Metaphysical and Shamanic

The truth does not require your participation in order to exist. Bullshit does. ~Terence McKenna

This Metaphysic/Shamanic section highlights a through-line in Dick’s life: an open curiosity about states of consciousness and about practices far outside the academic comfort zone—while still respecting and supporting serious scholarly work. He moved easily between both worlds. He wore metal pyramids on his head, used automatic writing to consult with extraterrestrials, and invited psychics who painted in the dark with their feet, in the style of the old masters. He welcomed mediums, sensitives, and experiments that friends in more formal circles might dismiss. He was comfortable with the lived experience of “altered states,” not just the idea of them.

In sessions, when unusual states arose, he did not label or suppress them. He stayed with the person—steady, unafraid—trusting the process and offering a field where something real could happen. That stance—curious, playful, non-pathologizing, and grounded—frames the materials gathered here.