Fourth Dimension

H. P. Blavatsky did not believe that the idea of a fourth dimension of space was quite correct. As she wrote in The Secret Doctrine:

The processes of natural development which we are now considering will at once elucidate and discredit the fashion of speculating on the attributes of the two, three, and four or more “dimensional Space;” but in passing, it is worth while to point out the real significance of the sound but incomplete intuition that has prompted — among Spiritualists and Theosophists, and several great men of Science, for the matter of that* — the use of the modern expression, “the fourth dimension of Space.” To begin with, of course, the superficial absurdity of assuming that Space itself is measurable in any direction is of little consequence. The familiar phrase can only be an abbreviation of the fuller form — the “Fourth dimension of matter in Space.”[Fn: “The giving reality to abstractions is the error of Realism. Space and Time are frequently viewed as separated from all the concrete experiences of the mind, instead of being generalizations of these in certain aspects.” (Bain, Logic, Part II., p. 389)]. But it is an unhappy phrase even thus expanded, because while it is perfectly true that the progress of evolution may be destined to introduce us to new characteristics of matter, those with which we are already familiar are really more numerous than the three dimensions. The faculties, or what is perhaps the best available term, the characteristics of matter, must clearly bear a direct relation always to the senses of man. Matter has extension, colour, motion (molecular motion), taste, and smell, corresponding to the existing senses of man, and by the time that it fully develops the next characteristic — let us call it for the moment Permeability — this will correspond to the next sense of man — let us call it “Normal Clairvoyance;” thus, when some bold thinkers have been thirsting for a fourth dimension to explain the passage of matter through matter, and the production of knots upon an endless cord, what they were really in want of, was a sixth characteristic of matter. The three dimensions belong really but to one attribute or characteristic of matter — extension; and popular common sense justly rebels against the idea that under any condition of things there can be more than three of such dimensions as length, breadth, and thickness. These terms, and the term “dimension” itself, all belong to one plane of thought, to one stage of evolution, to one characteristic of matter. So long as there are foot-rules within the resources of Kosmos, to apply to matter, so long will they be able to measure it three ways and no more; and from the time the idea of measurement first occupied a place in the human understanding, it has been possible to apply measurement in three directions and no more. But these considerations do not militate in any way against the certainty that in the progress of time — as the faculties of humanity are multiplied — so will the characteristics of matter be multiplied also. Meanwhile, the expression is far more incorrect than even the familiar one of the “Sun rising or setting.”

Online resources

Articles

• The Fourth Dimension - Part 1 and Part 2 by Frank S. Collins
• A Short History of the Fourth Dimension by Stephen M. Phillips
• The Problem of the Fourth Dimension by Hugh Shearman

Books

• The Astral Body, Chapter 18, "The Fourth Dimension" by Arthur E. Powell