Common Themes in Writings

Anamnesis: The loss of amnesia as to the true nature of yourself and the world. This corresponds strongly with the idea of Gnosis.

Decay: An infusion of massive breakdown of form into our world.

Hidden reality: Another, usually more valid, reality which lies beneath the surface of what most people perceive.

Hidden saviors: The world is corrupt, but groups of people are acting to purify it. These agents, whether human or just in the form of humans, walk unseen among us.

Perfect possession: The possessed person will have his personality totally overcome or even erased by the possessing entity. The extent of the possession may be profound enough as to alter or destroy the hosts physical form.

Phagocytosis: Transformation of the nature of one thing for that of another. This process has been portrayed in both a positive and negative light. Use of the term phagocytosis in this context comes from VALIS where it is used to describe the process by which the true God is converting the world into paradise; eating up the corruption and replacing it with a more pure true reality.

Sacrificial god: A divine being or manifestation which gives up its own life, or which suffers, in order to save a person or many people from pain or death.

Tomb world: Linked to the idea of decay, but on a much grander scale. Instead of a world of life in which an increase of death and decay is noted, the tomb world denotes a plane where nearly everything is in a state of death or decay. Stable life tends to correspond with the concept of a dead thing fashioned into an imitation of life. The near mindless zombie which used to live and love when alive, the corpse moving by means of wires and motors, this is the realm of the tomb world. Some see a similar theme to the Qlippoth in Kaballah.

Unconscious possession: Possession where the possessed is unaware of being influenced. He maintains all, or at least the majority, of his core sense of identity. Despite this, the possessed will behave in accordance to the possessing entity, oblivious to the true motivation for his actions

Phildickian Gnosticism: The many religions of Philip K. Dick
John Emerson, November 7, 2005