CHAPTER 6 - CONSCIOUSNESS

Uneasiness
The suggestion of Superstring Theory that our world has ten dimensions, six of them 'non-physical', is a tantalizing idea, and we naturally wonder what these six 'non-physical' dimensions might be like. The intrigue thickens when we see that the six curving arms of the Menorah and the six white strings of the Talis also suggest the existence of six 'non-physical' dimensions. But this idea of six extra dimensions somehow floating around us, extending in some way the basic four physical dimensions, is unclear at best and can make us uneasy and queasy.

We can see that a basketball in our hands has height, width, and depth, and that it flies to the hoop through time, so we are comfortable with these four basic dimensions. We would like to understand the mysterious six additional dimensions by seeing and experiencing them, but we remind ourselves that this might be problematical because they are 'not physical.'  We ask, therefore, what and where are these six 'non-physical dimensions', and is it possible to see any 'physical' evidence that they exist or at least impinge on the physical world?  We would appreciate some conceptual framework to deal with and think about this further.

Scientists and religious thinkers should put their heads together while investigating this puzzling frontier.  Scientists can contribute their objective analytical ability, and their track record of having uncovered some of natures best secrets.  Religious thinkers can contribute their age-old tradition of contemplating the non-physical aspects of the world, that they refer to as the spiritual realm of existence.  All will benefit by mutual brainstorming and exploration.

A Theory
To contribute to this investigation, we will now flesh out and delve deeper into the  hypothesis we suggested in the previous chapter.  It is only an initial attempt to grapple with this enigma of what it might mean that our world includes six 'non-physical' dimensions.  We hope that it contains some insights to stimulate the thinking of others in this area.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so we will try to develop a conceptual model with diagrams.  Let's start with two ways of representing the 'spread' between the physical and 'non-physical' world.

In Figure 1, a black box represent the physical and a white box represents the non-physical. The four physical dimensions are shown, along with a white box that is an initial attempt to portray the non-physical world.  Figure 2 uses a traditional X-Y coordinate diagram, with the X-axis arbitrarily representing the physical world with its four dimensions, and the Y-axis representing the non-physical world that juts out in a new and different dimension compared with the X-axis.

figure1 and figure 2

 

The first question that jumps out at us when looking at these diagrams is: where are the six non-physical dimensions?  The one white box and the Y-axis don't look like enough. Where could all six  non-physical dimensions be, and how might they be represented?

We would like to suggest the possibility that there is only one purely non-physical dimension, and that the other five unaccounted for dimensions are combinations of the physical and non-physical.  They might be, in a sense, mixtures or amalgams of the physical and non-physical, perhaps serving as stepping stones to bridge the gap between the physical and the non-physical.  The physical and non-physical may be as different as oil and water, and these intermediate dimensions serve to mediate between the physical and non-physical, allowing them to mix and cooperate in some way.  This could be compared to a staircase with five steps going from one level to another. 

We will explore this hypothesis in the spirit that it might unearth some clues as to what it could mean that the world contains a total of ten dimensions combining the physical and non-physical. We hope it sheds a bit of light in the exploration of this new and uncharted realm.

Figures 3 and 4 shows this idea of five intermediate dimensions, each combining the physical and non-physical in different amounts.  We divide the gap between the physical and non-physical in equal amounts, going from 5/6 physical to 1/6 physical.   We now find we have a full set of ten dimensions.  Dimensions 1 to 4 are totally physical.  The tenth dimension is totally non-physical, and dimensions 5 to 9 are progressively less physical as they approach the tenth dimension.   


figure3 and figure 4

 

Trying To Understand These 'Extra' Dimensions

We will now use these diagrams to try to help us understand what it might mean for there to be five dimensions that are somehow mixtures of the physical and the non-physical.  Let's look at the X-Y axis diagram in Figure 4.  We are familiar with the physical world represented by the X-axis, the world of objects that we use our body and senses to move, touch, and see.  Try to picture being in this physical world of the X-axis, and looking 'up' at the other six dimensions in Figure 4.

The first thing we notice is that the eye in the physical world of the X-axis can't see the Y-axis at all.  The Y-axis is invisible to the eye looking up from the X-axis because it is perpendicular to it.  This implies that the tenth dimension, being purely non-physical, cannot be perceived from the physical world. 

