The Seven Dimensions
In physics, determining how many dimensions there are requires conjecture beyond the fourth. String theory suggests there are at least ten dimensions, but I’ve never found those kinds of dimensions compelling — not in a way that would make me want to visit them anyway.
Spiritual dimensions are a different ball game. Unlike the supposed higher dimensions of theoretical physics, I think the spiritual dimensions are highly relevant to us all. What would it be like to traverse other dimensions — or do we already, unaware? There are many accounts of people who have purportedly done so from antiquity to this present day. Don’t we often talk about a “living hell” and didn’t Jesus declare that, “the Kingdom of God (Heaven) is within you?” Are those merely metaphors, or is there some sort of dimensional reality to them? Few among us have not experienced uncomfortable challenges to our comfortable paradigms; are we indeed experiencing overlapping dimensions?
I use a lot of illustrations from the Bible. I know this may turn off some people in this day and age, but it shouldn’t. While sermonizing can certainly leave some readers cold, a more rich and fascinating treasure of mystical stories and wisdom cannot be found. The ancients who recorded these stories were trying to tell us very important things about the Universe. We should not, in any case, toss the infant out with the cleansing fluid.
Starting with what’s familiar let’s consider the dimensions of TIME and SPACE first – they are what we call the third and fourth dimensions. SPACE has length, height and width. In the Bible this dimension is referred to as the “flesh” or the “world.” It is the realm of brute beasts, beings without nobler inclinations, whose primary concern is survival and satisfying carnal desires, thus is the the dimension associated with PASSION. TIME provides a framework in which to consider space — seasons, days, months, years — a clock by which to measure and interact with space — the essence of REASON.
Below the SPACE dimension a two-dimensional realm called Death, Hades or the land of shadows. This is the dimension associated with FEAR. Interestingly, you’ll often find FEAR, SHADOW and DEATH linked together; for example, consider the 23rd Psalm of David:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
This is also the realm where ghosts are said to live — two dimensional beings you can put your fist through (if you manage to see one) and who can do you no real harm other than incite terror.
Below DEATH is HELL, a place of darkness, guilt and torment. With only one dimension, it has no physical forms — memory plays the key role, ever recycling regret. Anyone who has experienced a painful trauma that keeps replaying over and over in their head has experienced a taste of the torment of Hell — it is dark and it burns like fire — Oh God, won’t someone put out those flames!
Below HELL is the ABYSS, and at its entrance, the Lake of Fire. It’s the zero dimension, where everything vanishes into nothingness.
Ominously, John records that the 2nd and 1st dimensions will be lost to the zero dimension:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. — Rev 20:14
This puzzled me briefly. How could God do away with the 1st and 2nd dimensions? Are not they the building blocks of the Universe? Apparently not. It seems God created everything from the top down — literally speaking things into existence.
Going upward from the time-space continuum is the fifth dimension, the dimension of FAITH. Not blind faith — like an ignorant belief in some doctrine or creed — but a kind of understanding of the heart through intuition born of spiritual senses — what I call the Ten Senses. This is the realm of art and music, of dreams, visions, inspiration, interpretation, and our emotions — not the passions of our flesh, which are confined to the third dimension — the longings of our hearts.
Higher up and further in than FAITH, you will find HOPE, the sixth dimension. Some people use words “hope” and “faith” interchangeably, but they are quite different. Faith is following your heart’s desire toward something that you sense with your higher senses. HOPE is stepping beyond all you know in expectation that a need will be met. It’s the stuff of courage, the boldness it takes to risk a miracle.
Hope is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for who so hopes strongly, has within him the gift of miracles. — Samuel Smiles
And finally there is Love, at the top of all things, as it should be.
And so there remain Faith, Hope, Love–these three; and of these the greatest is Love.
There seems to be a progression to the dimensions, but they are not without boundaries. I like the way David describes the journey:
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter until the full light of day.
In THE FIRE WITHIN, I tell a story, and through it introduce a new way of thinking about dimensions, including Heaven and Hell — not as streets paved with gold or pits of fire and brimstone — but as a place where beings reside and deal with life in, below and beyond the physical realm.
