Comment Eleven

From Barbelith

11. The great secret known to Apollonius of Tyana, Paul of Tatsus, Simon Magus, Asklepios, Paracelsus, Boehme and Bruno is that: we are moving backward in time. The universe in fact is contracting into a unitary entity which is completing itself. Decay and disorder are seen in reverse, as increasing. These healers learned to move forward in time, which is retrograde to us.

(chris23) "The universe in fact is contracting into a unitary entity which is completing itself. Decay and disorder are seen in reverse, as increasing." Interesting to parallel this assertion that history is running in reverse towards unity to the ideas of Terence Mckenna and Timewave theory. Mckenna suggests a similar notion, that time is being drawn towards the eschaton, or endpoint, and as it does the amount of novelty increases towards infinity.

(iivix) Let's not forget that the theme of time running in reverse appears in many of PKD's earlier pulpy sci-fi novels: see his Counter-Clock World for example. Many (if not all) elements of the Exegesis can be found in early Dick, stuff which predates the whole Valis experience...

(chris23) Yeah, supposedly Dick felt that UBIK was very important and that Flow My Tears contains a hidden cypher that predicted (precognition?) much of what he discoverd through his Exegesis. May need to reread those...

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