The Case for a Phildickian Religious Movement – Part III
In Part I of our series, we began discussing a Philip K. Dick approach to modern spirituality, concluding at the very least a thematic relevance.Part II, we looked at a few of the core ideas behind PKD’s own spiritual investigations and examined the Tractates Cryptica Scriptura, an insightful primary text that could work as a starting point for some of these core ideas. In this installation, we’ll consider some possible methodologies, whereby modern practitioners might participate in a Dickian spiritual life.
Right off the bat, based on what we know about Dick and his approaches to philosophy and spirituality, we can conclude that there are no easy answers to the question of just what a practice of Phildickian philosophy (which I’m going to refer to as “Valism”, after VALIS) would look like. As far as we know, PKD had no interest in starting a religion, or a religious movement. The major theme behind his spiritual life was a kind of applied supra-gnosticism, the Path of Radical Inquiry, a mysticism built upon a Via Quaestio where every possible answer is investigated, poured over, meditated upon.
PKD wrote science fiction, to be sure, but could be considered almost the diametrical opposite of the odious L. Ron Hubbard, who founded his own “religion” based on answers he’d already determined.
The practices we list below are guidelines, personal interpretations of how PKD’s experiences can work towards enriching one’s own religious life. Setting any of them in stone would certainly be counter to the Dickian spirit of Radical Inquiry, but as general approaches to practice, they seem to run consistently through Valism and could be a good starting point.
I. Sacramental Practice
Philip K. Dick was unquestionably a Christian, though certainly idiosyncratic. He referred to himself as an Episcopalian, attended church, and was close friends with Episcopalian Bishop James Pike. Claims that PKD was somehow opposed to organized religion– or Christianity in general– seem fairly baseless. Indeed, sacramental practice is perhaps one of the primary means through which Valism can be expressed.
The very nature of his ideologies, as inconsistent as they could be, depended upon the idea of an inbreaking Savior, Jesus Christ, Living Information, descending into the Black Iron Prison in which we are trapped. The practice of sacramentalism is a lower-level (Form II) representation of this inbreaking. As VALIS, the Salvific Intelligence, beams the Living Information into the human form, so sacramental practice represents the activation of this information within the segment of time in which we are trapped.
Going to Christian church, in Valism, is a good thing.
That said, there is something to be said for ad hocsacramentalism based upon personal inspiration. Take, for example, the following description from VALIS, Chap. 12 (wonderfully recreated in the film version of Radio Free Albemuth):
I remembered back to an incident-more than an incident-involving my son Christopher. In March 1974 during the time that VALIS overruled me, held control of my mind, I had conducted a correct and complex initiation of Christopher into the ranks of the immortals. VALIS’s medical knowledge had saved Christopher’s physical life, but VALIS had not ended it there.
This was an experience which I had treasured. It had been in utter stealth, concealed even from my son’s mother.
First I had fixed a mug of hot chocolate. Then I had fixed a hot dog on a bun with the usual trimmings; Christopher, young as he was, loved hot dogs and warm chocolate.
Seated on the floor in Christopher’s room with him, I-or rather VALIS in me, as me-had played a game. First, I jokingly held the cup of chocolate up, over my son’s head; then, as if by accident, I had splashed warm chocolate on his head, into his hair. Giggling, Christopher had tried to wipe the liquid off; I had of course helped him. Leaning toward him, I had whispered:
“In the name of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.” No one heard me except Christopher. Now, as I wiped the warm chocolate from my hair, I inscribed the sign of the cross on his forehead. I had now baptized him and now I confirmed him; I did so, not by the authority of the church, but by the authority of the living plasmate in me: VALIS himself. Next I said to my son, “Your secret name, your Christian name, is-” And I told him what it was. Only he and I are ever to know; he an I and VALIS.
Next, I took a bit of bread from the hot dog bun and held it forth; my son-still a baby, really-opened his mouth like a little bird, and I placed the bit of bread on it. We seemed, the two of us, to be sharing a meal; an ordinary simple, common meal.
For some reason it seemed essential-quite crucial-that he take no bite of the hot dog meat itself. Pork could not be eaten under these circumstances; VALIS filled me with this urgent knowledge.
As Christopher started to close his mouth to chew on the bit of bread, I presented him with the mug of warm chocolate. To my surprise-being so young he still drank normally from his bottle, never from a cup-he reached eagerly to take the mug; as he took it, lifted it to his lips and drank from it, I said, “This is my blood and this is my body.”
My little son drank, and I took the mug back. The greater sacraments had been accomplished. Baptism, then confirmation, then the most holy sacrament of all, the Eucharist: Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
“The Blood of out Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for thee, and be thankful.”
This moment is most solemn of all. The priest himself has become Christ who offers his body and blood to the faithful, by a divine miracle.
