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PKD's Exegesis of the soul: A Barbelith Project

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Wrecks City-Zen

21:30 / 24.01.03

Moderators: If you feel this is the wrong place for this thread, please feel free to move it.

Having said that...

I'm sure most of us have read Valis by now ( and if you haven't...why not?) The most intiguig part of the "novel" for me was the Exegesis that is quoted throughout the book and reprinted (partially?) at the end of the novel.

The concepts that Dick presents are absoltley mind numbing, many having their roots in Gnostic principles. Facinatingm to say the least.

What I propose, and I hope you will participate, is to analyze the exegesis. We can each pick one of the numbered statements and do a study on the idea.

Ya game? You know you want to...

Nietzsch E. Coyote

21:52 / 24.01.03

I'm in!

Next time I go to my parent's house I will pick up my copy(three or four days). Oh and the exegesis is a shorter version. I hear someone my publish a longer, but still not complete version.

Deconstructing? why that form of analysis?

05:03 / 25.01.03

I'll be on board for this, but I'm going to have to do some thinking first. I've been thinking hard about "Valis" since I first read it/was absorbed by it about a year ago.

30. The phenomenal world does not exist; it is a hypostasis of the information processed by the Mind.

That's one of my favorites. The Matrix has you?

01:19 / 26.01.03

"Pursuit of Valis: Selections from the Exegesis" (out of print) is a nice selection of the 4 or 5 thousand pages Dick wrote trying to wrap his head around the events that ultimately inspired his final trilogy. In order to understand the Valis trilogy and, by extention, the Exegesis, you have to understand the psychic gnosis he underwent in 1974. One of the coolest tellings of this period of Dick's life is in Weirdo magazine...

Weirdo #17

Suffice it to say that the way a person deals with a major episodic break with "reality" will determine whether they become an insane idiot or an inspired genius.

I just rewatched "12 Monkeys" a couple of days ago and there's a great scene when Cole is in the asylum. One of the inmates talks about how he is living in two very real realities at once - the "sane" one on Earth in the institution, and the "imagined" one as a member of an alien race on some distant planet. He says this phenomenon is termed "mentally divergent", then leans his head on Cole's shoulder and asks, "Are you also divergent, brother?"

This is a perfect clinical description of what Dick experienced.

11:48 / 26.01.03

> 30. The phenomenal world does not exist; it is a hypostasis of the information processed by the Mind. - From this thread

> 4. When will the realization of the Self be gained?
When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer.

> 7. When will the world which is the object seen be removed?
When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition's and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear. - From the Happines, Self-Realisation and Enlightenment thread.

Spot the connection?

Hint: "Reality, as you perveive it, will conform to your beliefs about the way it is."

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:59 / 26.01.03

I'm up for it, provided I can find my copy of "Valis" while the thread is still a going concern (books scattered all over my house... you'd think that would be a good thing, but you'd be wrong. Oh so wrong.)

19:25 / 26.01.03

I can lay my hands on my copy of valis and so volunteer for the project.

Will need to refresh myself first, still any excuse to read PKD.

Would it help if I typed up the exegesis on here (or a special, reference thread) for those unable to get to their copies. Anyhthing to help.

sometime later, but not much
I've got my copy in front of me now and the appendix at the back list 51 seperate topics. Is this what we are planning to examine. Reason I ask (not only to look silly) is to make sure I'm not offering to put up something that is not correct. I'm hoping that each edition of the novel has the same list in it, otherwise we're onto a hiding to nothing.

Other than that the offer still stands.

20:02 / 26.01.03

Much of the exgesis has never been published, and it would seem that Dick never intended much of it for publication, perefing to use it instead as a private space to work out some of the ideas going on in his head on paper. There are sections which he did revisit for publication however including the extracts in Valis. Furthur sections of his exgesis were published by his biographer Lawrence Sutin in "The shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: the collected literary and philosophical writings.". I've never seen this book on sale in the UK and had to go to Boston to get my copy.

20:10 / 26.01.03

Adam, that would be most helpful.

-c23

.

20:22 / 26.01.03

I'm up for this too, wait for me to dig out my battered Valis... BTW, I've got a copy of the Sutin book, I think I got it from the trusty Forbidden Planet in London, but it was some time ago now...

00:36 / 27.01.03

Thanks for the cool link to that mini-comic about PKD's experience! I've read a lot about it but that comic had a few new facts I hadn't heard! Just another message the universe is sending me lately that I gotta read VALIS!!!

04:02 / 27.01.03

I've got both Valis and The Shifting Realities of PKD right here so um... when does this begin?

13:08 / 27.01.03

as soon as I've typed up the 51 statements and posted them here. Bear with me a while please.

Hopefully could have this up by late tonight, or tomorrow.

Thank you for your patience.

