Gabriel Kennedy, author of the book Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson, joins Spotlight On host Lawrence Peryer for a special live discussion about all things RAW on Saturday, November 23, 2024, at 3 PM Eastern/Noon Pacific.

Gabriel has been a guest of Spotlight On and a contributor to this website. Now, he joins us to discuss Chapel Perilous, his first book and the first biography of Robert Anton Wilson, the countercultural novelist and underground philosopher.

Registration is free, and we hope you will join us. Bring your questions. Register today. As we prepare for the big day, we offer you this peak inside the book, courtesy of the author. Enjoy.

“Everything you fear is waiting with slavering jaws in Chapel Perilous.”

Robert Anton Wilson was born at the dawn of the Nuclear Age. In the years just before his birth, amazing discoveries about the atom unleashed mythic powers leading to both the most wonderous and horrendous events in human history. When we observe the core elements of Wilson’s life and philosophy one throughline looms as large as the mushroom clouds over Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Wilson was most concerned with humanity’s ability to successfully adapt in a time of exponentially increasing change. Nothing changes things quicker than a Nuclear blast, and much like the doomed mythic hero Prometheus, Wilson sought to steal the power of fire from the gods and give it to humanity. His body of work was, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, a “defense early warning radar system,” and like Ginsberg, he saw “nothing but bombs.” However, Wilson also saw a way out. Like Nuclear fusion, Wilson’s philosophy highlights the power of collaborative creation, where the result of an experiment produces more energy than was there before. Wilson envisioned a future where the power of fusion exists and people can attain greater heights of personal glory, all while achieving relative peace on Earth. For that he was often deemed a Utopianist, however, if we look closer at Wilson’s optimistic prognostications, we find an artist whose intuition zeroes in on the deepest parts of the collective unconscious. Works like Illuminatus! Trilogy provide a firm understanding of paranoia and its influence on historical and political events. Throughout his forty-plus-year career, Wilson presented the horror of the situation, where megadeath is normalized and psychopaths are considered “leaders,” while inspiring readers to create a better world, both outside and inside themselves. A world that is achievable if we wake up to the fact that we are all far more capable than we ever realized.

Over the last few years, if we register the news headlines, the world has turned upside down and we all simultaneously find ourselves being frog-marched through the haunted halls of Chapel Perilous. At the moment, there appears little guarantee that we will come out the other side with our humanity intact as the web of Chapel Perilous numbs the senses and induces somnambulistic obedience to cruel authority if not properly defined and understood. So, what is the Chapel Perilous exactly?

The literary origins of Chapel Perilous are found in the 15th-century poem Le Morte d'Arthur (1485), by the English writer, Sir Thomas Malory. The work chronicled the mythic life of King Arthur and his chivalric adventures with the Knights of the Roundtable as they searched for sacred artifacts like the Holy Grail. On a Grail Quest, a knight would inevitably find himself in a chapel of demonic proportions, and all that previously made sense would T invert, leaving the knight in a state of shock or panic. The stench of death pervades the air, as Chapel Perilous is where “Everything you fear is waiting for you.” There are no safe spaces in the Chapel Perilous and every step is fraught with danger. In Malory’s story, Sir Lancelot must enter the Perilous Chapel to find the sword and shroud of a dead knight who was killed in the Chapel to heal a mortally wounded Sir Meliot de Logres. Lancelot endures the terror of the Chapel, finds the shroud, and heals his brother. The journey through the Chapel Perilous is not a diversion or distraction from the path, though it can present itself as such. Rather, it is a necessary trip that a sincere searcher must take to find the power to heal.

In December 2022, scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, just outside of Berkeley, California, achieved nuclear fusion for the very first time in human history! Then they did it again in July 2023. These historically monumental accomplishments offer a promising world yet to come. It is a world that Wilson presaged, one where abundance reigns supreme, where people remain open to every wonderful possibility and person that steps into their lives. It is a world full of ever-increasing cooperation, collective problem-solving, and celebration all leading to immortality and the exploration of the universe, or multiverse, forever. However, even if we fail to get there in our lifetimes, Wilson work and life also offers the opportunity to at least learn some fun coping skills required to remain a joyful and loving person despite the trauma of everyday life.

But first we must enter the door…

Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson is available on Amazon and in many other places where books are sold. Order yours now and then register for our free live event with the book's author, Gabriel Kennedy.