CONSCIOUSNESS THE NORM OF SPACE DETERMINATIONS
Realism Is Determined by Awareness--Succession of Degrees of
Realism--Sufficiency of Tridimensionality--The Insufficiency of
Self-Consistency as a Norm of Truth--General Forward Movement
in the Evolution of Consciousness Implied in the Hyperspace
Concept--The Hypothetical Nature of Our Knowledge--Hyperspace
the Symbol of a More Extensive Realm of Awareness--Variations in
the Method of Interpreting Intellectual Notions--The Tuitional
and the Intuitional Faculties--The Illusionary Character of the
Phenomenal--Consciousness and the Degrees of Realism.
Things have value for us only to the extent to which we can become
aware of their being. The appraisement of all objects, conditions,
states or qualities is determined directly by the degree or quality
of awareness with which we apprehend them. Those elements which are
without the intellect's scope of awareness have no interest and hence
no value so far as the individual intellect is concerned. And this is
true of all degrees and states of consciousness from the lowest to the
highest, from the human to the divine.
There enter into all conscious determinations three factors, namely:
(_a_) the scope, or totality, of adaptations which an organism can
make in the sensible world, (_b_) the power of consciousness to make
adaptations and (_c_) environment. These three are interdependent.
The totality of adaptations depends primarily, of course, upon the
quality of conscious powers or faculties, and also, in a lesser
degree, upon opportunities afforded by environment. Faculties of
consciousness are derived directly from the influences exerted upon
the organism by his environment and the results of the struggle to
overcome them. Environment is of two kinds, artificial and natural. The
artificial environment is such as has been modified by our conscious
action upon external phenomena. The residue is natural. And thus the
scope of adaptability becomes an unvarying witness to the quality of
consciousness manifesting through a given organism.
The universe is so constructed that the essential character of its
various states and qualities is a fixed quantity for a given scope of
consciousness and varies only as the sphere of consciousness varies.
States of existence or scopes of adaptation which are registering upon
a higher plane or in a more subtle sphere of existence than that in
which we may at any time be functioning can only appear evidential
to us when the mechanism of our consciousness becomes congruently
adjusted therewith. So that the focus of consciousness must always be
a variable quantity adaptable, under proper conditions, to any plane
in the kosmos. Consciousness, then, becomes the sphere of limits both
of knowledge and adaptability. But lest we seem to admit implicitly
part of the contentions which mathematical publicists have made in
postulating the unodim and duodim consciousness, it is necessary
carefully to differentiate between the results arrived at as a result
of the two procedures. In the first place, analysts _assume_ the
existence of a unodim and duodim plane of consciousness and proceed
to construct thereon an analogy designed to show the feasibility
of another assumption, the fourth dimension. While, in laying the
foundation of consciousness upon a tridimensional plane we do not start
with an _assumption_, but with a fact. Therein lies the difference.
Enormous advantages inhere in a procedure based upon facts, but in
a series of planes built upon assumptions no such advantages are
discovered. For however much the series of hypothetical planes may be
extended or elaborated there must inhere necessarily throughout the
series an assumptional value which vitiates the conclusions no less
than the premises. The sanity and integrity of intellectual operations
depend almost entirely upon the differentiation which we make between
the necessities arising out of assumptions and those which spring
up empirically from established facts. No procedure is necessary to
establish the value of such a differentiation, nevertheless it may
be suggested that it is allowable, under the rules of logic, to make
any assumption whatsoever so long as care is taken to see that the
conclusions embody in themselves the characteristics of the original
premise. For instance, it is permissible to assume that space is
curved. Under such an assumption, it is only necessary that the
constructions which follow shall be self-consistent. But the case is
different when we come to deal with spatiality and vitality. These are
quantities which cannot, in the last analysis, be made to conform to
the rules of the game of logic.
Thus, when it is intimated that realism lends itself to an apparent
division into degrees, and that each degree has a corresponding state
of consciousness, it is by no means to be inferred that such apparent
divisions are of mathematical import. For, in reality, i.e., when the
consciousness has expanded so as to become congruent with the limits
of even the space mind (vide Fig. 20), there appear to be no divisions
in realism. It is only because of the fragmentariness of our outlook
upon the kosmos that realism appears to be divided into various planes;
for all of these planes are one. The divisions exist for relative
knowledge, but not for complete knowledge; they exist for a finite
intelligence, but not for a transfinite intelligence. That is why we
view realism as a series of planes. It is because we discover that, as
we proceed, as our consciousness expands and we take in more and more
of the vital activities of the kosmos and understand better the causes
underlying that which we contact, we have passed from a state of lesser
knowledge to one of greater knowledge. And so we say we have passed
from one degree of realism to another, whereas, really we have not
passed from one degree of realism to another degree. Instead, it is
our consciousness that has expanded.
If now, we conceive reality to be a scale extending from one
extremity to another (that is, from supreme consciousness to entire
unconsciousness, from final knowledge to total ignorance), and the
intellectual consciousness as the indicator which traverses the scale
denoting at all times the precise degree of our comprehension of
reality, and hence the degree of expansion of consciousness, we shall
constitute a similitude closely approximating the real _status quo_ of
humanity with respect to the sensible and supersensible worlds. The
quantity or force which causes the indicator to move along the scale
is the quality of awareness. And this varies directly as the scope of
adaptability varies. Realism is homogeneous throughout its extent;
but the scale marked upon it registers from _naught_ to _unity_. And
between these every conceivable degree of awareness may be registered.
The indicator moves only as the scope widens, and thus is shown a
change in the quality of awareness. For, however paradoxical it may
seem, the wider the scope of knowledge the better its quality: the more
one knows, the more complete and of higher quality becomes that which
he knows.
The intellect is of scientific tendence, studiously rejecting all
phenomena which do not yield to its senso-mechanisms. Even intuitions
suffer the humility of rejection and do not escape the limitations
which the intellect imposes upon them. This is so, because, as yet,
there is no adequate perceptive and conceptive apparatus for the
propagation and classification of intuitions, as apart from concepts.
The outcome of these proscriptions is that intuitions--free, mobile,
and more or less formless in themselves, must first be rehabilitated
and vestured in garments _a la intellect_ to conform to the prevailing
mode. But intuitions thus treated are no longer intuitions, but
empirical concepts. True intuitions are like aqueous vapor--amorphous,
permeating, diffusive: axioms or empirical concepts are like cakes of
ice--formal, inflexible and conforming to the shape of the mold into
which they are poured. Because of this--the scientific tendence of the
intellect and the consequent necessity of reforming so much of the
data which constitute its substructure, of pressing, condensing and
reshaping it to suit its own ready-made patterns--it can be perceived
how profound is the influence of the intellectual consciousness in
determining the character of the totality of data which the sensible
world, and for that matter, the supersensible, offer us. The intellect
is the only means at hand for the interpretation of the meaning and
significance of the world of phenomena. Consequently, whatever meaning
or significance we are led to attach to that part of the universe which
we contact, in any way, is dictated by the intellectual consciousness.
