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{{Short description|Book by Robert Anton Wilson}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Prometheus Rising
| image             = PrometheusRisingCover.jpg
| author            = [[Robert Anton Wilson]]
| cover_artist      = Stan Slaughter
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| publisher         = New Falcon
| release_date      = July 1983
| media_type        = Print ([[Paperback]])
| pages             = 262
| isbn              = 1-56184-056-4
| genre             = {{Cslist|[[New age]]|[[Occult]]|[[Self-help]]}}
| congress          = AC8 .W719 1983
| dewey             = 133
}}
'''''Prometheus Rising''''' is a 1983 guidebook by [[Robert Anton Wilson]]. The book includes explanations of [[Timothy Leary]]{{'s}} [[eight-circuit model of consciousness]], [[Alfred Korzybski]]{{'s}} [[general semantics]], [[Aleister Crowley|Aleister Crowley{{'s}}]] [[Thelema]], and various other topics related to self-improvement, [[occult]] traditions, and [[pseudoscience]]. In the introduction written by [[Israel Regardie]], Wilson's purpose for writing the book is given as unleashing humanity's "full stature".<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Robert Anton|title=Prometheus Rising|date=July 1983|publisher=New Falcon|isbn=9781561840564|location=Tempe, Arizona|author-link=Robert Anton Wilson}}</ref>{{Rp|v.}}

== Production ==
{{sources|section|date=May 2023}}
The book examines many aspects of social mind control and mental imprinting, and 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 has found many readers among followers of alternative culture, and discusses the effect of certain [[psychoactive drug|psychoactive substances]] and how these affect the brain, [[tantra|tantric]] breathing techniques, and other methods and [[holism|holistic]] approaches to expanding consciousness. It draws a parallel between the development of one's mind and the development of higher intelligence theorized by [[biological evolution]].

''Prometheus Rising'' was published in 1983, but it began as Wilson's 1979 [[doctoral thesis]] while a student at Paideia University titled "The Evolution of Neuro-Sociological Circuits: A Contribution to the Sociobiology of Consciousness".<ref>"Robert Anton Wilson." ''St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers'', 4th ed. St. James Press, 1996. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [[Farmington Hills, Michigan]].: Thomson Gale. 2007.</ref> In 1982, while in Ireland, Wilson rewrote the manuscript, removing [[footnotes]], improving the style, adding chapters, exercises, and diagrams and illustrations. An introduction by [[Israel Regardie]] was included.

== Influence on other works ==
A brief comment made by Wilson in the book became the main seed thought for ''[[The Sekhmet Hypothesis]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Spence|first=Iain|title=The Hare Hypothesis|date=2019-02-28|publisher=Bast's Blend|isbn=9781797458762|edition=2nd|pages=9–10}}</ref> Wilson suggested that the gentle angel symbol from Ezekiel in the Bible had its modern correlation with the flower child of the Sixties.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|55}} The author of ''The Sekhmet Hypothesis'', Iain Spence, went on to compare Ezekiel's other symbols to various pop cultural trends. In ''Prometheus Rising'', Wilson compared the four Life Positions of Transactional Analysis to the four main Life Positions presented in Timothy Leary's earlier [[Interpersonal circumplex#History|interpersonal circumplex]] grid. Spence favored Leary's model and used it to describe the moods of atavistic pop culture. 

''Prometheus Rising'' is listed as one of the ten seminal works of [[extropianism|extropian]] thought in the Extropianism FAQ.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Munafo|first=Robert|date=2020-04-26|title=Selected Items from the Extropianism FAQ|url=http://mrob.com/pub/religion/extro_faq.html#qtopics|accessdate=2020-08-13|website=MROB}}</ref> It was also listed on [[Max More]]'s reading list for [[extropianism|extropians]], the Immortality Institute's reading list in ''The Scientific Conquest of Death'', and other reading lists for extropians and [[transhumanism|transhumans]].<ref>{{citation|title=The Extropian Principles 2.5|date=July 1993|url=http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Cultural/Philosophy/princip.html}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Extropian & Transhumanist Books|publisher=Nanotech-now.com|date=July 28, 2011|url=http://www.nanotech-now.com/transhuman-books.htm}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans (contents)|publisher=Immortality Institute|year=2004|isbn=9875611352|url=http://www.imminst.org/book/}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Robert Anton Wilson}}


[[Category:1983 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience literature]]
[[Category:General semantics]]
[[Category:Popular psychology books]]
[[Category:Singularitarianism]]
[[Category:Books by Robert Anton Wilson]]