Philip K. Dick

[Sena]

Some may disagree with calling Philip K. Dick a "teacher", but it seems to me that he was more than just a science fiction writer. I must confess that I have not been able to read any of his books from cover to cover. I rely on a biography written by Anthony Peake, who refers to him as PKD:

"......PKD never really came to any firm conclusions as to what A.I. actually was. But this ceased to concern him because he was to realize that A.I. was just one aspect of a larger system that he was to call 'VALIS', an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. As we shall discover, a whole series of 'fictional' novels were written with VALIS as the central concept. For PKD, VALIS was not a fiction but a reality. He believed that VALIS was a kind of 'satellite' beaming messages down to Earth. These messages could be received by any brain that was open to such communication. However, at the same time that PKD was looking to the skies for an explanation, another development took place that led PKD to believe that all reality, including the existence of the VALIS satellite itself, was part of a much more complex universe in which multiple levels of time all existed simultaneously, stacked up one on top of another like the layers of an onion." (from "A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future" by Anthony Peake)

"PKD came to this conclusion when he started to sense the presence of a person he came to know as 'Thomas'. Unlike 'Firebright' and the A.I. 'Voice', 'Thomas' was a human being who was (and is) living under Roman rule. PKD said he sensed that Thomas was a Christian who had been tortured for his beliefs. He saw 'Thomas' as a version of himself that had existed centuries earlier in linear time but, in PKD's new understanding of time, also shared the same present moment with him. As we shall discuss later, PKD was of the opinion that this proved his belief that time has another form that our present science is unaware of, one that he would later describe as 'orthogonal'. The term literally means 'right-angled' but by extension has come to refer to something that acts separately or independently from other factors. This idea that we are all trapped in our own illusory version of reality was central to PKD's later thinking. PKD argued that there are two levels of 'reality' and both exist in different concepts of time. Linear time is the one we all seem to exist within. It presents to our senses a sensation of movement or flow turning the future into the present and then into the past. Its flow is always in one direction and that is towards the future. However, he also proposed another time that exists at a right-angle to linear time. This presents, to those attuned to it, a permanent present moment that contains all our pasts and all our futures. This he termed 'orthogonal time'. From the viewpoint of an entity existing in orthogonal time, our universe of linear time presents a totally different perspective." (from "A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future" by Anthony Peake)

From the Kindle edition: https://amzn.eu/amndoM0

I am trying to work out whether PKD's ideas could be consistent with the Seth teachings. Perhaps VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System) corresponds to Seth's Entity, but VALIS appears to be bigger than a single Entity.

PKD's ideas on time do seem to be very much like Seth's teaching on time, although PKD uses the term "orthogonal time": "This presents, to those attuned to it, a permanent present moment that contains all our pasts and all our futures."

[LarryH]

However, he also proposed another time that exists at a right-angle to linear time.

Interesting because I have had the same thought. As a way of considering how time could be viewed as simultaneous, I imagined standing outside of time and seeing the one-dimensional line of time that we are normally stuck in. But then, on a different axis of time, that line gets thicker, adding a second dimension. The thickness might represent an intensity, or it might represent the different probabilities beyond that which we experience.

PKD wrote many novels and short stories that became popular movies, including the short story that Bladerunner was based on, Vanilla Sky, The Man in the High Castle, several others.

[Sena]

PKD was very imaginative. It doesn't surprise me that he had altered state experiences, as artists can play fast and loose with their consciousness in order to get to new ideas and creative expression.

spicemerchant, thanks for your comments. Since I wrote this article I came across Rizwan Virk's book, "The Simulation Hypothesis". Sort of a synchronicity. This is a quote from the book:

"In the introduction of this book, I referenced the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, who
explicitly believed that we were living in a computer-generated reality. He believed that when we
experienced déjà vu it was because we had seen an event or place before—but that reality had been
changed. We were in essence sensing a parallel reality that had been rewound and rerun to the
present with a different outcome. At a famous speech Dick gave at a science fiction convention in
Metz, France, in 1977, he said:
We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when
some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs. We would have the
overwhelming impression that we were reliving the present—déjà vu—perhaps in precisely the
same way: hearing the same words, saying the same words. I submit that these impressions are
valid and significant, and I will even say this: such an impression is a clue, that in some past time
point, a variable was changed—reprogrammed as it were—and that because of this, an alternative
world branched off."

The last sentence in the above quote fits well with Seth's teaching on probabilities.

[pyromancy]

I've read he mostly ingested things more akin to Adderall than herbs so he could write faster and at great length. This is a common practice among people who write science journals they ingest things like Provigil and Adderall. It doesn't take away from his creativity but I'm under the impression people get the wrong idea about P.K.

Synchronicity the thing that is so strange about it for me personally is I kept on experiencing it when I started meditating and had no idea for a long time that there was even a word for it, and the Carl Jung first noticed it when he started to play with the I Ching and thought it helped him orient himself. I've read it is often used to help a person make decisions rather than whole prophecies.

The reference Carl Jung makes to another writer experiencing synchronicity with plum pudding being seen and mentioned in multiple places in a single day I think is very memorable.

I've read comments from people describing how tektites such as moldavite seem to make synchronicity happen so frequently that they are exasperated. It's something that just makes you sound crazy to non-intuitive people and is next to impossible to try and prove it happens but it is intriguing to me.

I think the stone garnet has made something similar happen to me personally. Just times I was thinking of it and suddenly I encounter people with necklaces full of it, studded with different rare colors of garnet in unique necklaces. Or kyanite. Recently there was a person sitting next to me and I said "yeah every time I ask people I see people wearing crystal jewelry and I ask them what their favorite stone is and like 30 people over the years all said blue kyanite. It's odd. It's difficult finding people who are willing to pay for kyanite jewelry" I said and then 30 seconds later a guy walked up and bought a piece from the person I was talking to at the jewelry stall.

...then he started smiling "what just happened?"

I'm drawing a blank trying to think of other examples but I mention these materials because I can't personally think of any way to actually make a person encounter it more frequently other than different meditations.




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