There is no escape from the decisions of the intellect so long as the
present scheme of things endures.
Thus, by whatever standard of reference the matter may be determined,
it remains indisputably established that the intellectual consciousness
is the sole determinant of the phenomenal value of everything within
our scope of awareness or adaptability. And whatever the fault,
incongruity or discrepancy that may be revealed by a more intimate
knowledge of the genesis and character of the appearance of the
sensible world, it will be found to be due to the peculiar cut and mode
of the intellect and not to things themselves. The value, qualitative
or existential, which the intellect irrevocably assigns to objects
and conditions in the world of the senses is the exclusive _norm_ not
only by which these are judged, but also, by which our action upon
them and their action upon us are determined. Images or objects which
do not act upon us and upon which we cannot act have no interest for
us. But as an integral part of the totality of images or objects in
the sensible world, we must inevitably act upon all that is outside of
ourselves, and these, in turn, must react upon us. On the other hand,
there must be objects and images in the universe of life and form upon
which, because of their inherent nature and on account of the lack of
our interest in them and their interest in us, we can neither act nor
become the object of their action.
But herein is a mystery. For, either we act upon and are recipients of
the action of the totality of images or objects in both the sensible
and supersensible worlds, or we are so placed in the grand scheme of
things that both ourselves and the sphere of our interests and possible
actions are closed circuits, hermetically sealed and non-communicative
with the other like spheres, which do not and cannot act upon us. There
is yet a third possibility--that we are so fashioned, in the entirety
of our being, that some part of us is exactly congruent with some part
of every sphere of possible actions and interests in the kosmos, and
therefore, each of us has being or consciousness of a kind that is
keyed to and registering in the totality of such spheres; and that,
at present, because our interests and possible actions are limited to
the plane of sensibility, we are conscious only there. And further,
that although those spheres of our consciousness which are fixed to
register in other planes do not answer to the lowest on which we now
operate, having a character of which we are unaware, they nevertheless
cannot be said not to exist, because of the lack of communication
between them. Among these three possible choices, we have no hesitancy
in expressing a decided preference for the last mentioned--that the
range of our being is co-extensive with the range of reality, and
like a pendulum, we oscillate, at long intervals, between two kosmic
extremities--nescience and omniscience.
The intellectual consciousness is the touch-stone of realism. It
is like a spreading light which, as it expands, reveals previously
darkened corners and conditions, only it has power both to reveal and
to bring into manifestation. In its present state, man's consciousness
is like a searchlight. It illumines and takes cognizance of everything
that falls within its scope of motility and is consequently able to
study in detail that which it reveals. But that which is beyond its
scope is as if it never existed so far as the individual consciousness
is concerned. It is not reasonable to predict that the same
characteristics that are observable in any given state shall persist
throughout all the various scopes through which the consciousness must
proceed in its evolutionary expansion. For the scale of kosmic realism
is one grand panorama extending from the grossest to the most subtle
and refined. While in general the thread of realism may pervade the
entire scale it is nevertheless marked by many and diverse changes
in its characteristics as it is followed from one stage to another.
So that the realistic character of one stage may vary greatly from
that which next preceded it or from that which will succeed it. It
would appear, therefore, that in passing from one stage of realism to
another there need not remain anything but the mere fact of reality in
its connection with ultimate reality; for it is obvious that in every
condition of realism which may be encountered in the kosmos there
must be a basic thread of ultimate reality running through the whole.
The entire gamut of realism may accordingly be traversed without the
danger of being diverted from the golden thread of realism which thus
permeates all. It is always the phenomena of realism with which we are
concerned and which we are trying to understand rather than realism
itself. It is this that confounds us. If it were not for the phenomena,
which is the way realism or life presents itself to our consciousness,
we should experience no trouble in discovering the reality, all other
things being equal. For the former ever obscures the latter. It is
the supreme task of mental evolution to break through the clouds of
phenomena in the search for the eternal substratum of reality which
runs through the sensible universe of things.
The first view of conditions that the mind takes upon awakening to
consciousness in any new sphere of cognition is necessarily hazy
and inchoate. There is more or less of astonishment, wonder and
bewilderment upon first becoming aware of a new scope of realism. In
this state it is natural that the mind should overlook or ignore much
that is essential and perhaps all that is so even escaping the true
import of the phenomena which it senses. It is reasonable, too, that in
such a state the main outlines of what is really seen may be greatly
distorted and exaggerated so that it is well-nigh impossible to secure
a correct comprehension of the character of a new scope of realism
from any early survey. It is not until later years, after much study
and circumspection that the mind, becoming used to the new conditions,
begins to get correct impressions and to make valid judgments as to
that which it discerns. And even then, it not infrequently happens
that the resultant view of things in general is found to be in need of
revision and correction. Hence, after everything is sifted down to the
ultimate allowance for the illusion incident to too much enthusiasm
and wonder we have only a very small residuum of truth upon which to
build and this latter we often find to be the single thread of reality
which runs through all the phenomena and which is, therefore, the only
quantity that remains worthy of much consideration.
Thus it is with religion. The path of progress over which our religious
conceptions have come need not be outlined here, but to any one at
all acquainted with the history of religious thought and ideals it
at once must be patent that it has been one continuous surrender of
the old for the new, of one degree of realism for another newer and
higher degree; that always it has been the phenomena, the flora of
the ideals which have had to give way, while nothing was left but the
roots of realism from which they have sprung. It has been the same
with scientific knowledge. Facts have been collected and hypotheses
proposed to synthesize them and yet these have had to give way for
others, and others still, until the data of scientific knowledge to-day
are quite different from what they were in earlier days. And yet
permeating the scientific knowledge of all times has been the golden
thread of reality, and of all facts and systems of facts which man
has successively assumed and surrendered nothing has remained but the
reality; indeed, nothing could so remain, but reality. So it is with
air phenomena with which consciousness has to deal. This perhaps is due
to the fact that the mind interprets phenomena in accordance with the
quality of its awareness, and as consciousness is a variable quantity,
its standards of interpretation will likewise vary. Each new scope of
awareness, after this manner, yields higher and more exact standards of
interpretation. And then, progressing in awareness from the segment to
the whole a fuller view of the phenomena as well as of reality itself
is gained and also a more comprehensive judgment of the relations which
exist between the segment and the whole. In other words, as the scope
of consciousness widens it becomes more and more apparent that what was
first thought to be a separate segment is in reality identified with
the whole in an indissoluble manner. For the Thinker is then not only
aware of the segment as such, but he is also conscious of the fact that
it has definite relations with the entirety and that what he needs is
merely a more extended consciousness.
