Today is February 3rd, a very important date in the life of author Philip K. Dick. On 2-3-74, he had a very powerful religious experience when what he described as a "pink laser beam" entered into his head and basically blew his mind. It showed him an incredible amount of knowledge about physical reality and the way we perceive the world, knowledge which he would struggle to understand for the rest of his life. It even provided him with information of a medical condition which ended up saving his son's life. Dick termed this force VALIS: Vast Active Living Intelligence System.
"It denied the reality, and power, and authenticity of the world. Saying 'This cannot exist, It cannot exist.'"
He wrote about this experience almost constantly in his 8000 page "Exegesis" and tried to bring it to the world in his semi-autobiographical novel VALIS; in which he was both the main character and the narrator "Horselover Fat", an ancient Greek translation of his name. The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer soon followed as he attempted to come to grips with the magnitude of his experience. His books and short stories have come to prominence since his passing in 1982; most notably Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. But none dug as deeply as VALIS.
R.I.P Philip K. Dick 1928-1982, on this, the 36th anniversary of your experience we are still trying to understand why "The Empire Never Ended."
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