By E. V. Ingraham
Copyrighted 1931
By E. V. Ingraham
For permission to quote, address publisher.
Printed in U.S.A
Download a PDF copy of THE FOURTH DIMENSION PLUS
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The ever-evasive fourth dimension has attracted wide attention during the past few years. At the same time it is general acknowledged that to understand the fourth dimension is quite beyond the comprehension of the average mind. We venture to say, however, that the lack of general comprehension is due to the fact that the average mind only fails to comprehend scientific terms and phrases which have been used to describe it. Perhaps, too, men may not clearly understand what the fourth dimension really is, and therefore it is quite impossible for them to explain it. But everything in the universe is quite simple when considered in a simple manner, avoiding unfamiliar terms and phrases.
In this article we shall make no attempt at scientific descriptions or phrases. Nor shall we attempt to adhere to any present theory about the fourth dimension. We
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shall approach the subject in so far as we know, from an entirely new angle and in a manner which should at least convey some practical viewpoint to any individual interested in transcending the limitations which appear in his three-dimensional nature. But we will not tell you all about the fourth dimension, for two reasons. First, we do not know all about it, and second, it would take an eternity in which to tell it all. Enough for us to merely start upon the path of investigation beyond the limits of our present conception.
The dictionary says that a dimension is any measureable extent or magnitude. The measureable extent or magnitude of any form is apparent from a three-dimensional point of view, for length, breadth and thickness are parts of our everyday experience. But if we stop to think, it is equally apparent that all form is the product of other formed or formless elements, and an infinite variety of changes took place before these present dimensions were determined. The
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ultimate magnitude of anything is therefore not contained solely within itself nor of itself, but rests in an infinite variety of facts, forces, and elements, both within its form and back of its form. Form does not adequately testify of the greater magnitude which lies back of its familiar three dimensions.
THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN ARE FORMED OUT OF THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN
Accepting the fact that things which are seen are formed out of things which are not seen, is the first mental step one must take in his attempt to comprehend the fourth dimension, and the other dimensions which lie even beyond the fourth. Every man, and every being, as well as every form, has a relationship to the universal whole; a relationship which irrevocably exsts in spite of our forgetfulness of the fact. Yet we know that man can achieve advancement only when he is able to reinforce his own apparent nature elements
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and forces beyond himself. Likewise with everything else that has form. Form, whether a grain of sand, a seed, or a human being, is possible only as greater forces and elements have contributed to the form, and this form is capable of transcending itself only when linked with those same elements which produced the form in the first place. To live unto itself alone—if such a thing were possible—would be to forever remain imprisoned within its fixed, three-dimensional nature.
Each man lives in a world of his own comprehension. Your world is different from the world of those about you just to the degree that your outlook upon life is different.You see and note certain things, while those most closely associated with you may note things of quite a different character. Our worlds differ just to the degree that this mental variance, or awareness exists. To live in exactly the same world, we would necessarily have to be aware of exactly the same things and in
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exactly the same degree. To live in different worlds, we have only to become aware of different things.
Two men may work in the same office, one conscious only of the drudgery of mechanical details involved in his task. The other man may be equally aware of his task, yet his mind goes beyond the mere doing of his work, and takes in other facts in connection with the office, thereby enlarging his field of opportunity. As the years go on, the first man remains tied to the "wheel of incessant grind," while the second man expands to a position involving those additional elements which he saw. This is ever the way of progress, and is, in a way, fourth-dimensional, for it is unconfined within the magnitude of the apparent three dimensions of prescribed form or action.
Man's salary is the return for his performance of tasks. His advancement is the return for including in his tasks that broader activity which he takes into his
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world by seeing beyond the assigned task and expanding his nature and activity to include it. In other words, one's salary is compensation for what he is employed to do, and this is three-dimensional. Advancement is the compensation for doing more than he is employed to do, and this is fourth-dimensional. This does not necessarily mean more or harder work, but more intelligent work; working with a greater comprehension of what one includes in his activity and what is to be produced by one's effort. This is possible only as one pushes back the margins of his mind, so to speak, and enlarges his world of comprehension.
