Scientific Romances: The Conclusion To C.H. Hinton's The Persian King

C.H. Hinton Scientific Romances

In conclusion let us remark that we have supposed two different worlds—one of sensation in the first part, one of motion in the second part. And these have been treated as distinct from one another. And especially in the first part, by this avoidance of questions of movement, an appearance of artificiality was produced, and occasionally inconsistencies, for sometimes sensations were treated as independent of actions, sometimes as connected with them. But it remains to be decided if these inconsistencies are in themselves permanent, or whether, when we remove the artificial separation, and let the world of sensation and the world of motion coalesce, the inconsistencies will not disappear, thereby showing that their origin was merely in the treatment, 123not in the fact; that they came from the particular plan adopted of writing about the subject and are not inherent in the arguments themselves.

The king in the first part was supposed to have all the material problems of existence solved. There was a complete mechanism of nature. He took up the problem of the sentient life. But this problem can only artificially be separated from that of the material world. The gap between our sensations and matter can never be bridged, because they are really identical.

Let us then allow this separation to fall aside. Let us suppose the king to have all the reins of power in his own hands. Let us moreover suppose that he imparts his rays to the inhabitants so that they have each a portion of his power. And let us suppose that the inhabitants have arrived at a state of knowledge about their external world corresponding to that which we have about the world which we know.

Let us listen to a conversation between two of them.

A. The energy of the whole state of things is running down.

B. How do you prove that?

A. Whenever any motion of masses takes place a certain portion of the energy passes irrecoverably into the form of heat, and it is not possible to make so large a movement with those same masses as before, do all that is possible to obtain the energy back again from the heat into which it has passed.

B. Well, what about the heat? Energy in the form of the motions of the masses passes off into the energy of heat. But what is heat?

A. It is the motion of the finer particles of matter.

B. Well, I would put forward this proposal. We have by observation got hold of a certain principle that where any movement takes place some of the energy 124goes in working on the finer particles of matter. Let us now take this principle as a universal one of motion, and apply it to the motions of the finer particles of matter themselves, which are simply movements of the same kind as the movements of the larger ones. This principle would show that these movements are only possible inasmuch as they hand over a portion of their energy to work on still finer matter.

A. Then you would have to go on to still finer matter.

B. Yes, and so on and on; but to fix our thoughts, suppose there is an ultimate fine matter which is the last worked on. Now I say that we may either suppose that this is being gradually worked on and all the energy is dissipating, or else we may put it in this way. When we regard so much energy we are apt to think that it is the cause of the next manifestation in which it shows itself. But this is really an assumption. Energy is a purely formal conception, and all that we do is to trace in the actions that go on a certain formal correspondence, which we express by saying that the energy is constant.

A. But I feel my own energy.

B. Allow me to put your feeling to one side. If we take then the conservation of energy to be merely a formal principle, may we not look for the cause of the movements in the invariable accompaniment of them, namely, in the fact that a certain portion of the energy is expended irrevocably on the finer portions of matter. If now we take this ultimate medium which suffers the expenditure of energy on it, may we not look on it as the cause, and the setter in action of all the movements that there are. By its submitting to be acted on in the way in which it does submit, it determines all the actions that go on. For what is all else than a great vibration, a swinging to and fro. When we count it as energy, we by reckoning it in a particular manner make it seem to 125be indestructible, but that the energy should be indestructible would be a consequence from the supposition which we could very well make, that to produce a given series of effects the submitting to be worked on of this ultimate medium must be a minimum. If it were a minimum no movements could neutralize one another when once set going, for if they did there would be a waste of the submission of this ultimate medium.

A. But what do you suppose this ultimate medium would be?

B. That I cannot tell, but we seem to have indications. For the more fine the matter which we investigate, the more its actions seem to annihilate distance: light and electricity produce their effects with far greater rapidity than do the movements of masses. We might suppose that to this ultimate matter all parts were present in their effects, so that anything emanating from the ultimate matter would have the appearance of a system comprehending everything.

A. But you have not got any evidence of an ultimate matter.

B. No, all that we can think of is an endless series of finer and finer matter. But is that not an indication rather, not that the direction of our thoughts is false, but that there are other characteristics of this ultimate, so that when looked at under the form of matter it can only be expressed as an infinite series.

Let us omit the considerations brought forward in the preceding conversation and examine more closely the philosophy of the inhabitants of the valley in so far as it corresponds with ours.

They laid great stress on a notion of vis viva, or what we should term energy, but said it was gradually passing away from the form of movements of large bodies to that of movements of small bodies. So that in the 126course of time the whole valley would consist of nothing but an evenly extended mass of matter moving only in its small particles—and this motion of the small particles they called heat. Now they had very clearly arrived at the conviction that with every mechanical motion there was a certain transference of vis viva to the smaller particles of matter, so that it did not appear again as mechanical motion. But they did not accept this as a principle to work by. They did not consider that the motions of the smaller particles of matter were just the same as those of the larger masses. They did not see that if a condition held universally for the movements of the visible world, it must also hold for the smaller motions which they experienced as heat. So the conclusion which they should logically have come to that there was a transference of vis viva on and on was not held. But the step was a very little one for them to take from regarding an invariable condition as always there to regarding it as a cause. For the causes they assigned were all purely formal relations, and only got to assume an appearance of effective causes by familiarity with them, and a throwing over them of that feeling of effectiveness which they derived from the contact which they had with the king.

