Transcendental experiences occur frequently in the
work of Philip K. DICK, sometimes placing his
characters in worlds whose reality is subjective, as
in Eye in the Sky (1957), The THREE STIGMATA OF
PALMER ELDRITCH (1964), and UBIK (1969). During the 1970s Dick began to incorporate religious
themes more openly; these reached their peak with
the three-volume thematically related set consisting of Valis (1981), The Divine Invasion (1982), and
The Transformation of Timothy Archer (1982). The
title of the first is an acronym for the Vast Active
Living Intelligence System, essentially a stand-in
for God.
The opening volume is the best of the three—
a complex, occasionally almost opaque, and intensely personal novel in which Dick’s own search
for meaning in life is transposed onto his protagonist. A new messiah has arrived on Earth, in the
form of a female infant, who confirms that activities on Earth are being monitored from space by an
alien intelligence. The protagonist, who clearly is a
substitute for Dick himself, searches for knowledge
and fulfillment, a theme reflected by similar quests
in the remaining two volumes. In The Divine Invasion, Christianity and Islam merge into a new religion just as an inhuman creature who might be a
messenger from God returns to Earth after a
lengthy exile. The Second Coming, if that is what
is in the offing, is delayed by an aircraft accident
that occurs as the characters deal with their own
personal redemptions. A short story, “Chains of
Air, Web of Aether” (1980), was incorporated
within the novel. The third title follows the exploits of a lawyer who becomes a charismatic religious leader and is only marginally fantastic.
An alternate version of Valis was discovered
after Dick’s death and published posthumously as
Radio Free Albemuth (1985); the story is set within
an American dictatorship under the eye of an
alien-constructed satellite. Much of the metaphysical background for the novels is discussed in the
nonfiction work “Exegesis.” The three novels
marked a significant change in the kind of work
the author was writing, and many readers found
his new direction more thought-provoking but less
entertaining.