Rating: 
Summary: By and by this one is my favorite...
Review: This is my favorite of R.A.W.'s. It is everything it says it is. Funny, Fun and a bit enlightening as well. This guy has a great mind and, it seems to me, a greater heart. Prometheus Rising delivers a big dose of hope, wit and legal mind expansion for those so inclined.
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Summary: Pages of Mind-deconstructing Joy
Review: Wilson presents a hopeful and useful and theory of mind, which is no small feat. But more importantly, he admits that the model presented, which is based off of Leary's work, and all others, are not the Truth. "The map is not the territory." The writing is very funny and entertaining, but perhaps academic rigour is mitigated by the hilarious style. This book turned me from an ordinary high school sophmore into a transhumanist/philospher/artist/magician/model agnostic. Many years have passed and this book still rocks my world. I recommend this tome as highly as any in the universe.
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Summary: An Intellectual Skyscarper of a Book
Review: Boy oh boy have you got a treat coming to you from this piece of work. Robert Sheaffer from The Skeptical Inquirer states that Wilson describes himself as a guerrila ontologist, and this is dead on. Few writers have forced me as much as RAW to admit to myself how subjective and limited my version of reality is. He attacks your cognitive methodology and forces you to re-examine thought processes in a way that leaves you grasping desperately for solid ground. Some of the ideas are so far out (challenging) that I often wonder to what degree he takes himself seriously. His mind goes off in multiple, and unexpected directions, many of which may not appeal to all readers, but I'm convinced you'll find a lot here to keep you entertained, enlightened, and captivated for hours.
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Summary: Owner's Manual for the Brain
Review: This book is RAW at his best. Tweaking the noses of what we consider "reality" and "I", showing us that we are not exactly who we think we are. One of the best things about this book is that it pays for itself if you follow the visualization exercise in the beginning of the book... (although due to inflation, I would substitute dollars for quarters <G>) Essentially, this book helps you to expand who you are, not by stroking your ego, but by firing a 10megaton bomb at it in each chapter, and well worth the "fallout". This book has been repurchased by me numerous times from being warn out, and my first copy still has a place of honor on my shelves...
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough of a How To
Review: The premise of this book is very interesting. It deals with the way that everyone perceives "reality" differently and attempts to show ways in which the reader can expand his own perceptions. However, I felt this book spent far too long discussing the different ways of looking at things and not enough time discussing techniques. As the other reviewers said, he ties together Freud, Jung, Leary, Tantra (etc.) very well. But he does not go into detail very much into exactly HOW we can achieve these states of consciousness. The basic format of the book follows Leary's 8 circuit model of consciousness, but spends most of the time on the first 4 circuits. They are food, territory, intellect, and morality. However, I would assume if you bought this book you did it to learn about modes of consciousness to which you are unaccustomed. The discussion of the last 4 circuits just draw parallels to other ritual / meditative practices. For instance, RAW might say that the 5th circuit is just like when an advanced yogi does a certain exercise. But he doesn't tell us HOW to do that exercise. The book is great at alerting you to the possibilities that are out there, but falls short as a way "to get from here to there." RAW includes many exercises at the end of each chapter, but they are both rediculously complex and simple at the same time. For instance, to get the perspective of different people's realities, he says to "step into their reality tunnel for a month." To me, this is akin to a book on becoming an archetect telling you to try building the glass pyramids at the Louvre. Sure, if you could do it you'd definantly make progress, but it's much easier said than done. He doesn't really offer any practical ways to step into their reality tunnels. I think it would have been much better if he quickly summarized the first 4 circuits and then spent the rest of the book discussing techniques to develop the later 4 circuits. As another example: there is a meditative technique RAW addresses in the book. According to the guy he quotes it can provide us with unlimited pleasure. But RAW then says that he won't discuss how to actually do it, and that the reader should read another book on meditation to do it. The book definantly leaves some necessary components out. I also thought that some of the science was rediculous. He talks about different body types and how they map to personality. For instance, he says that someone who operates mostly on logic tends to be tall and skinny. How can you conclude that a logical person is tall? Or even skinny for that matter? Another gripe I have is that the quarter exercise did not work for me. With all that said, the book is still interesting, and will probably shatter a lot of your perceptions about life.
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Summary: One of the most brilliant books...
Review: Bob Wilson never fails to shake up your preconceptions and scramble your brains (in a good way). Prometheus Rising is perhaps his best and most direct book. If you can read this book without being changed, you are either one of the "Secret Chiefs" or you are dead (or both?). Also... you'll find a few quarters.
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Summary: Something to wrap your mind around
Review: I have read a great many of Mr. Wilsons books, including "Illuminatus","Masks of the Illuminati","Cosmic Trigger", and this one,"Prometheus Rising". Robert has the most incredible wit, along with the most free-thinking mind I've encountered outside Hakim Bey. His prescription for breaking free of our "reality tunnels" and his depiction of Tim Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness makes this my favorite. It was one of those books that excited me from start to finish. I wanted to tell everyone about it!
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Summary: Good intro to RAW and Tim Leary's 8 circuit model
Review: I first got into this book through the Illuminatus trilogy. It's don't think it's an exageration to say it changed my life. In my opinion it contains an excellent description of Timothy Leary's 8 circuit model of conciousness as well as an introduction to Jung, Freud, Crowley etc. though with a strongly Wilsonesque take on it all. The only thing that I feel jars is the unselfconcious use of the "is of identity".
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Summary: in depth funniness, out there insight, musically inspiring !
Review: I got this book a couple of years back, as interest was fuelled by "Illuminatus!" etc. I was thrilled at what he had to say - so much so I wrote an Album "Et In Techno Ego... Dark Night Of the Soul" (£10.99 / $16.00 inc P&P Alicorn Records, PO BOX 493, Kingston, Surrey. KT1 3QP ). It is based on the model of conciousness in the book - that, conspiracy, mind programming and the such - and ranges through techno, space psychedelia to ambient. Samples from Tim L. & Ken Saro Wiwa among others. If you want to see what the most advanced thinkers think about what's up with us all, you couldn't do better !
Cameron.
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Summary: Take this book seriously/don't take this book seriously
Review: This book is not perfect. It tries to appeal to every type of person, and in doing so it does lose something. However if you read it carefully, you will have your point of view changed forever. I noticed that another reviewer called the book "irrelevant" "bull", and that was my original opinion some years ago when I first saw the book. But it did, nevertheless, leave some ideas in my head that grew into a real understanding of what he was trying to say, once I went back and read it again a few months ago. I think that digesting the ideas in this book, which are decently distilled from many many sources, is essential for developing a balanced world view. And in these troubled times, I think we can all use an owners manual for the brain. I'd also reccommend "Society of Mind" for a more scholarly and "macro" treatise on The Mind. Mind that these are only books. But books are the best tools we have for self enlightment.
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