It was in the books because that's how I remember it and I never listened to the radio series (I also try to forget the film exists).

Um, wasn't that the whole point of the machine? It would strip away your self-deluding beliefs, and give you true perspective? In other words, no it isn't good enough to just think that the universe is created for you, the machine will kill you in that case. You actually need to have the universe created for you, and only in that case will you survive the experience.