Four-Dimensional Vistas by Claude Fayette Bragdon
page 14 of 116 (12%)
page 14 of 116 (12%)
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axes and one time axis of reference, they be referred to a set of
four interchangeable axes involving four homogeneous co-ordinates. In other words, _time_ is made the fourth dimension. Psychic phenomena indicate that occasionally, in some individuals, the will is capable of producing physical movements for whose geometrico-mathematical definition a four-dimensional system of co-ordinates is necessary. This is only another step along the road which the human mind has always travelled: our conception of the cosmos grows more complete and more just at the same time that it recedes more and more beneath the surface of appearances. Far from the Higher Space Hypothesis complicating thought, it simplifies by synthesis and co-ordination in a manner analogous to that by which plane geometry is simplified when solid geometry becomes a subject of study. By immersing the mind in the idea of many dimensions, we emancipate it from the idea of dimensionality. But the mind moves most readily, as has been said, in ordered sequence. Frankly submitting ourselves to this limitation, even while recognizing it as such, let us learn such lessons from it as we can, serving the illusions that master us until we have made them our slaves. II THE DIMENSIONAL LADDER LEARNING TO THINK IN TERMS OF SPACES |
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