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TrialsAndTribulation ago

Ray Bradbury I've always considered to be more of a poet and fableist than a science fiction writer. Philip K. Dick, on the other hand, create a new genre in science fiction that was so farsighted and so paranoid yet realistic that it took the public decades to catch up to what he was saying. After reading much of his work and a few biographies, I'm confident that in the 60s and 70s he was targeted by the FBI and routinely harassed. Yes, he wrote under the influence of stimulants for over a decade, and he did indeed have what one might charitably call a temperamental personality, and he was well aware of his paranoia, but he was also very self aware in many ways most people are not. After he stopped using stimulants (which he mentioned in the afterword to his book "A Scanner Darkly"), his output slowed, but his work was more carefully considered. His experience that he refers to as "2-3-74", which was a four hour vision that changed him for the remaining eight years of his life, confounded him so thoroughly that he wrote over 100,000 words in an exegesis.

The phenomenon he called VALIS eventually became his last novel. I am convinced that he was subjected to CIA mind control harassment through some ultra high wavelength communication that used his front apartment window and medium. He was very close to the truth, but appeared mad, so relatively few paid attention until decades later.

shbbougter ago

There are other groups besides the CIA and FBI, groups of ordinary civilians who have unusual personal habits and belong to subcultures that routinely stalk and subjugate people in their communities. Philip K Dick would have encountered and developed an awareness of these groups not only because he was generally perceptive and intelligent, but more specifically because he plumbed the depths of his consciousness for creative inspiration.

TrialsAndTribulation ago

Possible, but PKD had an extensive FBI file compiled when he was alive. This is true, along with the fact that the CIA was actively testing mind control devices such as I described in the 70s. There is a device that transmits information soundlessly directly to a person's head. It's available for purchase and was actually used in Times Square very briefly to advertise a film (I think) that featured paranoia and "hearing voices". As pedestrians walked through a narrow focused beam, they would received the transmission from the device. I'm convinced PKD was subjected to this sort of harassment and experimentation.