Greek was originally used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint. However, this was not the first time Dick had claimed xenoglossia: A decade earlier, Dick insisted he was able to think, speak, and read fluent Latin under the influence of Sandoz LSD-25."You can find large portions of the still-mostly-unpublished
Exegesis HERE.
Yes.
No.
Well? Two of the greatest and most respected minds in modern fiction, both claiming that their consciousness had been inhabited (within 9 months of each other) by a higher intelligence from the Sirius star system? That doesn't seem at all strange, does it? They were both on LOTS of drugs, I'm sure that explains it. Hmmm... Did anything else weird happen around that time? No?
OK.Nothing to see here, please move along...
But before you go, let's discuss one more thing: DOGON.
Not you, Dagon.
DOGON.We do love our ancient aliens here at ICHQ, hence we are well-versed on the origin myth(?) of Mali's Dogon tribe, even without the help of the History (?) Channel. But for the less initiated, a visit to Robert Temple's
The Sirius Mystery (via
Dark Star1) should suffice:
"
... (Mystery
) looks in detail at the belief of the Dogon, an African tribe living in the Mali republic in the sub-Sahara, that Sirius is a binary star system. This information is impossible to obtain without using modern telescopes. Not only that, but the figure of 50 years that they allegedly claim for the orbit of Sirius B around Sirius A is absolutely accurate. The Dogon claim that this ‘sacred knowledge’ was given them by a race of god-like extra-terrestrials that came to earth from the Sirius system itself...
...A lot is made of the elliptical symbolism used by the Dogon to describe their sacred tertiary star system. They clearly identify this system as Sirius. Let us suppose that they have a long religious tradition, dating back to their Egyptian roots, then imparted through Greek migratory patterns. This tradition did indeed describe Sirius and this elliptical binary star system, but the Dogon were already separated from mainstream civilisation during the period we are interested in, namely the 1st century AD. They, like the Middle Eastern world, watched the heliacal setting and rising of Sirius each year, in the hope of seeing the appearance of the binary dark star, Nibiru. During the first century AD, it appeared, as promised.
They watched the red star appear near Sirius, and possibly watched some of its motion through the constellation of Canis Major. The perihelion passage was marred visually for the Dogon, just as it was for the Romans, Egyptians and Mesopotamians. The sense of the motion having occurred around the Sun was thus lost. It is easy to see how the Dogon would attribute the star’s appearance to Sirius the Sirius system itself: the red star appears near Sirius, moves across it and disappears. To the Dogon, the ‘Nommo star’ must have appeared to move along its elliptical orbit, brightening whilst coming towards us, and than receding back to Sirius. The tradition of the Sirius system as being the home of the gods would have been visibly played out in the heavens for the Dogon observers..."
Via occult book reviewer Joan d'Arc:
The Dogon are aware that “an infinite number of stars and spiralling worlds exist” and that all types of creatures live on other “Earths”. In addition, they say that the Nommo, the people who come to Earth in their spaceships, will come back again when their ‘star’ appears in the heavens as “testament to the Nommo’s resurrection."
Wow. It seems that Sirius has had something of a long history of communication with the people of Earth (only if you consider 5,000 years a long time, that is). Maybe Wilson and Dick were on to something... Perhaps only the highest-functioning minds amongst us are able to recognize the Sirian communication-waves, maybe Dick's "pink beam of light" really is out there, unable to connect, as it were, with all the Cro-Magnon brains present on the planet today. Then again, maybe not.
But consider this: The most important ceremony in the Dogon's ceremony-rich culture is one called
sigui, which celebrates their cosmic roots and journey into human form. The
sigui takes place only every 60 years, and when begun, lasts months and/or years. The last
sigui began in 1967 and ended in.... You guessed it.
1973.The next
sigui begins in 2027. See you there.
SIRIUS: YOU THE MAN NOW, DOG.