In denying the existence of the four-space or spaces of
_n_-dimensionality as described and defined by geometricians, we do not
thereby deny the existence of a plane of consciousness which is as
much unlike the conditions of the tridimensional world as it is said
to be unlike the four-dimensional world; but what we do deny is that
such a higher plane of existence has necessarily to be conditioned
by such characteristics as the metageometricians have proposed. It
is maintained that there is no basis in consciousness for a world of
four dimensions; that the consciousness has no tendency for action in
four-space. Neither has matter nor life any inclination or potency
to behave in a four-dimensional manner. It is indeed more rational
to suppose that there is a higher plane, in fact, a series of higher
planes, in which the thread of realism is continuous, not broken as it
necessarily would have to be in extending to hyperspace, nor curved
as in a manifold; that this series of subtler and finer planes of
consciousness are merely an elongation of our three dimensional scope
of realism. It, therefore, remains only to master the phenomena of
each in just the same manner as we have, in a measure, mastered the
phenomena of tridimensionality. For it is easily conceivable that the
quality of consciousness is such that it may adapt itself to a far
wider range of possibilities than may be discovered in hyperspace and
still be a tri-space quantity.
It is believed, however, that in all the new and higher planes of
consciousness tridimensionality is the norm both of the phenomena
and of the reality peculiar to them. And that, being such, does not
change or vary, but is a fixed quantity regardless of the plane of
consciousness. Furthermore, it is believed that the highest state of
consciousness in the entire kosmos could easily exist, and does so
exist, upon the basis of three-space as the norm of its extent.
A sharp line of demarkation should be drawn between the reality which
is life and consciousness and that which belongs to the realm of
phantasy. For it is the prerogative of the intellect to create, out
of the remains and deposits which it finds in the pathway of life,
whatsoever it wills. This it does continuously; but it scarcely can be
expected that such creations shall be endowed with the same dynamic
character as that which life bestows upon its creations. The creations
of the one are merely dead carcasses while those of the other are vital
and real. Between them the same marked difference exists as between the
growing tree and the lumber which the builder converts into a house.
The organization which we witness when we look upon a building made of
the dead body of a tree is not the same kind of organization as that
which we see when we view the living, growing, vital tree. The dead
tree is a deposit of life cast off by it when it passed on. Whatever
the intellect can do in disposing of the remains of the tree-life is
conventional and artificial. If it convert it into an edifice it will
then bestow upon it a sort of consistency which is quite sufficient for
all purposes. But the consistency which holds the organization of an
edifice together is not the kind of consistency which holds a living
tree together. In fact, there is a consistency that is not consistent.
Such is the consistency of metageometry. It is self-consistent and yet
inconsistent with the consistency of the kosmos and its norm of being
which is consciousness.
Self-consistency is one thing and kosmic consistency is quite
another. It does not necessarily follow that because a given scheme
of thought is consistent in all its parts that it is also consistent
with universal truth or with life. This very vital fact was overlooked
by GAUSS and all those who followed in his wake when he discovered
that his _Astral Geometry_ was consistent throughout in all its parts.
There is only one norm of truth and that is kosmic consistency. It
matters little that a thing shall be self-consistent; it matters much
whether it is consistent with the universal standard. It has been shown
to be logically possible to elaborate at least two different systems
of geometry, namely, the geometry of the acute angle and that of the
obtuse, which, while each of them is self-consistent throughout, are
nevertheless inconsistent with each other and with the geometry of the
right angle (Euclidean). This, it would seem, appears to be sufficient
for the invalidation of either one or both of the non-Euclidean systems
of geometric thought. Indeed, if it can be shown that the Euclidean
geometry is more representative of the true approach to the norm of
space-genesis and of creation so far as its mode of manifestation is
concerned, and consequently true of the norm set up by consciousness,
the rejection of both systems of non-Euclidean geometry seems to be
thoroughly warranted. But this is obvious and requires no demonstration
nor comment to make it clear. We have only to ask ourselves whether
it has ever occurred to us that consciousness has either a tendency
to or adaptability for action in a curvilinear manner; or, if when
we contemplate ideas or idea-relations we have the impression of
perceiving a curvilinear or manifold tendence in them either of a
positive or negative nature, and also whether it has been observed that
our thought processes naturally assume four-dimensional attitudes.
If we find that such a query must be answered negatively, and indeed
we must so find, then, we have no basis for the assumption that any
one of the systems of non-Euclidean geometry is valid either for the
present status of consciousness or for a future existence, since it is
true that the future is but an elongation of the present. Evolution is
to bring no radical changes in the norms of reality; it has merely to
deepen and widen and make more intense, efficient and comprehensive
the present scope of our consciousness and thereby, while the Thinker
is passing from one degree of realism to another, to bring him into a
clearer conception of what his own limited scope of motility means to
the whole.
The four-space is a mathetic divertisement. That is, it cannot be
said to lie in the direction of a straight line which proceeds either
in a forward or lateral direction. Neither does it lie in a plane
which is vertical or horizontal to the sensorium. It is, therefore,
a fractural departure from any conceivable tridimensional direction,
a geometric anomaly. Evolution, despite the minor aspects of its
movement, undoubtedly proceeds in a straight line and not by a zigzag
nor discontinuous line and hence it is irrational to assume that it
will, when it passes on to the next advanced stage, emerge into the
realm of the four-space. For the so-called hyperspace of geometry
cannot by any standards of reference be said to lie in the plane of
any straight line which can be described in three-space. If life is
to evolve more efficient forms and if the forms are to evolve into
more perfect organizations and mind and consciousness to become more
intense and comprehensive expressions of the divine mind of the kosmos
it is certainly not in the domain of hyperspace that these shall find
the substructure of their higher development; but, if at all, it shall
be found, as in all times past, in the realm of perceptual space where
bodies are said to have three and only three possibilities of motion.
What then is the significance of the more than a thousand years of
mathematical labors; of all that has been said and done in an endeavor
to bring into the popular consciousness a conception of hyperspace? Is
it a question of _"Love's Labour's Lost?"_ Or is it a mere prostitution
of mathematical talent? To answer these queries is the burden of this
treatise and it is hoped that as the text continues the reader may be
able to arrive at his own conclusions as to the relative value of the
work of the mathematicians in this respect and be able to judge for
himself the true significance of it all.
