Truth: From Source to Risk

The brilliant psychonautic author Robert Anton Wilson spoke about an information source deeper than Freud’s subconscious, something that he described as external in sensation. I wonder whether he was experiencing what the ancient Greeks called “the muse”. He said it was the power behind his creative productivity, powering his hands over the keyboard deep into the night, spewing information into type with hardly any cognitive awareness on the part of his daily consciousness.

Artists often speak of a force that they feel uses them as a conduit. I like to speculate on the source of the very deepest thoughts and convictions that a person can hold. Where does the drive for martyrdom come from? How is it that beliefs can be more powerful than primordial biological survival instincts?

If I felt the need to write a book that could seriously complicate my life and possibly endanger me, should I write it? My rational mind might not tolerate this compulsion but I would feel it nevertheless, especially if the book concerned what I believed to be a truth that must be communicated. Should we yield to or suppress deep creative desires that our rational selves know will bring us actual difficulties? Which is the more moral course?