I'm so curious to know if any of you have found songs that are so perfect for a certain PKD book or short story. I think "The Black" by Imminence is literally PERFECT for Galactic Pot-Healer. I love love love that book. It almost feels like this song was hand tailored for it. I included the lyrics for your convenience. Let me know your choices! I'd love to make a Playlist of inspired music for a PKD Playlist!

Lyrics:

What's the point of living in the dark Trying to stop the bleeding of the heart Tell me why have you forsaken me Only death will ever set me free Take this pain away Caught in a circuit No means to an end I'm trying to quiet the voice in my head Just cut me open and leave me for dead Why can't I pull the thorn in my side? Lord knows I've tried Watch the night, like a knife in my back Into the black There's something in the water Pulling me down in the deep Would you follow me to the edge? Would you follow me into the black? Yeah, into the black, come on Into the black I feel a cold breath on my neck Telling me that I could be next Every day is a struggle to deal with the pain Everything's changing, but I stay the same Why can't I pull the thorn in my side? Lord knows I've tried Watch the night, like a knife in my back Into the black There's something in the water Pulling me down in the deep Would you follow me to the edge? Would you follow me? There's something in the water Pulling me down in the deep Would you follow me to the edge? Would you follow me? (Into the black) Into the black Darkness arising An endless horizon Pulling me under Into the black Into the black

Second reprint of a rare vintage "Urania" magazine

Wilbur Mercer is an archetypal figure who appears in two stories by Philip K. Dick, presenting a spiritual concept that seems to distance itself from both traditional religiosity and the commercialized spirituality often labeled as New Age.

Rather than offering comfort or instant enlightenment, Mercerism focuses on shared pain and the experience of an empathetic connection that transcends individuality. This is first introduced in From Ordinary Household Objects through empathy boxes—devices that allow users to merge with Mercer through shared pain as he traverses a barren desert on his way to certain death.

Later, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this religion reemerges as the central theme of the narrative. However, Philip K. Dick pushes the concept further by suggesting that the religion is a human fabrication while simultaneously showing that Wilbur Mercer can exist and communicate even without the use of empathy devices.

In both stories, Dick creates a dialogue between a character and the archetypal figure, delivering a message that is both bleak and profound.

In both From Ordinary Household Objects and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the protagonists—Joan and Rick, respectively—encounter Wilbur Mercer as an old man with an expression of sorrow on his face.

Mercer reaches out his hands to them and tells them they must live as if he does not exist. He assures them that he cannot offer salvation and adds that he cannot even save himself, stating:
"Don’t you see? There is no salvation."

When Joan and Rick, bewildered, ask him: “Then what’s the point of all this? What are you for?” Mercer responds with a statement that defines the essence of Mercerism:
"To show you that you are not alone. I am here with you and always will be."

Finally, in both stories, Mercer urges them to continue with what they must do, to face their responsibilities and the suffering that comes with them.

The ideas represented by Wilbur essentially boil down to the pure experience of shared pain, without a promise, without any element for the ego to cling to.

While Mercer’s character is much more developed in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, in From Ordinary Household Objects, the first story, there is a stronger focus on the value of pain as a real experience and on how sharing pain poses a threat to all political systems and ideologies.

This summary of what I understand about Mercerism feels incredibly realistic and profound to me, to the point that I believe it completely contradicts the philosophy of what is currently known as New Age. If you’ve read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or From Ordinary Household Objects, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what Mercerism offers us.

I have a movie podcast and my friend has (had) a book podcast so we decided to combine the two and cover the book and movie version of A Scanner Darkly. I think it’d be a fun listen for some people in this sub.

Title:
THE ORIGINAL HEAD OF PKD 1

Page 1, Panel 1:
Alien 1: So, it’s about attaching the head to Philip K. Dick’s android?

Page 1, Panel 2:
Alien 2: Yes, just that…

Page 1, Panel 3:
Alien 2: The body is completely new, and the head was just brought by a cat.
Alien 1: Is the head from the original android?
Alien 2: Exactly, the original one.

Page 1, Panel 4:

Alien 1: Your head, Phil, don’t lose it again.
Alien 2: We just made a few adjustments.

Page 1, Panel 5:

Alien 1: What adjustments?

Page 1, Panel 6:

Alien 2: We changed the casing, added new sensory organs, and improved its expression mechanisms.
PKDick: To whom?

https://preview.redd.it/we2yalulpa6e1.jpg?width=710&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb50ab35abacb79a6601e379af6d384f9ae75593

Title:
THE ORIGINAL HEAD OF PKD 2

Page 2, Panel 1:

Alien 1: It restarted.

Alien 2: Let’s do a quick test.

Page 2, Panel 2:

PKDick: What restarted? What test are you talking about?

Page 2, Panel 3:
Alien 2: What’s your name, and what do you do?
PKDick: I’m Philip K. Dick, a science fiction writer.

Page 2, Panel 4:

Alien 1: It works. Later, we’ll erase this from his memory and insert a few new ones…

Page 2, Panel 5:

PKDick: Are you talking to me?

Page 2, Panel 6:

PKDick: What are you talking about?