The specific value of consciousness as a determinative factor in
space-measurement has been recognized by all who have sought to arrive
at a logical justification for the conception of four-dimensionality by
analogous reasoning. The existence of the _unodim_ with consciousness
limited to a line or point has been assumed and it has been shown
how greatly such a being would be handicapped by his limited area of
consciousness, it having been proposed to confine his consciousness to
one dimension. An _unodim_ would, of course, be entirely unaware of any
other dimension than that in which he could consciously function. So
that with respect to his own consciousness no other dimension would be
necessary for the continuance of his life processes. He might live his
life without any knowledge even of any limitations or barriers to other
things higher than those of his plane. He would be content to exist in
the one-space and enjoy the benefits which it offered. He could have no
notion of the two-space, but it has been allowed that a _super-unodim_,
an _unodim_ metageometrician, if you please, could reason out a mental
conception of what the two-space might be. Passing on to a space of
two dimensions, the domain of the _duodim_, a greater freedom of
movement is allowed and instead of being able to function in only one
dimension the inhabitants of this plane would find themselves able to
move about in at least two directions. Consciousness would accordingly
enjoy a more comprehensive scope. But in a manner similar to that used
by the _unodim_ metageometrician it is held that the _duodim_ could
get a conception of the three-space by analogous reasoning and so
gradually become conscious of a higher degree of spatiality than his
own. In the conscious reasoning of both, however, is the condition of
perpendicularity. That is, it must be assumed by both the _unodim_ and
the _duodim_ that the new dimension must lie in a plane perpendicular
to their space. So, the _unodim_ would postulate that the two-space
must lie in a direction at right angles to his space, and yet he would
not be able to indicate the direction owing to his ignorance of any
experience that would acquaint him with the new space as well as the
want of possibility of motion therein. Similarly, the _duodim_ would
arrive at a conception of three-space. Thus, it has been argued that
_tridims_, or people living in our tridimensional world, could, by
using a like line of argument or reasoning, arrive at a conception or
understanding of the four-space, which, of course, must also lie in a
direction at right angles to three-space.
The implications of this mode of thought show how thoroughly the
mathematician recognizes the limitations which consciousness imposes
upon our knowledge of the world and the subtler conditions about us.
But, moreover, it is even obvious to all who stop to think about
it; for it can readily be seen how little those things which do not
enter our scope of awareness affect us either physically, mentally
or spiritually. But no one can be so bold as to deny utterly that
anything exists but what is found in our consciousnesses. It is even
true that in the great centers of population where people are compelled
to live many families in the same house, it is the usual thing for
these individual families to live in complete forgetfulness of all
the others in the house and live their lives so completely that it
would be exceedingly difficult to measure the effect the one has upon
the other. The mathematician, as is shown by the hyperspace movement,
recognizes that there are planes of superconsciousness the nature and
character of which persons confined to limited areas of consciousness
can have no knowledge and may only arrive at that knowledge by serious
thought and contemplation. In other words, they tacitly admit the
existence of higher planes of consciousness as well as the necessity
of elevating the personal consciousness in order to comprehend them.
Although it was not expressly allowable in the analogy of the _unodim_,
it is nevertheless one of the strongest implications of the process
of reasoning that the _unodim_ could have easily raised the plane of
his consciousness by continuing his researches until he, too, became
conscious of the three-space, mathematically, as well as the two-space.
For it was not necessary for him to raise the plane of consciousness in
order to contact the two-space. He had need only to widen it. But in
order to comprehend the mathematical three-space it would be necessary
for him to elevate his consciousness.
The fundamental error in the foregoing line of thought rests in the
fact that awareness in the human family has not developed in the manner
outlined. The human species has not come into conscious relations
with the three-space by outgrowing the one-space and the two-space in
succession. The fact of the matter is that when consciousness first
dawned it must have encompassed all three dimensions simultaneously
and equally and there is nothing to indicate that its rise was
otherwise. Then, specifically there is no evidence that the evolution
of consciousness has proceeded in a rectangular manner. Indeed, there
is undoubtedly no warrant for the assumption that it has progressed
in ways that are mathematically determinable at all. The question
very naturally rises in view of the above as to the relative value of
mathematical knowledge in the scheme of psychogenesis. Can mathematical
knowledge or laws be said actually and finally to settle once for all
time any question in which consciousness or life enters as a factor?
Upon the response to this question hinges unanswerably the decision as
to the category which mathematical knowledge should by right occupy in
the entire schematism of life. If it can be successfully maintained
that final judicative power abides in mathematics in the determination
of these questions, then it would be useless to struggle against the
fiat of mathematics and mathematicians; verily, we should be compelled
to accept _nolens volens_ all that mathematicians have devised about
hyperspace and its connotations. If, on the other hand, it can be shown
that no such judicative power inheres in mathematical knowledge we
shall then be able to establish for mathematics a true category and to
dispose of the hyperspace movement in a manner that shall at once be
logical and necessary.
That the discovery of hyperspace by the mathematician is merely an
aspect of a general forward movement in the evolution of consciousness
can be shown by a brief correlative study. Hyperspace is the artificial
symbol of a higher and more extensive realm of awareness. For it cannot
be doubted that to be able to think in the terms of hyperspace, to
study the various relations and interrelations upspringing from the
original premises, actually to become conscious in the hyperspatial
realm thus constructed, requires a different species or quality of
consciousness than that required for ordinary thinking. The period
covering the rise of artificial spatiality is contemporaneous with the
rise of the phenomena identified with the spiritual life of SWEDENBORG;
for during the same time he began a series of visions which revealed to
him great knowledge of the unseen and supersensuous realities of life
and existence. His consciousness was being flooded with the light from
so-called celestial spheres and he was gradually becoming conscious
of a "new dimension," a new space, a higher world that is altogether
unlike the world of the senses. During this period, too, DANTE, the
great kosmic seer began to jot down the results of his "hyperspace"
experiences, after which he wrote his _Divina Commedia_ in which he
describes more or less minutely some of the characteristics of the
hyperspace domain which was revealed to his consciousness as he saw
and interpreted it. Both SWEDENBORG and DANTE being deeply religious
and pious-minded had their reports of the new world colored by their
own mental experiences and proclivities. PLATO had at an earlier day
set down what he conceived to be the ethical and civic characteristics
of the new age, the _Utopia_ of mankind living on a higher plane.
It was during these days that the doctrine of evolution was born,
although it remained for DARWIN to formulate and buttress it with a
stupendous congeries of facts. MARTIN LUTHER, the great religious
reformer, likewise contacted the radiating light-glow of a higher
consciousness into which the race was coming but of which only the
foremost were able to get advance glimpses. KANT, one of the peerless
leaders of the vanguard of humanity, at this time also, conceived and
wrote his _Critique of Pure Reason_ which is likewise an evidence of
the upliftment of his consciousness on the side of pure intellectuality
and the commencement of a general period of illumination. And then,
later, but embraced within the same period, artists began to get
glimpses of this higher consciousness which showed itself in a new and
strange departure in art. In rapid succession new schools sprang up and
came to be known as the "cubist," "post-impressionist," "futurist,"
"orphimist," the "synchromist" and the "vorticist." Art really began
the search for the "plastic essence of the world" trying to portray
its conception of the "real image of the spirit" of the world. Color
acquired a new kind of splendor and painting gave birth to a new
intrinsic beauty of material and sheer loveliness of texture. All of
which were evidences of an intellectual up-reaching in response to the
sharp appulsions from above. DARWIN's mind, being of scientific bent,
saw and interpreted everything in the terms of materialistic science;
but there is no doubt but that the expansion of the area of awareness
which his mind experienced in his great conception of evolution as a
continuous process and all that it implies thereby was a result of the
universal appulsion of the human intellect against the new domain of
consciousness. And KANT's conception of space in general perhaps may be
said to have been the seed-thought for the metageometrician.
