The novel plays with the idea of a “time machine”, in this case based on a mysterious drug, “Ubik”, an aerosol that transports people to earlier situations. This is combined with the possibility that, in this fictional world, those who die may remain in a state of hibernation, allowing contact with “the rest of consciousness” that still flickers in their semi-destroyed neurons. In the final pages, Dick suggests that “Ubik” is God himself: a non-personal God, qualitatively superior to material existence itself.

F.J. (2014)