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
There is absolutely no limit to anything in the heavens above nor in the earth below. That which seems to be a limitation is but the limit of the individual perception. Everything which man does today in the way of outstanding achievement was at one time held by others as impossible. Even
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the very common and now prosaic bicycle was considered the phantasy of a diseased mind, and much proof was submitted to convince the people that a man could never ride on that "two-wheeled contraption." So it was with the steamboat, the radio the airplane, and a thousand other things you can name. The one thing that made all these "impossible" things possible was the fact that some one began to investigate beyond the fixed magnitude of established precedent and the ever-changing "established" scientific fact.
To illustrate the limiting condition in the life of man, we have only to recall an experience which has doubtless occurred in the boyhood days of many who may read this illustration. During long vacation days every boy finds the round of ordinary pass-time becoming monotonous, and it becomes necessary to draw upon his resourcefulness to find new ways of entertaining himself. Your is ever progressive. This is the law of his growth. He is fourth-dimensional in
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his dealing with life, and herein is the magic of youth.
One of the bright ideas that often finds its way into the mind of ever-resourceful youth, is to hypnotize chickens. The trick is to catch a chicken, turn it over upon its back, and wave a straw back and forth in front of its eyes. Soon the chicken's head will begin to follow the motion of the straw. Then the straw is quietly placed across the chicken's breast. IF the chicken's attention follows the straw to this point, it will remain on its back quite some time, and apparently unable to get up. This is often repeated until a whole row of hypnotized chickens is lined up along the side of the house. Then the fun begins. A wash boiler or dish pan is usually brought into service at this point, and such a ballyhoo follows as it necessary to break the chickens' fixed attention upon the straws, when they will return to their normal state. It is obvious that the straws have no power to bind the chickens, which are held solely by their attention upon the straws.
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MAN MUST CHANGE ATTENTION TO INFINITE REALMS
Man is bound only by his attention upon the apparently fixed dimensions or magnitude of his world. When the attention is free from the apparently fixed dimensions of time, space, and form, there is an infinite realm of freedom and opportunity available. It is true that the chickens could have been freed by removing the straws, but that was not necessary. A mere change of attention would meet all the requirements. This is all that is necessary for man to do in order to start the freeing process which will extricate him from the seeming bondage to his environment. Therefore the purpose of this article is identical with the ballyhoo before the hypnotized chickens, viz.: to break man's attention in his three-dimensional world of form, and render available that vastly greater magnitude which links the finite with infinite.
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LIMITATIONS ARE ONLY APPARENT
The limitations of the world and all things therein, are only in appearance. In fact, nothing is limited. The three apparent dimensions of form are but the least aspect of an infinite nature that lies back of its lengths, breadth and thickness. Beyond these three dimensions are four others, making seven in all, each of which can be understood in a general way, even by the average mind. Most any child of say twelve years of age, should be able to grasp, to some extent, all four of the greater dimensions back of form.
By way of illustration let us in our imagination take a pound of molding was, fashion it into such length, breadth, and thickness, as we desire. Let us then divide it in half and rearrange the length, breadth and thickness of the remaining mass. Do this as many times as you like. Then put it all back together, adding another pound of wax, thus doubling the original volume, and again rearrange the three dimensions.
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Can you not see that if there were nothing but the three dimensions it would be quite impossible to change them? The fact is, the wax has a freer dimension or capacity, and an infinite number of changes can be made with respect to its length, breadth, and thickness. This process by which the three dimensions are determined is a very simple phase of its fourth dimension, but not all of it. Though, as we have explained, we cannot tell you all about the fourth dimension, yet we will tell you more later.
A more perfect illustration of the fourth dimension will be to take a book from your table. Note its length, its breadth, and its thickness. Now put the book out of sight. You can still see it in your mind, can you not? Now change its form in your mind, making the image smaller. Make a number of changes in your mind regarding its size, shape, color and composition. This is the process which went on in the minds of people who printed it in the first place, in their effort to determine its outer form.
