The drug in Scanner is based on the combined effects of methamphetamine (commonly known as meth or speed) and heroin. For example, when Charles Freck believes that aphids are crawling all over him and biting him, he is exhibiting a common side effect of meth in which the user suffers from intolerable itching and finds relief only by standing in the shower with water running all over their body. Some sufferers will actually stay in the shower for several hours, even after the hot water is gone and they are shivering from the cold. One of the other side effects of meth is hallucinations, and the itching often inspires the belief that insects are crawling on their skin, or even under their skin, and biting them. Paranoia, such as Freck exhibits when he is driving his car and spots a police car, is also a common side effect of meth.
Some of the brain damage and physical impairment caused by Substance D is more typical of heroin, which slows down metabolic processes, including brain function. The characters in Scanner sit around talking most of the time because the drug has robbed them of physical energy. In addition, their thinking processes are slowed down and fogged up, so they are not capable of thinking clearly. The physical effects can be life-threatening. For example, when Ernie Luckman chokes on his food, it is probably due to the partial paralysis of his muscles caused by heroin, which makes it difficult for him to swallow. Heroin, in large enough quantities, can stop the heart from beating and stop the person from breathing. The scene in which Bob Arctor is in withdrawal from Substance D depicts the classic symptoms of heroin withdrawal, which includes severe abdominal pain, vomiting and falling down.
The unique characteristic of Substance D is that it destroys the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerves which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows them to communicate with each other. As a result of this disconnection, the victim of Substance D becomes two personalities living in one body.
Ultimately, Substance D is death. Drug addicts, in the depths of their unconscious minds, crave death because they cannot bear to live in this world.
The villain in Bob Arctor’s household is Jim Barris, not because of what he does, but because of what he fails to do. He does not directly harm people, but he does fail to help them. For example, when Luckman is choking and in danger of dying, Barris analyzes the situation intellectually but fails to act. He does eventually pick up the phone and call for emergency services, but his long speech about what is happening fails to communicate the information that the operator needs. Moreover, when Bob Arctor says that he is not going to do drugs any more, Barris hands him two red capsules of Substance D and convinces him to take them.
Most readers and critics understand that Philip K. Dick was exploring the nature of reality in his work. In the Phil Dick world, things rarely turn out to be what they appear. He constantly asked questions about the substructure that underlies what we call reality. However, the most important question, in his mind, was, “What makes us human?” A major corollary is, “Why are some people inhuman?” These two areas of exploration, reality and humanity, overlap in the many novels and stories that Phil wrote during his career.
Phil is best known as a science fiction writer, but he also wrote a number of mainstream novels and stories, as well as some children’s stories. The most puzzling work, in the minds of fans and critics, is his thousand-page compilation of notes titled Exegesis. He attempted to explicate our reality in the same way that religious scholars explicate the scriptures. The basis for this work was a series of visions that Phil experienced, beginning on March 2, 1974. Those visions can be explained, in part, by the strong probability that he was having minor strokes caused by the high blood pressure from which he had suffered throughout his life. Although brain injury might explain the fact that he had visions, it cannot explain their content.
A major source of his philosophy and religious views was Phil’s friendship with Bishop James Pike, the Episcopal Bishop of California. He met Pike through his wife Nancy’s stepmother, who was working as Pike’s personal secretary. In addition, Phil had been a member of the Episcopal Church for some years. The Episcopal Church is that American offshoot of the Anglican Church (Church of England), and it is basically the Catholic Church without the Pope. Also, unlike Catholic priests, Episcopal priests are allowed to and often do marry. Phil’s religious upbringing, which included a Quaker education early in life, led him to question tradition and dogma. He explored dualism in his Exegesis, in particular the Manichean philosophy, and early Christian heresy.
He believed that the Holy Spirit is female, and that she is the same entity as the Torah, the five Books of the Law, or Books of Moses, which Phil regarded as a living entity and a part of God.
He spoke about the Sybil, which is a title, not a name. In ancient Greece, the Oracle at Delphi was known as the Sybil. In the myth, she is described as a lover of the god Apollo who asked for the gift of eternal life, but forgot to ask for eternal youth. When they broke up, Apollo was too angry to grant her any more wishes, so she grew incredibly old and shrank until she was so small that she had to be kept in a bottle for her own safety. There she was, inside a leather bottle hung on the wall of a cave, giving out prophecy. Apollo was, among other things, the god of prophecy.
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