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To the average person Rudolf Steiner's book The Fourth Dimension would not be interesting just because of the fact that the concept of the whole idea is just extraordinarily incomprehensible and to most people to be blunt would say its all a bunch of crazy ideas. The purpose of this paper isnt to enlighten your life and have a full understanding of the fourth dimension spiritually nor mathematically, but to give a brief, or as briefly as possible, exposure to it so one may say wow maybe it dose have somewhat of a significance or to get your mind working up a storm of thoughts about such concepts. In order for me to begin explaining the fourth dimension I must first explain the basic fundamentals of the first three dimensions. For anyone to even attempt understanding fourth dimensional space one must be able to imagine it first.
You have to become aware of the ideas of the zero, first, second and third dimensions and planes. For one to understand the zero dimensional plane imagine that you are a point. A point has no size, can only be imagined, has zero dimensions and can only fix a location in space. Now this point (you) can only realize yourself because you are the only thing that exist there is nothing around you there is no around you. You can recognize nothing but yourself. The next step is to move this point (yourself) into the first dimension.
Your now able to move in one two directions up and down along what the first dimension is which is a line with no thickness and is measured by length. You can only now realize yourself as a series of points up down up down. But now your experiencing something that your mind could once not comprehend you are no longer the point but a unidirectional line (made up by a series of points). We now leave the first dimension into the second dimension were we now have length and width which creates a plane now you are able to travel in a series of points up down left and right. Now once again you find yourself experiencing something that once was not comprehendible length and width. Second dimensional shape or patterns would be basic shapes that you or I would be able to draw on a peace of paper such as a triangle, square, circle, and exedra.
Now take one last step for now into a universe that now has three dimensions high breadth and length. This is the three dimensional world that we recognize or live in. Think back to the point, the point could not even realize the fist dimension let alone the second and third. The line is able to understand its points but not the second or third dimension either.
The plane or two dimensional figures are capable of being aware of the points lines and in the two directions that they can travel but lacks the idea of width or breadth. Now knowing that we are three dimensional figures we can realize the existence of the first three dimensions but after analyzing them and how one cant understand the next one we can know see how we would not even imagine the fourth the dimension. A being who perceives three dimensions must be four dimensional (Steiner). What must be done is to understand everything we know are facts gathered by everything that is perceived through our senses. The color to our eyes and an A 440 pitch to our ears and to be able to differentiate between different colors, sounds, feel, taste, and smell. You must be able to over come the urge to want a scientific explanation to explain these ideas.
You must open your mind and not become skeptical. Take a look this two-dimensional plane above with the circle and the dot. Now while staying in the two-dimensional plane can you move the dot into the circle with out piercing the circumference of the circle? No you cannot. You would have to do such a thing in the third dimension where you would be able to move the dot forward and then drop it back into the plane of the circle demonstrating the concept of traveling dimensions. Now take a similar figure as the previous one except this time the circle is now a sphere.
To place the dot with in the sphere with out piercing the surface would be impossible in the third dimension but such examples are basic in the fourth dimension. In the fourth dimension objects that can only be juxtapose or mirrored in the third dimension can coincide in the fourth. An example of this would be a pair of gloves when placed side by side you cane see how they are quite similar of symmetrical. When places back to back the gloves are a mirror image of them selves but the right glove cannot be placed on the left hand and vise versa. In a four-dimensional space all mirror images can coincide one another. An easier way of thinking about it is to think of all objects as liquids.
The unique structure of our sensory apparatus enables us to make our mental images coincide with outer objects (Steiner). By saying this Steiner means that we are able to pass through the for dimension when realizing this. But looking at our world (the objects) from the astral world (the mental image) is a vital skill to achieve. Not to say that the astral world is all four dimensional but its reflection in the real world is. Now, here is the key part. When we are able to survey the astral world and physical world simultaneously, we exist in four-dimensional space.
Your mentality towards anything is you image in the fourth dimension. If you are a person of money or greed, that is how other astral travelers will see you as, your anger or jealousy will be portrayed to you as possibly something as a tiger attacking you. Everything you think is reflected back at you. For one to achieve astral travel ones mind must be pure and free from any material wants or impure thoughts, which is why astral travel is accomplished through meditation. Any thing you think will happen as your mental images and the objects around you coincide will be reflected back to you.
Steiner also explains how being able to read words and numbers may help you in fourth dimensional space because you wont always realize what you are seeing is a reflection all though they coincide the may still appear to you as backwards. Steiner and other writers such as Bob Frissle indirectly claim that if only every one person in the world could achieve astral travel and full understanding of the fourth dimension that the people of the world would be pure and receive enlightenment of spiritual answers and realize that there life is not a series of moments, but it has a purpose and may also be called inner divinity. Such an idea for every one to coexist with in fourth-dimension is not theoretically impossible but very much not probable just because of the doubt of the actual existence of a four-dimensional space do to the way that our minds have been trained to think from our perceptions and our society. I myself will continue to try further understanding of this astral world of inner divinity and the importance of the mathematics.
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