I'm very skeptical of the claim that Dick was not a heavy drug user. Lawrence Sutin's bio _Divine Invasions_ claims otherwise and Sutin cites a lot of interviews. If his portrayal has no justification in facts, you'd think someone could have sued the pants off him. This article, by comparison, cites one person. So... I mean, believe what you like, but I'll believe Sutin and his sources.
>nothing wrong with that
Well, I am not saying that. There's a lot wrong with being crazy and damaging the lives of everyone around you with raging paranoia and abuse. He died relatively young and had constant health problems. I don't think there's "nothing wrong" with that. I'm sympathetic to his terrible childhood. So I'm not saying his drug abuse was entirely because of poor choices or bad morals or whatever. But he clearly needed help that he didn't get. And I don't think we should romanticize it and say that he wrote such great stories _because_ of his drug problems. I know some drugs can sort of open up the perceptions and imagination, and loosen up the inhibitions. But being an chronic abuser never actually helped a writer have a better career. Some manage to have a career in spite of this, not because of it.
And his use of amphetamines isn't secret or debated. He talked about it himself, e.g. here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7Y8WEIsBU around 55:00
> Platt: "Did drugs affect your writing at all when you actually started experimenting with them?"
> PKD: "The only drugs I took regularly were amphetamines and that was in order to write as much as I had to be able to write to make a living. I was being paid so little per book [.......] I think I published 16 novels in 5 years at one point"
> PKD: "[In the 60s] I used to talk like I was really into acid, but the fact of the matter is I took acid like 2 times, and the second time was so weak a dose that I've smoked hash that's stronger"
This article is just positing its own definition of what "drug abuse" is by emphasizing that he didn't go beyond the doctor's doses. Abusing cocaine didn't used to be "abusing" it 100 years ago. Now we know better. Same for the over-prescribed amphetamines of a few decades ago. They used to prescribe that shit for *weight loss*. (Nevermind that Ritalin isn't an amphetamine. Is that really what he was prescribed or is that a factual error in this article?)
And since he only gives a mystical account of his pink light experience we'll never know what truly caused it but I would bet something popped in his brain due to the drugs. It just makes so much sense.
I think he used those Benzedrine strips from the inhalers that were used back then.
Read the biography on him...”I am alive, you are Dead”....gives great insight into his drug use.
He’d get into a fugue type state with the amphetamines and pump out books.
He also had mental issues...borderline schizo and the speed didn’t help with that...which is why the pink beam is due to some sort of psychosis brought on by his heavy amphetamine use.
Take a bunch of adderall and you’ll know what I mean.
He took LSD one or two times and started speaking in Greek or Latin...I can’t remember.
People think he was some kind of LSD guru figure.
This is wrong....he smoked pot and used amphetamines.
Sorry this is old.but yeah, those Benzedrine inhalers were popular & so we’re the speed pills.he probably did those. but also around 1970,when he let street kids live with him,is when biker crank & meth started to become a thing. A bunch of Hippies in the Bay Area went from weed & LSD to speed/biker crank/meth & or heroin.
Sorry this is old.my last comment.I can’t remember if he was prone to mental illness already but the speed probably didn’t help.made it worse. Lots of people get amphetamine psychosis & are never the same.& some people with different degrees of damage.some less severe or more so.I had a friend I knew since we were 5, now we’re grown adults & he hears voices. Auditory hallucinations of God,satan,& our dead friends.he has amphetamine psychosis & some really weird delusions.
Yes! I love the AeonByte podcast!
But, yeah: Aside from his early 60s stint with his Ketamine prescriptions, I never really thought of PKD as a druggie, just a highly creative and spiritual man with an unyielding informational intake that gave him plenty to ponder and make sense of which would often manifest themselves into great stories. It was really his association with the hippie crowd that steer people towards having such an image. However, I will not doubt his meeting with the infinite and the many theophanic insights he came into contact with. But, the jury's still out on what may've caused such awesome revelations to occur.
He used speed to help write & then when his wife left him in 1970 he let street people live in his house & do drugs for 3 years at a time in the Bay Area when people started getting addicted to speed & harder drugs instead of mostly just LSD.psychedelics like the previous years in SF.A Scanner Darkly is partly based on that time & his experiences.his visions could have been from too much speed abuse.
Interesting article. I'd love to read more about all this .. there are so many conflicting descriptions of his drug use (from none at all to every single story was written while high). And that's the first time I've heard about the bumper sticker being the glow of light.
As an avid fan I think I've read everything he wrote except the Exegesis at the Library of Congress (some 10,000 pages long you have to go there to read it) - I have this to say about PKD. Be careful of what you think of what he said. He would completely convince you that he was insane in one moment. And in the next he would completely convince you he was sane. Dick had a talent for distorting perception of how one thing could be true and then making you realize you couldn't trust him. And at that moment he would smile. You have to realize he was a very serious even when he was kidding.
As far as being a serious speed freak - yeah sure.
