Metaphysical and Shamanic
Metaphysical means “having to do with what lies beyond, beneath, or prior to ordinary physical explanation.” It is the branch of philosophy concerned with the most basic questions about reality:
Photo credit: Tony Mellor
- What is being?
- What is time?
- What is mind?
- Is there a reality beyond appearances?
In this sense, metaphysical does not mean mystical. It means foundational and concerned with the underlying nature of reality.
In common usage, metaphysical often refers to realities or forces not directly measurable by physical science, such as spirit, soul, and nonmaterial dimensions of experience. The term is also often used as a broad umbrella for practices and ideas such as energy healing, astrology, and intuitive or psychic abilities.
Overall, metaphysical refers to questions, ideas, or experiences concerning the underlying nature of reality, especially realities not fully explained by ordinary physical observation.
Shamanic refers to practices, experiences, or worldviews associated with shamans: people who, within particular cultural traditions, are understood to enter altered, trance, or ecstatic states in order to communicate with spirits, receive knowledge, heal, divine, protect the community, or mediate between ordinary human life and an unseen or other-than-human world.
Shamanic often points less to a doctrine and more to a mode of experience. It refers to practices and traditions. A shamanic practice may be metaphysical since it assumes or engages realities beyond ordinary physical perception.
Metaphysical asks what reality is and what may exist beyond ordinary perception; shamanic describes practices that actively enter into relationship with unseen worlds, spirits, ancestors, or powers for healing, guidance, protection, or transformation.
Because “shamanic” has been used broadly and sometimes carelessly outside its original cultural contexts, the Library approaches the term with respect for the distinct traditions, communities, and lineages from which such practices arise. As an archive, however, the Library preserves materials as they were created, including works that may use language or reflect assumptions that would be approached differently today.
This Metaphysical/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.
The truth does not require your participation in order to exist. Bullshit does. ~Terence McKenna