> This plot [about an intelligent beam of light] wouldn’t be out of place in one of Dick’s mind-bending novels.

This experience was, in fact, the basis of a novel he wrote called _Valis_.

Bruce Sterling's take on this story is still a classic:

"The Spearhead of Cognition", 1987, https://germanponte.com/txt/catscan/sterling.html#ym2

I have immense respect for PKDs writings, he was far far ahead of his time, sad that he was such a mess mentally.

His themes about the malleability of reality are just so prescient about the problems of the digital era. Neighbors no longer share the same narrative about what is actually happening in the world.

I often wonder what PKD would say if he were alive today. Heck, I wonder what he'd be doing today in the digital era... Imagine if he had a YouTube channel...

2 years prior, in 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky adapted Stanisław Lem's Solaris to the big screen in the Soviet Union, which may have contributed to Dick's paranoia. Anyway, the film's a masterpiece that I highly recommend, and since it was published before 1975 it is not subject to copyright. You can find it on YouTube [1].

[1] https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE

Wow this reads like the plot of a bad romcom! I can totally imagine Dick sitting angry in his study getting all worked up over how badly Lem hated US SF and how mean that is, not realizing Lem actually loved his work. All this lacks is the grand finale where the misunderstanding is revealed and they kiss & make out.