Most people understand that in he miracle of transubstantiation the wine (or warm chocolate) becomes the Sacred Blood, and the wafer (or bit of hot dog bun) becomes the Sacred Body, but few people even within the churches realize that the figure who stands before them holding the cup is their Lord, living now. Time has been overcome. We are back almost two thousand years: we are not in Santa Ana, California, USA, but in Jerusalem, about 35 C.E.
What I ad seen in March 1974 when I saw the superimposition of ancient Rome and modern California consisted of an actual witnessing of what is normally seen by the inner eyes of faith only.
My double-exposure experience had confirmed the literal – not merely figurative – truth of the miracle of the mass.
As I have said, the technical term for this is anamnesis: the loss of forgetfulness; which is to say, the remembering of the Lord and the Lord’s Supper.
I was present that day, the last time the disciples sat at table. You may believe me; you may not. Sed per spiritum sanctum dico; haec veritas est. Mihi crede et mecum in aeternitate vivebis.
My Latin is probably faulty, but what I am trying to say, haltingly, is: “But I speak by means of the Holy Spirit; that is so. Believe me and you shall live with me in eternity.”
II.Via Quaestio: The Path of Radical Inquiry
Say what you will about PKD, the man was smart. Although technically an amateur, his voluminous knowledge of religion and philosophy informed everything he did throughout his life. Since Living Information is salvific within the context of Valism, it makes sense that the exercise of the intellect– rhetoric, dialectic, reason– allows that Living Information to expand and dwell within the consciousness.
There is a mystical component to Valism, but that mystical component seems to depend upon Grace. You can’t “summon” VALIS, or pray to Zebra, or take pills that produce the pink beam. As PKD says in “The Ten Major Principles of the Gnostic Revelation,” “You can pass from the delusional prison world into the peaceful kingdom if the True Good God places you under His grace and allows you to see reality through His eyes.” However, if you do have a mystical experience, the search for a context in which to place it becomes just as valuable as the experience itself.
As PKD says in the TCS, “Since the universe is actually composed of information, then it can be said that information will save us. This is the saving gnosis which the Gnostics sought. There is no other road to salvation. However, this information—or more precisely the ability to read and understand this information, the universe as information—can only be made available to us by the Holy Spirit. We cannot find it on our own. Thus it is said that we are saved by the grace of God and not by good works, that all salvation belongs to Christ, who, I say, is a physician.” In Valism, gnosis is not a mystical experience. The mystical experience can be a vehicle for gnosis, but gnosis does not equal enlightenment. Gnosis is the secret knowledge of our current state, and the information we receive and process that allows us to place that knowledge in context. This is the essence of the Via Quaestio: constant inquiry is necessary to keep one alive and relatively sane (relatively!) within our broken timeline.
III. Personal Expression
PKD’s attempts at understanding the nature of reality weren’t limited to his philosophical ruminations. Indeed, the themes we’ve been discussing in this series can be found in his fiction since the very beginning. PKD interacted with the Living Information he’d been granted through his writing; this is an important aspect of Valism that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Philip K. Dick was an artist. He was also an esthete, always sensitive to the beauty contained in his favorite music and poetry. Indeed, music, as a theme, often represents the inbreaking of the Living Information in Dick’s work. According to one of the plot summaries of “The Owl in Daylight, the novel he was writing at his time of death, the work would have had a musical composer as its protagonist, and would have discussed, in depth, art as an aspect of divinity.
It is our contention that Valism provides an example of someone possessed by the spirit of art. Whether one is a writer, a painter, a musician, a sculptor, etc., it is more than possible for the divine to express itself through artistic expression than through any other kind of practice. This is one of the reasons PKD’s work is so resonant and relevant in the modern world; in a society devoid of Sacred Art, PKD created his own. As such, one of the best ways to practice Valism is to find a way to express one’s artistic impulses.
Again, it isn’t our intent here to write a book on Valism; rather, it is to initiate a discussion on how we can react to, and interact with, a religious exploration of the work of PKD. The fact is, for a certain subset of people (maybe you, maybe not), PKD’s experiences speak to the current state of things. We are trapped; things are not what they seem; more kindness is necessary if we wish to remain human; there is a loving God that wishes to make things better for us.These aren’t generally new ideas. It’s not as though “hey, what if the world is, like, an illusion, man?” hasn’t been asked since the advent of our ability to differentiate simulacra from simulacrum. However, it is the opinion of the author that the language used by PKD may provide some people with just the right kind of semiotic set to make a little sense of things in this world in which, as PKD says, “No single thing abides; and all things are fucked up.”
(See also “A Saint for All Seasons” by our own Lucidus Valentine.)
Dickian Gnosticism 
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