[28:21] Am I saying that the basis of reality is words (or the word) (v. John 1:1), as in Time out of Joint? (e.g., soft drink stand, words = ideas = concepts. Ideas in the mind [of God]).
Augustine on Divine Ideas and Illumination
Platonic Forms as Divine Ideas
Aquinas on Divine Ideas - Scriptam per Sententias
Edward Butler, a scholar of the metaphysics and ontology of the Neoplatonism of Proclus, left me these comments on twitter:
EPButler @t3dy Cf. #Plato Timaeus, in which one God (the Demiurge) discerns in the beauty of another (the Intelligible Animal) a complex paradigm.
@t3dy Both deities are simple natures (persons), but their encounter generates a complex cosmic "thought". #henology
Butler also told me that Cornford's study is considered an introductory source on Plato's Timaeus. So Dick would have found in it a detailed but easily readable guide to Plato's cosmological and theological thinking in the Timaeus. It's important to look into the studies that Dick used to get deeper into these religious/philosophical matters, such as "The Gnostic Religions" by Hans Jonas, which took him beyond the Encyclopedia Britannica (or EB as he often abbreviates it).
Dick's notion of the world as word or information was a big influence on Terence McKenna, who said things like "reality is made of language" to explain his own paranormal experiences. In the Exegesis Dick refers to McKenna a few times, and quotes an explanation of "The Invisible Landscape" from Robert Anton Wilson's "Cosmic Trigger." In a couple places he wonders if the "McKenna brothers" are right, and whether their theory corresponds to his.
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