Anyhow, in said episode, hosts Raymond and Joe happened to bring up a rather interesting factoid--namely, that while Dr. Leary was imprisoned at Folsom in 1973 (next door to Charlie Manson, in fact), he started having weird dreams and visions akin to those concurrently being experienced by Robert Wilson, and in fact credited these dream-visions to an alien intelligence--from SIRIUS. Talk about some weird synchronicity... Not only in 1973, but in the present day as well. It turns out I wasn't, in fact, the first to make some connections about what happened back in '73--host Joe McPhall pointed out the strange similarities between PKD, RAW, and Leary's stories as well, actually taking it a step further to include the psychedelic/cosmic experiences of DMT guru Terence McKenna in the Amazon at almost the EXACT SAME TIME.
Leary wrote about his visions and theories about interstellar contact in 1973's Starseed (right), which you can begin reading HERE. A shortened version of his revelations from Sirius (which I found here) read as follows: 
Life on planet Earth has now reached this halfway point, established itself, and evolved through larval mutations and metamorphoses to the seven brain stages.
The Japanese people are the most advanced race on your planet and will give protection to the company.
TUNE IN
BROS 4 EVS.
Metallum/Last.FM
July 23, 1973: Our old pal Robert Anton ("Pope Bob") Wilson, co-author of the Illuminatus! Trilogy, author of The Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising, and countless others, proponent of higher conciousness, laughter, and ridiculousness, Discordian, guerilla ontologist, enemy of "is", 
As documented in the film Maybe Logic, Wilson's refusal to accept or deny any one interpretation of "REALITY" was what defined him as a free thinker, and the concept was one that he fully fleshed out in Cosmic Trigger.
So why SIRIUS? Judging from the title of this post, said star system (it's actually a binary star system, consisting of a white main sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B) plays a central point in today's discussion. Why did a mind as vast and brilliant as Wilson's place so much importance on this one particular point in the Universe? Was it by choice that he placed that importance, or was the connection established by an alien force indeed? For one, Wilson's cosmic awakening took place on July 23rd, 1973, and Sirius happened to be "rising" at the time. Mid-to-late July = "the DOG DAYS" right? So what significance does that fact hold, if any?
February/March 1974: Another one of science fiction's greatest (and strangest) minds is possessed by Sirian intelligence. I speak, of course, of Philip K. Dick (whom I've written about at length before), a guy who places so much signifigance on the event that he begins referring to it simply as "2-3-74" and hand writes an 8,000-page manifesto about it (it's called the Exegesis).
This was the birth of PKD's "VALIS" (Vast Active Living Intelligence System), a nebulous and all-encompassing concept that he wrote about at great length--most notably in the eponymous Valis, published in 1981. Initially intended as the beginning of a trilogy (much like Illuminatus!), Valis was followed by The Divine Invasion later that year, although the final chapter, The Owl In Daylight, was unfinished at the time of PKD's death in 1982.
PS The story of the missing PKD android is pretty nuts too.
More: At one point, Dick claimed to be in a state of enthousiasmos with VALIS, where he was informed his infant son was in danger of perishing from an unnamed malady. Routine checkups on the child had shown no trouble or illness; however, Dick insisted that thorough tests be run to ensure his son's health. The doctor eventually complied, despite the fact that there were no apparent symptoms. During the examination doctors discovered an inguinal hernia, which would have killed the child if an operation was not quickly performed. His son survived thanks to the operation, which Dick attributed to the "intervention" of VALIS.
Yes.
No.
Not you, Dagon. DOGON.
...A lot is made of the elliptical symbolism used by the Dogon to describe their sacred tertiary star system. They clearly identify this system as Sirius. Let us suppose that they have a long religious tradition, dating back to their Egyptian roots, then imparted through Greek migratory patterns. This tradition did indeed describe Sirius and this elliptical binary star system, but the Dogon were already separated from mainstream civilisation during the period we are interested in, namely the 1st century AD. They, like the Middle Eastern world, watched the heliacal setting and rising of Sirius each year, in the hope of seeing the appearance of the binary dark star, Nibiru. During the first century AD, it appeared, as promised.
