e in space is the perception of the things of our world
from the region of the fourth dimension, the phenomena exactly
conform to the demands of our analogy. It is no more difficult
for a four-dimensional intelligence to understand the appearance
or disappearance of a body in a completely closed room, or the
withdrawal of an orange from its skin, without cutting or breaking
that skin, than it is for us to see the possibility of taking up a
pencil point from the center of a circle and putting it down outside.
We are under no compulsion to draw a line across the circumference
of the circle in order to enter or leave it. Moreover, the volume of
our sensible universe embraced in the clairvoyant's field of view
will increase in the same way that a balloonist's view increases in
area as he rises above the surface of the earth. To account for
clairvoyant vision at a distance, it is of course necessary to posit
some perceptive organ other than the eye, but the fact that in
trance the eyes are closed, itself demands this assumption.
CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME
_The perception of a past event as in process of occurring, or the
prevision of something which comes to pass later_.
No mechanistic explanation will serve to account for this order of
clairvoyance since it is inextricably involved in the mystery of
consciousness itself. Yet our already overworked analogy can perhaps
cast a little light even here.
To the flat-man, the third dimension of objects passing through his
plane translates itself to his experience into _time_. Were he
capable of rising in the positive direction of the third dimension,
he would have pre-vision, because he would be cognizant of that
which had not yet intersected his plane: by sinking in the negative
direction, he would have post-vision, because he could re-cognize
that which had already passed.
Now there are excellent reasons, other than those based on analogy,
that the fourth-dimensional aspect of things may manifest itself to
our ordinary experience, not as spatial extension, but as temporal
change. Then, if we conceive of clairvoyance as a transcending by
consciousness of our three-dimensional space, prevision and
post-vision would be logically possible as corresponding to the
positive and negative of the fourth dimension. This may be made
clearer by the aid of a homely illustration.
PISGAH SIGHTS OF LIFE'S PAGEANT
Suppose you are standing on a street corner, watching a procession
pa
|