In Schizophrenia & The book of Changes, the author Phillip K. Dick describes his personal thoughts and experiences about a thought process that not many people will ever have a good idea about, unless if your diagnosed or suffering from the illness itself. So reading about his personal experiences and thoughts can only give us readers a small idea of how this formation and complex set of structure functions with the use of I Ching.
Dick first starts off by mentioning his ideas about how many life forms are forced into existence, more specifically the koinos kosmos (the shared world), and that the idios kosmos (the personal world) for animals ceases for them as soon as they are born; but not for humans. He emphasizes on how a human child is born into
“…a form of semi real existence ahead of him: semireal in the sense that until he is didteen or sixteen years old he is able to some degree to remain not throroughly born, unknot entirely on his own; fragments of the idios kosmos remain, and not all or even very much of the koinos kosmos has been forced onto him as yet. The full burden of the noisnos kosmos does not weigh until what is delightfully referred to as “psychosecual maturity” sticks, which means those lovely days during high school epitomized by asking that cute girl in the new ahead of you if she’d like to go get a soda after school,” followed by a rejection.
Moreover, Dick shifts his thoughts from personal experiences to explain a personality type that has a state characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or incompatible elements, “Schizophrenia.” He mentions that the personality, which is in his own opinion, “is generally called ‘schizoid effective,’” and gives us an example of his own schizoid effective actions during his adolescence.
With this in mind, the author displays what distinguishes a Schizophrenic from the rest of “us.” Which is the ability not to feel time pass by, where as the rest of “us” experience it and feel it slowly pass by. The author forgets to mentions what and who he means by “us.” Does he mean regular non-Schizophrenic people, or people like himself, Schizophrenics?
Consequently, the author connects the powers from using the I Ching. He first gives a description of how this book, also known as the ‘Book of Changes,’ was first written by a Chinese King who was imprisoned for the rest of his life, and later became Schizophrenic because of his long incarceration. He wrote this book on the “basis of synchronicity- and is a device by which synchronicity can be handled.” Or, as the author mentioned, “you prefer the word ‘coincidence.’ Any how, both terms refer to acausal connectives, or rather events linked in that manner, events occurring outside of time.”
Additionally, the author tells the reader that the universe of the Schizophrenic is somewhat large. “Much too large. Ours, is controlled and finite; we rub up against only as much reality as we an handle—or think we can handle, to be more accurate.” With this in mind, it is evident that the sporadic stream of consciousness that the author displays throughout his writing only proves to show the seriousness of his illness.
Consequently, Dick connects these complex and opposing ideas with the ability to predict the future. He believes that the I Ching, for Schizophrenics, can be a tool or guide for living their daily lives. Since their whole psychological thought process is based on speculation and fear, they can use the I Ching to help make clear which answer to choose, and in some odd cases depending on how serious the illness is, it can tell you the future.
To sum up, Author Dick shares from his own ideas and experiences of what he believes the powers of the I Ching may possess, and that it will only show this power to those who are able to see it through this illness, Schizophrenia. But he emphasizes his negation of this idea much further by saying,
“Sure, we can tinker around and fix matters up so that it does depict the future precisely. But that would be to become Schizophrenic, or anyhow more Schizophrenic. It would be greater loss than gain; we would have induced our future into being consumed by the present. To understand the future totally would be to have it now.”
He concludes by suggesting that if you’re a person that suffers from Schizophrenia, then “by all means use the I Ching for everything, including telling you when to take a bath and when to open a can of cat tuna for your cat Rover.” But if your not a Schizophrenic, then you should basically take the I Ching with a grain of salt.
Reference:
- Sutin, L. (Ed.). (1995) The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.175-182). New york: Vintage.
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