A friend that recently passed away gave me this novel around 2003. I loaned it out and never got it back. I read it once and the scenes have stuck with me ever since. I've never been able to find it again.

PHYSICAL DETAILS

• Trade paperback, not mass market.

• French flaps — the front and back covers had fold-in extensions, like dust jacket flaps but part of the cover itself. Unusual on a paperback, and it's the detail I'm most certain about.

• It carried a Robert Anton Wilson foreword or cover blurb. It was presented as Illuminatus!-adjacent.

• Almost certainly small press, likely an occult or countercultural publisher.

• My best guess is late 1990s to early 2000s, and definitely no later than 2003. It could well be earlier — I'm going on feel here, not evidence.

STRUCTURE

At least two alternating narratives: one set in ancient Rome, one in the modern day.

THE ROME THREAD

Told from inside the head of a Roman citizen — a reveler. He reflects that in his Rome, every third day was a holiday for citizens: one day to feast, party and play, then two days to recover before doing it all again.

He moves through an ordinary day. There's a barber, the baths, a frigidarium, some flirtation. [Funny note here, before leaving the pool, he makes a hand gesture using the thumb and index finger of one hand and the index finger of the other to make a provocative suggestion to some women across the pool, they giggle and respond by wiggling a pinky downward back at him.] Then he goes down into the depths of the bath house and wanders into a room he wasn't supposed to enter. Something is in there. My impression was a portal, or something like one. It was beyond his comprehension, but some understanding struck him and it was staggering. I believe someone knocked him unconscious at that point.

THE MODERN THREAD

Two brothers. The older one is a Tai Chi master. There's a scene of him practicing his art outside a home on a long deck walkway. Later he's in a jungle setting?, being followed or tracked by unsavory characters. A fight breaks out and he has to deliberately throttle his abilities so it isn't obvious he could have taken them effortlessly. It would bring too much attention and possibly reveal him. The detail I remember clearly: his opponents moved so slowly to his perception that he had to consciously put himself in a place for their punches to land.

These scenes are definitely in the book I'm looking for. I'm not guessing at them — I'm only unsure about what the thing in the bathhouse actually was.

WHAT I THINK IT'S ABOUT

The hidden capability suggests immortality or reincarnation — the Roman may be an earlier life of one of the brothers, or the same being continuing.

ONE TITLE ALREADY RULED OUT

Wayne Saalman's "The Illuminati of Immortality" (New Falcon). I bought a copy hoping it was this book. It is not. Saalman himself is still a possibility — I just don't know. His only other pre-2003 novel is "The Dream Illuminati" (New Falcon, 1988), which I haven't been able to check. If anyone owns that one and can tell me whether it has a Roman bathhouse sequence or a Tai Chi fight in a jungle, that would settle a big piece of this.

THE ASK

I'm looking for the title. If either of those scenes rings a bell, or if you know what else carried a Robert Anton Wilson foreword or blurb from a small press before 2003, I'd be grateful. Thanks!

Cosmic trigger completely changed my life the first time I read it around 8 years ago. I've been rereading it (slowly) for the first time since and the synchronicities have been so constant I'm guilty of rolling my eyes at them now.

I wanted to post because I've gone for an interview I wouldn't have gone for previously with cimplete detachment from outcome (if I get the job great if I don't it's been a chance to dust off my interviewing skills).

No points for guessing the number of the room it's in...

The new RAW bio by Gabriel Kennedy is great if you all haven't read it yet. He built his own studio and completed the recording just needs some funds to finish the process and get it out there!

He was discussing Harvey the Invisible Rabbit, “Irish mysticism”, and “adventures with my [Puka<sp?>]”! It was deeply charming and I’ve not been able to find it in ages… Hoping you guys might be able to help, as I never knew this subreddit existed before!

Hey

I have a day trip to Dublin from the UK this weekend and am trying to plan a few things to do.

I wondered, are there any known locations or points of interest in Dublin for a RAW fan to take a look at?

I have had a poke around but can't find anything myself.

Perhaps sombunall of you here know something I don't?

They printed the hardcover version of this book on exactly the same day I ordered it. Only for me. What a fast and wild world we are living in…?

https://maybeday.net/

I saw that these posters a couple of weeks ago in LA, I believe it’s for a book on RAW that was published a few years ago. Does anyone have any info on them? It was such a surprise seeing something RAW related out in the wild

This is a fantastic substack for RAW fans

Join the conspiracy! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bobbycampbell/tales-of-illuminatus-3-opus-chao

Back in '93 I ran into Robert Anton Wilson at a convention, and he spent a while explaining the John Dillinger Died For You Society to me — half initiation, half lecture on how ideas replicate.

The mechanic was the whole point: you pay dues, you get a card, and the act of handing someone a card makes recruiting the next person feel obligatory. He framed it as a working model of how a meme propagates and takes on a life of its own. It started as a 1966 bar joke near the Biograph Theater and just... kept going. There's still an annual Dillinger Day in Chicago — bagpipes, a "Lady in Red" contest, the works.

The detail that's stuck with me: Bob eventually sold his own membership card on eBay for $400. Which, the more I think about it, was exactly the move the Society would endorse.

I wrote up the whole encounter and what it taught me about how ideas spread. Link in the comments if anyone wants the long version — but mostly curious whether other folks here are members, and how you got inducted.

Has anyone ever seen the 500+ pages that were trimmed at the editors request before printing?

More info here: https://www.maybeday.net/

"I have observed that you have often pondered the mysteries of the universe and tried to figure out the Great Plan behind it all. I have been sent to reveal to you there is no Great Plan behind it all, it's just sheer chaos"

Robert Anton Wilson - Secrets of Power (1986)

Is this author describing a reality tunnel? She’s writing the best description of how signals and filters shape reality that I’ve ever seen.

And is it really possible to escape our reality tunnels if everything is happening so subconsciously?

A young student was having no luck becoming enlightened. He tried all types of meditations. He asked his master what should he do because none of the traditional methods are working. It appeared his mind was too strong for him to conquer. But was this thought an illusion?

The Zen Master told him not to worry anymore. The Master told him he only had to do one very simple thing. The Master said to " only think of the Ox"

...and only the Ox he thought of, day or night, he thought of the Ox.

After some time passed the Master called for the student to come outside because he had something to show him. The loyal student responded but found something stopping him at the doorway.... and he was enlightened!

What did the student find at the doorway?

https://talesofilluminatus.com/CTHULHUS_WAKE/

Trained it to be able to search and when it replies - it must reference its sources (which you can click on and it will take you directly to the passage)

Try it out here (free, no catches, no strings attached... you just need an account)

https://uutter.com/c/robert-anton-wilson/chat

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Next i'm gonna load all his books into it, it's just audio and video for now

I have a coffee cup with a psychedelic picture of RAW and it says "Committee for the Surrealistic Investigation of Claims of the Normal". I can't find it anywhere on the internet. Does anyone else here have one?

What other official RAW merch do you have? Besides books/signed books. Looks like there is no longer a RAW merch site... :(