But thus it will be noted that in all the cases mentioned in the
foregoing there is always present the personal element of the
investigator, and that the reports of each of these have been colored
and characterized by their individual consciousness and experiences.
That all reports would agree with respect to details connected with
the new domain of consciousness could scarcely be expected owing to
the wonder and bewilderment which seize the intellect under such
circumstances. No implication that the mathematicians have been unduly
excited by what they have discovered after years of patient research
in this direction is indicated by the foregoing observations; but it
cannot be denied that the enthusiasm of the moment and the consequent
minimization of all other phenomena but the special line being
investigated serve very effectively to obscure the mental vision of
the more partisan. It perhaps is sufficient that the investigator
should set down in as orderly manner as possible the things which he
conceives, and that he should interpret them according to the standards
of his own intellect. More than this cannot be expected. Moreover, it
usually suffices that the future investigator, far removed from the
beclouding influences of partisanship, who successfully raises his
consciousness to that higher plane shall be able to synthesize the
findings of all and thereby with the aid which comes to him from a
more advantageous position arrive at sounder views and a more reliable
judgment.
It will thus be seen that the metageometrician's method of
interpretation is no more entitled to final credence and general
acceptance than that of the spiritualist, SWEDENBORG, or the occult
seer, DANTE. For in their best moods and at their highest points of
mental efficiency these have only succeeded in vaguely symbolizing what
they have conceived of the realities of the supersensuous realm in
terms of their own experiences. Is there any more cogent reason, then,
for accepting the analyst's conception of a world of hyperspace peopled
with ensembles, propositions, spaces of _n_-dimensionality and other
mathetic contrivances than the _Inferno_ of DANTE, inhabited by hideous
shapes and repellent denizens, the remains of ill-spent earth-lives
or SWEDENBORG'S _Celestial Realm_, wherein dwell numerous beings of
celestial character performing various tasks in the work of the world?
These observations should not lead the reader to come to the conclusion
that the visions of DANTE and SWEDENBORG are deemed to be more worthy
of credence than mathematical knowledge when that knowledge is limited
to the sphere where it rightfully belongs; but the proper view is that
which would make it appear that it is the way these widely differing
workers interpret what they have seen; that it is the adaptation of the
unseen realms to the peculiarities of the mentalities which observe
them. The mathematicians have simply portrayed as well as they could
their conception of the new stage of consciousness and its contents,
and following the _modus vivendi_ of all intellects have interpreted
these things in the terms of mathematics, merely because mathematics
constituted the best available symbology at hand for the purpose.
Similarly, the painter sees a new world of color; the politician, a new
era of political freedom; the religious enthusiast, a new religious
conception; the scientist, a new condition of matter and energy, and
so on, to the most ordinary mind, each sees something new while at the
same time is necessarily limited to the confines of his own mentality
when he comes to interpret what he sees and conceives. Hence, there
would appear to be only one way to regard all these advances and
that is by synthesizing them, by correlating, and by tracing them to
a common source, and finally by seeing them as one general forward
movement of intellectual evolution.
Man, the Thinker, who in essence is a pure intelligence, has two
mental mechanisms or organs of consciousness. One of these is the
brain-consciousness or the egoic. It is so called because the brain is
its organ of expression and impression. It manifests through the brain
and uses it to further the various objective cognitive processes. The
brain-consciousness is a child of the physical body and its life is
intimately identified with the life of the body. This consciousness may
be called the _a posterioristic_ mechanism or organ of the Thinker and
is therefore his means of interpreting the phenomena of the objective
world. Cell-consciousness is a phase of the ergonic functions of the
_a posterioristic_ mechanism. The other organ of consciousness is an
aspect of the intelligence of the Thinker himself and perhaps may be
said to be the active, organized portion of that intelligence. It is
separate and distinct from the _a posterioristic_ consciousness yet
sustaining a substructural relationship with it, being the source of
the egoic or brain-consciousness. It may be called the _a priori_
consciousness. Its roots are buried deep within the heart of the
space-mind and it is therefrom nourished and developed by what it
receives in the way of intelligence. It is the intuitional faculty;
knows without being taught; conceives without reason; interprets
according to the norms of the space-mind or the divine mind of the
kosmos. It always resides on a higher plane than that of the brain-mind
or consciousness, only at rare intervals being able to contact it with
flashes of its own intelligence as intuitions.
The _a priori_ consciousness being the intuitive faculty of the Thinker
is, therefore, a phase of his mental life on a higher plane than the
sensuous. All its conceptions constitute the _a priori_ knowledge
of the brain mind so-called. The _a priori_ faculty of man's higher
consciousness gives the character possessed by that form of knowledge
known to philosophy as the _a priori_. So that the _a priori_ has a
more substantial basis than has hitherto been surmised. It is not
only that which may be said to transcend experience but that which is
the organ of contact with the supersensuous realities as well as of
expression through the brain-consciousness.
The mind's method of apprehending objective phenomena is not a
direct process but an indirect process by virtue of which neurograms
or nerve-impacts registered in the brain are interpreted. External
sense-impressions are, of course, conveyed to the cortical area by
means of appropriate vibrations which traverse the lines of the neural
mechanism. These are recorded in the brain areas just as a telegraphic
communication is registered in the apparatus of the receiving end,
and in being so, they make terminal registrations which man, the
Thinker, interprets after a psychic code which has been built up
empirically. That is, he comes to know that certain rates of vibration
and certain peculiarities therein mean certain things when referred
to the sensorium. He then interprets according to this experience the
symbolism of all neurographical impressions. But it is obvious that
under such circumstances, where the interpreter is far removed from the
thing itself and finds it necessary to interpret rates of vibration or
symbols in order to arrive at a knowledge of the intelligence which is
conveyed to him, the chances of inadequate conception are very great
indeed. In fact, it is not possible through the use of neurographical
symbols alone to get any complete notion of the phenomena considered.
And thus there stands between the Thinker and absolute knowledge a
barrier which prevents his arriving at a state of certitude in his
knowledge of the world of sensible objects. It is, however, a barrier
which will always remain, checking ever his approach to finality in his
understanding of the universum of appearances.
A markedly different condition obtains in the realm of the _a priori_
or intuitional for the reason that the barriers which inhere in
the neurographical or _a posterioristic_ method are absent and the
Thinker has a more direct approach to the objects of cognition.
Hence the chance for error is very small indeed. This will account,
therefore, for the superiority of the intuitional over the rational
or the perceptual. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the purely rational
possesses any value whatsoever when its _modus vivendi_ is unsanctioned
by the intuitional.
