The Speculative Life of Philip K. Dick.

The life of Philp K. Dick was peppered with strange events; much like his fiction. He believed he was possessed by Christian ethereals; later, communicating with V.A.L.I.S. (Vast Active Living Intelligence System). With his great mind for speculation, he would eventually fill tomes with his thoughts, publishing some as novels even. Dick worked to interpret them until the end of his life in 1982. An interview Dick gave where he described these miraculous events was illustrated by R.Crumb and is available on-line here:

These events would tie into the very topics he liked exploring with science fiction: "What is reality?" and "What constitutes the authentic human being?" They gave him a lot of thought fodder, which lead to books like V.A.L.I.S., a small portion of a tome like notebook Dick filled with his speculations. The longer version, Exegesis, has been made available on-line by Dick's estate. Fans have shown much interest in uncovering the secrets of this book for years and they may get their chance. It's available at the official PKD website.


Dick's analytical quest was not a fruitless labor. When asked for a one sentence answer to "What is reality?" he famously stated, "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Grant Morrison's mind-bending epic, The Invisibles, draws influence from Dick's VALIS concept. He also inspired Discordianism with his analogy of the Black Iron Prison:

"Once, in a cheap science fiction novel, Fat had come across a perfect description of the Black Iron Prison, but set in the far future. So if you superimposed the past (ancient Rome) over the present (California in the twentieth century) and superimposed the far future world of The Android Cried Me a River over that, you got the Empire, as the supra- or trans-temporal constant. Everyone who had ever lived was literally surrounded by the iron walls of the prison; they were all inside it and none of them knew it.”

We only have the man's thoughts now, but they've already inspired and challenged the next generation of dreamers and speculative artists. To learn more about Philip K. Dick in his own words, there is speech he wrote (available here) wherein he discusses many of his thoughts and interests.