Mindfulness & “I”

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Reference: Scientology versus KHTK

From SCIENTOLOGY – A Handbook For Use (see page 35):

“There is one potential danger in narrative style: the pc may start narrating the incident “by memory?’. He will start mocking it up again! This is not what you want. To avoid it, you must explain very clearly to the pc what he ought to do. It’s like he was watching a TV screen which the auditor can’t see. So the pc must tell the auditor what he sees on the screen, i.e. what he sees now while the action is happening, not what he saw the last time through the incident. (What the pc “sees” is not limited to his visual impressions only, but refers to 54 further sense perceptics as well!) Only what he sees now is of importance. “I see a man. He walks into a room. From the left; there is a door. He stops by the table. It’s dark and cold. I am afraid. Etc.” This way the auditor can tell how the pc is moving from the level of action to the levels of emotion and postulate. He can see the shift of importance’s. And he can see how the incident is gradually erasing and thus recognize when to stop. When the pc starts talking “about” the incident instead of describing what he sees, he will be beginning to put something there where there is actually nothing. This is a problem common to all thetans. It is so much easier to acknowledge that there is something than to acknowledge that there is nothing! Failing to accept that there is nothing, the pc will either put something there or pull in some other engram or picture, just so that he has something to talk about. But: this will go along with bad indicators, such as glumness, slowness, unavailability of data, and on the meter it will produce a sticky needle and finally a high and very stuck TA. Developing an awareness of when a process is complete, when the EP has been reached, and so when to stop, is one of the vitally important points of learning to audit.”

Mindfulness is “seeing things as they are.” The above note describes how important mindfulness is in handling one’s case. When mindfulness is lacking, all kinds of complications arise. But we find that Hubbard’s research ended up dealing with the complications arising from lack of mindfulness. That is what makes the subject of Scientology so complex.

Instead of giving importance to mindfulness, Hubbard gave all his attention to boosting the capabilities of “I”. Hubbard never realized that “I” acts as a filter. A filter is something that a person is looking through. It colors one’s observations. It reduces mindfulness.

The more is the focus on “I” the more it becomes difficult to practice mindfulness.

The key error in Hubbard’s philosophy is found in the section “Identity versus Individuality” of SCN 8-8008: Identity versus Individuality:

“The most common confusion on the part of a preclear is between himself as an identified object and his beingness. One’s beingness depends upon the amount of space which he can create or command, not upon his identification or any label. Identity as we know it in the MEST universe is much the same as identification, which is the lowest form of thought. When one is an object and is himself an effect, he believes that his ability to be cause is dependent upon his having a specific and finite identity. This is an aberration; as his beingness increases his individuality increases, and he quickly rises above the level of necessity for identity for he is himself self-sufficient with his own identity.

“The first question a preclear undergoing theta clearing asks himself is quite often: “How will I establish my identity if I have no body?” There are many remedies for this. The worst method of having an identity is having a body. As his individuality increases and his beingness expands—these two being almost synonymous—he is less and less concerned with this problem; that he is concerned with the problem tells the auditor where he is on the tone-scale.

“One of the control mechanisms which has been used on thetans is that when they rise in potential they are led to believe themselves one with the universe. This is distinctly untrue. Thetans are individuals. They do not as they rise up the scale, merge with other individualities. They have the power of becoming anything they wish while still retaining their own individuality. They are first and foremost themselves. There is evidently no Nirvana. It is the feeling that one will merge and lose his own individuality that restrains the thetan from attempting to remedy his lot. His merging with the rest of the universe would be his becoming matter. This is the ultimate in cohesiveness and the ultimate in affinity, and is at the lowest point of the tone-scale. One declines into a brotherhood with the universe. When he goes up scale, he becomes more and more an individual capable of creating and maintaining his own universe. In this wise (leading people to believe they had no individuality above that of MEST) the MEST universe cut out all competition.”

But the truth is that individuality is the core of identity or “I”. Scientology gets quick results in the beginning, because it practices a version of mindfulness, but those results become harder to get as one increasingly believes in the idea of thetan and identifies with it. This identification acts as a filter that interferes with mindfulness.

In Buddhism, the emphasis is on reducing the focus on “I”.  This makes mindfulness increasingly possible. Buddhism states,

“The Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent, and that there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul, or Ātman within or without.”

But Scientology declares in absolute terms that each person is an immortal (permanent) thetan. It focuses on achieving the supposedly fantastic abilities of a thetan. And, thus, Scientology proceeds in a direction opposite to Buddhism.

If we can only reverse the vector of Scientology and make it to parallel Buddhism, amazing and endless results are possible.

When we reverse the vector of Scientology to parallel Buddhism, we may refer to it as KHTK.