Else why can we not be certain that the results of our rational
processes are correct at all times? Is it not because we lack the power
to perceive whether our premises are correct in the first place? Quite
truly. For if the Thinker can intuit the necessity and certitude of
any given premise it follows that the consequences of that premise
are true. It would, therefore, appear that the more the intuitional
faculty is developed the clearer will be our perceptions not alone
of abstract values but of objective things themselves. Further, it
is doubtlessly true that the more the space-mind is developed in the
human race the deeper will become our perceptions of the essential
_be-ness_ of things so that whatever may be the presentations of the
space-mind to the brain-mind they will be by far more accurate than the
impressions we receive through the latter as a medium of apprehension.
It is but natural, however, that in the present more or less chaotic
condition in which the faculty of the intuitional is found it should
be difficult even to interpret its presentations accurately. It is
perhaps due to the fact that we are unused to its deliveries and mode
of registration as well as to the fact that it has been overshadowed
by the intellectual or rational faculty. But the mere fact that it is
present and functioning, even if but rudimentarily, is evidence of its
potentiality and the possibility of its future development to a still
higher degree of efficiency.
There is no doubt but that the original impulse which resulted in the
creation of the faculty of perceptibility in the Thinker also marked
out the metes and bounds of our entire range of perceivability which
includes not only the intuitional but something higher still. There is
no doubting either the obvious fact that these metes and bounds cannot
have been other than rudimentary or general lines of denotation, and
that the work of their further elaboration and refinement is a matter
of evolutionary detail. For if we assume that the general principles
of evolution are true we immediately recognize the cogency of this
view. That which we now call the hand has not always been the perfect
instrument that it is nor has the ear always been so keenly adjusted
as at present. It has required undoubtedly many million of years for
the eye to reach its present degree of complexity and adaptability.
Yet in all these cases the different organs existed in potentiality
from the beginning; the metes and bounds of the hand, the ear and the
eye were laid out primordially. Evolution has specialized and adjusted
them to environments and needs. Thus it will be seen that while the
intuitional faculty was designed for manifestation from the beginning
it has nevertheless required ages for its appearance even in the most
rudimentary fashion.
Almost the entire content of human knowledge is based upon assumptions
or hypotheses; in fact, is but a mass of these, and especially is
this true of mathematics, science and philosophy. Of course, there
are certain minor observable facts which by reason of the seeming
permanence of their existence have been eliminated from the category of
assumptions. But even this elimination when it is traced to its depths
may be found to be erroneous, and perhaps after all, when we have
really begun to know something of the reality of things, may have again
to be placed in this category. And then, too, the hypothetical nature
of our knowledge is due largely to the Thinker's method of contacting
the objective world which is the subject of his knowledge. It is
because it is necessary for him to interpret the neurographical symbols
which sense-impressions make in the brain matter according to a psychic
code that renders his knowledge of things in general hypothetical. His
interpretations are based upon an assumed value which experience has
taught him to give to each neurogram. But even when his interpretations
leave nothing to be desired in respect to their accuracy of
apprehension of what the neurographical vibration implies there is that
further barrier to his cognition of reality which is due to his remote
removal from the object itself and the consequent extreme difficulty,
if not present impossibility, of identifying his consciousness with the
essence of the objects which he contemplates.
When the Thinker's consciousness is presented with a neurograph
of say, a cube, it is not the cube itself which he contemplates
or observes; it is the neurograph or psychic symbol which the
sense-impressions make in the brain. His consciousness deals not with
the object but with the symbols. It is true that when he verifies one
neurograph by another, as the _scopographic_ or sight impressions by
the _tactographic_ or touch impressions it is found that the delivery
thus determined is a true enough representation. It is also true that
the Thinker, as a rule, does not accept a neurograph as valid until it
has been verified by at least one or more presentations through his
outer sense organs. It occurs, therefore, that all such deliveries
are verified and corrected by one or more sense witnesses before
final acceptance by the Thinker; but even then it cannot be said that
his notions thus gained are in all respects correct and true to the
standards set up by the brain-consciousness not to mention higher forms
of consciousness. And then, when we consider that in addition to the
numerous chances for error which naturally inhere in this method of
cognition it must also be apparent that the Thinker's approach to the
reality of things is much impeded by his separation therefrom, the
unreliability of our ordinary methods of cognition is much emphasized.
But aside from the egoic or brain-consciousness there is the higher
consciousness of the Thinker himself. For the brain-consciousness is
merely his method of regarding and comprehending the neurographical
deliveries, the psychic code by which he systematizes and organizes
his cognitions or impressions of the sensible world. This higher
consciousness constitutes the faculty _a priori_ for the Thinker on
a higher plane of existence, and because it deals with elements
altogether unlike those which make up the data of brain-consciousness
is, accordingly, less liable to error in its judgments of the
supersensuous presentations than is the objective or brain-mind. In
fact, it is difficult to conceive of a state or conditions wherein,
supported as this view contemplates, the intuition should err in
judgment. Viewed from the standpoint of external impedimenta, this
condition may be said to be due to the absence of sensuous barriers
which would otherwise prevent the near approach of the Thinker's
consciousness to the essence of things which is the object of
his consciousness on this higher plane. Directly, however, it is
undoubtedly due to the fact that, following the lead of life itself,
yea, as the veritable handmaid of life, it cannot err where life
is concerned. When dealing with notions _a priori_ or intuitograms
the Thinker is relieved of the onerous necessities and limitations
incident to the examination and determination of neurographic symbols
registered in the brain cortex and so is free to study, to examine
and judge at first hand the impressions which are received from his
own plane of intuition. The difference is about the same as that
which should exist between the methods of communication between two
telegraphic operators when in one instance they would have to depend
upon the deliveries conveyed over the wires, while in the other, when
they stood face to face with each other, they could communicate by
direct conversation. In the one case the method of communication is
direct and simple, while in the other it is indirect, circuitous and
complex. It can, therefore, be readily seen that in all cases where
the approach is made in a direct, simple manner the probability of
error is much less than in cases where the intellectual approach is
less direct and more complicated. Hence in drawing conclusions as to
the relative importance of the two mechanisms of consciousness, the _a
posterioristic_ and the _a priori_, it is necessary to bear in mind
the comparative superiority of the one over the other as a means of
cognition. It matters little that the intuitional faculty is not so
well developed as the tuitional because it is but natural that inasmuch
as the Thinker's needs are subserved in the sensuous realm by the
tuitional consciousness it should, from more active use, gain somewhat
over the intuitional in facility of expression and general utility. And
the more so, because the two faculties serve different purposes; one is
attuned to receive impressions from a subtler plane while the other is
fitted for contact with the phenomenal universe; one is related to the
conceptual while the other is related to the perceptual. They differ
not only in function, but in nature as well. There is, of course, a
natural barrier consisting of the inherent limitations of each faculty
which prevents the full mergence or unification of the two states of
consciousness so that there exists a state of consciousness the data of
which the brain-mind is unaware, it being able only at rare intervals
even to receive so much as slight impressions from it in the nature
of intuitional flashes or inspirations and the like. Viewed in this
light it would appear that the cognitions which are most truthworthy
are those which are presented by the intuitional faculty because
they are nearer to the essential reality of things; they have to do
more specifically with the nature of that which _appears_ while the
tuitional mind can only regard that which is the appearance. Herein
lies the whole difference.