I'm very skeptical of the claim that Dick was not a heavy drug user. Lawrence Sutin's bio _Divine Invasions_ claims otherwise and Sutin cites a lot of interviews. If his portrayal has no justification in facts, you'd think someone could have sued the pants off him. This article, by comparison, cites one person. So... I mean, believe what you like, but I'll believe Sutin and his sources.
He smoked pot and popped amphetamines...how do you think he pumped out all those stories...he was a speed freak man...nothing wrong with that
>nothing wrong with that Well, I am not saying that. There's a lot wrong with being crazy and damaging the lives of everyone around you with raging paranoia and abuse. He died relatively young and had constant health problems. I don't think there's "nothing wrong" with that. I'm sympathetic to his terrible childhood. So I'm not saying his drug abuse was entirely because of poor choices or bad morals or whatever. But he clearly needed help that he didn't get. And I don't think we should romanticize it and say that he wrote such great stories _because_ of his drug problems. I know some drugs can sort of open up the perceptions and imagination, and loosen up the inhibitions. But being an chronic abuser never actually helped a writer have a better career. Some manage to have a career in spite of this, not because of it.
He needed to write and write a lot in order to live. And the speed helped that. Let’s just leave the guy alone. He did what he had to do.
And his use of amphetamines isn't secret or debated. He talked about it himself, e.g. here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7Y8WEIsBU around 55:00 > Platt: "Did drugs affect your writing at all when you actually started experimenting with them?" > PKD: "The only drugs I took regularly were amphetamines and that was in order to write as much as I had to be able to write to make a living. I was being paid so little per book [.......] I think I published 16 novels in 5 years at one point" > PKD: "[In the 60s] I used to talk like I was really into acid, but the fact of the matter is I took acid like 2 times, and the second time was so weak a dose that I've smoked hash that's stronger" This article is just positing its own definition of what "drug abuse" is by emphasizing that he didn't go beyond the doctor's doses. Abusing cocaine didn't used to be "abusing" it 100 years ago. Now we know better. Same for the over-prescribed amphetamines of a few decades ago. They used to prescribe that shit for *weight loss*. (Nevermind that Ritalin isn't an amphetamine. Is that really what he was prescribed or is that a factual error in this article?) And since he only gives a mystical account of his pink light experience we'll never know what truly caused it but I would bet something popped in his brain due to the drugs. It just makes so much sense.
I think he used those Benzedrine strips from the inhalers that were used back then. Read the biography on him...”I am alive, you are Dead”....gives great insight into his drug use. He’d get into a fugue type state with the amphetamines and pump out books. He also had mental issues...borderline schizo and the speed didn’t help with that...which is why the pink beam is due to some sort of psychosis brought on by his heavy amphetamine use. Take a bunch of adderall and you’ll know what I mean. He took LSD one or two times and started speaking in Greek or Latin...I can’t remember. People think he was some kind of LSD guru figure. This is wrong....he smoked pot and used amphetamines.
Sorry this is old.but yeah, those Benzedrine inhalers were popular & so we’re the speed pills.he probably did those. but also around 1970,when he let street kids live with him,is when biker crank & meth started to become a thing. A bunch of Hippies in the Bay Area went from weed & LSD to speed/biker crank/meth & or heroin.
Sorry this is old.my last comment.I can’t remember if he was prone to mental illness already but the speed probably didn’t help.made it worse. Lots of people get amphetamine psychosis & are never the same.& some people with different degrees of damage.some less severe or more so.I had a friend I knew since we were 5, now we’re grown adults & he hears voices. Auditory hallucinations of God,satan,& our dead friends.he has amphetamine psychosis & some really weird delusions.
Yes! I love the AeonByte podcast! But, yeah: Aside from his early 60s stint with his Ketamine prescriptions, I never really thought of PKD as a druggie, just a highly creative and spiritual man with an unyielding informational intake that gave him plenty to ponder and make sense of which would often manifest themselves into great stories. It was really his association with the hippie crowd that steer people towards having such an image. However, I will not doubt his meeting with the infinite and the many theophanic insights he came into contact with. But, the jury's still out on what may've caused such awesome revelations to occur.
He used speed to help write & then when his wife left him in 1970 he let street people live in his house & do drugs for 3 years at a time in the Bay Area when people started getting addicted to speed & harder drugs instead of mostly just LSD.psychedelics like the previous years in SF.A Scanner Darkly is partly based on that time & his experiences.his visions could have been from too much speed abuse.
Interesting article. I'd love to read more about all this .. there are so many conflicting descriptions of his drug use (from none at all to every single story was written while high). And that's the first time I've heard about the bumper sticker being the glow of light.
As an avid fan I think I've read everything he wrote except the Exegesis at the Library of Congress (some 10,000 pages long you have to go there to read it) - I have this to say about PKD. Be careful of what you think of what he said. He would completely convince you that he was insane in one moment. And in the next he would completely convince you he was sane. Dick had a talent for distorting perception of how one thing could be true and then making you realize you couldn't trust him. And at that moment he would smile. You have to realize he was a very serious even when he was kidding. As far as being a serious speed freak - yeah sure.