6th Dimensionality


Welcome to the sixth dimension: Potential, intention, and a whole lot of confusion.


“Free from desire you see the mystery. 
Full of desire you see the manifestations.

These two have the same origin but differ in name
That is the secret, the secret of secrets, the gate to all mysteries.”  
— Excerpt, Tao Te Ching

 

So it’s not necessarily the sixth dimension and likely not the seventh, nor any of the currently theorized eleven dimensions. And it’s likely not to be found in a span of existence that we can arrogantly assume to taxonomize, though I guess we’re human and can’t help ourselves but try. 

It’s a plane of effervescent existence that can be accessed or materialized through the power and potentiality of our intention. Hold off on the eye rolls. 

In the way that Plato had his forms and Kant had his transcendent idealism, we’ve been trying to affix more weight to the intangible side of life for a long time, sometimes making some convincing arguments but, more often than not, awkwardly stumbling into states of disrepute by doing so. 

As we push through the tantalizing nuances of our digital revolution, after having had seemingly mastered the mechanical interpretations of our observable universe, we’ve developed a rather strained relationship with respect to idealism and the more immaterial forms of existence — this is as unfortunate as it is expected. 

Intention, expectation, ambition. Conceptions, notions, volitions. Probability and possibility. Desire and perspective. 

An entire world exists apart from that which falls privy to our senses. We may accept this but we don’t dwell on it quite enough, especially today, as our senses (extended through the ever-refined instruments of science) become all the more powerful. 

Collective as much as it is subjective, this impalpable dimension to our world can’t be underestimated in terms of its effect upon our physical reality, despite our perpetual reluctance to wholly accept it.

Unobservable under a microscope and undefinable by science, we’ve largely come to resign ourselves from attempting to properly and thoroughly understand this undecipherable plane of existence — if we can even call it that.

So why bother?


“Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.” 
— Arthur Schopenhauer

Well, we know that it exists. 

Moreover, we can’t deny that this incorporeal dimension exists. To do so would be to deny all of our psychological faculties and intuitions and to effectively undermine the structure of our very own reality. 

Today, more than ever, it may be incredibly difficult to perceive a world that is independent from measurement. It had been hard enough in the times of Bohr and Schrodinger — before the advent of virtual reality and before materialistic science has been elevated into a place of unquestioned-omnipotence. 

Religion, at the least, prodded at the imagination to coexist with ideals of heaven and/or hell; space too remained somewhat unquantifiable and countless mysteries of nature, say, electricity or radiation, forced us to remain rather humble in our perceptions of nature. 

But now, we can measure almost everything (everything that we feel is worth measuring, that is) and, everything that we can’t measure, we simply don’t choose to believe in — mostly. 

What do we make of this idealized world of the immaterial, swirling about us like a bad idea of the past and as something that we’d like to believe in but can’t justify?

Well, we can substantiate it, validate it, and tap into it. We just may not want to.


“[T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.”
― Werner Heisenberg

While sometimes comical, it’s largely admirable how the most curious and adamant of minds are determined to quantify this dimension, looking into any possible nook and cranny to find what they’re looking for.

Quantum mechanics. Spiritual transcendence. Religion. Psychological phenomena like ESP. Studies into the afterlife or past life regression. Philosophy. 

We can’t stop ourselves from trying, rightfully so. And, in a collective sense, we can’t ever let go of the need to search. This means something.

We’ve evolved alongside this notion that there’s something more. Maybe not always in terms of an afterlife or maybe not often in respect to some hidden human power, but simply operating under the innate assumption that there’s something more stitched into the fabric of our reality, if not the entire blanket itself.

The idea that consciousness isn’t only relegated to the cranial confines of our experience on this physical plane of existence is one that is met with opposition as much as it is pushed by countless forms of uncoordinated muscle. 

The idea that our ideas, experiences, and concepts exist independently of us is comical to some, despite the fact that certain laws of nature — laws which dictate things like time or physics — are so easily accepted. They too live independently of our physical reality despite governing it like some sort of algorithmic coding, embedded into every bit of matter. 

Once we boil everything away, the formula becomes rather simple when we see that it is all reduced to one part intention, one part possibility, and one part perspective. 

We have the power to access this intangible world whenever we need to. We have the uncanny ability to transcend this physical reality and to not only manipulate matter physically but also mentally. Think of architectonic blueprints — a good architect will employ mathematics, physics, a history of architectural knowledge, creativity, passion, risk, innovation, boldness, personality, ambition, practicality, and safety into their design. The building, consisting of much more than simple matter, stands to represent the harmonious blending between the material and the immaterial. 

Perhaps a less lofty example: we can reverse the order and look to see how matter influences the world of non-matter. How the simple but hypnotic process of burning wood — a campfire — can have an ever-lasting affect on those who sit around it to socialize. How a particularly beautiful travel destination can live on, in perpetuity, engrained in the echelons of the minds who visit and perceive it. 

At any given point, we have the potential and the opportunity to be whoever or whatever we want to be. While we may rarely act on such potential, it nonetheless remains possible.

Envision a prisoner: while unable to become free of their physical confinement, they’re more than able to obtain freedom in countless immaterial ways — spiritually, ethically, psychologically, socially. 

Our small apartments can be our most tremendous of kingdoms. Our failures and transgressions can be our lessons. Our voids of desolation can be our space for hope. And this is much more than the employment of some perspective.

The dimension which overlays our own world of matter and sensory experience is one that also infuses it with meaning and vitality. Perhaps more importantly, it exponentiates everything into a state of potential and infinite possibility.

As a prime example quantum physics — compounded with the many-worlds interpretation to our reality — makes for a convincing argument. The law of attraction, a bit more fluffy, is also fervently adopted under a similar but differently transcribed context. While these approaches may be far off the actual mark of how our reality is organized, we shouldn’t assume to be able to comprehend it. Rather, we should appreciate that we have been equipped with the power of intention or potential. 

Sometimes, the less you look directly at something, the better you see it. 

This plane of non-existent existence is one such instance. Perhaps it’s entirely subjective and not collectively quantifiable; perhaps it’s just a testament to the powers of our imaginations and our ability to communicate on many levels of understanding as a rather evolved species. Perhaps the laws of nature and the algorithmic coding weaved into our nature world (golden ratios and fractals and Fibonacci sequences) is just a fluke of physics. 

Whatever the case may be, the sixth dimension is ours to do with as we please.


Article inspired by correspondence from Ten Rafau, a fellow explorer of consciousness, who’s favorite number is six.

“What is ego? A compilation of desires coming out of our life experience… We experience violence and we desire payback; we experience poorness and we desire money… All the diets, fasting, sports, avoiding addictions… We know by intuition that we have to do this or that, but we don’t know why… The result of it is a higher state of mind — a healed soul.” 

— Ten Rafau