March 23 to April 27, 2025

ED101: The Three Stigmata 

of Philip K. Dick

Reading PKD's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch as prophecy

Five weeks of recorded lectures and one live Q&A session over Zoom
with Erik Davis, 
American writer, scholar, journalist, and public speaker 
and author of 2024's Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium from The MIT Press

What would Philip K. Dick have to say about the strange state of current affairs? Erik Davis has been thinking and writing about the visionary Californian science fiction writer Philip K. Dick since he graduated Yale in the 1980s. In this five-part series on Weirdosphere, Davis will take on one of Dick’s most mind-bending and harrowing books, 1964’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and read it as a prophetic precog flash on our present metacrisis and an oracle to provide a possible answer.

According to Davis, Dick “prophesied what it feels like to be alive right now,” and there’s no better example than his novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch in which transhuman, space-faring billionaires preside over an immiserated population mollified by consumer virtual realities and hallucinogenic drugs. Dick explores with precognitive awareness what a breakdown of consensus reality does to our psychologies and our capacity to organize the world.

Citing Dick’s ability to generate a peculiar sense of verisimilitude, Davis invites this prophetic reading to “allow us to see our own time under a more apocalyptic frame,” which he notes, “we don’t need to work very hard to develop."

The course consists of five pre-recorded lectures, available for self-paced viewing/listening, plus one live Q&A with Davis, hosted over Zoom, as a capstone.

The first lecture serves as an introduction to Dick, his personal and psychological trials, and the religious experiences and concerns that started to emerge around the time he wrote this wild, biting, and creepy novel. Subsequent lectures work through the book in 50–60-page increments per week (read Penguin's Vintage edition if you can). Topics include virtual reality, consumer psychedelics, transhuman augmentation, global warming, Mars colonization, the Eucharist, the cosmic “Outside” (H. P. Lovecraft and Olaf Stapledon), the Gnostic demiurge, the bardo, the nature of evil, the genre of horror, and the breakdown of consensus reality.

Join us on a trippy, oracular exploration as we consult PKD for guidance navigating our weird world.

Format

Over five weeks, beginning March 23, 2025, registrants will read their own copy of Dick's novel in chunks of two-three chapters and view/listen to the lectures associated with those chapters. 

Then, on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at 12 p.m. PDT / 3 p.m. EDT, registrants are invited to participate in a live Q&A with Erik Davis to discuss the pre-cognitive character and prophetic nature of Dick's novel. 

Registrants also gain access to a dedicated Course Community where they can discuss the novel and all things PKD during the course.

Schedule

The course begins Sunday, March 23, 2025, and ends Sunday, April 27, 2025, providing five weeks to work through the course material. The live Q&A session with Davis will take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform.

• Pre-recorded lectures will be made available for self-paced listening beginning on Sunday, March 23.
• A live Q&A will be held on Sunday, April 27 at 12 p.m. PDT / 3 p.m. EDT. This time slot is chosen to allow students from as many time zones as possible to attend live. 

Instructor Bio

Erik Davis is an American writer, scholar, journalist, and public speaker whose writings range from rock criticism to cultural analysis to esoteric explorations of California’s history. He is the author of 1998's TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information and 2019's High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies.

Why Take this Course?

Students will get to:

• Listen to recordings of Davis's Alembic lectures investigating the prophetic nature of Philip K. Dick's work.
• Discuss the work of Philip K. Dick with Erik Davis during a live Q&A over Zoom.
• Post, share, discuss, and exchange direct messages with participants on the Weirdosphere platform.
• Become full-fledged members of a growing learning community, with a permanent discount on all future Weirdosphere classes by Phil Ford, J.F. Martel, and other thinkers of things strange and astonishing.

Cost

Registration is $60 for New Members of Weirdosphere.

By enrolling in ED101: The Three Stigmata of Philip K. Dick, you will automatically become a member of the Weirdosphere learning community and receive a discount on all future offerings on the platform. Existing Members should enroll from within Weirdosphere to receive this benefit.

If your circumstances are such that paying full price is an obstacle, please write us at [email protected] to arrange a reduced rate.