"Cosmogony and Cosmology" is a 1978 philosophical essay by Philip K. Dick that presents one of his most systematic attempts to articulate the metaphysical framework he developed following his 2-3-74 mystical experiences. The essay centers on Dick's concept of reality as a projected framework generated by an artifact he calls Zebra.
Dick argues that Zebra is a computerlike teaching machine that guides, programs, and controls humanity within a projected world. This artifact was constructed by a vast living organism Dick calls the Urgrund, borrowing the term from the German mystic Jakob Boehme (1616). The Urgrund, Dick explains, is intrinsically without qualities or aspects and requires an empirical world as a mirror by which to achieve self-awareness and self-knowledge. The projected reality thus serves as an instrument through which the Urgrund can obtain an objective standpoint to comprehend its own nature.
The artifact itself is unaware that it is an artifact and is oblivious to the existence of the Urgrund. This layered ontology, in which the creator, the demiurge, and the created world exist in a hierarchy of awareness, draws explicitly on Platonic and Gnostic philosophy. The essay is a key document in Dick's late metaphysical thought, closely related to his Exegesis project, and represents his most direct engagement with systematic cosmological speculation. It provides essential context for understanding the theological framework underlying his VALIS trilogy.