This is a scan of a copy of the famous “Tagore” letter written by Philip K. Dick in 1981. The text has appeared before (eg., in Scott Apel’s book Philip K. Dick: the Dream Connection).
According to Apel, this letter was mailed to many people, perhaps around 85 or so, following a revelation that PKD had in September of 1981. Sutin, probably PKD’s best biographer (certainly the most thorough) states:
on the night of September 17, 1981, Phil was just about to fall asleep when he was startled awake by a hypnagogic vision of the savior, named Tagor, who was living in Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. In a September 19 letter to [his agent Russ] Galen he avowed that “I got more than information, more than words by AI voice; I actually saw Tagore, although imperfectly. The vision will remain with me forever” (Sutin, Divine Invasions, 1989: 283).
My copy was sent to me 7 years ago by PKD’s psychiatrist, Barry Spatz, fictionalized as “Maurice” in Valis (see a documentary with him here). In fact Spatz sent me a number of documents, including his case file and psychiatric evaluation which for obvious reasons I won’t place online since it gives the real names of Phil’s friends and girlfriends.
The text the Tagore letter has long been public; still, it might be of interest to PKD fans to see the actual letter, and perhaps serve as a reminder that the PKD Letters project has not yet published the final volume, despite the fact that they were typed in many, many years ago.
The “Tagore” Letter
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Pingback by Things Dickian « ubikcan — October 22, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
[...] of the files up here (they’re not that interesting anyway). But he did include a copy of the “Tagore” letter that PKD wrote along with a cover letter (dated September 25, 1981). The Tagore letter has been [...]
Pingback by Philip K. Dick psychiatric files & PKDS Newsletter « ubikcan — August 8, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
Tagore was an actual person, a Bengali poet who was knighted by the British and won the Nobel Prize. Tagore died in 1941 at the age of 80, but he did have a son, and Tagore is their last name, so there is still a Tagor (or more than one) living today.
Phil probably got most of the ideas in his Tagore letter from Benjamin Creme (sp?), the “prophet” who is promoting the Maitreya (sp?).
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Comment by Tessa Dick — November 27, 2008 @ 11:40 pm