Four-Dimensional Vistas by Claude Fayette Bragdon
page 31 of 116 (26%)
page 31 of 116 (26%)
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of electricity--polarity, induction, and the like--are of the nature
of the stress and strain of a medium, but one possessing properties unlike those of ordinary matter. The phenomena can be explained in terms of higher space. If Hinton's hypothesis be the true explanation, the universality of electro-magnetic action would again point to the conclusion that our three-dimensional world is _superficial_--the surface, that is, of a four-dimensional universe. THE GREATER UNIVERSE This practically exhausts the list of accepted and accredited indications of hyper-dimensionality in our physical environment. But if the collective human consciousness is moving into the fourth dimension, such indications are bound to multiply out of all measure. It should be remembered that in Franklin's day electricity was manifest only in the friction of surfaces and in the thunderbolt. To-day all physical phenomena, in their last analysis, are considered to be electrical. The world is not different, but perception has evolved, and is evolving. There is another field, in which some of our ablest minds are searching for evidences of the curvature of space, the field of astronomy and astro-physics. But into this the layman hesitates to enter because the experts themselves have found no common ground of understanding. The ether of space is a battlefield strewn with dead and dying hypotheses; gravitation, like multiplication, is vexation; the very nature of time, form and movement is under vivid discussion, in connection with what is known as the Theory of Relativity. |
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