Here is the puzzle of VALIS. (1) In VALIS I say, I know a madman who imagines that he saw Christ; and I am that madman. But if I know that I am a madman I know that in fact I did not see Christ. Therefore I assert nothing about Christ. Or do I? Who can solve this puzzle? I say in fact only that I am mad. But if I say only that, then I have made no mad claim; I do not, then, say that I saw Christ. Therefore I am not mad. And the regress begins again, and continues forever. The reader must know on his own what has really been said, what has actually been asserted. Something has been asserted, but what is it? Does it have to do with Christ or only with myself? This PARADOX was known in antiquity; the pre-Socratics propounded it. A man says, truthfully, “All Cretans are liars.” When an inquiry is made as to who this man is, it is determined that he was born in Crete. What, then, has he asserted? Anything at all? I this the semblance of knowledge or a form -- a strange form -- of knowledge itself? There is no answer to this puzzle. Or is there? Zeno, the Sophists in general, saw paradox as a way of conveying knowledge -- paradox, in fact, as a way of arriving at conclusions. This is known, too, in Zen Buddhism. It sometimes causes a STRANGE JOLT or (quantum) leap in the person’s mind; something happens, an abrupt comprehension, as if out of nowhere, called satori. The paradox does not tell; it points. It is a sign, not the thing pointed to. That which is pointed to must arise xenophile in the mind of the person. The paradox, the koan tells him nothing; it WAKES HIM UP. This only makes sense if you assume something very strange: we are asleep but do not know it. A least not until we wake up. === P.K. Dick (1980) Exegesis, In Pursuit of VALIS (103-104) Here is the puzzle of VALIS. (2) SEQUENCE: Anamnesis due to external stimulus (disinheriting stimulus) Superimposition of two space-time continua. (time travel) Meta-abstraction from spatiotemporal world to Form world. Freedom from the power of the spatiotemporal world. (heimarmene) Re-entry into the higher realms of more unity. Contact with NOUS and vision of the meta-cosmos, a return to prenatal perception (the “second signal,” set/ground discrimination,” “morphological arrangement,” etc.) AWARENESS === P.K. Dick (1980) Exegesis, In Pursuit of VALIS (103-104)