They watched the red star appear near Sirius, and possibly watched some of its motion through the constellation of Canis Major. The perihelion passage was marred visually for the Dogon, just as it was for the Romans, Egyptians and Mesopotamians. The sense of the motion having occurred around the Sun was thus lost. It is easy to see how the Dogon would attribute the star’s appearance to Sirius the Sirius system itself: the red star appears near Sirius, moves across it and disappears. To the Dogon, the ‘Nommo star’ must have appeared to move along its elliptical orbit, brightening whilst coming towards us, and than receding back to Sirius. The tradition of the Sirius system as being the home of the gods would have been visibly played out in the heavens for the Dogon observers..."
Wow. It seems that Sirius has had something of a long history of communication with the people of Earth (only if you consider 5,000 years a long time, that is). Maybe Wilson and Dick were on to something... Perhaps only the highest-functioning minds amongst us are able to recognize the Sirian communication-waves, maybe Dick's "pink beam of light" really is out there, unable to connect, as it were, with all the Cro-Magnon brains present on the planet today. Then again, maybe not.
SIRIUS: YOU THE MAN NOW, DOG. 
Haters gonna hate, but the sad truth is that Dystopia were towering, immortal gods to me during my formative high school years, and it was not unheard-of for me and my semi-crusty buddies to hop in a car and drive 5 hours to go see them at Gilman on occasion. As a wide-eyed teenager, I had a much higher tolerance for things like stinky dreads and dirty street kids asking me for change to buy booze. Nowadays, not so much. But the tunes still hold up, and in my opinion, the Dystopia tracks present on this album were the best and most brutal that they ever recorded.
Indeed, all of their four songs on this album were part of the Aftermath collection (which I posted a long, long time ago), but the Skaven split works best when ingested as an entire package-- Dystopia's unhinged, misanthropic grind counterbalanced by Skaven's dark, sample-heavy crust-worship. In a way, these bands complement each other perfectly, creating the definitive documentation of what it meant to be a booze-swilling, 18-to-32-year-old East Bay scumpunk in the mid-90's.
Skaven's name, of course, comes from Warhammer's race of man-sized anthropomorphic rat-creatures, whom Wikipedia describe thusly: "In the background of the setting the Skaven are described as a clan-based society in which the number 13 holds important significance. All Skaven pay homage to the Horned Rat, their only deity, whom they worship primarily out of fear of retribution. Skaven are portrayed as sneaky, conniving, selfish, cowardly and backstabbing. They are also closely linked to plague and disease (particularly the Skaven clan Pestilens). The Skaven believe themselves to be superior to all other races, especially those that live above ground.
Despite its large population, the existence of an organised Skaven society is carefully and violently concealed from humans and other races of the Warhammer universe. Even when presented with irrefutable proof, the common man regards them as an urban legend or merely another form of Beastmen, although there is no direct link between the two species. It is a widely held belief that if the Skaven could put aside their in-fighting and distrust of each other, they could potentially take over the world: fortunately their innate paranoia and deceitful, treacherous natures make such an occurrence all but impossible."
In other news, the aforementioned Illogical Contraption Radio came in #3, download-wise, out of the 50 shows hosted on FCC Free Radio.com in our first month. 34,000 downloads from our first 5 shows! Holy shit! All credit goes to Brother Cory on this one, she show seems to be going really well despite all the drunkenness and stupidity, and I foresee a long future for it. Thanks to all the longtime IC readers who called in (Smeg, RyGar, and Alex in NY, among others), that shit was super fun and I look forward to doing it again this Friday at 10 pm.
OK, to be fair, this probably isn't that much of a surprise. IllCon Radio is truly Brother Cory (right, pictured with Genesis P. Orridge)'s labor of love, and he's been pimping it on the IllCon Facebook page for about a month already. He's done several shows with Brother Peter, Brother Erik, and Brother Al, but I've been too busy to get involved as of yet. Tonight marks my maiden voyage on board IC Radio, and it's shaping up to be a doozy.
No bullshit, I own that same dinosaur mug.
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