This is fucked. Robert Anton Wilson is near death and apparently broke as hell. This cannot be allowed.

RAW wrote some crazy-ass books. Doc got me started on his fiction, namely The Illuminatus Trilogy which he wrote with Robert Shea. Then from there I delved into his non-fiction books of High Weirdness, such as Prometheus Rising, The New Inquisition, and of course, The Cosmic Trigger.

Now, while I don't necessarily believe in everything that RAW laid down in his books, the gift he gave me was opening my eyes to the fact that reality itself should be questioned. In fact, RAW himself kept such an open mind that he no doubt changed his mind about things he had written as time went on and he experienced new things and learned more. I took him at his word and didn't strongly believe his words. I learned instead that having too strong a belief in things can be bad. And that got me looking outside my reality tunnel.

This was the crack in the armor of my reliance on religion that would eventually lead me to The Jesus Seminar, other gospels, then eventually the likes of Jonathan Miller and Richard Dawkins. And now I'm a lot less delusional than I once was. But I never could have made that leap out of my own head without RAW. I'm sure that would have pleased him to know.

I owe him much. I wish I could give him more in his time of need.

I'm going to go donate right now. What I hope for him is that he will leave this world soon, and as free from pain as possible, and enter into whatever he believes is waiting for him on the other side. Whatever that might be. And I hope it's fucking amazing.