The Palm Tree Garden of Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick was a science fiction writer whose most common theme was "what is reality?" He often set his novels in unstable universes where the most solid of circumstances could soon turn hazy and finally disappear. He read quite widely, especially in philosophy and theology. Near the end of his life he found himself living in one of his own novels - his whole world fell apart all around him and took him with it. Although he never was quite sure what happened, he spent long hours agonizing over every possibility. "Palm Tree Garden" refers to a Garden of Eden of sorts and is a metaphor for the ideal state towards which Phil strove after temporarily losing touch; "Black Iron Prison" is Phil's gnostic metaphor for the existential situation in which we all find ourselves by virtue of being alive and trapped in this imperfect physical universe. Call him crazy, call him a charlatan or just a good story teller - Phil may not have been a literal contactee, but he definitely had something weird happen to him, and it's all recorded painstakingly in the books mentioned above. Phil glimpsed the Palm Tree Garden once, while staring at the letter Y in the Greek word ICHTHYS, which was printed within an outline of a fish - the early Christian symbol of Christ. In the various mystery schools going as far back as Pythagoras, this letter is used to represent a yoke between heaven and earth. Phil also glimpsed the deceptively named Cave of Treasures, a glittering cavern beneath the Garden which contains great wealth for those who choose to partake of it. This Palm Tree Garden is a collection of essays and other writings exploring Phil's visions from every possible angle. Since his reading was so wide, we can only assume that numerous archetypes are hidden in his writings, waiting to be exposed. A few of the authors here have had similar things happen to them; the rest have found parallel accounts in the books of others - like John Dee, H.P. Lovecraft, UFO contactees, mystics, ecstatic monks, gnostics, the occult, kabbalah, mason