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Mindfulness 0: See Things as They are

Reference: Mindfulness

Mindfulness provides the discipline for looking and contemplation.

In this exercise you do not do anything. You simply let the changes occur on their own accord. Such changes shall settle down after a while if you don’t interfere with them.

It is better to begin with this exercise in a place where you can sit comfortably without being disturbed. You sit with your back upright and with your eyes closed. At a later iteration of this exercise you may sit with your eyes open.

The whole idea of this exercise is to be there comfortably and recognize what is there in your environment. When your eyes are closed your environment shall consist of the sensations in the body and the thoughts in your mind. Later when your eyes are open, you shall also add the environment exterior to you.

As you do this exercise you let the sensations and feelings play themselves out. You simply do not resist, suppress or interfere. As you recognize the disharmonies in the body and the mind, they will start to reduce and become harmonies. Over time you will have many realizations about your inherent nature.

Once you have done this exercise sitting silently for some time, you may discover that this mode of mindfulness continues even while sipping coffee in a café, strolling along a river, or watching the world go by. Do this exercise as often as possible until it becomes a second nature to you, and you are able to see things as they are.

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MINDFULNESS #0: Observe things as they truly are.

In a class of students, have the students settle down in a comfortable meditation posture and close their eyes. Call out the following instructions slowly and clearly. Pause for 15 to 20 seconds after each instruction to let the student settle down with it.

  1. Become aware of the body and stay aware of it without interfering with its natural movements, such as, breathing. Do not resist anything.

  2. Become aware of the mind and stay aware of it without interfering with its natural processes, such as, thoughts and feelings. Do not suppress anything.

  3. Become aware of what your physical and mental senses present to you, such as, visual forms, sounds, smells, taste, touch, thoughts, emotions, and impulses. Do not strain to perceive them.

  4. Let the body move in response to the natural impulses from the mind. Do not try to control the body movements. Let them unwind and settle down on their own accord.

  5. Let the mind respond naturally to the stimuli present in the environment. Do not try to control the mental responses. Let them unwind and settle down on their own accord.

  6. Let physical reactions, such as, twitches in muscles, minor pains and aches, sleepiness, etc., come and go. Don’t resist them. Experience the body thoroughly as a whole. Such reactions shall unwind and settle down on their own accord.

  7. Let mental reactions, such as, embarrassment, guilt, anxiety, anger, fear, grief, apathy, and even sleep, come and go. Don’t suppress them. Experience the mind non-judgmentally as a whole. Such reactions shall unwind and settle down on their own accord.

  8. If you find yourself mentally doing something else, or getting lost in thoughts, then simply recognize it, and continue. Let the attention roam freely.

  9. Let the “pictures” of the current and past events come and go. Let the feelings, emotions and sensations play themselves out. Do not speculate on anything. Simply be aware.

  10. Let the realizations present themselves without you making any effort.

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The Logic of Perception

human-perception

Besides the five physical senses, the mind provides us with the sixth sense. The mind sorts out the inconsistencies among the other senses and provides a perception that is not available through the physical senses.

For example, when one is on the surface of a sphere no single coordinate necessarily provides the correct distance from the center. It is the mathematical combination of all three coordinates per the Pythagorean Theorem, which provides the correct distance from the center.

Similarly, when one is operating in this universe, no one sense channel may provide the correct sense of reality. It is the logical combination of the data from all sense channels, which may provide the correct sense of reality.

Disagreement may come about when only one or few senses are focused upon and other senses are ignored. People may individually think that they are right in their perceptions, but none of them may be assessing the reality correctly because they all are limited in their focus.

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The Logic of “I”

Logic of I

Reference: The Logical Structure of the Universe (Part 3) – Space to Human Consciousness

It is interesting to observe that beingness starts with perception, evolves into concepts and ideas, and then develops into consciousness. Ego is that part of this consciousness, which wants to survive. Until ego comes about, survival is not in the picture. “I” is that ego.

Dianetics started out with the idea of SURVIVAL; and Scientology continued with that idea. Dianetics focused on the mechanism of the mind, but Scientology focused on the “I”. For Scientology, it was the survival of the “I” that mattered and the mind had to be subdued.

But it was the mind that came before the “I” in the process of evolution. How could one subdue the mind and have the “I” survive? This is altered sequence. “I” is evolved from the mind. It is not the other way around.

Beingness starts as space and evolves into perception, concepts, matrix of ideas, and consciousness respectively. Perception begins with feelings and evolves into sensations, representations, and mental cognitions. It is the pleasure-pain principle that jockeys the feelings, sensations, representations, etc., into expressions of emotion and motion. Pleasure and pain are essentially feelings. So the earliest feelings dominate rest of the evolution of beingness.

