tag: Immanent Mind

The Exegesis: Letter to Claudia Bush, November 30, 1974

The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
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In this letter Dick quotes a passage by John Calvin written in the 1500s about how human beings have supernatural abilities that will be restored by Christ. Again he relates to Claudia his experience of seeing Rome during the event that happened to him in March. 

In a postscript he pitches an idea of time in which time itself enters a person all at once as energy and we retain this in our heads as a potential which is slowly revealed. He uses this theory to explain déjà vu as we are glimpsing in advance what is already in our mind. 

The Immanent Mind which has been slumbering for two thousand years is now waking up.

The Exegesis: Letter to Claudia Bush, November 29, 1974

At the beginning of this letter Dick brings up Ubik and the Ubik screenplay he is writing for a European producer.

Dick connects Ubik, the force itself, with the immanent mind he mentioned in his last letter. All of us have bits of this universal mind which can be sparked by an external catalyst such as Christ. 

I’m curious what Claudia Bush thinks as she receives letter after letter from Dick repeating variations of the same thing again and again. 

The Exegesis: Letter to Claudia Bush, November 26, 1974

Dick tells Claudia about a hypnagogic vision he had of a godlike figure while at the same time a Greek phrase entered his head. His wife helps him determine the Greek was from Hebrews 7:26 (in the King James translation: “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”)

Whatever is visiting him has gone by many names in the past: Apollo, the Holy Spirit, Elijah and what Virgil called the “Immanent Mind” in the Aeneid. Dick is convinced the Immortals made a promise to return thousands of years ago and they are finally keeping that promise.