But what do we see if we look 'up' from the physical world at the intermediate five dimensions that somehow combine the physical and the non-physical?  Figure 5 shows this idea.  Each of the six diagrams in Figure 5 represents the perspective from the physical world looking up at dimensions five through ten that represent mixtures of physical and non-physical.  Because of the angle of these intermediate dimensions, the fifth dimension is most visible, the ninth dimension is least visible, and the tenth dimension is invisible. 

We've drawn on top of each diagram how each of these six dimensions appear from the vantage point of the physical world.  The black part of the rectangle represents what the physical world can 'see' of dimensions five through ten. We notice that the black rectangles get narrower as we move from dimension five through ten. The black rectangle that represents how much the physical world 'sees' the fifth dimension is the widest, and the black rectangle that shows how the physical world 'sees' the ninth dimension is the narrowest. 

This implies that from the perspective of the physical world represented by the X-axis, we can somehow sense in progressively lesser degrees the physical component of these six dimensions.  The fifth dimension, that has the largest physical component, is perceived the most from the physical world, and the ninth dimension that has the least physical component is perceived the least.  The tenth dimension that is purely non-physical is not perceived at all from the vantage point of the physical world.

figure 5

The rectangles at the top of each of these six diagrams, that depict how dimensions five to ten are 'seen' from the physical world, are the same as the rectangles in Figure 3 describing the same dimensions.   

What Are The Six 'Non-Physical' Dimensions Like?

According to this idea, the tenth dimension is completely non-physical, but dimensions five to nine have a physical component that goes from fairly substantial to fairly small.  Considering that we live in the physical world, we should be able to see traces of how the physical aspect of the fifth to the ninth dimension impinges on the physical world.  The fifth dimension is the most physical and tangible, and we should find it easier than the other intermediate dimensions to see some evidence of its existence in the physical world.  Then the sixth to the ninth dimensions would have a progressively smaller 'imprint' on the physical world, making their physical component harder to 'see' in the physical world.

To explain this in terms of the black and white rectangles in Figure 3, we should be able to see evidence of the black component of dimensions five to nine in the physical world, because the black part of each rectangle represents its physical component.  Each of these five 'intermediate' dimensions also has a 'non-physical' component, represented by the white part of the rectangle, that leaves no imprint on the physical world. 

In each of the dimensions five to nine there is a line of demarcation separating its physical from its non-physical component, where the black part of the rectangle meets the white part.  It is as if this line represents a kind of 'wall', the left of the wall being physical and the right of the wall being non-physical. 

To expand this idea, we will use an image from Superstring Theory that says the world is made up of vibrating strings.  Figure 6 pictures that in each of these five intermediate dimensions, we (in the physical world) can grab a hold of the part of the string on the physical side of this wall and shake it.  This will shake the part of the string that extends into the non-physical part of the dimension.  The part of the string that we can grab onto in the physical world, to the left of the 'wall', vibrates the entire dimension, both physical and non-physical, though from the vantage point of the physical world we can only see the physical aspect of these vibrations. 

 

An intriguing image emerges that in each of these 'mixture' dimensions, we can grab a hold of the physical part of this string and shake the string that extends throughout the entire dimension, even its non-physical part.  Let's call the physical part of the string that we can take hold of it's physical 'handle'.  By shaking this physical handle, we can send vibrations through the entire dimension, including the part that is non-physical.  In the fifth dimension we have the longest physical handle.  In the ninth dimension we have a tiny handle, but if we shake it, we are sending vibrations via the string into the 5/6ths of the dimension that is non-physical.

Superstring Theory tells us that the whole world is made up of vibrating strings that forms a kind of orchestra whose music is ever changing.  To carry this image a bit further, we can see each of these intermediate dimensions as vibrating with a kind of music that varies in pitch, intensity, and meter. The music in each of these dimensions can have its own character and melody that varies at different places and times.  By grabbing hold of the physical handle in a dimension, we can change the melody, rhythm, and loudness of the music in that dimension, and the music extends even into the non-physical portion of that dimension.

Relating This To The World We Know

This image of part-physical, part non-physical dimensions pulsating with music is interesting and intriguing, but how can we relate it to anything we are familiar with in our experience on good old terra firma?  Can we find any phenomena in the world around us that bears any similarly to such a description?