By the way will put it into a new thread so we can discuss and view at the same time. You're either see the thread up, or the link I will put into here when I've finished.

14:46 / 27.01.03

the first ten (or 26 depending how quickly the post is modified) is up in it's own thread now. Have a look through (and for gods sake say whehther I've got the right thing up there) and begin your analysis.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

18:31 / 27.01.03

hey Adam, instead of another post you could put them up in the wiki, here : PhilkDicksExegesis That way we can edit them and add to them easily. Also our analysis could be added like subpages for each statement.

19:38 / 27.01.03

Thanks, Nietzsch E. Is there a link off the barb wiki homepage?

The wiki could be a great resource, collating our individual analyses & interpretations of each passage. I encourage everyone interested to add to it and flesh out this thread.

The exegesis is fluid and continues to evolve.

Wrecks City-Zen

22:16 / 27.01.03

The Head Apollo is about to return. St. Sophia is going to be born again;
she was not acceptable before. The Buddha is in the park. Siddharta sleeps
(but is going to awaken). The time you have waited for has come...

...and the lunatic is on the grass...

Fantastic response on this one amigos! Nice to see it ended up staying in the Magick forum. How long do you think it will take for us to "brush up"? I have wished for so ong to fid a copy of the "full" exegesis...then I realized that it drove poor Phil "Mad" as he was stuck with only his perception...hence this thread. Barbelith is a meeting of some of the greatest minds ever...and if anyone can make sense of it, it's the Barbe-friends
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost rot:
Hint: "Reality, as you perveive it, will conform to your beliefs about the way it is." Evy

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law...

Finally. It has always seemed to me that most Crowleyites never understood the true meaning of that statement and used it as an excuse for "magickal anarchy".

( A little side note: I incorporate the law into ,editation, much like the TORA wheel...

ie: Do what thou wilt
What thou wilt do
Thou wilt do what
Wilt do what thou...

I'm done. Looking forward to working with you...

..rex

Wrecks City-Zen

22:59 / 27.01.03

... I'm not done.

How do we want to go about the analysis? Everybody pick one or should we go throught them one at a time as a group activity?

Now I'm really done...

11:44 / 28.01.03

Here it is folks the full Exegesis, ready for you to pick and start deconstructing or however you want to approach the matter.

Now you tell me about that section Nietzsch. It's not a problem copying and pasting them there, I have the full points saved on my machine. Just say the word and the rest can appear there too.

12:38 / 28.01.03

PKD died on my birthday.

19:35 / 28.01.03

Glad to see the additions (to 53) and I also see that the wiki has been updated as well. I have begun to add my comments there...

20:17 / 28.01.03

Really amazing to see Dick's exegesis narrowing in on Sirius! (comments 50-53). He is not alone in suggesting that there is a very strong link between Earth and Sirius. Of course RAW has documented this, and Temple's book "The Sirius Mystery" lays it all out. Consider also the "Starseed Transmissions" which Leary and RAW were involved in, receiving "transmissions" live and direct from the Dog Star.

Also note the archeological information about Akhenaton (Ikhnaton in exegesis)...

I've added more comments on the wiki...

(loving this thread!)

Nietzsch E. Coyote

23:39 / 28.01.03

19. The two-word cypher signal KING FELIX was not intended for human beings but for the descendents of Ikhnaton, the three-eyed race which, in secret, exists with us.

Interesting phrase "Three-eyed". Does anyone feel that we should take that literally? I am, for now, going to believe that means people with an activated third-eye in the chakra sense, the Ajna. If this is the case Phil is claiming that the openning of the third-eye requires a certain genetic disposition. //added to the wiki

00:06 / 29.01.03

Nietzsch wrote:
"If this is the case Phil is claiming that the openning of the third-eye requires a certain genetic disposition"

Yes, perhaps this was a capability specifically introduced by the alien race of Ikhnaton (to stick to Dick's mythology). I've read somewhere (possibly "Cosmic trigger 1") of a relation between the Ajna and Sirius..I'll try to down the ref tonight.

To run with this idea a bit, maybe the Sirians came to Earth, Ikhnaton as their chief representative stayed with his family, who gradually cross-bred with humans, thus introducing into the human gene pool the capacity to open the third-eye. After a few thousand years pretty much everyone would have some trace of this gene, yeah?

Or perhaps, as Nietzsch is suggesting, this is metaphorical and could be read as "...the three-eyed race which, in secret, exists WITHIN us".

Nietzsch E. Coyote

01:59 / 29.01.03

The three-eyed race then would be a symbiote or parsite on us. Our soul is not us it is a symbiote? Then the Three-eyed race would be a plasmate (22) as he developes later and those of us with them would be homoplasmates (23).