A feeling may be pictured as a frequency that gets more involved as evolution moves forward. It is the basis of beingness from space to human consciousness. It is harmonious frequency that appears as pleasure; and disharmonious frequency that appears as pain.

The basic-basic of Dianetics would be a fundamental disharmony.

Is it a fundamental disharmony that causes problems on the rest of the “time track”? I don’t think so. First of all, there is no linear track; there is a multi-dimensional matrix with everything associated with everything else. There is no “singularity” of beginning or end. Disharmony may erupt at any of the nodes of this matrix.

There is no fundamental basic-basic disharmony because that depends on a linear conception of a system. The system of beingness is not linear. The only way disharmony can be totally eliminated is by getting rid of the frequency itself. That will get rid of harmony as well.

What Scientology is trying to do is to keep the “I” there. But that “I” is made up of a complex frequency being the product of long evolution.
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Tertium Organum, Chapter 9 (Assimilation)

animal-size-comparison-11

Reference: Tertium Organum

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Chapter 9 (Assimilation)

The receptivity of the world by a man and by an animal. Illusions of the animal and its lack of control of the receptive faculties. The world of moving planes. Angles and curves considered as motion. The third dimension as motion. The animal’s two-dimensional view of our three-dimensional world. The animal as a real two-dimensional being. Lower animals as one-dimensional beings. The time and space of a snail. The time sense as an imperfect space sense. The time and space of a dog. The change in the world coincident with a change in the psychic apparatus. The proof of Kant’s problem. The three-dimensional world—an illusionary perception.

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We have established the enormous difference existing between the psychology of a man and of an animal. This difference undoubtedly profoundly affects the receptivity of the outer world by the animal. But how and in what? This is exactly what we do not know, and what we shall try to discover. 

To this end we shall return to our receptivity of the world, investigate in detail the nature of that receptivity, and then imagine how the animal, with its more limited psychic equipment, receives its impression of the world. 

Let us note first of all that we receive the most incorrect impressions of the world as regards its outer form and aspect. We know that the world consists of solids, but we see and touch only surfaces. We never see and touch a solid. The solid—this is indeed a concept, composed of a series of perceptions, the result of reasoning and experience. For immediate sensation, surfaces alone exist. Sensations of gravity, mass, volume, which we mentally associate with the “solid,” are in reality associated with the sensations of surfaces. We only know that the sensation comes from the solid, but the solid itself we never sense. Perhaps it would be possible to call the complex sensation of surfaces, weight, mass, density, resistance, “the sensation of a solid,” but rather do we combine mentally all these sensations into one, and call that composite sensation a solid. We sense directly only surfaces; the weight and resistance of the solid, as such, we never separately sense.

But we know that the world does not consist of surfaces: we know that we see the world incorrectly, and that we never see it as it is, not alone in the philosophical meaning of the expression, but in the most simple geometrical meaning. We have never seen a cube, a sphere, etc., but only their surfaces. Knowing this, we mentally correct that which we see. Behind the surfaces we think the solid. But we can never even represent the solid to ourselves. We cannot imagine the cube or the sphere seen, not in perspective, but simultaneously from all sides. 

It is clear that the world does not exist in perspective; nevertheless we cannot see it otherwise. We see everything only in perspective; that is, in the very act of receptivity the world is distorted in our eye, and we know that it is distorted. We know that it is not such as it appears, and mentally we are continuously correcting that which the eye sees, substituting the real content for those symbols of things which sight reveals. 

Our sight is a complex faculty. It consists of visual sensations plus the memory of sensations of touch. The child tries to feel with its finger-tips everything that it sees—the nose of its nurse, the moon, the reflection of sun rays from the mirror on the wall. Only gradually does it learn to discern the near and the distant by means of sight alone. But we know that even in mature age we are easily subject to optical illusions. 

We see distant objects as flat, even more incorrectly, because relief is after all a symbol revealing a certain property of objects. A man at a long distance is pictured to us in silhouette. This happens because we never feel anything at a long distance, and the eye has not been taught to discern the difference in surfaces which at short distances are felt by the finger-tips.*

