Dimensionally Speaking

In mystical context as well as in science fiction, people talk about “other dimensions” frequently and casually—as if that word, dimension, had some kind of concrete reference. Use of that word in a way illustrates how concepts drift. It comes from the Latin dimetri, meaning “to measure out”—and it was used, still is, to indicate measurement. What are the dimensions of this room? Well, they so many feet long, wide, and the ceiling is so-and-so-many feet high. The drift began, according to my source (Online Etymology Dictionary, of course), in 1929. It started to be used to mean “any component of a situation,” thus some aspect of a situation that might be judged separately, on its own merits—as opposed to other aspects. What are the political dimensions of that? Thus, what are those aspects or relationships of the subject under scrutiny.

Now we say that space has three dimensions—but if we think in measurements, that’s not really true. I can measure a diagonal distance as well, thus from the left-hand upper corner at the ceiling to the right-hand bottom corner on the floor. That particular measurement (dimension) is a kind of mixture of the three. But that number, three, is conventionally accepted (except by people who play with fractals). And the playful mind then imagines that there might well be a fourth space dimension—and if a fourth then why not many more? For that to be real, the fourth would have to be at right angles to all three of the usual kind. Now our brain will balk. “Enough already,” it will say. “Can’t picture that. Cannot measure that. And if I can’t measure it, it’s not a dimension.” But people are more than their brains. They can’t imagine it, but they can use a symbol for representing it. And that symbol will work just fine in various equations—and hence we have whole fields of mathematical physics in which such phrases as N-dimensions will be tossed about quite lightly—although the few remaining Large Hadron Colliders, like the brain, simply refuse to bring us any physical proof of such dimensions.

Why mystical scribblers have learned to love the word is quite understandable. They deal with very-tough-to-explain experiences and want to find a place for them—one dimension over as it were. Now as for science fiction writers, they’re up against it too. The nearest star to us is 4 light years away. Light travels at the rate of 671 million miles per hour. Using the highest speed achieved by a manned rocket, Apollo 10, we can just about approach 25,000 mph. But that speed is less than one percent of the speed of light (0.004% to be exact). SF writers therefore must travel a great deal faster than light—but Einstein stands at that gate holding a flaming sword. SF therefore has recourse to the speculations of mathematical physics, produces worm holes that get around the problem, and suddenly the star ships are all over the galaxy in the flash of an eye, and only the galactic rim is a little more distant and takes a few days…

While we’re waxing dimensionally, I must mention Time as a dimension. But is it really? The neat thing about the Familiar Three is that we are free to move in them—now to this side, now to the other. Up then down. We can go back and we can go forth. But time presents a problem. We can only go in one direction. That seems to me a disqualifier. The way Time manages to get a foothold in the respectable society of dimensions is by transforming itself into a symbol, usually rendered as t. Once a symbol it can enter the sacred precincts (or are they dimensions) of abstract thought, marry space to become spacetime, and coyly hint that even time travel is possible if only we could harness the energy of a quasar to power our little time machine.

Are Spirits in Another Place?

In the writings of famous mystics like Ibn el Arabi, Swedenborg, and others we encounter people who could see or hear spirits while fully awake—but these entities were not visible, audible to others. I’ve also encountered in the writings of other mystics claims that they saw spirits as points or shapes of colored light, the colors seen indicating the spirits’ variable levels of development. In more technical jargon these are labeled as “photisms,” and visions of photisms sometimes accompany certain deep states of meditation; they may also manifest spontaneously.

The question now arises: Where are these phenomena located? I myself think of them as being in another dimension, but all I mean by saying that is that they are ordinarily inaccessible to me. I know. This is a sloppy way of thinking. It’s equivalent to saying that the electromagnetic spectrum is also in another dimension because we can’t perceive it. Right now, sitting on this couch, multiple radio and television programs are passing right through my body, but I neither laugh at the jokes nor shiver at the prompting of the horror movie’s music because—well, I don’t see or hear a thing.

When I want to be more precise, I think of this “dimension” as present all around me but—like the electromagnetic—existing in a field of its own that interpenetrates matter because it is much more subtle. As conscious living beings we are also present in that field but unaware of it. Our bodies are too noisy and command our attention. To put this another way, we are simultaneously present in multiple worlds, but our attention is principally in one; in our current state we are most aware of the physical. But my thought is that our consciousness, intelligence, will, higher emotions, and intuitions are of the subtle kind—are not produced by our bodies. Rather, in many of our activities, we use the body to live a subtle life in the physical domain.

Some spirits and ghosts, in other words, are right here where we are. They come and go—as we come and go across the planet. They may live here or far away—and come here only on visits. Our physical world seems infinite in extent as is that other—and both have “many mansions.” There need not be a spatial difference between this world and the Beyond. Both may occupy the same space. When we speak of the Beyond, we may well be speaking of a state of density different from our current one. From this one we have the devil of a time seeing that one (unless specially endowed). From that one, similarly, the physical may be damnably difficult to see and to contact without the kind of space suit that we here call the body.