A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future

Could it be that PKD’s genius, frustratingly unrecognized by his teachers and peers, was part of his ASD? Indeed in recent years it has been recognised that ‘High Functioning Autism’ (HFA) and Asperger’s Syndrome can be present in individuals who are, to all intents and purposes, active members of society. Of possible significance is that individua

The first thing that struck me was the extremes within PKD’s profile. It is unusual to have five sten 10 scores in a single profile together with one 9 and one 8. The profile also has one sten 2. In effect, this means that eight out of the sixteen factors were statistically unusual in that only 16 per cent or fewer of the general population would b

We know that he used psychometrics as plot devices in some of his novels, including the Voight-Kampff Empathy Test in Do Androids Dream of Electric

In April 1958, the Journal of Clinical Psychology published an academic paper entitled Personality and Creativity in Artists and Writers. The authors, John E. Drevdahl and Raymond B. Cattell, studied the personality characteristics of eminent artists and writers and compared them with a ‘normal’ group.405 One of the fifty-eight science fiction writ

‘The phosphenes — optic neurons — are a primordial sense system by which the “archetypal ideas or eidei” were originally a priori perceived, but like the bicameral mind, it has atrophied. Why, the hallucinogenic mushroom bread and broth sets off phosphene activity! As mescaline, peyote, LSD, etc., do.’360

What it seems had actually taken place was that the reflecting light had triggered phosphene activity. Phosphenes are a form of light that is perceived when there is no light actually entering the eye. As previously described, we can all reproduce phosphene activity by simply closing our eyes and either rub them or apply pressure on them through th

Self-aware consciousness is singularly the greatest mystery of modern science. How does a collection of neurochemicals, electrical impulses and billions of cells create the concept of ‘selfhood’.

However, PKD adds an intriguing addition to the model by suggesting that the pineal gland was central to this process of ‘cross-bonding’. ‘As living information the plasmate travels up the optic nerve of a human to the pineal body. It uses the human brain as a female host.’358 In other words, PKD believed that the opening up of his pineal gland had

‘This is to do with the DNA because the memory is located in the DNA (phylogenic memory). Very ancient memories, predating this life are triggered off. (…) You remember your real nature. Which is to say, origins (from the stars) Die Zeit ist da!) (The time is here) The Gnostic Gnosis. You are here in this world but you are not of this world.’355