PKD, VALIS, AND PRACTICES OF ULTRA META-COGNITION
with Professor Richard Doyle of Penn State
A seven part, self-directed course with assigned readings and forum discussion
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This online class was hosted in a series of live streamed lectures presented in 2018 through Nura Learning.
Join the Class Forum or follow our Facebook Group page to connect with ongoing community discussions. Richard Doyle is a professor of English at Penn State and the author of On Beyond Living, Wetwares, Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants and the Evolution of the Noosphere, and The Genesis of Now. Follow his blog, Mobiused, to get updates on his latest speaking engagements and publications. |
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
Featured Artwork by Timba Smits
It is the hypothesis of this course that writer Philip K. Dick deployed a deep intuition and a keen series of observations about the nature of self consciousness to enable him to experience what he called “ultra-meta-cognition”, what he would label “VALIS” or the Vast Living Intelligent System.
Persistently Dick experimented with the idea that he had in fact experienced the contents of his own mind in a way “orthogonal” to ordinary awareness, an ultra meta frame of reference. In this orthogonal awareness, ordinary oppositions such as “real/unreal”, “living/machinic”, “alive/dead” dissolved into a nonduality experienced in pure consciousness.
PKD’s fictional strategies – the devices and techniques by which Phil Dickian effects of nonduality are often induced - were techniques of altering consciousness in the act of writing and reading akin to what scientist John Lilly would call “Programming and Metaprogramming the Human biocomputer.”
This seven part course will tune into PKD’s fictional strategies at play in his novels – including Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, and VALIS - in order to observe and experience an alteration of consciousness that Dick would query in the over eight thousand page manuscript, The Exegesis.
Persistently Dick experimented with the idea that he had in fact experienced the contents of his own mind in a way “orthogonal” to ordinary awareness, an ultra meta frame of reference. In this orthogonal awareness, ordinary oppositions such as “real/unreal”, “living/machinic”, “alive/dead” dissolved into a nonduality experienced in pure consciousness.
PKD’s fictional strategies – the devices and techniques by which Phil Dickian effects of nonduality are often induced - were techniques of altering consciousness in the act of writing and reading akin to what scientist John Lilly would call “Programming and Metaprogramming the Human biocomputer.”
This seven part course will tune into PKD’s fictional strategies at play in his novels – including Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, and VALIS - in order to observe and experience an alteration of consciousness that Dick would query in the over eight thousand page manuscript, The Exegesis.
ASSIGNED READINGS:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)
UBIK (1969)
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
VALIS (1981)
Selected readings from The Exegesis (2011)
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"A Stairway to Eleusis: PKD, Perennial Philosopher" , Richard Doyle (Epilogue to the Exegesis)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)
UBIK (1969)
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
VALIS (1981)
Selected readings from The Exegesis (2011)
***
"A Stairway to Eleusis: PKD, Perennial Philosopher" , Richard Doyle (Epilogue to the Exegesis)
I - WE CAN PERTURB REALITY FOR YOU WHOLESALE
No Required Reading- Introduction to the Course
II - DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC EMPATHY?
Required reading: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
III - META-COGNITION UNDER ARREST - THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH
Required Reading: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)
IV - BACK TO ORTHOGONAL TIME: UBIK
Required Reading: UBIK (1969)
V - TECHNO-METANOIA, OR PULLED THROUGH INFINITY: A SCANNER DARKLY
Required Reading: A Scanner Darkly (1977)
VII - I AM NOT MYSELF, HORSELOVER FAT: VALIS
Required Reading: VALIS (1981)
VII - THE EXEGESIS DISTILLED, OR TUNING INTO THE URGUND WITH PHILIP K. DICK
Required Reading: Selected readings from The Exegesis (2011)
INQUIRIES
Questions or comments about the class and future courses can be directed to jeremy (at) nuralearning (dot) com. Thank you!