The natural outcome of this division of labor between the tuitional and
the intuitional is the establishment of the fact of man's relationship
both to the phenomenal and the real; that in his psychic nature must
reside the faculty of apprehending the real and that he shall one day
awaken into activity this now latent faculty whereby he may make a
direct and naked contact with reality.
If it be true that, as PLATO said, God does geometrize, and that
the divine geometry, as will appear, is based upon a system, an
alphabet which taken together are the point . , the line ----, the
triangle [Illustration], the square [Illustration] and the circle
[Illustration], then, we have in this geometric alphabet the very
secret of the divine geometry. With these, and in the kosmic laboratory
of _chaogeny_, the Creative Logos has measured off the limits and
confines of space; with them He has traced out its dimensions the
archeological evidences of which we may view in the space-mind itself;
and with them he has established the manner of its appearance to the
Thinker. In dimensions, three, and yet not three, but one, Space,
the eternal progenitor of all forms and energies, having received
the divine fiat in the beginning that thus far it should extend
and no further, persists in faithful obedience to the law of its
being--tridimensionality. It must be so because it is thus sanctioned
by the highest faculty in man that can render judgment thereon. If
tridimensionality inhere in the space-mind, as the law of its being and
in the intuitional consciousness as the norm of its essential nature
and as the easiest and simplest expression of the tuitional mind, how
can it be gainsaid that these considerations obviate the necessity of
the mathetical hyperspace?
If the reality of things is hidden from us and if we are, therefore,
unable to perceive their real essences it is because our mode of
thought and our consciousness have obscured our vision and limited us
to this state of paucity of perception. It is not because reality is
itself a hidden, inscrutable quantity nor that its _modus vivendi_
is "unknowable"; but because we being multiformly limited, "cabined,
cribbed and confined" are resultantly lacking in the power to discern
that which otherwise would be most obvious to us. It may well be set
down as axiomatic that when, in the process of our thinking, we arrive
at the inscrutable, the unknowable and the infinite, it is evident
that our thought processes are dealing with a form of realism which is
higher and beyond the possibilities of our loftiest thought-reaches.
And in order to symbolize to itself this condition the intellect
poses such terms as "inscrutable," "unknowable" and the "infinite"
simply because that is the best it can do. Hence when it is said that
space is infinite it is apparent that the mind recognizes that when
it contemplates space it is dealing with something whose degree of
realism transcends its powers of comprehension. Infinity is a relative
term, and in fact, decreases in extensity in the proportion that the
consciousness expands and comprehends. It is not unlikely that should
the intellect one day discover that it had awakened into union with
the space-mind it would immediately reject its preconceived notion of
the infinity of space. But we need not wait until the coming of this
far off event in the path of psychogenesis; for we can here and now
perceive with what must be a higher faculty than the intellect the
verity of this conclusion.
But certain it is that the intellect, in the pride and arrogance of
its traditional heritage, will not without a great struggle yield the
ground and prestige it has held for an aeon of time; and in vain does
the intuition serve notice of dispossessal in these premises; but
however stubbornly fought the battle, however tenaciously held the
position time will discover the weakening of the intellect's hand.
Death for the intellect may ensue as a result of the conflict but it
will be a death wherefrom it will arise, quickened, revivified and
uplifted by its disposer, the intuition, upon the remains of its dead
self to a higher and grander state than it has ever enjoyed before.
Space is not static. It is dynamic, potential and kinetic. It is a
process, a becoming. Its duration as a process is never ending. Its
extensity is limited and finite. The so-called infinity of space is one
of the capital illusions of the intellect which can only be removed
by an expansion of the consciousness, by a mergence of the individual
consciousness with the space-consciousness. In the ever-widening circle
of the individual consciousness lesser realities give way to greater as
the darkness recedes from the light--the lesser appearing in comparison
with the greater, as the consciousness broadens, as matter to spirit,
as night to day or as limitation to non-limitation. Thus the most solid
facts and conditions of our limited life are but the shadows of the
deeper realities which shall be revealed to the Thinker in the days of
his larger and more glorious life of freedom from limitations.
And now it will appear that the whole fabric of our knowledge shall
have to be reduced to the bare warp and woof; for nothing is real but
these. It is as if the Thinker, using the tuitional mind, had been in
all times past studying the design woven in the surface of a very thick
plush carpet. There are the warp and woof, the long vertical threads
which make the plush and the intricate design appearing on the surface.
Our knowledge may be likened to the design. It represents the contents
of our knowledge. We have not even so much as begun the study of the
nature of the vertical threads as they appear beneath the surface to
say nothing of beginning the study of the warp and woof. The warp and
the woof are the realism of the kosmos; the vertical threads are the
roots and stem of the phenomenal world; the design is our sensible
world as it appears to the intellect. The life of the intellect has
been spent in contemplating this design; while of the hands which wove
the carpet, of the mind which directed the hands and of the spirit
which vitalized all, it knows nothing nor indeed can it know anything.
Where shall we say are those hands, that mind and that spirit which
made the carpet possible and an actuality? In vain do we search among
the remains, among the soft, glistening threads of the carpet or among
the intricacies of the design. For they are not there. They have passed
on. The intellect looks at the design or at the vertical threads and
because it is unable to follow them to their source, it decides that
they are infinite, inscrutable and unknowable. But not so. All that is
required are eyes to see and a mind (or shall we say a mind vitalized
by the intuition) trained to discern the threads as they point upward
with their termini firmly rooted in the warp and woof of the fabric.
But we must first master the design, and then turning to the threads,
master them. Then shall the doors of kosmic reality swing wide and the
Thinker shall be ushered into the eternal palace of kosmic realism
wherein he shall find the great secret, the heart, the purpose, the
beginning and the end, the very nature of things-in-themselves.
The nature of every degree or condition of realism is so constituted
that its qualities, characteristics and limitations are exactly
adequate for the satisfaction and fulfillment of all the requirements
and needs of every possible state of normal consciousness. So that each
degree of reality and each state of normal consciousness is sufficient
and complete in itself and mutually satisfies the necessities of each
other. The substratum of reality or life which extends from the heart
of the kosmos to the extreme limits of the phenomenal universe exists
in degrees, not discrete, but continuous. And these merge into one
another by insensible stages. Such is the imperceptible continuity of
the whole as each degree is gradually immerged into the other that
only the limitations of consciousness itself make it to appear as if
it were discontinuous. For every stage of realism there is a state
of consciousness which answers to it completely and sufficiently.
