Everything is Fake

Gempix

In the late 1960's, Philip K. Dick's life was plagued with tax audits from the IRS. Looking back on this period through his writings in the Exegesis, Dick believed that these audits were a result not only from his anti-war stance publicly displayed by signing a petition to end the Vietnam war which was published in Ramparts magazine in 1968, but also possibly from information exacted directly from his writings.

"The Ramparts petition was not Phil's only source of anxiety. He would speculate that somehow, by accident, he had depicted a vital, classified secret in his SF (science fiction) - and had aroused the government's suspicion. The two works Phil most often suspected, in this regard, were The Penultimate Truth (1964) and "Faith of Our Fathers," a story written for Harlan Ellison's SF anthology Dangerous Visions (1967)."
                                                            - Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick by Lawrence Sutin

This is extremely interesting as PKD often thought and stated that instead of having the ability to see into the future, he was actually seeing the now of other parallel universes. With that in mind, what exactly were these two works about that had him believing that the government was harassing him.

Both works dealt with fake worlds, fake government/leaders, in short, fake everything - a simulated reality perpetrated on the populace.

Penultimate Truth, Philip K. Dick, 1st edition

The Penultimate Truth deals with a U.S. President that is actually a computer generated simulcrum. The simulation is programmed by "Yance-men", elite controllers who conspire to keep the earth's wealth for themselves meanwhile cordoning off the general populace in underground shelters living in fear of perpetual war above ground.

In "Faith of Our Fathers", PKD writes about a U.S. now in a Chinese type communist government with the population kept docile by hallucinogenic drugs added to the water supply. The protagonist, Chien, buys an illegal drug which is actually an anti-hallucinogen (stealazine) and after ingesting it, can then see a completely horrific reality - one in which the government leader is actually a godlike, alien demiurge that preys on all living things.

This story was published in 1967 and predates both "They Live" and "The Matrix" and also predates PKD's involvement in gnosticism. The gnostics believed this world to be a fake world ruled not by the true God but by a demiurge or evil low life force which drains and cannibalizes all living things. 

Of course, Plato had a similar idea in his Allegory of the Caves with which PKD was most likely familiar and now some scientists contend that the universe is most likely a computer generated simulation. 

Is Our Universe Fake?


Still with a majority of PKD's writings to be about fake worlds, it is mind-blowing that he firmly believed that the government was harrassing him possibly because of one or both of these two works. With that thought I will leave you with a video which, IMHO, is really about a man who is trying to prove that another man is a fake (most likely a hologram - notice how the man in white never even turns his head - hmmmm). Take from it what you will....

Philip K. Dick and The Matrix

Worth posting again...

A Maze of Death

A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick tells the story of a group of 14 colonists who believe they inhabit an off world colony.  Through the 216 pages, the reader is thrown into the lives of this dysfunction group with all its in-fighting including murder and suicide, chaos and mayhem.

The 14 finally awaken to the realization that they are in fact from earth and the crew of a spaceship circling a dead star with no hope of rescue. What they “experienced” is actually a virtual reality program in order for them to pass the time before their eventual death.

One member decides to kill them all rather than remain in a simulated hell. He is then removed from the program with the other members unaware of his departure or existence. The crew then again fall into another hallucination which plays exactly the same as the previous only without the 14^th crew member.

Remind you of anything?

The story is considered one of Dick’s darkest as it explores reality, perception and death themes.  Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone also broached this subject in several episodes including “And When the Sky Was Opened” and “Third from the Sun”. 

The Dao of Mad Max: Fury Road

In this scene from George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, Max (played by Tom Hardy) explains to Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) that the only way to freedom is to go back to the Citadel, the dreaded hell hole from which they had just successfully made their escape. Their original destination, the Green Place of her childhood and from where she was kidnapped has disintegrated into a wasteland.

Furiosa is totally perplexed by this extremely counter intuitive theory that Max presents to her, but realizes there really is no other hope for them, except to return and maybe somehow get inside the gates of the Citadel before Immortan Joe and the War Boys, thereby saving the The Five Wives (now only four). The Citadel is now the only place of water and greenery, but the people are all slaves.

Earlier in the film, when Max asks Furiosa why she was trying to save the Five Wives, which was an act of treason, she exclaimed with one word, "Redemption". From what was she redeeming herself?

Dr. Miller seems to be giving us a lesson here springing directly from Mahayana (literally, "the great vehicle") Buddhism. The Bodhisattva (Max) can reach Nirvana, not just by just releasing himself from suffering (his mask), but also by helping other sentient beings on the right path (Fury Road) to liberation from Samsara (the wasteland). Thus,the bodhisattva can attain pure Buddhahood (Trikaya) through compassion and transcendent wisdom.