As we mentioned in the previous chapter, there is in fact a class of phenomena that has had scientists and philosophers puzzled for eons.  We are referring to activities such as thinking, feeling, and consciousness.  After thousands of years of scientific scrutiny, these phenomena are almost as enigmatic as they always were.  What is consciousness, and what are we doing when we think a thought, or feel an emotion?  Scientists have tried to probe and  measure these activities with their instruments, but are still at a loss as to how to explain them.  It has even been a puzzle as to why thinking, feeling, and consciousness remain so elusive, and why they seem less tangible than the regular physical world of tables and buildings.

Therefore we present the proposition that perhaps these enigmatic phenomena such as thinking and feeling have something to do with the semi-physical dimensions we have been discussing. Perhaps we perceive only their physical component, and it's their non-physical component that makes them so enigmatic.  As we mentioned in the previous chapter, we made a list that tries to correlate this class of phenomena with the dimensions five to ten. We simply ordered them from what seemed the least physical to the most physical.  This is the list we came up with:

            name               dimension       part physical   part non-physical       
            pure spirit                   10                        0                    6/6
            soul                              9                      1/6                   5/6
            thought                         8                      2/6                   4/6 
            emotion                        7                      3/6                   3/6 
            sensation                      6                      4/6                   2/6 
            being                            5                      5/6                   1/6                              

There are probably many ways to match this class of phenomena with these six dimensions, and this is just an initial foray.  Before we explain what we mean by each of these terms, we show in Figure 7 a summary of what we have described so far in this chapter.

The Six Non-Physical Dimensions

We will now attempt to match the six non-physical dimensions implied by Superstring Theory, the Talis, and the Menorah with phenomena that philosophers and scientists have found 'ethereal' and inexplicable for thousands of years.  By 'non-physical dimensions' we mean those dimensions that are not totally physical, and have at least a non-physical component.  Please grant us literary license in this section, because we will attempt to use the terms as they are used in common parlance. 

Pure Spirit - We will start with the tenth dimension that is totally non-physical, and match it up with the term 'pure spirit'.  This is the Y-axis that cannot be perceived by the physical world at all.  Perhaps this is what religion refers to as the 'spiritual' world, where the soul comes from before a person is born and where it returns after the person dies.  The Talmud says that when a feotus is in its mother's womb, there is a flame above its head that it uses to see from one end of the world to the other, and perhaps this flame (that is reminiscent of the Menorah) emanates from the tenth dimension.  Maybe we will never be able to view this dimension directly from the physical world, but only get a glimpse of it by seeing how it mixes in different measures with the physical in the five 'intermediate' dimensions. It is possible that understanding this tenth dimension better would give us an inkling as to the nature of God.

Soul -  This is the ninth dimension that is 5/6th non-physical and has only a small physical handle to grab onto.  This is the part of us that is closest to the spiritual world while we are alive, and when we look inside ourselves we can barely perceive it because of its small  physical component.  The Hebrew word for this is 'Neshama', and we try to engage and rouse it when we pray.  Truly Religious people manage to have the music in this dimension of themselves be richly harmonic and melodious.

Thinking - The eighth dimension is the home of our thoughts, and because it is 1/3 physical, it has twice as much physicality compared to the soul that is only 1/6 physical.  Thinking is somewhat more tangible than our soul, but it is still mostly ineffable because it is 2/3rd non-physical.   Intellectuals and those who feel most akin to the Greek legacy try to imbue this dimension of themselves with the greatest vibrancy.  It is a strange idea indeed that as you are thinking right now that you shaking a string with a handle 1/3rd physical, and that 2/3rd of its activity is taking place in a non-physical world.  Perhaps that is why thinking seems familiar and yet so enigmatic to us. 

Emotion - We've matched emotions to the seventh dimension that is half physical and half non-physical.  When emotions such as happiness, sadness, love, anger, and fear course through our body, they feel more physical than thoughts, but they also have a substantial ethereal quality.  A poet might describe strong emotions as combining equal portions of Heaven and Earth.  They vigorously engage our body, but there's usually a puzzling, enigmatic quality to them that might reflect the half that is non-physical.

Sensation - If we sink our teeth into a luscious peach, burn our hands on a stove, or get a  massage at a health club, we can feel how engaged our body is and why we've matched sensation to the sixth dimension that is 2/3rd physical.  But perhaps Science has not been able to fully understand what it means to feel pleasure and pain because it is also 1/3rd non-physical.  Touch the texture of something now with your hand, and feel how physical the sensation is, and yet there remains a part of the sensation that is elusive and hard to explain, and that might be due to the part that is non-physical. This is the dimension that the Barbarian is most focused on, in maximizing the pleasurable sensations he feels. 