They might have reasoned. This universal condition of anything happening must be the cause. Energy goes from a higher to a lower level. That which causes the difference of level is the cause, and the cause of the difference of level must be that which invariably accompanies such a transference of energy from a higher to a lower level. Now this invariable condition is the passing of a portion of the energy into the form of motions of the finer parts of matter. Hence there is an apparently endless series. But to realize the matter, suppose an ultimate medium, suppose there is a kind of matter of 127infinite fineness distributed everywhere which let itself be worked on, and so determines differences and wakens the sleeping world. What are the qualities of this fine matter? We see them in the properties of the finer kind of matter which we know, such as light, electricity. The property of the finer kind of matter is in general that it tends to bring distant places together, so that a change in one part is rapidly communicated to every other part. If they followed this indication they would have supposed that the ultimate fine matter was of such a nature as to make all parts of the valley as one, so that there was no distance, and any determination of a difference of level on the part of this ultimate matter would have reference to all the conditions everywhere. It would be in immediate contact with every part, so that anything springing therefrom would present the appearance of a system having regard to the whole. Now if they had imagined such an ultimate medium doing that which to them would seem bearing rather than exerting force, suffering rather than acting, they would not have been far from a true conception of the king who directed them all. For he himself by reason of his very omnipresence could not be seen by them. There was nothing for them to distinguish him by. But they could have discovered somewhat of the means by which he acted on them, which can only be described from the appearances they present to the creatures whom the king calls into life.

But of truth they would have had another and perhaps a truer apprehension of the king in a different way. For when he acted on them so that they took one course rather than another, it was his action in themselves that they felt. If they were mere pleasure-led creatures then they were shaped outwardly, but if in their inner souls he acted and through them suffered, then they were true 128personalities conscious of being true selves, the oneness of all of them lying in the king, but each spontaneous in himself and absolute will, not to be merged in any other.

Thus they had two modes of access to the king, one through their own selves where he had made them exist, one through the outer world. And in the outer world it was but a direction in which they could look. They could never behold the personality of the king, but only an infinite series of different kinds of matter, one supporting the other as it were and underlying it, but doing more also than this, for in proportion as they considered the kinds of matter that lay deeper they found that distant became near, absent, present, that time gave no longer such distinctions, but from the phenomenal side they seemed by a gradual diminution of the limitations of experience to arrive at an external presentation of that absolute which exists in the fulness of things, which they knew more immediately in themselves when they truly were.

THE END.

The Mystery Of Pain

Wellcomecollection - The Mystery Of Pain

James Hinton was an ear surgeon who was best known for The Mystery of Pain, a little book which sets forth the Panglossian thesis that "all that which we feel as painful is really giving-something that our fellows are better for, even though we cannot trace it." It gives some idea of the turn of the son Charles Hinton's mind to learn that he wrote a piece, "The Persian King," in which he attempted to use higher dimensions and infinite series to obtain a mathematically accurate model of this idea.

When The Power Goes Out At The Club And You Gotta Drop Your Own Beats...,

pureflamencobarcelona  |  She was born in a shack in the Somorrostro. Her father was Francisco Amaya “El Chino”, a poor guitarist who played in taverns day and night to earn a living. When she was only four years old she started going out at night with her father to help him. She was just a little gypsy girl by then. Her father played the guitar and Carmen danced and singed. After that, they asked for money or took the coins that the audience have thrown to the floor. At the same time, she appeared in some theatres which lacked any prestige. José Sampere, a businessman, was the first one in being interested on her and took her to the most known Spanish Theatre of Barcelona. However, the problem was that she wasn’t allowed to work legally due to her age so the officially date of birth may not be the real one according to some researches about the artist. Her name appeared for the first time printed in the Expo Barcelona 1929 thanks to Sebastián Gash, a sharp critic who watched her and talked about her in the weekly newspaper Mirador: “Imagine a 14 years old gypsy sitting in a chair on the tablao, Carmencita remained impassive, statuary, noble with a racial elegance, inscrutable, absent, not paying attention of what is happening around her, alone with her inspiration, with a very hieratic actitude to allow her soul to raise until inaccessible areas. And suddenly, a jump. And the gypsy dances. Indescribable. Soul. Pure sole. The feeling made real. Movements of twist in right angle, pure geometry.

In that time also Vicente Escudero watched her dancing and said that Carmen Amaya will make a revolution in the flamenco dance because she mixed two styles: the old female dancer and the frenetic foot tapping of the male dancers. In 1935 she was hired by Carcellé who presented her in the Coliseum in Madrid. That was maybe her only national recognition. The world of cinema also noticed her. She performed a small role in La hija de Juan Simón. Later, she worked in María de la O, along with Pastora Imperio.

The 18th July 1936 Carmen and her family were in the Zorrilla Theatre in Valladolid working in the company of Carcellé. In that moment their economy was in good shape and they bought their first car. They had to go to Lisbon to enforce a contract but the car was confiscated and they couldn’t go there until November. After some setbacks they embarked to America in a ship that took 15 days to cross the Atlantic. They arrived to Buenos Aires and the triumph of Carmen Amaya and her family went beyond expectations.

They went there just for four weeks and stayed there nine months due to the fact that every time that Carmen performed in the theatre a lot of people attended and the tickets were sold two months before the show. As a proof of the popularity of the artist in the South-American country we can find a theatre with her own name: the Theatre Amaya.

In America Carmen Amaya met a lot of famous people of her time. She was in Hollywood a couple of times filming some movies and the cinema, music and culture celebrities wanted to watch her dancing. The musician Toscanini went to watch her once and said that he had never seen an artist with that rhythm and fire before. She was constantly improvising. Her compass was solid and she possessed a prodigious sense of the rhythm with a rigorous tempo that was exact in all her movements. Anyone has ever span like her, so fast and perfect. In America she met Roosevelt, the president of the United States and in Europe she even met the Queen of England.

She didn’t come back to Spain until 1947 and she did it as a worldwide star. Her stay in America turned her into a professional and famous artist. Lot of stories hard to believe were told about her as the anecdote of the fried fish in the luxury suite of the Waldorf Astoria.

In that time her flamenco dance was the best one. She stood out not only for her art but also for the wonderful personality that won everyone she met. She was also very generous. It seems that during her stay in America the dancer had a sentimental relationship with Sabicas who declared before his death he dated Carmen for nine years and they broke up in Mexico.

