Q. Do you agree with others who are saying that we are already living in the fifth dimension?

A. It’s been a while since I last considered this subject, so before answering your question I looked around the Internet, hoping to find a consensus. Whenever I hear someone say, they said, I wonder who they are, so I try to find out. This subjective topic, like many others, can be viewed from both a scientific point of view and a metaphysical one. The two don’t agree yet, but it is heartening that they are getting closer.

I hear people talk about dimensions as if they were places that we could travel to. We also refer to them in terms of alternate realities or parallel universes. My understanding is that dimensions are simply unique facets of what we already perceive as reality. The higher dimensions are imperceptible as far as our ordinary senses are concerned, so higher does not necessarily mean above.

Three visible dimensions surround us on a daily basis and scientists believe there may be many more. The (theoretical) framework of superstring theory suggests that the universe exists in ten different dimensions. We call the fourth dimension time, which is essential in knowing an object’s position in the universe. I prefer the term duration, because it encourages us to move away from a minute/hour/day measure, allowing more possibilities.

The fifth dimension is the fist gateway to potential worlds beyond this one.
Science and metaphysics both agree on that, but this is where they part company, at least until new discoveries are made. Theoretical physicists believe that dimensions may have governed the formation of the universe from the very beginning. They use high-power telescopes to peer billions of years back through time to the early universe. Visionaries and Metaphysicians peer into potential futures to do the same. I believe they will meet somewhere in the mid-heavens, where the past and the future exist as one.

My favorite theoretical physicist is, Michio Kaku. He uses words I can understand and is not afraid to say “God” when it fits. His description of the dimensions goes something like this: Imagine a fish in a pond. The fish can swim forwards and backwards and from side to side. The pond is his world. Anything that exists beyond the pond is quite unknown to the fish, like the universe is to us. The fish lives in the watery third dimension but doesn’t know it, because it’s his home and is quite invisible. He imagines there could be something up there, beyond his world, because from time to time he sees ripples and shadows on the surface of the pond. The ripples and the distortions they cause are visible to him, even if the surface of the water is not. So the fish dreams of a safe and peaceful place above the water where food is plentiful and there are no fishermen with barbed hooks to beware of. Sound familiar?

So, as my kids used to say when they were small, “Are we there yet?” Not exactly, but sorta kinda. Here’s why: Even if most of us are asleep, swimming around like fish in a tiny pond, unaware of the invisible universes that hover just beyond our perception, confident that what we see through our telescopes is all there is, the “ripples” are being clearly felt. The distortion they cause has touched our world. And if we are dreaming of a higher dimension in which love and compassion are the norm, perhaps we will awaken in it, and remember that all we did was rub the sleep of ignorance away from our eyes.