| "Tractate 31: We hypostatize information into objects. Rearrangement
of objects is change in the content of the information; the message has
changed. This is a language which we have lost the ability to read. We
ourselves are a part of this language; changes in us are changes in the
content of the information. We ourselves are information-rich;
information enters us, is processed and is then projected outward once
more, now in an altered form. We are not aware that we are doing this,
that in fact this is all we are doing."
[ Could the above Tractate be refering to our dreaming states? Could
P.K. Dick be refering to the language of "symbol" and "imagry" that our
unconscious, dreaming self communicates and self-reflects. Our
unconscious minds continually receive information, which filters
through our unconscious minds, always on the threshold of
consciousness. During sleep, the contents of this unconscious material
is emptied, re-experienced and "re-processed" in symbolic, non-linear,
form. The fact that we have lost the ability to read this
"information-rich" langauage means we do not understand the symbolic,
self-reflective nature of our dreams. The information we absorb
throughout the day, is revisited at night in our dreams, in "altered"
form. ]
"Tractate 36: In summary; thoughts of the brain are experienced by us
as arrangements and rearrangements - change - in a physical universe;
but in fact it is really information and information-processing which
we substantialize. We do not merely see its thoughts as objects, but
rather as the movement, or, more precisely, the placement of objects:
how they become linked to one another. But we cannot read the patterns
of arrangement; we cannot extract the information in it - i.e. it as
information, which is what it is. The linking and relinking of objects
by the Brain is actually a language but not a language like ours (since
it is addressing itself and not someone or something outside itself)."
[ Often dreams will re-associate, common every-day experiences into
a symbolic whole, which functions and conveys meaning symbolically, but
is utterly non-functional, and meaningless in the real-world. Often
dreams combine bit and pieces "taken" from the real world, like light
switches, or electrical appliances that do not work in the dream world.
Only their appearance has meaning. For example, I once dreamed of
plugging a hot iron into a field of snow. In that dream, what was
important was the heat and red color of the iron, not how it really
functions in the non-dreaming world. Many objects in our dream world
are non-functional,or "broken" yet still work in our dreams. These
objects are preceived in ways our conscious, observing selves would not
understand. Consciously, we strive to understand the real world and
nature. We use our minds to "try and figure" out how the real world
works. In our dreams, we "re-link" and "re-process" these images, or
observed information, into a personal "tapastry" , a dream language
about our deeper selves, our dreams are filled with our deeper needs
and desires...P.K. Dick could be refering to the minds dream language,
when he says "The linking and relinking of objects by the Brain is
actually a language but not a language like ours (since it is
addressing itself and not someone or something outside itself"... which
is what our dreaming mind is doing: addressing ourself (in a more
intimate and truer form). ] In summary, Images and symbols are part of
the language the unconscious mind uses to rearrange conscious
observations, subliminal material, and to express deep feelings from
the personal life.
"Tractate 22: I term the Immortal one plasmate, because it is a form of
energy; it is living information. It replicates itself - not through
informtaion or in information - but as information.
[ Could P.K. Dick be talking about the "archetypes" that Jung
described? Archetypes are strong, "instinctual energies embedded on the
subconscious of all human beings." Jung considered them as a type of
prototype, existing before the individual. [According to Jung]...an
additional aspect of the unconscious is a collection of archetypal
images that can be inherited by members of the same group." In VALIS,
the character Horselover Fat imagines he can retreive information from
his previous lives...in particular, information that surrounds the
christian, vesicle pisces - ichthys symbol.] |