In 1952 she married the guitarist Juan Antonio Agüero, a member of her company, a man from a distinguished family from Santander who wasn’t gypsy. They lived an authentic love story, with an intimate wedding. In 1959 Carmen lived another exiting moment in her life when the ceremony of the inauguration of the fountain Carmen Amaya was celebrated in the seafront promenade in Barcelona located in the neighbourhood Somorrostro, the same fountain and the same place she lived in as a child years before. The last ten years of her life she was surrounded of lots of people and almost sanctified, not only by the audience but also by her colleagues. Her genius was instinctive, wild, far from the academic styles. When she performed for the last time in Madrid, Carmen Amaya was deathly sick; she had a renal failure that stopped the elimination of toxins from her body. The doctors couldn’t find any solution to her problem.

The sickness made worse in the filming of “Los Tarantos” in the spring of 1963. She had to dance barefoot with an unbearable cold. She always put on her coat when the filming stopped and they didn’t repeat any scene. Despite these drawbacks, Carmen remained strong and began the summer tour. However, the 8th of August while she was working in Gandía, Carmen didn’t finish her performance. She was performing when suddenly she said to Batista: “Andrés, let’s finish”.

That was the end of the dancer Carmen Amaya, who got inspiration from the street, the family and the gypsy blood and revolutionized the flamenco dance. With her way of dancing, Carmen Amaya showed that for her the flamenco was feeling, soul and passion. Her dancer came from the anger and the violence retained with an amazing speed and strength. Still today she is a model of the flamenco dance.

Even if Carmen is remembered for her dance she also sang. In fact, her father thought at first that she was better in singing than in dancing. She had a dark and hoarse voice, typical of the gypsy sing. A good example of her way of singing can be seen in “La reina del embrujo gitano”. Recordings on slate records 1948-1950 collects a good sample of her abilities as a flamenco singer, accompanied by two guitarists from her dynasty, Paco and José Amaya, as does “En familia”.

Where Did Covid Come From?

Richard Fleming COVID-19 Crimes Against Humanity Presentation from Joe Peters on Vimeo.

amidwesterndoctor |  I was recently sent an excellent presentation that was given by Doctor Richard Fleming. It touches on a variety of very important topics that will be the focus of today’s article. I have spent a great deal of time researching these topics, and due to my own familiarity with the subject it is clear to me Dr. Fleming is highly knowledgeable in this area and his presentation was the result of spending an enormous amount of time in research.

After I saw his presentation, I reached out to a few colleagues who somewhat knew Dr. Fleming to further inquire about him. In addition to the content of his presentation, we are of the opinion he is a credible source for the following reasons:

•He is self-funding his work and asking for nothing in return besides help in ending the War on COVID-19.
•He is both a Doctor (M.D.) and a Lawyer (J.D.).
•He is a Cardiologist and a PhD with extensive experience conducting research for publication in scientific journals (such as the development of a treatment protocol for heart disease) and being a reviewer for premier medical journals.

This is a very, very unusual combination that I believe makes him uniquely qualified to address this issue and it is incredible how much time he has put into it. I also feel it is extremely fortunate that someone with his background has been willing to defy his own medical community to try to address this issue, especially given just how much he had to have personally invested to be part of that community.

Because this was a very long presentation, I spent a while editing to shorten it in order to focus on the essential points. Although the edited version below is still on the longer end, I would highly encourage you to watch it at a speed you can follow. If you would instead like to see the longer more complete version, it can be viewed here while his complete deposition on this subject can be viewed here.

Twitter Suspended The Russian Foreign Ministry For Explaining The Origin Of Covid

⚡️ Russian MoD unveils new data on military and biological activities of the US and its allies in Ukraine and elsewhere in light of new information.

❗️We are considering the possibility that the #USAID was involved in emergence of #COVID19

🔗 https://t.co/5tigUP3PWm pic.twitter.com/ZpNa7fLLG1

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) August 4, 2022

 Telegram |  Maria Zakharova
✔
On the night of August 5, the administration of the Twitter platform blocked the official account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in English for 7 days. The reason is the publication of excerpts from a briefing by Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the RCBZ Troops of the RF Armed Forces, on US military biological activities.

Such a sharp reaction was caused by our post with a quote from the Department of Defense about the possibility that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was involved in the emergence of a new coronavirus. It is doubtful that Twitter has sufficient competence to question the conclusions of the Ministry of Defense, based on work with documents and fresh data. There is another clumsy attempt to shut us up.

By the way, this kind of sanctions are applied to us for the first time. It happened that individual tweets were blocked, but to close, even for a week, the account of the official foreign policy department of one of the leading countries in the world is beyond good and evil. With our embassies, such a trick was repeatedly turned: for the publication, for example, of facts (real, not fictional) about a provocation in Bucha, the accounts of embassies in London and Berlin were suspended.

Is this all happening against the backdrop of a Russophobic orgy on the part of Western politicians, experts and even ordinary users, as well as unprecedented activity talking about "inauthentic behavior"? This wording was used by Twitter when in recent years it "cancelled" objectionable bloggers who adhere to pro-Russian views. But direct calls for violence and reprisals against Russians are now considered authentic in the West. I don’t remember a single blocking of representatives of the Ukrainian side, generating just fierce fakes in the style of the former Ukrainian “ombudsman” Lyudmila Denisova, who told the whole world about “atrocities / rapes” allegedly committed by the Russian military.

With its stupid actions, trampling on the principle of freedom of speech, "Twitter" with a tenacity worthy of a better use, sawing the branch on which it sits. This platform has been stagnating for a long time: trust in it is practically at zero, users leave en masse. It is not surprising that Elon Musk, having familiarized himself with the true state of affairs, in horror broke off the deal to buy this social network.

So, of course, you can block us, but the truth will still find its way. It's just that American digital platforms, which have turned into instruments of censorship in the interests of the "Washington regional committee", will definitely not be used to disseminate facts.

