The bit on Grids - which I've discovered likely came from Alan Watts. Alan Watts had a radio show at Berkely in the late 50s, and teen Mal and Omar probably listened to it. Here's a section from his book On The Tabboo Against Knowing Who You Are -
http://cramul.us/post/27126060129/from-alan-watts-on-the-tabboo-against-knowing - looks a lot like the Reality Grids section, right?
"Some say he was a holy man, others say he was a shit head." - this one brings me down to earth when I need it
"Oh well, then stop"
And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it shall be that Non-existence shall take us back from Existence, and that nameless Spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a very wild circus.