Before his death, Philip K. Dick was working on his next novel,  The Owl in Daylight,  in which he was pursuing a story of this same concept. From The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (p. 878).

Deconstructed, this pertains to all the avatars, Christ included. But Gautama most especially in the bodhisattva concept regarding compassion specifically expressed as : voluntarily returning to the maze; that is, the ultimate paradox of the maze, its quintessential ingenuity of construction, is that the only real way out is a voluntary way back in (into it and its power), which is the path of the bodhissatva. The maze, then, is one colossal and absolute Chinese finger trap. 

If the final paradox of the maze is that the only way you can escape it is voluntarily to go back in, then maybe we are here voluntarily; we came back in. Hence release - to nirvana- consists of anamnesis...the loss of forgetefulness...thus my salvation was assured not by what I did in this lifetime but by this lifetime as such.


Furiosa, having now accepted this challenge of going "back in" to the matrix, has thus been redeemed - her karma has been cleared.

The solidification of this ying/yang synergy between Max and Furiosa lastly symbolized by the blood transfusion - the act of selflessness is complete. The flow of energy from the enlightened one to the one on the path. The Circle is complete. The balance is achieved.

In the final scenes, Max delivers the group safely into the Citadel and Immortan Joe is dead. Instead of staying with the others and receiving praises of its citizens, Max drifts through the crowds walking away - he has attained true emptiness - enlightened non-attachment of the Buddha.

Now that Furiosa is back in the Citadel and understands why she is there, what arises next is still in the mind of Dr. Miller.

For another good analysis of the film, please read this great essay from The Daily Grail

Review: Mad Max - Fury Road

"Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep"

I love when great synchronicity happens...and it happened for me this week. And, of course, it has to do with Philip K. Dick - YES!

On Thursday, my son, Trevor, sent an article on the great Sean Young and how she and Darryl Hannah are virtually ignored in discussions of Blade Runner, focusing more on the male actors/director. We emailed back and forth on the state of women in Hollywood and, in general, how they are eaten alive and spit out.

Blade Runner’s Sean Young: ‘If I were a man I’d have been treated better’

Then Thursday night I watched the new episode of The Americans entitled, "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep: - Whooaaa!!

 In keeping in Kindred spirit of Dick's amazing novel, Elizabeth Jennings, the lead female in The Americans, takes on the role of Deckard.

As a "true believer", Elizabeth is on a mission to rid the world of evil no matter how much collateral damage she has to invoke. and then having to face that she has become the evil one herself, thus embodying the great Dick paradox of the story and an idea that haunted Dick from the early days when researching the Nazi culture for his most lauded novel, The Man in the High Castle.

All things Dick and I applaud the writers of The Americans for honoring him with this great episode!

Have a listen to the great man himself and his definition of an android - this is a wonderful and funny interview especially what he has to say about Hollywood!!

Philip K. Dick: The Blade Runner Interview

"The empire never ended."

...and Philip K. Dick is always right. It's happening NOW...stay above the chaos.

Je Suis Ragle Gumm

I just started watching The Maze Runner last night; had a string of lucid dreams which would stop and start up again where it left off as I would awaken and then fall back to sleep.

 And now today…

 I am Ragle Gumm.  

Similar to The Maze Runner, Ragle Gumm is a rat in a maze, manipulated by a government conspiracy, or more specifically, the subject of a military experiment/special operations.

Ragle Gumm is the main character in Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint. He believes he is living in a safe, humdrum peaceful world of 1959 and wins the daily newspaper contest, when in reality, he is living in a simulated environment developed by the military industrial complex tasked with predicting nuclear strikes.  Gradually, through the breakdown of the matrix, Gumm becomes AWARE of what has happened to him and plans to escape his captives.

I am feeling the matrix very strongly this week, particularly today. Becoming aware of its existence is half the battle and knowing and utilizing the tools to escape is the other half which at certain times is very difficult to do as the matrix feels like it is squeezing or closing in on me and playing the joker with this Mercury Retrograde thingie right now.

 I have to laugh. 

The same scenarios playing over and over, taling to people and feeling like you are talking Chinese instead of English because no one understands a word you say; things having to be done and redone, over and over – the stagnation is overwhelming. Best to see it for what it is, have a laugh and watch Abbot and Costello – “who’s on first, what’s on second”

Time to go inward…time to blank slate myself…no time…ahhhh