IVIV, surrounded by a white light....

[Mark Kohut]

Laura writes:
Sure, there are dumb jokes in his other books, but they're embedded in a lot richer material than we have here.  Without, say, the Kirghiz Light 

Laura, anyone, anyone:

Throw off an idea about why P writes that Doc went into Chick Palace
"surrounded by a white light"....is this a self-referential allusion ala
above, or is the white light pot smoke? a joke about going in with a kind
of halo, a numinous glow?