If Hemingway were alive, I'm sure that Twitter would definitely block him for reports that the FBI is following him and does not leave him alone.

t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova
/3427
190.7Kviews

I'Oh'No What Your Prayer Circle Is Like, But This Is What I'm Talm'bout: La-ila ha-ill-allah !

wikipedia  |  The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris syndrome) occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.^[1] It takes its name from the video game Tetris.^[1]

People who have played Tetris for a prolonged amount of time can find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf or the buildings on a street.^[1] They may see colored images of pieces falling into place on an invisible layout at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes.^[1] They may see such colored, moving images when they are falling asleep, a form of hypnagogic imagery.^[2]

Those experiencing the effect may feel they are unable to prevent the thoughts, images, or dreams from happening.^[3]

A more comprehensive understanding of the lingering effects of playing video games has been investigated empirically as game transfer phenomena (GTP).^[4]

The Tetris effect can occur with other video games.^[5] It has also been known to occur with non-video games, such as the illusion of curved lines after doing a jigsaw puzzle, the checker pattern of a chess board (or imagining chess pieces in unrelated objects or phenomena), or the involuntary mental visualisation of Rubik's Cube algorithms common among speedcubers.

The earliest example that relates to a computer game was created by the game Spacewar! As documented in Steven Levy's book Hackers: "Peter Samson, second only to Saunders in Spacewarring, realized this one night when he went home to Lowell. As he stepped out of the train, he stared upward into the crisp, clear sky. A meteor flew overhead. Where's the spaceship? Samson thought as he instantly swiveled back and grabbed the air for a control box that wasn’t there." (p. 52.)

Robert Stickgold reported on his own experiences of proprioceptive imagery from rock climbing.^[3] Another example, sea legs, are a kind of Tetris effect. A person newly on land after spending long periods at sea may sense illusory rocking motion, having become accustomed to the constant work of adjusting to the boat making such movements (see "Illusions of self-motion" and "Mal de debarquement"). The poem "Boots" by Rudyard Kipling describes the effect, resulting from repetitive visual experience during a route march:

'Tain't—so—bad—by—day because o' company,

But—night—brings—long—strings—o' forty thousand million
Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up an' down again.

There's no discharge in the war!

— Rudyard Kipling, Boots

Mathematicians have reported dreaming of numbers or equations; for example Srinivasa Ramanujan, or Friedrich Engel, who remarked "last week in a dream I gave a chap my shirt-buttons to differentiate, and he ran off with them".^[6]

wikipedia | Klüver's form constants have appeared in other drug-induced and naturally occurring hallucinations, suggesting a similar physiological process underlying hallucinations with different triggers. Klüver's form constants also appear in near-death experiences and sensory experiences of those with synesthesia. Other triggers include psychological stress, threshold consciousness (hypnagogia), insulin hypoglycemia, the delirium of fever, epilepsy, psychotic episodes, advanced syphilis, sensory deprivation, photostimulation, electrical stimulation, crystal gazing, migraine headaches, dizziness and a variety of drug-induced intoxications.^[1] These shapes may appear on their own or with eyes shut in the form of phosphenes, especially when exerting pressure against the closed eyelid.^[2]

It is believed that the reason why these form constants appear has to do with the way the visual system is organized, and in particular in the mapping between patterns on the retina and the columnar organization of the primary visual cortex. Concentric circles in the retina are mapped into parallel lines in the visual cortex. Spirals, tunnels, lattices and cobwebs map into lines in different directions. This means that if activation spreads in straight lines within the visual cortex, the experience is equivalent to looking at actual form constants.^[1]

Author Michael Moorcock once observed in print that the shapes he had seen during his migraine headaches resembled exactly the form of fractals. The diversity of conditions that provoke such patterns suggests that form constants reflect some fundamental property of visual perception.

Cultural significance

Form constants have a relationship to some forms of abstract art, especially the visual music tradition, as William Wees noted in his book Light Moving in Time about research done by German psychologist Heinrich Klüver on the form constants resulting from mescaline intoxication. The visual and synaesthetic hallucinations this drug produced resembles, as Wees noted, a listing of visual forms employed in visual music:

[Klüver’s] analysis of hallucinatory phenomena appearing chiefly during the first stages of mescaline intoxication yielded the following form constants: [emphasis original] (a) grating, lattice, fretwork, filigree, honeycomb, or chessboard; (b) cobweb; (c) tunnel, funnel, alley, cone or vessel; (d) spiral. Many phenomena are, on close examination, nothing but modifications and transformations of these basic forms. The tendency towards "geometrization," as expressed in these form constants, is also apparent in the following two ways: (a) the forms are frequently repeated, combined, or elaborated into ornamental designs and mosaics of various kinds; (b) the elements constituting these forms, such as squares in the chessboard design, often have boundaries consisting of geometric forms.^[3]

These form-constants provide links between abstraction, visual music and synaesthesia. The cultural significance of form constants, as Wees notes in Light Moving in Time is part of the history of abstract film and video.

The practice of the ancient art of divination may suggest a deliberate practice of cultivating form constant imagery and using intuition and/or imagination to derive some meaning from transient visual phenomena.

Psychedelic art, inspired at least in part by experiences with psychedelic substances, frequently includes repetitive abstract forms and patterns such as tessellation, Moiré patterns or patterns similar to those created by paper marbling, and, in later years, fractals. The op art genre of visual art created art using bold imagery very like that of form constants.

In electroacoustic music, Jon Weinel has explored the use of altered states of consciousness as a basis for the design of musical compositions. His work bases the design of sonic materials on typical features of hallucinatory states, and organises them according to hallucinatory narratives. As part of this work, form constants feature prominently as a basis for the design of psychedelic sonic and visual material.^[4]

New Model Of The Universe Chapter 2: The Fourth Dimension

avalonlibrary |  It will be possible to answer these questions definitely only when it is definitely known that the fourth dimension exists and when it is known what it really is. But so far it is possible to consider only what might be in the fourth dimension, and therefore there cannot be any final answers to these questions. Vision in the fourth dimension must be effected without the help of eyes. The limits of eyesight are known, and it is known that the human eye can never attain the perfection even of the microscope or telescope. But these instruments with all the increase of the power of vision which they afford do not bring us in the least nearer to the fourth dimension. So it may be concluded that vision in the fourth dimension must be something quite different from ordinary vision. But what can it actually be? Probably it will be something analogous to the " vision " by which a bird flying over Northern Russia " sees " Egypt, whither it migrates for the winter; or to the vision of a carrier pigeon which " sees ", hundreds of miles away, its loft, from which it has been taken in a closed basket; or to the vision of an engineer making the first calculations and first rough drawings of a bridge, who " sees " the bridge and the trains passing over it; or to the vision of a man who, consulting a time-table, " sees " himself arriving at the station of departure and his train arriving at its destination.

