Philip K. Dick And The Pursuit Of Spiritual Truth

I have just finished reading “Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick” by Lawrence Sutin and have been struck by two things: both the impressive energy of Dick’s pursuit of spiritual truth but also the ultimate inability of a human mind, however imaginative, to comprehend the divine reality.

In the words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha

‘In the Old Testament we read that God said, ‘Let us make man in Our own image’. In the Gospel, Christ said, ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in Me’. In the Qur’án, God says, ‘Man is my Mystery and I am his’. Bahá’u'lláh writes that God says, ‘Thy heart is My home; purify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation’.

All these sacred words show us that man is made in God’s image: yet the Essence of God is incomprehensible to the human mind, for the finite understanding cannot be applied to this infinite Mystery. God contains all: He cannot be contained. That which contains is superior to that which is contained. The whole is greater than its parts.

Things which are understood by men cannot be outside their capacity for understanding, so that it is impossible for the heart of man to comprehend the nature of the Majesty of God. Our imagination can only picture that which it is able to create’.

Abdu’l-Bahá ‘Paris Talks’, UK Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1972 eleventh edition reprint

Significantly in his latter years Dick was to search for a saviour figure, perhaps realising that if he was to receive ’God’s Wisdom’ it would need to come via a divine messenger. Did Dick ever hear about the Baha’i Faith? Perhaps someone out there in the blogosphere could let me know…