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But what was it before it was a book, and before it was paper and ink and leather? The paper was wood and the leather was the skin taken from some animal. But before it was wood and before it was animal it was something else—air, sunshine, elements from the earth, etc., and so you might go on tracing it back quite indefinitely. All this is fourth-dimensional, but not all of the fourth dimension until you have comprehended all the process by which the book derived its form. The fourth dimension is the free, unconfined dimension, and the means or process by which the three dimensions were determined. But though it is three-dimensional when manifest, that does not mean it cannot be changed back into its original elements, or changed with respect to its established form, therefore it retains its relationship to the fourth dimension. Only he who lives with respect to its form alone is limited. But every one who inters the realm of elements back of the book, back in the realm of new elements, new
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things, and new ideas, immediately steps out of his confinement in three-dimensional form and includes in his nature the freedom of the fourth. As he continues this process he liberates himself more and more, for he feels the increased ability through the greater magnitude of the fourth dimensional field. Even to consider new powers and new possibilities with respect to any situation, condition, or thing, is to start, immediately, the expansion of your nature and your ability in your fourth-dimensional state.
THE SEVENTH DIMENSION
From this phase of the fourth dimension let us go to the seventh, as the sixth and fifth dimensions will be more clearly described from that point of view. To understand the seventh let us begin with a block of ice. Here is a three-dimensional form possessed of length, breadth, and thickness. But we know ice is not confined to these three dimensions, for it will melt. The
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moment it begins to melt it begins its return to its fourth dimension, but water is not the fourth dimension of ice. It is still moisture as is ice, but it is in a freer state. Water can be changed into steam, but steam is still moisture in yet a freer state. Moisture whether steam, water or ice is H2O, or two parts of hydrogen gas and one part of oxygen gas. We know that oxygen and hydrogen can be separated and released so that they may return to their proper places within the atmosphere surrounding our earth. (We are not attempting to follow the changes which they go through in finding this place. Enough to recognize that this is a possibility.) Now science tells us that our atmosphere (as well as the earth itself), was a part of the universal either before it was air, so we can go on in our imagination until the atmosphere in which both oxygen and hydrogen, which were once contained within the ice, became a part of the universal eithers. That is not hard for us to follow. Now when oxygen
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and hydrogen—or other elements—have found their way back into the great universal ether, or mass; into the great universal whole, they are then in their respective seventh dimensions. In other words, the seventh dimension is the universal mass, or the great whole.
Now it is evident that ice, when it is ice, has its relationship to this great Universal Mass, is still a part of the great whole, for it is made out of the elements of the Universal Mass—therefore, even while it is ice it retains its seventh dimension. Only when we forget this do we see it as a limited thing. It is limited only in its appearance, for in reality we can see that it is but a part of infinite space, wherein is contained everything in potential nature.
If you would like also to take the Scriptures for it, you find the seventh dimension described in the statement that "God is all." The first chapter of Genesis gives it as: "In the beginning God." In other words, in the beginning God was the
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Universal All, but without form, and was void of manifest attributes.
WHY MOTION IS SIXTH DIMENSION
Now the first thing which we recognize of Universal Mass is that it is not immovable in its nature, but is capable of motion. Universal Mass moves, and this is its first capacity or first attribute in departing from its mere state of being. The Bible describes this condition as: "And the spirit of God moved." Therefor motion is the sixth dimension, or the next in line following the 7th. This dimension is also retained in all formed things, for all things have motion. The sixth dimension or condition of everything, formed or unformed, is therefore motion.
But the Universal Mass is capable of more than motion, for it can be divided into its component parts. "And God divided the waters from the waters." This process of dividing the Universal Mass into its component parts is the fifth capacity of the
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universe, therefore the fifth dimension. For instance,w e now that oxygen and hydrogen can be separated out of the elements, for if they were not potentially in the Universal Mass in some relationship, they could not have existence. Therefore the fact that Universal Mass can be divided into its component parts, together with the process by which they are so separated or isolated, is the fifth dimension.
