Deconstructing Yourself

Michael Taft speaks with Erik Davis about author Robert Anton Wilson, anarchism in the 1970s, Terrence McKenna, P.K. Dick, psychedelics, cultures of awakening now and then, Zen practice, and more. Erik Davis is an author, podcaster, award-winning journalist, and popular speaker based in San Francisco. He is probably best known for his book TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, a cult classic of visionary media studies that investigates how our fascination with technology intersects with the religious imagination. And his podcast, Expanding Mind has long been a favorite of mine.Techgnosis.comShow Notes0:25 – Introduction2:58 – Erik’s book, High Weirdness, Drugs, Visions, and Esoterica in the Seventies6:11 – The impact of Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger; guerrilla ontology; libertarianism, anarchy, and radical individualism13:34 – Wilson’s anarchism’s basis in his cosmic view against institutionalized and concentrated power15:43 – Ontological anarchism – ‘multiple perspectives all the w