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having had a recent spiritual experience I have a new found respect for the man who showed me what the mind can do

by tudorw 5y ago

crate_barre 5y ago
He was a full blown functional amphetamine addict. Some artists really are something else on drugs, can’t really take away all the stuff he made on it. Someone else can go vet this, but found this with quick googling: Afterward, according to Kyle Arnold’s biography, he was taking speed by the handful. “He stuffed his refrigerator with thousand-pill jars of amphetamines” and “told his mother he consumed a thousand-pill jar per week.” There’s a fine line with all of this, and he is lucky he didn’t enter full paranoid breakdown (that we know of). Zappos CEO pretty much operated in the same way and it got his life. YMMV, for real.
- yeetaccount3 5y ago
  I hope those were the small pills
- bserge 5y ago
  Goddammit, where do they get all of it? Is it just for rich people? I'm fine with breaking the law for it, but I still can't get amphetamines.
- blamazon 5y ago
  PKD himself wrote a semi-autobiographical story (“A Scanner Darkly”) about mental breakdown due to drug use. It’s a haunting book and the feeling it evokes has stuck with me since I read it about ten years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly As with many PKD stories, it was turned into a film, which although I have not seen it, is technically notable for being entirely rotoscoped.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - exciteabletom 5y ago
    The rotoscoping in the film makes the film feel so surreal, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Absolutely worth watching if you get the chance.
    - krylon 5y ago
      Second that, the movie is brilliant. The cast is brilliant, too. Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and I'm certain I'm forgetting a few more.
  - tudorw 5y ago
    second that, it's a piece of art soaked in tragedy, stay for the credits, they stayed with me...
  - filoeleven 5y ago
    It’s also notable for being nearly the only film to stay pretty faithful to the original story. Blade Runner being the other.
okareaman 5y ago
Same here. I have bipolar disorder and am a former alcohol and drug addict, so I am aware to watch out for natural and drug induced manic states, but I had my spiritual experience completely sober and medicated for bipolar. I really tuned into PKD afterwards because he was open to "The Great Beyond" as R.E.M. called it. Not just PKD, but others as well. “A coincidence is a small miracle when God chooses to remain anonymous” ― Albert Einstein “We often dream about people from whom we receive a letter by the next post. I have ascertained on several occasions that at the moment when the dream occurred the letter was already lying in the post-office of the addressee.” ― C.G. Jung, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” ― Nikola Tesla “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” ― Max Planck
- User23 5y ago
  VALIS is where PKD gets really trippy. I wonder if his Exegesis will ever be published in full.
  - melonbar 5y ago
    I was fortunate enough at uni to have a professor who edited Dick’ Exegesis and had a wonderful talk on it. During the process, which took many, many years, he said it would often become a task not to get so wrapped up in it all. At moments biting and prescient; others unreadable, schizophrenic runoff. I imagine if he struggled through it perhaps some of it is simply unreadable. I know he mentioned having to work with PKDs estate and of the excerpts I have read it does have a much different feel then his other works. The professor was brilliant, turning me on to other treasures like William Gibson. Just thought I’d share, cheers!

having had a recent spiritual experience I have a new found respect for the man who showed me what the mind can do

by tudorw 5y ago

having had a recent spiritual experience I have a new found respect for the man who showed me what the mind can do

He was a full blown functional amphetamine addict. Some artists really are something else on drugs, can’t really take away all the stuff he made on it. Someone else can go vet this, but found this with quick googling: Afterward, according to Kyle Arnold’s biography, he was taking speed by the handful. “He stuffed his refrigerator with thousand-pill jars of amphetamines” and “told his mother he consumed a thousand-pill jar per week.” There’s a fine line with all of this, and he is lucky he didn’t enter full paranoid breakdown (that we know of). Zappos CEO pretty much operated in the same way and it got his life. YMMV, for real.

yeetaccount3 5y ago
I hope those were the small pills
bserge 5y ago
Goddammit, where do they get all of it? Is it just for rich people? I'm fine with breaking the law for it, but I still can't get amphetamines.
blamazon 5y ago
PKD himself wrote a semi-autobiographical story (“A Scanner Darkly”) about mental breakdown due to drug use. It’s a haunting book and the feeling it evokes has stuck with me since I read it about ten years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly As with many PKD stories, it was turned into a film, which although I have not seen it, is technically notable for being entirely rotoscoped.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- exciteabletom 5y ago
  The rotoscoping in the film makes the film feel so surreal, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Absolutely worth watching if you get the chance.
  - krylon 5y ago
    Second that, the movie is brilliant. The cast is brilliant, too. Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and I'm certain I'm forgetting a few more.
- tudorw 5y ago
  second that, it's a piece of art soaked in tragedy, stay for the credits, they stayed with me...
- filoeleven 5y ago
  It’s also notable for being nearly the only film to stay pretty faithful to the original story. Blade Runner being the other.

okareaman 5y ago

Same here. I have bipolar disorder and am a former alcohol and drug addict, so I am aware to watch out for natural and drug induced manic states, but I had my spiritual experience completely sober and medicated for bipolar. I really tuned into PKD afterwards because he was open to "The Great Beyond" as R.E.M. called it. Not just PKD, but others as well. “A coincidence is a small miracle when God chooses to remain anonymous” ― Albert Einstein “We often dream about people from whom we receive a letter by the next post. I have ascertained on several occasions that at the moment when the dream occurred the letter was already lying in the post-office of the addressee.” ― C.G. Jung, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” ― Nikola Tesla “All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” ― Max Planck

User23 5y ago
VALIS is where PKD gets really trippy. I wonder if his Exegesis will ever be published in full.
- melonbar 5y ago
  I was fortunate enough at uni to have a professor who edited Dick’ Exegesis and had a wonderful talk on it. During the process, which took many, many years, he said it would often become a task not to get so wrapped up in it all. At moments biting and prescient; others unreadable, schizophrenic runoff. I imagine if he struggled through it perhaps some of it is simply unreadable. I know he mentioned having to work with PKDs estate and of the excerpts I have read it does have a much different feel then his other works. The professor was brilliant, turning me on to other treasures like William Gibson. Just thought I’d share, cheers!