He believed in all kind of weird things, he had visions and was extremely paranoid. But he also knew that likely he had mental issues (possibly because of his drug abuse) and that there was at least the possibility that it was all a figment of his own imagination. Not surprisingly this is often (always?) a theme of his own books.
The VALIS trilogy really explores this. The first book (VALIS) is about two protagonists (who are really the same person and really represent PKD himself), one who has visions and suffer from delusions and the other much more grounded. The second book (Divine invasion) is a oniric sci-fi/mithical story, with little grounding in reality. The last book, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (which is not even sci-fi), is narrated in first person by an atheist, skeptical person investigating possibly paranormal events.
He believed in all kind of weird things, he had visions and was extremely paranoid. But he also knew that likely he had mental issues (possibly because of his drug abuse) and that there was at least the possibility that it was all a figment of his own imagination. Not surprisingly this is often (always?) a theme of his own books.
The VALIS trilogy really explores this. The first book (VALIS) is about two protagonists (who are really the same person and really represent PKD himself), one who has visions and suffer from delusions and the other much more grounded. The second book (Divine invasion) is a oniric sci-fi/mithical story, with little grounding in reality. The last book, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (which is not even sci-fi), is narrated in first person by an atheist, skeptical person investigating possibly paranormal events.
Describing PKD works are meta is reductive.