The next condition which is possible in this process, is that elements once separated from the Universal Mass can be brought together in other combinations and in other proportions. Such combinations cause a precipitate, much as oxygen and hydrogen being brought together in the proportion of two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen causes the precipitation of moisture. This recombining of various elements previously separated out of Universal Mass, in such combinations and proportions as cause a precipitation to result and which comprises the world of three-dimensional
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form, is the fourth dimension. The three-dimensional world is but the precipitate caused by various combinations of elements which formerly existed as a part of the Universal Mass. Though Separated from the Universal Mass and combined in other relationships, they are not taken outside of it, and therefore all the former relationship is retained except their previous freedom within it. Ice, for instance, being oxygen and hydrogen, is not separated from the Universal Mass, except that in this particular combination the oxygen and hydrogen have lost, for the time being, their free state; but they are still within the Universal Mass.
An editorial in the Cincinnati Times-Star of March 21st, 1928, describes the theory of Dr. Robert A. Millikan on the forming of elements found within this earth as follows:
"Creation is proceeding in the skies and upon the earth. The atoms which form oxygen, silicon, magnesium and iron—the elements which
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form 95% of the earth—are being constantly engendered in the heavens and shot with terrific speed into the body of this planet. We are being bombarded with vital energy from the firmament."
As we interpret this theory, not only moisture is being precipitated by the forming combinations of oxygen and hydrogen, but at least 95% of the earth's solid structure is being precipitated by combinations of still other elements. Dr. Millikan further says that the Cosmic Ray is part of this "bombardment" and it would seem that at least a part of creation is accounted for in the combining of this cosmic ray with elements in our upper ethers, and which combination precipitates some of the forms which we find here. But this combining of elements was preceded by their separation or isolation from the Universal Mass. Before the separation there was the necessity of action, and before action was mass itself. Therefore the real magnitude of all formed things exists back in these underlying facts,
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forces and elements. Without them, there could be no form at all.
Two paths of progress open up before us in thus considering the ultimate relationship of all things. First there is the path from the Universal Mass to its precipitated form. Second, the path of the precipitated form back to its origin in Universal Mass. One is contraction and the other is expansion. Creation is from the whole or Universal Mass to form, and resurrection is from form to Universal Mass. The progress of Universal Mass from its state of Absolute Being is toward form, but the progress of form is back to its state in Universal Mass. Form only loses it limitations when it begins its return to its primal elements.
To comprehend all that takes place in the combining of elements of the Universal Mass in such relationships as cause the precipitated, three-dimensional world; and to understand all that takes place in the expansion of the three-dimensional world
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in resolving it back into its component parts, would be completely to understand the fourth dimension. To comprehend all that takes place in the separation of these elements from Universal Mass, or their return thereto, would be completely to understand the fifth dimension. To understand all about the movement that takes place in the Universal Mass, whether in proceeding from the Universal Mass toward form, or the return of form to Universal Mass, would be completely to understand the sixth dimension. And to understand all about the Universal Mass itself would be completely to understand the seventh dimension. But no doubt that will require a considerable lapse of time and a great expense in our consciousness, for this would involve knowing all there is to be know.
But when this "knowing" capacity within man? Is there a logical explanation for the things man knows, without a logical explanation for his capacity to know them? Does all this formation and transformation
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of which we are aware proceed as a mere coincident, and our capacity to become aware of it exist as a miracle without an equal scientific explanation for its arrival and existence in life? This would be impossible to conceive. So we might assume that the forms of man's thoughts are the first three dimensions of a magnitude within his nature and creation that towers above it all, and of which the seven dimensions above explained are but the counterpart. These three dimensions of mind have arrived by a process of mental or conscious evolution which has formed the, and these mental forms result from varying combinations gathered from an infinite variety of associated elements, which in turn were separated out of infinite space in some manner. And in the mind we find an infinite action, and a relationship to a consciousness which must also pervade the great Universal Mass.
