At one time I invested a lot of time in these guys, Wilson, Fuller, Watts, Leary, Dick... Spent time with them. Worked.
Wilson's ability was a simple capability to articulate a coherent story woven from whatever reality he was in at the time. Its fairly amusing if you take it like any movie fiction.
He says one thing worthwhile: we live in a world of models and are trapped in metaphor. Its not particularly original, and becomes rather sophomoric when he then proceeds to elaborate that insight with all sorts of borrowed bits of abstraction dogma.
And its that collage of stuff on which he built a following: a melange of conspiracies, miscellaneous new age cosmologies, observations on logic and quantum mechanics and personal hallucinations. Each one of these (excepting the dreams and visions of course) are based on rather profound misunderstandings, juvenile simplifications and deliberate adjustments to make a good story.
Here's an interesting story. Some hundred and fifty years ago an earnest woman studied in Tibet, then virtually unknown in the west. She learned certain things and brought them home, forming the Theosophical Society. The interesting thing is that she understandably got some things wrong, including one very significant concept resulting from a translation error.
Nearly every new age movement promulgates that mistake, and because Tibet's religious establishment depends on the attentions of the west, they have largely adjusted their public stance to incorporate that error, essentially reinventing their religion to suit expectations.
Wilson does this wholesale, grabbing things here and there from significant thinkers, getting them wrong in profound ways and then putting the pieces together as he thinks fit because "that's the way it must be." This is the same principle used by religious fundamentalists to reinvent traditions to fit their foibles. If he wasn't such a fringe personality, I'd be warning against him as I do more influential preachers.
As it is, his fictional cosmologies are more interesting than you find in films like "Constantine," "Matrix" and a host of Vampire conspiracy projects. Someone, someday may weave a project out of it of the quality of "Bladerunner." Until then, he's slightly amusing, a talented storyteller and irritatingly wrong when he cites details.
Quite apart from whether Wilson is worth your time, is this a good documentary? It isn't really a film at all in the sense that his imagination deserves. It is instead a collection of filmed talks he gave, with insipid space music imposed and occasionally some of those TeeVee-inspired special effects that have come to stand for ersatz mysticism. Appropriate.
If this stuff interests you, you really need to study the systems involved. There's something there beyond this cereal-box rendition, and you can't stick it on yourself with water.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
Wilson's ability was a simple capability to articulate a coherent story woven from whatever reality he was in at the time. Its fairly amusing if you take it like any movie fiction.
He says one thing worthwhile: we live in a world of models and are trapped in metaphor. Its not particularly original, and becomes rather sophomoric when he then proceeds to elaborate that insight with all sorts of borrowed bits of abstraction dogma.
And its that collage of stuff on which he built a following: a melange of conspiracies, miscellaneous new age cosmologies, observations on logic and quantum mechanics and personal hallucinations. Each one of these (excepting the dreams and visions of course) are based on rather profound misunderstandings, juvenile simplifications and deliberate adjustments to make a good story.
Here's an interesting story. Some hundred and fifty years ago an earnest woman studied in Tibet, then virtually unknown in the west. She learned certain things and brought them home, forming the Theosophical Society. The interesting thing is that she understandably got some things wrong, including one very significant concept resulting from a translation error.
Nearly every new age movement promulgates that mistake, and because Tibet's religious establishment depends on the attentions of the west, they have largely adjusted their public stance to incorporate that error, essentially reinventing their religion to suit expectations.
Wilson does this wholesale, grabbing things here and there from significant thinkers, getting them wrong in profound ways and then putting the pieces together as he thinks fit because "that's the way it must be." This is the same principle used by religious fundamentalists to reinvent traditions to fit their foibles. If he wasn't such a fringe personality, I'd be warning against him as I do more influential preachers.
As it is, his fictional cosmologies are more interesting than you find in films like "Constantine," "Matrix" and a host of Vampire conspiracy projects. Someone, someday may weave a project out of it of the quality of "Bladerunner." Until then, he's slightly amusing, a talented storyteller and irritatingly wrong when he cites details.
Quite apart from whether Wilson is worth your time, is this a good documentary? It isn't really a film at all in the sense that his imagination deserves. It is instead a collection of filmed talks he gave, with insipid space music imposed and occasionally some of those TeeVee-inspired special effects that have come to stand for ersatz mysticism. Appropriate.
If this stuff interests you, you really need to study the systems involved. There's something there beyond this cereal-box rendition, and you can't stick it on yourself with water.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.