Alien 2: The central unit and software are new, and it has a new, more realistic skin. The hair and scalp are new too.

https://preview.redd.it/mny96lgrpa6e1.jpg?width=710&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ac5b53d83de66a1766038b58515856820194644

Title:
THE ORIGINAL HEAD OF PKD 3

Page 3, Panel 1:

Alien 1: Why the hell did we bother bringing the original head?

Page 3, Panel 2:

Alien 2: It had to be the original head.

Page 3, Panel 3:
Alien 1: But you’ve changed everything!
Alien 2: Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus paradox?
PKDick: I know that paradox.

Page 3, Panel 4:

Alien 1: No. Tell me, what’s it about?

Alien 2: Well, if we take Theseus’ ship…

PKDick: ...and replace all the pieces one by one…

Page 3, Panel 4:

PKDick: Hey!

Page 3, Panel 5:
PKDick: Can someone tell me what’s going on?

Page 3, Panel 6:

PKDick: Hey!

Page 3, Panel 7:

PKDick: I’m here…

https://preview.redd.it/etbk02oaqa6e1.jpg?width=710&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0fd8f47af60ad913fd88664dc1dc8e2ae561d0a

I am in Europe and want to buy Hardcover PKD books , anybody ?

Do you think the dual universes in VALIS relate to his twin?

Hi all, I’ve been wanting to get into PKD’s short stories for the longest time but never came around finding a good EXHAUSTIVE edition compiling all of his short stories. If anyone has any recommendations I would greatly appreciate it. Also if anyone has an accurate list (according to the year of composition) of all of PKD’s short stories I would be interested in seeing it. Finally if anyone has downloaded on their computer some sort of a pdf file with some of his best short stories I would love to see that as well.

The story cites elements already present in The Three Stigmata, including the Proxima system.

I like to think that the protagonist is linked in some way to Palmer Eldritch: to escape the invasion of advertising and robots - which have now pervaded every aspect of humanity - he launches himself into hyperspace towards the bisolar system with his own spaceship, shattering it.
Ed Morris aspires to find a "pre-modern" humanity, in a system still sterile by the presence of automated servants, like a bucolic hope of rebirth that pushes him to abandon everything, allowing himself a look at the two suns of Proxima - despite being wounded by the explosion of his "utilitarian" spaceship.

I find a lot of Palmer Eldritch in this...a man in search of a more profitable tomorrow for his company, who aspires to increase his sales through a suicide expedition to Proxima, obtaining the Chew-Z, returning completely changed. He desired a change.

I’m trying to find out which book this quote comes from: “I am a mask, concealing the real…”

I think it’s from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It’s bugged me for years, and I can’t find its origins. Does anyone know?

I view the use of Kipple and “Kippleization” as a metaphor for how nature, specifically vines or weeds, grows over anything if left untended. It’s almost like the constant pruning of a garden. But I could be wrong.

The First Law of Kipple, the Kippleization between Isidore and Kris.

"Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning, there's twice as much of it. It always gets more and more."

"I see." The girl regarded him uncertainly, not knowing whether to believe him. Not sure if he meant it seriously.

"There's the First Law of Kipple," he said. "'Kipple drives out nonkipple.' Like Gresham's law about bad money. And in these apartments, there's been nobody here to fight the kipple."

"So it has taken over completely," the girl finished. She nodded. "Now I understand."

"Your place, here," he said, "this apartment you've picked--it's too kipple-ized to live in. We can roll the kipple-factor back; we can do like I said, raid the other apts. But--" He broke off.

"But what?"

Isidore said, "We can't win."

"Why not?" [...]

"No one can win against kipple," he said, "except temporarily and maybe in one spot, like in my apartment, I've sort of created a stasis between the pressure of kipple and nonkipple, for the time being. But eventually, I'll die or go away, and then the kipple will again take over. It's a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization."

As a side note, I feel like the trading and smuggling of pre-colonial stories described in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep could also happen in the future, depending on how governments manage their propaganda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Hudvh-0i4&list=PL9bYnAkLbdc8aS9\_ETHf0A3-\_GsA6C54x

Why didn't the disorienting/panic alarm thing that Roy Baty set up go off once Rick entered the apartment?

Lori, the dark-haired woman, attracted by a withered apple tree that seeks strength in her. She, helpless, gives her life. Between the gravestones, an apple tree grows beautifully red apples, shiny, like her cheeks that, after running for their lives, gave in to the apple.

An apple that does not bring sin, but that gives life, as in a cathartic sacrifice, to a nature strengthened by the lifeblood of a feminine soul, of a good heart.

Could it be Jane? And could Dick be the tree, searching for her?
Like her death could've bring him to this world.

Once again, PKD transmits through his pages the obsession for a sister he never knew, so lacking in his fragmented existence...

And you? Have you read it? What do you think?

In which book by P.K. Dick does someone muse that dead pets wait for their owners in the afterlife?

regards

Dorynx

https://youtu.be/8bSbmn9ghQc?si=Yq7x4a9nABWmtYME

Ermmmm….. Valis?

https://youtu.be/PVOZfAJwntk?si=AXZK-wILVqWJxVV2

I don’t know why but this video reminds me of a PKD novel, but I can’t pinpoint which one yet because I haven’t read enough of his work. What do you all think? 🤔