Now, having outlined certain features of the properties which vision in the fourth dimension should possess, we must endeavour to define more exactly what we know of the phenomena of that world.

Again making use of the experience of the two-dimensional being, we must put to ourselves the following question: are all the " phenomena " of our world explicable from the point of view of physical laws?

There are so many inexplicable phenomena around us that merely by being too familiar with them we cease to notice their inexplicability, and, forgetting it, we begin to classify these phenomena, give them names, include them within different systems and, finally, even begin to deny their inexplicability.
Strictly speaking, all is equally inexplicable. But we are accustomed to regard some orders of phenomena as more explicable and other orders as less explicable. We put the less explicable into a special group, and create out of them a separate world, which is regarded as parallel to the " explicable ".

This refers first of all to the so-called " psychic world ", that is to the world of ideas, images and conceptions, which we regard as parallel to the physical world.
Our relation to the psychic, the difference which exists for us between the physical and the psychic, shows that psychic phenomena should be assigned to the domain of the fourth dimension.1 In the history of human thought the relation to the psychic is very similar to the relation of the plane-being to the third dimension. Psychic phenomena are inexplicable on the " physical plane ", therefore they are regarded as opposite to the physical. But their unity is vaguely felt, and attempts are constantly made to interpret psychic phenomena as a kind of physical phenomena, or physical phenomena as a kind of psychic phenomena. The division of concepts is recognised to be unsuccessful, but there are no means for their unification.

In the first place the psychic is regarded as quite separate from the body, as a function of the " soul ", unsubjected to any physical laws. The soul lives by itself, and the body by itself, and the one is incommensurable with the other. This is the theory of naive dualism or spiritualism. The first attempt at an equally naive monism regards the soul as a direct function of the body. It is then said that " thought is a motion of matter ". Such was the famous formula of Moleschott.
Both views lead into blind alleys. The first, because the obvious interdependence of physiological and psychic processes cannot be disregarded; the second, because motion still remains motion and thought remains thought.

The first view is analogous to the denial by the two-dimensional being of any physical reality in phenomena which happen outside his plane. The second view is analogous to the attempt to consider as happening on a plane phenomena which happen above it or outside it.
The next step is the hypothesis of a parallel plane on which all the inexplicable phenomena take place. But the theory of parallelism is a very dangerous thing.
The plane-being begins to understand the third dimension when he begins to see that what he considered parallel to his plane may actually be at different distances from it. The idea of relief and perspective will then appear in his mind, and the world and things will take for him the same form as they have for us.
We shall understand more correctly the relation between physical and psychic phenomena when we clearly understand that the psychic is not always parallel to the physical and may be quite independent of it. And parallels which are not always parallel are evidently subject to laws that are incomprehensible to us, to laws of the world of four dimensions.

1 The expression " psychic " phenomena is used here in its only possible sense of psychological or mental phenomena, that is, those which constitute the subject of
psychology. I mention this because in spiritualistic and theosophical literature the word psychic is used for the designation of supernormal or superphysical phenomena.
At the present day it is often said: we know nothing about the exact nature of the relations between physical and psychic phenomena; the only thing we can affirm and which is more or less established is that, for every psychic process, thought or sensation there is a corresponding physiological process, which manifests itself in at least a feeble vibration in nerves and brain fibre and in chemical changes in different tissues. Sensation is defined as the consciousness of a change in the organs of sense. This change is a certain motion which is transmitted into brain centres, but in what way the motion is transformed into a feeling or a thought is not known.

The question arises: is it not possible to suppose that the physical is separated from the psychic by four-dimensional space, i.e. that a physiological process, passing into the domain of the fourth dimension, produces there effects which we call feeling or thought?

On our plane, i.e. in the world of motion and vibrations accessible to our observations, we are unable to understand or to determine thought, exactly in the same way as the two-dimensional being on his plane is unable to understand or to determine the action of a lever or the motion of a pair of wheels on an axle.

At one time the ideas of E. Mach, expounded chiefly in his book Analysis of Sensations and Vitiations of the Physical to the Psychic; were in great vogue. Mach absolutely denies any difference between the physical and the psychic. In his opinion all the dualism of the usual view of the world resulted from the metaphysical conception of the " thing in itself " and from the conception (an erroneous one according to Mach) of the illusory character of our cognition of things. In Mach's opinion we can perceive nothing wrongly. Things are always exactly what they appear to be. The concept of illusion must disappear entirely. Elements of sensations are physical elements. What are called " bodies " are only complexes of elements of sensations: light sensations, sound sensations, sensations of pressure, etc. Mental images are similar complexes of sensations. There exists no difference between the physical and the psychic; both the one and the other are built up of the same elements (of sensations). The molecular structure of bodies and the atomic theory are accepted by Mach only as symbols, and he denies them all reality.
In this way, according to Mach's theory, our psychic apparatus builds the physical world. A " thing " is only a complex of sensations.

But in speaking of the theories of Mach it is necessary to remember that the psychic apparatus builds only the " forms " of the world (i.e. makes the world such as we perceive it) out of something else which we shall never attain. The blue of the sky is unreal, the green of the meadows is also unreal; these " colours " belong to the reflected rays. But evidently there is something in the " sky ", i.e. in the air of our atmosphere, which makes it appear blue, just as there is something in the grass of the meadow which makes it appear green.

Without this last addition a man might easily have said, on the basis of Mach's ideas: this apple is a complex of my sensations, therefore it only seems to exist, but does not exist in reality.

This would be wrong. The apple exists. And a man can, in a most real way, become convinced of it. But it is not what it appears to be in the three-dimensional world.
The psychic, as opposed to the physical or the three-dimensional, is very similar to what should exist in the fourth dimension, and we have every right to say that thought moves along the fourth dimension.

