December 1981
Dick realizes that God exists as a filter between us and the world controlling in a purposeful way how each person sees reality. It’s not something we ever notice (we assume everyone experiences the world in the same way), except he became aware of this filtering in 2-3-74. He began to deal with the interface itself (Valis/God) and he calls that theophany. Perhaps the world is unchanging but the interface alters our perception to make it appear however it wants.
Knowledge can only come from the grace of God. It cannot come from internal reasoning but only from that external source. Usually knowledge arises in such a way that we assume it came about naturally, but occasionally (as in the case of Dick’s awareness of his son’s hernia) we arrive at knowledge that can only come from the outside. This leads Dick to conclude that all knowledge of reality comes from dealing with the interface and not from dealing directly with the world.
Trying to truly understand this on our own is impossible. The interface actually encompasses both us and the world, and it can turn into an infinitely regressive loop of isolation. By studying the 18th century French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche Dick realizes salvation is knowledge of others and finally knowledge of God as the ultimate other.
He declares the Parousia is here and sketches out a new theology for the time after Christ’s arrival. He calls it Christian-Buddhist neo-pantheism, Teilhard’s Omega Point of unification that also involves ideas from Malebranche and physics and the ecosphere. In this new future the lowest of the low will be elevated to the suffering of Christ.
Attempting to figure all this out in the exegesis has exhausted him. The world has continued to draw him in as he seeks to regain what happened to him in 3-74.