So both the state of consciousness and that of reality, manifesting
at any given stage, seem to be complete and final for that stage.
Realism or life and consciousness possess only a relative finality
fashioned upon the necessities and requirements for any given state
of being. Consciousness alone fixes the apparent limits of life; it
also determines the state of our knowledge of life. And thus when the
Thinker is confined to any stage of reality and congruent degree of
consciousness it appears that what he there finds is ample for all his
purposes. Accordingly he is convinced that that stage is the final
consideration of his scope of motility. It is only when he is able
to raise his consciousness to a point where he can contact higher
realities that he becomes aware that there are higher stages in which
his consciousness may manifest. This peculiarity of the Thinker's
consciousness is accentuated when he allows himself to become wholly
engrossed with a study of the phenomena of that stage in which he can
consciously function. Hence it constantly occurs that men exhausting
the study of the phenomenal find themselves floundering upon the beach
of the outlying shores of consciousness where in sheer desperation
they fall into the illusion that they have indeed reached the limits
of manifested life and that beyond those limits there is no organized
being. Unconscious are they that in ever widening circles the fertile
lands extend and await the awakening of their consciousness when they
may till the fallow ground of this new domain and begin again the
search for the ultimately real.
With respect to the present powers of consciousness, it cannot be
successfully controverted that the concept of tridimensionality of
space is sufficient for all purposes. It must be so for it is not only
an aspect of the phenomena of space but of reality as well. This fact
is attested by the nature of mind that answers to the nature of space.
Tridimensionality characterizes the entire extent of consciousness and
life, and therefore, of space itself. This characterization may be
traced to the very doors of the heart of space where the three become
one. Nor would this conception be in the least vitiated if it were
allowed that the mass of the phenomena of the supersensuous world,
lying in close proximity to the sensuous world, does present itself to
the consciousness in a four-dimensional manner and that the phenomena
of a still higher plane present themselves in a five or _n_-dimensional
manner to that state of consciousness which may be congruent with
them; because then we should be making allowances for the changes in
phenomena and their mode of presentation to the consciousness which
by no means implies a corresponding change in reality or life. All
phenomena are fashioned by the intellect. The phenomenal world is
just what the intellect interprets it to be. It is that and nothing
more. Its qualities, attributes and characteristics are such as the
consciousness gives to it. It exists only for the purposes of the
evolving consciousness. And, as an instrument of consciousness, its
existence is strictly subject to the evolutionary needs thereof. In
that moment that the immediate needs of the consciousness shall no
longer be able to find satisfaction in the phenomena of any plane of
nature, in that moment the phenomena of that plane disappear, recede
and are swallowed up in the maelstrom of eternal reality.
In the gradual expansion of consciousness as it passes through the
infinite series of grades of awareness meantime becoming deeper,
broader and more comprehensive as it proceeds, there may be observed
running through all these planes and orders that which is neither the
phenomena of the various planes nor the consciousness; but which must
be the substructural basis of both, remaining the same, unchanged and
unchangeable. That is the thread of reality, the passage of life itself
which is the eternal basis of all. Now it is to this reality, life,
that the space-mind is related and in which its roots, its heart and
the very center of its being are at one with the divine mind of the
kosmos.
The question of dimensionality is solely a concern of the objective
or brain-mind which is the intellect. It is one of the ways in which
the intellect endeavors to understand phenomena. It is an arbitrary
contrivance devised by the intellect for its convenience in studying
the world of things. Without it, as obviously appears, the intellect
would not be able to go very far in its consideration of the minor
problems which inhere in material things. The fourth dimension is
but another attitude, another contrivance, which the intellect has
devised in order that it may study from another angle the evanescent
phenomena of the world of appearances. Having apparently exhausted
the possibilities of motion in three dimensions, and being driven on
to the acquirement of more picturesque views by the very necessity
of its continued growth, it has betaken itself to another higher
mountain peak, called "hyperspace" where with larger lenses and higher
powered instruments it is beginning to scan the landscapes of a new
intellectual realm of consciousness. Yet the celestial wonders of this
new-found realm of consciousness remain in undisturbed forgetfulness
or neglect. But it is not by a scrutiny of mathetic landscapes nor
by a study of the celestial wonders that the Thinker shall one day
realize the object of his eagerly pushed quest after the real; for he
shall find it, if at all, in the temple of the kosmic mind which is not
made by the intellect nor meted and bounded by geometric systems of
space-measurement.
In all the learned pother incident to the mastery of the phenomenal,
the furniture of the world of the senses, it is as if the self in man,
the Thinker, sat secluded in a six-walled tenement, and hence six times
removed from the subject of his study, and endeavored to interpret that
which appeared to his vision. And thus, thinking that what he sees is
the only reality, he remains in inglorious nescience of the reality of
that upon which he himself stands, unconscious that the tunnel-shaped
aperture through which he peers leads not outward, but _backward_ and
within to the habitation of the real of which he himself is a part.
Men are deeply and well-nigh hopelessly concerned with appearances,
with static views of life, with instantaneous exposures. Life, reality
and all the eternal verities pass on and assume countless postures,
attitudes, moods, tenses and nuances. The intellect is content to
occupy itself with a single tense or mood. Indeed, it has no aptitude
or power to consider more than one at a single time. It thus misses
the continuity, the ceaselessness, of life. What is more, every
singularity, every attitude, mood or tense which the intellect grasps
for consideration is immediately remade so as to fit its own moods
and tenses. And upon each and every nuance the intellect immediately
imposes its own form--actually and literally rehabilitates them with
its own habiliments. Unfortunately, this peculiarity occludes the
intellect from any approach to the true nature of that phase which it
can grasp.
Hyperspace is one of the illusions of the phenomenal; it is the dress
which the intellect has superimposed upon a single nuance; it is a mask
which is an exact replica of the mood of the intellect. Yet through
this mask the intellect grandly hopes to approach reality. The period
through which the mind is now passing is a repetition of the evil
days of scholasticism when men set out to determine the exact number
of celestial beings that could be perched upon the extremity of a
needle point. It is a time when men's minds easily assume grotesque
and hideous shapes and their thoughts become the embodiment of
fantastic entities. The exclusive occupation of such minds becomes the
fabrication of mathetic monstrosities which rapidly deliquesce upon
the first approach of the real or the appearance of the first ray of
intuition which may escape through the dim and misty condition of the
intellectual over-hangings. It will not be ever thus; for the Thinker
will one day pass from a study of the arrangement of phenomena in space
and by well-ordered steps come once again to himself. And then through
the maze of it all set out upon the true path----the tridimensionality
of space following which he will inevitably approach the citadel of the
real, the kosmic space-mind.