THERE ARE FOURTEEN DIMENSIONS
We therefore must conclude that there
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are fourteen dimensions, seven of mind and seven of form or substance, the seven of form being the manifest aspect of the seven of mind. As "Fragments of a Faith Forgotten" teach: 'Know ye not and do ye not understand that ye are all, of yourselves and in yourselves in turn, from one mass and one matter, and one substance; ye are all from the same mixture?'"
The important fact for us is not to attempt to understand these dimensions in their entirety, but to understand that we have within ourselves a greater capacity, an infinitely greater magnitude that stretches back to Infinity itself, that we can form new combinations, rearrange the three-dimensional world, and thereby continue indefinitely to develop new possibilities from an inexhaustible storehouse of elements. A great game from which has been evolved the progress of civilization, and from which will be evolved the progress of civilizations yet to come. Considering the possibilities revealed from this view of our
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universe, we are at least helped to a freer sense of things than is to be found in our confinement in a three-dimensional world of form. To look forward this freer phase of our natures and the greater magnitude of our worlds, is to open up new possibilities for our attainment and to release a new degree of genius for accomplishment in life's undertakings.
The greater dimensions not only apply to all formed things, but also to such things as time, space, and life, itself. Time has been mentioned as a fourth-dimensional element or condition. But is it truth fourth-dimensional? What is time in the mind of man but an attempt to divide the indivisible? Can time be actually divided? Time is the measure of duration, and certainly the measure of duration of Universal Mass, which necessarily includes all its manifest forms, is eternal. And the only point of time that is of eternal duration is NOW. Yesterday began and ended, therefore it does not exist. Tomorrow is a myth that
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does not exist until it arrives, and when it does arrive it is NOW. And NOW cannot be divided or measured into actual three-dimensional form. The method by which we have designated periods of time is an attempt to apply the fourth-dimensional process to it. But these divisions are purely fictitious and all these attempted divisions do not really divide it, for all time is forever a part of the eternal duration of the Universal Mass, marching endlessly on as the eternal NOW> Time therefore forever remains seven-dimensional, the eternal verity containing all that has been and all that is to be.
Space lends itself somewhat better to the fourth-dimensional process, for with our walls and boundaries we seem to confine it within certain prescribed forms. But walls do not divide space nor confine it to form Space is within the walls or boundaries, and is defined by wall and not by itself. Space within walls and boundaries is still one with infinite space outside of these
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boundaries, and is therefore seven-dimensional, having only its relation to Universal Mass.
And what of life? Is not life a product of the Universal Scheme, or an outgrowth of the Universal Mass? To attempt to separate it is impossible, except in our limited thought. Life is existence, and everything exists by virtue of its relationship to Universal Mass, therefore life is an integral and inseparable part of Universal Mass, indivisible and eternal.
Intelligence, or conscious existence, is the pivitol point in the being of man or Universal Mass. If individual man is only aware of the three-dimensional world of form, he loses sight of his inseparable relationship to the Universal Mass. But if he applies himself to known the unknown, attaining the as yet unattained, progressing into the realm of new powers, new possibilities, new discovers, he is truly functioning in his rightful estate and expanding himself more and more in his fundamental relationship
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with Universal Mass, the source from which all form, including himself, came. Man is circumscribed only by his thought, his measure of life and events. When his thought is uncircumscribed his progress into absolute freedom begins.
Man and his world are not primarily individual manifestations of form, but combinations of energies and forces, all of which may be reinforced, expanded and amplified, by an expanse of his nature to include more of the forces and elements which comprise his being, and which exist endlessly within the Universal Mass. Ice loses its confinement in the three-dimensional world of form, when it takes on more of the elements of the atmosphere about it. So does man lose his confinement in the three-dimensional world of limitation when he takes on more of his fundamental magnitude in and with the Universal Mass, thereby ascending into conscious relationship with the ALL. This has ever been the way of progress employed by those of
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humanity who have achieved greatness, and it will ever be the way of progress for this and future generations.
"Nothing in this world is single.
All things by a law Divine,
with one another's being mingle."
—Percy Bysshe Shelley, Love’s Philosophy
Transcribed by Rev. Nita Strauss on June 20, 2015.