Being - There is a motor-like hum that seems to exist in all living creatures, and we call this 'being'.  It is mostly physical, but there is a tinge of other-wordiness to it, and that is why we match it to the fifth dimension that is 5/6th physical and 1/6th non-physical.  It is what a philosopher might call the bedrock of existence.  Being is built solidly on the four physical dimensions of height, width, depth, and time, but it is also one step above them and has a taste, a hint, a sliver of the non-physical world. The Hebrew word for being is 'nefesh' and it is a quality we share with an amoeba and a blade of grass.

The Shadow of the Tenth Dimension

The nature of the tenth dimension remains a great mystery.  According to our model, it is purely non-physical and cannot be perceived from the physical world because it is 'perpendicular' to it.  But what is it, and what is it made of?  Though we cannot see it directly, perhaps we can see it indirectly because it makes up a large part of the five intermediate dimensions that form stepping stones between the physical world and the mysterious tenth dimension.  The model suggests that every time we think a thought, we create vibrations in the eighth dimension, and 2/3rd of those vibrations are non-physical -  the same non-physical quality that the tenth dimension is made up of. 

It's as if the tenth dimension is an invisible wall that casts a white shadow on the physical world by its involvement in the fifth to ninth dimensions.  We are somehow involved in this non-physical quality in varying degrees every time we sense a sensation, feel a feeling, or think a thought.  Perhaps, as some Religious thinkers have claimed, the 'Kingdom of Heaven is within', and we are involved with this ineffable substance of the tenth dimension as we are thinking right now.  Perhaps Science will be able to discover more about the tenth dimension indirectly by exploring how it mixes with the five intermediate dimensions. 

Five Part Harmony

Superstring Theory says the world is made up of tiny superstrings that vibrate like musical instruments.  We have extended this idea to suggest that each of the five intermediate dimensions can vibrate independently of each other, creating its own 'music'.  This music of a dimension can have its own character, distinguished by its pitch, rhythm, and intensity.  It can be melodious or raucous, fast or slow, loud or soft, repetitive or constantly changing.  Each of us at every moment is playing a symphony (or at least a quintet) in five part harmony, with each of the five dimensions contributing its own musical accompaniment.  The five dimensions can be in harmony and synchronous with each other, or they can be out of synch and produce a terrible cacophony.  In each person these dimensions can be quiet or prominent.

Each person has their own character and personality, perhaps in part because of this five part symphony they are playing.  Look at people's faces and into their eyes and you can almost see and 'hear' the symphony they are playing.  The person's 'music' is being generated from within them, and its character tends to be fairly consistent.  It is reflected in a person's voice, generated by vibrating strings called vocal chords.  One person may be extremely emotional, and their seventh dimension is very active, intense, and changing, while another person may have a very subdued and quiet seventh dimension.  One person may have a loud sixth dimension (sensual)  while another may have a dramatic ninth dimension (soul).

It is interesting how this explains a difference between the three major philosophical types that we have discussed throughout this book.  The Barbarian focuses on the sixth dimension of the senses, concerned mostly with his own pleasure.  He usually doesn't attach much importance to the 'higher' dimensions. The Scientist regards the eighth dimension of thought as primary, and through books, thinking, and discussion, can create for himself a rich world of thoughts and ideas.  The truly Religious person concentrates on developing the harmonies of the ninth dimension of the soul.  He feels himself close to the ineffable tenth dimension, that he senses is somehow connected to the nature of God, and wants to make sure that the music of his soul is sweet, melodic, and pleasing to God. 

There is no reason why a person can't strive to have beautiful music on all five of these intermediate dimensions, and have them all harmonize with each other.  This might be considered an ideal to strive towards.  

The Barbarian and the Scientist agree that there is nothing besides the physical world.  As a result the Barbarian focuses on indulging his physical desires, and the Scientist discounts evidence that is not perceived through the physical senses.  Perhaps they would change if they saw the importance of non-physical reality, and how the non-physical part of the 'higher dimensions' animates the world and gives it its character.  For example, how would they respond if they could see the affects of their actions on the ninth dimension, their soul?