Nietzsch E. Coyote

02:11 / 29.01.03

who gradually cross-bred with humans, thus introducing into the human gene pool the capacity to open the third-eye. After a few thousand years pretty much everyone would have some trace of this gene, yeah?

Depends on if it is a dominant or recesive attribute.

02:20 / 29.01.03

Speaking of the plasmate (Logos?), supposedly it was rerelease into the world on 1974 (as a meme). It's mutating in order to thrive in our culture, spreading, and infecting everyone... The Valis Trilogy, Cosmic Trigger, Invisibles, The Matrix, ect. (It's obviously getting better.) I think it's safe to say a lot of people are now Homoplasmates (certainly most people on this board.) What released the plasmate on 1974?

02:41 / 29.01.03

What released the plasmate on 1974?

My gut reaction is that this is an example of where Dick's gnosis borders on schizophrenia. He believes that the experience he is having is at the core of some major metaphysical evolution that encompasses the entire planet and, indeed, an alien civilization as well. Hence, 1974 being such an extraordinary date within his exegesis.

However, Crowley could be accused of the same, having felt that his reception of the Book of the Law marked the start of the new Aeon of Horus. Divinity or madness?

Nietzsch E. Coyote

02:41 / 29.01.03

I don't know about 1974 but I figured it was released when they found the Nag Hammadi scrolls. Gnosticism's living ideas were re-injected into human consciousness.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

04:17 / 29.01.03

She saw them with the third or ajna eye, the Eye of Shiva which gives inward discernment, but which when turned outward blasts with desiccating heat. from 16.

Yep Phil means third eye like ajna.

04:57 / 29.01.03

Gospel of Thomas

For reference... Dick refers to this text within his Exegesis.

05:25 / 29.01.03

A Summary (sort of), culled from verse 47...

Two entities, divided from the One, combine to create the hologram of our existence:
Hyperuniverse I - Light, plasmate, Christos
Hyperuniverse II - Dark, empire, suffering

Hyperuniverse I (HU1) reflects the true intention of the One, hyperuniverse II (HU2) is a premature gestation which is defective (it was supposed to be the balance for HU1, as Yin to Yan). This defect allowed suffering and madness to enter our hologram. Christ was a micro-manifestation of HU1 sent into the hologram to correct the damage wrought by HU2, but HU2 killed it. The final solution was for HU1 to destroy HU2, and then divide itself to replace HU2. This has already happened in Eternity but has not yet manifested in the hologram. When it does it will mark the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth - the transition from the Age of Iron to the Age of Gold.

13:56 / 29.01.03

The One was and was-not, combined, and desired to separate the was-not from the was. SO it generated a diploid sac which contained, like an eggshell, a pair of twins, each an androgyny, spinning in opposite directions (the Yin and Yang of Taoism, with the One as the Tao). The plane of the One was that both twins would emerge into being (was-ness) simultaneously; however, motivated by a desire to be (which the One had implanted in both twins), the counterclockwise twin broke through the sac and separated prematurely; i.e. before full term. This was the dark or Yin twin. Therefore it was defective. At full term the wiser twin emerged. Each twin formed a unitary entelechy, a single living organism made of psyche and soma, still rotating in opposite directions to each other. The full term twin, called Form I by Parmendides, advanced correctly through its growth stages, but the prematurely born twin, called Form II, languished.

Cassandra Nova and Charles.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

22:05 / 29.01.03

Hey good one, I ever noticed that one.
Morrison totally uses the whole HyperUniverse thing in the invisibles as well.
The aliens are the healers, or as he calls them antibodies. HyperUniverse one is represented by the Invisible college and HyperUniverse two is represented by the outer church. At least in the earlier issues.

03:49 / 30.01.03

The Sybil of Cumae is featured most historically in Ovid's Metamorphosis.

The Sybil is an oracle, immortal in spirit but mortal in flesh - she is condemmed to whither away to just a voice (the Logos?). She led Aeneaus through the underworld and showed him the Golden Bough (Philosopher's Stone).

Dick seems to imply that she was a minfestation of the plasmate, or at least a homoplasmate (See comment 16). Dick later says that the plasmate is the Holy Spirit (comment 26). She returned in 1974 heralding the end of the Empire and the return to Real Time (comment 18).

It seems that there is only 1 plasmate ("I term the Immortal one a plasmate, because it is a form of energy; it is living information. It replicates itself - not through information or in information - but as information." - comment 22), and Dick says the Empire destroyed all the homoplasmates before they could replicate (comment 23). But then the Sybil returns in 1974.

Does Sybil=plasmate=Ikhnaton=holy spirit=christ??? I'm starting to confuse myself... I can see why Dick wrote thousands of pages trying to figure this out. Seems like it would be easy to do an exegesis of the Exegesis...

(added to wiki, sort of)

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