No obstacles or distances exist for it. It penetrates impenetrable objects, visualises the structure of atoms, calculates the chemical composition of stars, studies life on the bottom of the ocean, the customs and institutions of a race that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. . . .

No walls, no physical conditions, restrain our fantasy, our imagination.

Physics Without Metaphysical Assumptions

quantumphysicslady |  Quantum physics also poses major challenges to realism. In 2017, Chinese physicists experimented with two photons, that is, bits of light. The specially-created photons were separated by 700 miles. The experiment showed that the photons were able to instantaneously coordinate their behavior. This phenomenon is called “quantum entanglement.”

According to Special Relativity, no signal can travel across a distance instantaneously. How can one photon instantaneously “know” what another photon over 700 miles away is doing? What kind of reality are we living in?

When people learn about quantum physics, they find out about specific oddities like quantum entanglement. But the most fundamental oddity is its most fundamental premise: Both matter and energy are mere vibrations in an invisible, undetectable medium called “fields.” How does our very impressive, very solid physical universe arise from vibrations in a kind of nothingness?

How does our reality arise from vibrations? [Image source: David Chalmers and Kelvin McQueen, “Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function” (modified to omit a label) http://consc.net/slides/collapse.pdf]

But it gets worse. The vibrations represent a cornucopia of possible physical realities, only one of which becomes the solid reality that we perceive. (If this sentence is baffling to you, you are not alone. It condenses the heart of quantum physics, which is puzzling enough, into one sentence—which is a terrible idea. See the footnote below.**)

Do the oddities of quantum physics mean we must abandon realism? No. Many physicists have come up with interpretations of quantum physics that are based in realism. It’s also true that some of these interpretations describe very odd realities. For example, the Many Worlds Interpretation, perhaps the oddest, describes us as having infinite copies of ourselves in infinite numbers of universes. The desire to salvage realism may be an important reason that the Many Worlds Interpretation is gaining popularity among physicists. But there are other realistic interpretations of Special Relativity and quantum physics that are less mind-blowing.

Quantum physics undermines the solidity of the physical universe. When people learn that quantum physics is based on the proposition that matter and energy are, at bottom, vibrations of questionable reality which shake invisible, undetectable fields, the solidity of our universe loses some of its impressiveness. Thoughts pop up like: Could our physical universe have no more solidity than a dream?

To the dreamer, the houses, the cars, and the monsters all seem completely real. So, too do to the hallucinations of the psychotic and those of someone on LSD. Our minds are quite capable of creating solid reality without any necessity of an independent external world.

Quantum physics may also create wonderings about the mysterious invisible medium for the vibrations of matter and energy: Could the vibrations of matter and energy be vibrations in a new kind of energy that makes up consciousness?

In other words, some begin to entertain the notion of idealism.

More Thinking About The Fabric Of Reality

If you look at the graphic at the top of the article (Penrose tiling) you'll notice there are a bunch of points that are centers of rotational symmetry (you can rotate it 2pi/N and get the same thing) and lines of reflection symmetry (you can mirror it over that line and get the same thing) but there is no translational symmetry (you can't slide it over in any direction and overlap with the original), this is a "quasicrystal" (in 2d)

Compare this to a grid of squares that has reflection and rotation symmetry but also has translational symmetry, this is a true "crystal" (in 2d)

This article is treating a train of laser pulses as a "1d crystal" and if long/short pulses resemble a Fibonacci sequence treating it as a "1d quasicrystal". This seems to be noteworthy in that using such a structured pulse train provides some improvements in quantum computing when it's used to read/write (i.e. shine on) information (i.e. electron configuration) from atoms / small molecules (i.e. qubits)

The "2 time dimensions" thing is basically that a N-d "quasicrystal" is usually a pretty close approximation of an [N+M]-d "true crystal" projected down into N dimensions so the considering the higher dimension structure might make things easier by getting rid of transcendental numbers etc.

They could have just said "aperiodic laser pulses" are used. No need to introduce fantastical sounding terminology about multiple time dimensions, which seems to have been done quite deliberately.

The biggest and most important step is to make sure you drop any mysticism about what a "dimension" is. It's just a necessary component of identifying the location of something in some way. More than three "dimensions" is not just common but super common, to the point of mundanity. The location and orientation of a rigid object, a completely boring quantity, is six dimensional: three for space, three for the rotation. Add velocity in and it becomes 12 dimensional; the six previous and three each now for linear and rotational velocity. To understand "dimensions" you must purge ALL science fiction understanding and understand them not as exotic, but painfully mundane and boring. (They may measure something interesting, but that "interestingness" should be accounted to the thing being measured, not the "dimension". "Dimensions" are as boring as "inches" or "gallons".)

Next up, there is a very easy metaphor for us in the computing realm for the latest in QM and especially materials science. In our world, there is a certain way in which a "virtual machine" and a "machine" are hard to tell apart. A lot of things in the latest QM and materials science is building little virtual things that combine the existing simple QM primitives to build new systems. The simplest example of this sort of thing is a "hole". Holes do not "exist". They are where an electron is missing. But you can treat them as a virtual thing, and it can be difficult to tell whether or not that virtual thing is "real" or not, because it acts exactly like the "virtual" thing would if it were "real".

In this case, this system may mathematically behave like there is a second time dimension, and that's interesting, but it "just" "simulating" it. It creates a larger system out of smaller parts that happens to match that behavior, but it doesn't mean there's "really" a second time dimension.

The weird and whacky things you hear coming out of QM and materials science are composite things being assembled out of normal mundane components in ways that allow them to "simulate" being some other interesting system, except when you're "simulating" at this low, basic level it essentially is just the thing being "simulated". But there's not necessarily anything new going on; it's still electrons and protons and neutrons and such, just arranged in interesting ways, just as, in the end, Quake or Tetris is "just" an interesting arrangement of NAND gates. There's no upper limit to how "interestingly" things can be arranged, but there's less "new" than meets the eye.