Sleep and Dreams

We spend almost one third of our lives sleeping, and we know that we feel refreshed after a good night's sleep and feel tired if we put sleep off for too long.  But Science has not provided us with a clear understanding of what sleep is and why we need it so much.  An additional mystery is why we dream. Experiments have shown that rapid eye movement (REM) accompanies dreaming, and if people are woken up as they start dreaming and never get a chance to dream, they remain extremely tired even though they have slept for eight hours.  Scientists don't know why this is true.

Our life includes activity on the five semi-physical dimensions.  While we are awake we are essentially in the physical world, and are active in the physical portions of these dimensions, though vibrations in the physical portions have their effect in the non-physical portions that we can't perceive in the physical world. 

Perhaps when we sleep, we pass over to the other side of the 'wall' and attend to things from the vantage point of the non-physical portion of these dimensions.  In a sense we shake the string from the non-physical side of the wall, that has a resulting effect on the physical side of the wall in the form of dreams and greater physical relaxation.  The world probably looks very different from the non-physical side of the wall, and we need to 'go' there and resolve issues, make changes, and adjust the harmonies from the non-physical perspective.  When we cross to the non-physical side of the wall we can't be attentive to physical reality, and that is why our body becomes motionless and we lose consciousness of physical reality during sleep.  But perhaps at the same time we gain consciousness of non-physical reality.   

Relationships

Each of us is a composer and conductor, playing music in five part harmony in the fifth through the ninth partly physical dimensions.  This music defines our character and personality.  How this music harmonizes with other people's music determines how we get along with other people.  We get along with some people better than others because our music harmonizes with some people better than others.  Perhaps someday we'll be able to measure the melodies that people generate in the dimensions of being, sensation, emotion, thought, and soul, and watch how these melodies of different people interact with each other.  It might be possible to use such measurements to predict how different people will get along.

Our melodies change over time in response to events around us. We may harmonize well with another person in one dimension such as the eighth dimension of thought, but not on other dimensions.  Or some of our emotional melodies such as happiness may synchronize well with them but other emotions such as anger may be discordant.  It may be that 'love' is the harmony we can establish with another person in many dimensions.

We say that a person 'falls' in love and 'falls' asleep indicating that both involve 'falling' into a speical mode, perhaps because they involve non-physical activity on the 'other side of the wall'. 

A distinctive aspect of marital relations is that it can intensely involve all five of the semi-physical dimensions. It can be much more than just the physical, potentially involving being, sensation, emotion, thought, and soul.  It can ideally involve music in all the dimensions.

Charisma and leadership is that ability where a person can make other people's melodies harmonize with theirs.  A good political or business leader can project a melody so strong, on so many dimensions, that others change their melodies to harmonize with the leader's.  This ability can be good for reducing anarchy, but it can be dangerous in the hands of a demagogue.  But even on a small scale, when salespeople try to sell something or when we try to influence or convince someone, we are trying to get another person's melodies to harmonize with ours.

The Appeal Of Music

Most cultures and many subcultures develop their own music that expresses something unique about them and reflects their character.  The music evolves as the morés of the culture changes.  As Western music went through periods called Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Modern, it reflected changes in the culture.  Today our popular music includes Rock, Country, Jazz, Punk, Blues, and Rap to reflect the subcultures they come from. 

Perhaps music has such a great appeal to us because we yearn for a physical expression of the activity that is taking place in the five semi-physical dimensions of our culture..  We sense that there is 'non-physical' activity happening in these dimensions that is unique to our culture or subculture at this point in time, so we create a style of music that strikes a responsive chord and makes it more tangible for us.

Consciousness

Consciousness is therefore the sum total of the music we generate on these five semi-physical dimensions.  Half of the activity in these dimensions is non-physical, and that is perhaps why an understanding of consciousness has eluded Science for so long.  Understanding the non-physical aspect of these dimensions will require a great deal of research.  We may find it difficult to directly measure the non-physical aspects of dimensions such as emotion, thought, and soul.  But perhaps we will able to measure them indirectly by watching the vibration of the 'string' on the physical side of the wall, and infer what is happening on the non-physical side of the wall.

We wonder what it is like on the other side of the wall, in the non-physical realm.  Perhaps that is where part of us originated before we started mixing with the physical world as we were gestating in our mother's womb, and perhaps that is where we will return after our stay in the physical world is over.  Perhaps we visit that realm every night when we sleep. As we are conscious now, perhaps a key portion of our consciousness is activity that is occurring right now on the 'other' side of the wall, in the non-physical realm.