"Dimensions" (~1,040 words; ~7 minutes)

A personal view

Photo by Logan Gutierrez on Unsplash (A portal like object is seen in the foreground, with scattered trees on a greyed, almost black and white, snowy slope in the background)

In the psychic world one term that gets thrown around a fair bit without explanation (or, IMO, accurate use) is “dimension”.

Now, terms that apply to the levels of reality, such as etheric, astral, causal, etc are generally better understood and used (although many people refer to astral travel when they actually mean etheric travel), but that doesn’t carry over to use of the term “dimension” - which seems, to me, to used with almost as much abandon as “quantum”.

My use of dimension favours the classical physics sort of approach, where:

• if something has length, width, and depth, it is three dimensional, although its existence through time could also be described as its fourth dimension;

• because we can - within limits - move readily back-and-forth, side-to-side, and up-and-down we can be considered to be living in three dimensions as we have easy ability to use that space, but we cannot as easily move backwards and forwards through time (I would say we can’t move at all, but our perception of the rate of passage of time varies, and I there may well be some physics experiments which question that preclusion, even if it is “only” at a subatomic scale) - if we could move as easily through time, we could, IMO, say we lived in a four dimensional world.

Other people no doubt have different views, which is OK :)

One of those is tied up with subdivisions of the levels of reality - predominantly the nonphysical levels, but maybe physical as well.

To illustrate that, consider the astral from the perspective of reincarnation:

• we are not allowed to remember everything that has happened to us before we (re)incarnated, and part of maintaining that is limiting how far into (or up, if you think in terms of frequencies) you are allowed to travel when you astral travel;

• when your incarnation ends, you usually spend some time slightly further in (or up) while you heal, and the gradually move further in (up) afterwards;

• there is also an unpleasant part of the astral referred to as the lower astral.

So there are at least three distinct zones. (This is, IMO, best described by the book “Road of Many Ways”, channelled from “John”, but that has been out-of-print for decades, and the publisher hasn’t responded to any emails.)

In some definitions of “dimension”, those are considered to be separate dimensions of the astral world.

When pushed, those advocates have - in my experience - taken the approach that the astral is a set of basic frequencies of existence, all higher than the frequencies which the physical world exists on, but lower than the frequencies that the mental, causal, etc levels of reality exist on.

I consider this flawed as the differences between levels of reality is, IMO, more like the difference between AM and FM radio, rather than just being at a different position on the radio spectrum of frequencies, but setting that aside, what I consider they are really trying to do is:

• describe a difference of discernment - i.e., some “places” within a level of reality feel qualitatively different, and those that feel “better” are described as having a higher frequency as it is the only wording they have that seems appropriate.

There are those who use the term “density”, rather than dimension, and (which I mentioned on my blog in this post), and to describe the difference of perception/discernment:

• moving through the viscous, heavy mud of a swamp is more difficult than the more fluid movement of fish etc in water, and both are more resistant than a bird flying through air, which one could use as an analogy as follows:
  (i) the swamp mud is like the physical, the water the etheric, and the air the astral,
  or
  (ii) the swamp mud is like the lower astral, the water the parts of astral accessible while incarnate, and the air the rest of the astral.
  (Side note from my field work in Queensland in the 1980s: if you can stand the … “rich organic” smell, swamp mud is an effective barrier against mossies, etc. Cleaning will take considerably more time than applying … )

I prefer using the term density as it is more accurate, and gets away from conflating/misusing the various definitions of “dimension”.

To summarise thus far:

• “dimension” has a range of meanings, with my personal preference being to leave that word to physics;

• the word “dimensions” is often used as a way to describe difference of discernment of quality of characteristics of a “place” within a specific level of reality;

• I prefer to use “density” to describe those differences of discernment.

I am going to stay away from string theory, and its multiple space-time dimensions.

There is, however, one other murky area I will briefly touch on before I flee for the safety of an off-internet coffee, and that is:

• portals between different places of physical reality.

Although I consider all parts of physical reality have the same basic frequencies of existence (I’m going to think of a better term about half way through that coffee), if we compare:

• our world, with its roughly six to twelve millennia of patriarchy, several centuries of capitalism, and a few decades of neoliberalism, all of which has led to gross inequality, distorted (ranging from unspiritual to perverted/evil) perspectives, and violence (including not only physical - emotional and psychological violence is a widespread flaw of this world),

to

• a world, or perhaps a remarkably protected (especially psychically) and isolated part of this world, with a history of decency and/or genuine (balanced positive, as I term it) attitudes,

the latter would “feel” (psychically - be discerned, in a sense) differently to the current state of our world - differently enough for many people to want to describe it as different, whether that be “a different dimension”, if that is the only word they have, or a “different (psychic/spiritual) density” if that is the term they favour.

That difference is likely to considered even more pronounced if it is accessed via some sort of portal - even if that portal is only to a shielded place elsewhere on this planet.

I can see about half a dozen other articles I could write about this and the concepts that have been triggered as I wrote this, but I am going to admit that I am not as philosophically sharp or as gifted a word smith as others here, leave this at that, and go and enjoy my coffee and a quiet Sunday.

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