Unfortunately, trying to understand this through science articles, which are still as addicted as ever to "woo woo" with the word dimensions and leaning in to the weirdness of QM and basically deliberately trying to instill mysticism at the incorrect level of the problem. (Personally, I still feel a lot of wonder about the world and enjoy learning more... but woo woo about what a "dimension" is is not the place for that.) 

The Universe As A Holographic Quasicrystalline Tensor Network

ncatlab |  The AdS-CFT correspondence at its heart is the observation (Witten 98, Section 2.4) that the classical action functionals for various fields coupled to Einstein gravity on anti de Sitter spacetime are, when expressed as functions of the asymptotic boundary-values of the fields, of the form of generating functions for correlators/n-point functions of a conformal field theory on that asymptotic boundary, in a large N limit.

This is traditionally interpreted as a concrete realization of a vague “holographic principle” according to which quantum gravity in bulk spacetimes is controlled, in one way or other, by “boundary field theories” on effective spacetime boundaries, such as event horizons. The original and main motivation for the holographic principle itself was the fact that the apparent black hole entropy in Einstein gravity scales with the area of the event horizon instead of the black hole’s bulk volume (which is not even well-defined), suggesting that gravity encodes or is encoded by some boundary field theory associated with horizons; an idea that, in turn, seems to find a concrete realization in open/closed string duality in the vicinity of, more generally, black branes. The original intuition about holographic black hole entropy has meanwhile found remarkably detailed reflection in (mathematically fairly rigorous) analysis of holographic entanglement entropy, specifically via holographic tensor networks, which turn out to embody key principles of the AdS/CFT correspondence in the guise of quantum information theory, with concrete applications such as to quantum error correcting codes.

quantumgravityresearch |  Recent advances in AdS/CFT holography have found an analogue in discrete tensor networks of qubits. The {5,4} hyperbolic tiling allows for topological error correction. We review a simple 32 x 32 Hamiltonian from five maximally entangled physical qubits on the boundary edges of a pentagon, whose two-fold degenerate ground state leads to an emergent logical qubit in the bulk. The inflation rule of a holographic conformal quasicrystal is found to encode the holographic code rate that determines the ratio of logical qubits to physical qubits. Generalizing SU(2) qubits to twistors as conformal spinors of SU(2,2), an H3-symmetric 5-compound of cuboctahedral A3 = D3 root polytopes is outlined. Motivated by error correction in the Hamming code, the E8 lattice is projected to the H4-symmetric quasicrystal. The 4-dimensional 600-cell is found to contain five 24-cells associated with the D4 root polytope associated with Spin(4,4). Intersection with Sp(8,R) phase space identifies three generations of conformal symmetry with an axial U(1) symmetry. A lightning review of E8(-24) phenomenology with Spin(12,4) is pursued for gravity and the standard model with a notion of CDT-inspired discretized membranes in mind. Warm dark matter beyond the standard model is briefly articulated to stem from intersecting worldvolumes related to the Leech lattice associated with the Golay code, hinting at a monstrously supersymmetric M-theory in D=26+1. A new D=27+3 superalgebra is shown to contain membranes that can give a worldvolume description of M-theory and F-theory.

Something Else Ordered Yet Non-Repeating...,

ibn Khaldun |  Mystical ⁴⁶⁹ exertion, retirement, ⁴⁷⁰ and dhikr exercises ⁴⁷¹ are as a rule followed by the removal of the veil (kashf) of sensual perception. The Sufi beholds divine worlds which a person subject to the senses cannot perceive at all. The spirit belongs to those worlds. The reason for the removal of (the veil) is the following. When the spirit turns from external sense perception to inner (perception), the senses weaken, and the spirit grows strong. It gains predominance and a new growth. The dhikr exercise helps to bring that about. It is like food to make the spirit grow. The spirit continues to grow and to increase. It had been knowledge. Now, it becomes vision. The veil of sensual perception is removed, and the soul realizes its essential existence. This is identical with perception. (The spirit) now is ready for the holy gifts, for the sciences of the divine presence, and for the outpourings of the Deity. Its essence realizes its own true character and draws close to the highest sphere, the sphere of the angels. The removal of (the veil) often happens to people who exert themselves (in mystical exercise). They perceive the realities of existence as no one else (does).

They also perceive many (future) happenings in advance. With the help of their minds and psychic powers they are active among the lower existentia, which thus become obedient to their will. The great Sufis do not think much of the removal (of the veil) and of activity (among the low exis­tentia). They give no information about the reality of any­thing they have not been ordered to discuss. They consider it a tribulation, when things of that sort happen to them, and try to escape them whenever they afflict them.⁴⁷²

The men around Muhammad practiced that kind of (mystical) exertion. They had a very abundant share in the acts of divine grace, but they did not bother with them. (The description of) the virtues of Abu Bakr, Umar, ⁴⁷³ and Ali contain much (information) to this effect. They were followed in this respect by the Sufis who are mentioned in the Risalah of al-Qushayri, ⁴⁷⁴ and their later successors.

Recent mystics, then, have turned their attention to the removal of the veil and the discussion of perceptions beyond (sensual perception). Their ways of mystical exercise in this respect differ. They have taught different methods of mortifying the powers of sensual perception and nourishing the reasoning spirit with dhikr exercises, so that the soul might fully grow and attain its own essential perception. When this happens, they believe that the whole of existence is encompassed by the perceptions of the soul, that the essences of existence are revealed to them, and that they perceive the reality of all the essences from the (divine) throne to light rain. ⁴⁷⁵ This was said by al-Ghazzali in the Kitab al-Ihya', after he had mentioned the forms of mystical exercise.

The ⁴⁷⁶ (Sufis) do not consider removal (of the veil) sound, unless it originates in straightforwardness.⁴⁷⁷ People who do not eat and who retire (from the world), such as sorcerers, Christians, and other ascetics, may obtain removal (of the veil) without the existence of straightforwardness. However, we mean only that removal (of the veil) which originates in straightforwardness. It may be compared with (the reflections of) a mirror. If it is convex or concave, the object reflected by it appears in a distorted form different from the actual form of the object, but if the mirror is flat, the object appears in its correct form. As far as the "states" impressed upon the soul are concerned, straightforwardness means to the soul what flatness means in a mirror.

The recent (Sufis) who have occupied themselves with this kind of removal (of the veil) talk about the real character of the higher and lower existentia and about the real character of the (divine) kingdom, the spirit, the (divine) throne, the (divine) seat, and similar things. Those who did not share their approach were not able to understand their mystical and ecstatic experiences in this respect. The muftis partly disapprove of these Sufis and partly accept them. Arguments and proofs are of no use in deciding whether the Sufi approach should be rejected or accepted, since it belongs to intuitive ⁴⁷⁸ experience.

 Some ⁴⁷⁹ details in explanation:

Hadith scholars and jurists who discuss the articles of faith often mention that God is separate from His creatures. The speculative theologians say that He is neither separate nor connected. The philosophers say that He is neither in the world nor outside it. The recent Sufis say that He is one with the creatures, in the sense that He is incarnate in them, or in the sense that He is identical with them and there exists nothing but Himself either (in the) whole or (in) any part (of it).

Let us explain in detail these dogmatic opinions and the real meaning of each of them, so that their significance will be clarified. We say:

Separateness has two meanings. It may mean "separateness in space and direction." ^479a The opposite, then, would be connectedness. In this sense, the statement of (separation) ⁴⁸⁰ implies (that God is in some) place, either directly - which would be direct anthropomorphism (tajsim) or in directly - which would be indirect anthropomorphism (tashbih) ⁴⁸¹ in the way in which one speaks about (God's having) direction. It has been reported that an early Muslim scholar similarly professed the separateness of God, but a different interpretation is possible.

The speculative theologians, therefore, did not acknowledge this (kind of) separateness. They said: It cannot be said that the Creator is separate from His creatures, and it cannot be said that He is connected with them, because such a statement can be made only about things in space. The statement that a particular thing ⁴⁸² can be described as devoid of one concept and at the same time of the opposite of that concept depends upon whether the description is sound in the first place (or not). If it is impossible, (the statement is) not (correct). It is, in fact, permissible to describe (a certain thing) as devoid of one concept and at the same time of the opposite of that concept. Thus, a solid substance may be described as not wise and not ignorant, not powerful and not weak, not causing harm [?] and not being harmed. ⁴⁸³ Now, the correctness of describing God as separate in the way mentioned is predicated upon the possibility of ascribing direction to Him in the proper meaning of the word, but this cannot be done with the Creator, who is free from (such a description).

This was mentioned by Ibn at-Tilimsani ⁴⁸⁴ in his commentary on the Luma' of the Imam al-Haramayn. He said: The Creator can neither be said to be separate from the world, nor to be connected with it. He is not in it and not outside it. That is what is meant by the philosophers when they say that He is neither in the world nor outside it. They base themselves (on the assumption) that there exist substances (atoms) that exist not in space. The speculative theologians did not acknowledge their (existence), because they would have to be considered equal to the Creator in the most specific qualities. That is fully dealt with in the science of speculative theology.

The other meaning of separateness is "being distinct and different." The Creator is called separate from His creatures in His essence, identity, existence, and attributes. The opposite is being one, mingled, and merged (with something else).

(God's) separateness in this sense is assumed in the dogmas of all orthodox people, such as the great mass of early Muslims, the religious scholars, the speculative theologians, and the ancient Sufis, such as the men mentioned in (al­Qushayri's) Risalah, and those who follow them.

A number of recent Sufis who consider intuitive ⁴⁸⁵ perceptions to be scientific and logical, hold the opinion that the Creator is one with His creatures in His identity, His existence, and His attributes. They often assume that this was the opinion of the philosophers before Aristotle, such as Plato and Socrates.

That is what the speculative theologians mean when they speak about the (oneness of God with His creatures) in theology and try to refute it. They do not ⁴⁸⁶ mean that there could be a question of two essences, one of which must be negated or comprised (in the other) as a part (in the whole). That would be clear distinctness, and they do not maintain that to be the case.

The oneness (assumed by the Sufis) is identical with the incarnation the Christians claim for the Messiah. It is even stranger, in that it is the incarnation of something primeval in something created and the oneness of the former with the latter.

 

Za'irajah

A branch of the science of letter magic, (practiced) among the (authorities on letter magic), is (the technique of) finding out answers from questions by means of connections existing between the letters of the expressions (used in the question). They imagine that these (connections) can form the basis for knowing the future happenings they want to know. Here we have something like puzzles and trick problems.⁸³⁵ There are many discussions of the subject by them. The most comprehensive and most remarkable discussion of it is as-Sabti's Za'irajah of the World. It has been mentioned before. Here, we shall explain what has been said about how to operate it. We shall quote the poem that, it is thought, as-Sabti wrote on the subject.⁸³⁶ Then, we shall give a description of the Za'irajah with its circle and the table written on the verso.^836a Finally, we shall reveal the truth about it. It is nothing supernatural; (the indications derived from it) result from an agreement in the wording of question and answer. It is (just) one interesting way among others, and a curious one, for finding out the answer from the question with the help of the technique called the technique of "breaking down."

From the Science of Letter Magic THE MUQADDIMAH Abd Ar Rahman bin Muhammed ibn Khaldun Very few people share the (self-scrutiny) of the Sufis, for negligence in this respect is almost universal. Pious people who do not get that far perform, at best, acts of obedience 464 freed from the juridical study of how to be satisfactory 465 and conforming (in the execution of the acts of divine worship). The (Sufis), however, investigate the results of (acts of obedience) with the help of mystical and ecstatic experience, in order to learn whether they are free from deficiency or not. Thus, it is evident that the Sufis' path in its entirety depends upon self-scrutiny with regard to what they do or do not do, and upon discussion of the various kinds of mystical and ecstatic experience that result from their exertions. This, then, crystallizes for the Sufi novice in a "station." From that station, he can progress to another, higher one. From the Science of Sufism THE MUQADDIMAH Abd Ar Rahman bin Muhammed ibn Khaldun