[* In this connection, there have been some interesting observations made upon the blind who are just beginning to see. In the magazine Slepetz (The Blind, 1912) there is a description from direct observation of how those born blind learn to see after the operation which restored their sight. This is how a seventeen-year old youth, who recovered his sight after the removal of a cataract, describes his impressions. On the third day after the operation he was asked what he saw. He answered that he saw an enormous field of light and misty objects moving upon it. These objects he did not discern. Only after four days did he begin to discern them, and after an interval of two weeks, when his eyes were accustomed to the light, he started to use his sight practically, for the discernment of objects. He was shown all the colors of the spectrum and he learned to distinguish them very soon, except yellow and green, which he confused for a long time. The cube, sphere and pyramid, when placed before him seemed to him like the square, the flat disc, and the triangle. When the flat disc was put alongside the sphere he distinguished no difference between them. When asked what impression both kinds of figures produced on him just at first, he said that he noticed at once the difference between the cube and the sphere, and understood that they were not drawings, but was unable to deduce from them their relation to the square and to the circle, until he felt in his fingertips the desire to touch these objects. When he was allowed to take the cube, sphere and pyramid in his hands he at once identified these solids by the sense of touch, and wondered very much that he was unable to recognize them by sight. He lacked the perception of space, perspective. All objects seemed flat to him: though he knew that the nose protrudes, and that the eyes are located in cavities, the human face seemed flat to him. He was delighted with his recovered vision, but in the beginning it fatigued him to exercise it: the impressions oppressed and exhausted him. For this reason, though possessing perfect sight, he sometimes turned to the sense of touch as to repose.]

We can never see, even in the minute, any part of the outer world as it is, that is, as we know it. We can never see the desk or the wardrobe all at once, from all sides and inside. Our eye distorts the outside world in a certain way, in order that, looking about, we may be able to define the position of objects relatively to ourselves. But to look at the world from any other standpoint than our own is impossible for us, nor can we ever see it correctly, without distortion by our sight. 

Relief and perspective—these constitute the distortions of the object by our eye. They are optical illusions, delusions of sight. The cube in perspective is but a conventional sign of the three-dimensional cube, and all that we see is the conditional image of that conditionally real three-dimensional world with which our geometry deals, and not that world itself. On the basis of what we see we surmise that it exists in reality. We know that what we see is incorrect, and we think of the world as other than it appears. If we had no doubt about the correctness of our sight, if we knew that the world were such as it appears, then obviously we would think of the world in the manner in which we see it. In reality we are constantly engaged in making corrections. 

It is clear that the ability to make corrections in that which the eye sees demands, undoubtedly, the possession of the concept, because the corrections are made by a process of reasoning, which is impossible without concepts. Deprived of the faculty to make corrections in that which the eye sees we should have a different outlook on the world, i.e., much of that which is we should see incorrectly ; we should not see much of that which is, but we should see much of that which does not exist in reality at all. First of all, we should see an enormous number of non-existent motions. Every motion of ours in our direct sensation of it, is bound up with the motion of everything around us. We know that this motion is an illusory one, but we see it as real. Objects turn in front of us, run past us, overtake one another. If we are riding slowly past houses, these turn slowly, if we are riding fast they turn quickly; also, trees grow up before us unexpectedly, run away and disappear.

This seeming animation of objects, coupled with dreams, has always inspired, and still inspires the fairy tale. 

The “motions” of objects, to a person in motion, are very complex indeed. Observe how strangely the field of wheat behaves just beyond the window of the car in which you are riding. It runs to the very window, stops, turns slowly around itself and runs away. The trees of the forest run apparently at differ- ent speeds, overtaking one another. The entire landscape is one of illusory motion. Behold also the sun, which even up to the present time “rises” and “sets” in all languages—this “motion” having been in the past so passionately defended!

This is all seeming, and though we know that these motions are illusory, we see them nevertheless, and sometimes we are deluded. To how many more illusions should we be subject had we not the power of mentally analyzing their determining causes, but were obliged to believe that everything exists as it appears? 

I see it; therefore this exists. 

This affirmation is the principal source of all illusions. To be true, it is necessary to say:

I see it; therefore this does not exist—or at least I see it; therefore this is not so. 

Although we can say the last, the animal cannot, for to its apprehension things are as they appear. It must believe what it sees. 

How does the world appear to the animal? 

The world appears to it as a series of complicated moving surfaces. The animal lives in a world of two dimensions. Its universe has for it the properties and appearance of a surface. And upon this surface transpire an enormous number of different motions of a most fantastic character. 

Why should the world appear to the animal as a surface? 

First of all, because it appears as a surface to us

But we know that the world is not a surface, and the animal cannot know it. It accepts everything just as it appears. It is powerless to correct the testimony of its eyes—or it cannot do so to the same extent that we do. 

We are able to measure in three mutually independent directions: the nature of our mind permits us to do this. The animal can measure simultaneously in two directions only—it can never measure in three directions at once. This is due to the fact that not possessing concepts, it is unable to retain in the mind the idea of the first two directions, for measuring the third.

Let me explain this more exactly. 

Suppose we imagine that we are measuring the cube

In order to measure the cube in three directions, it is necessary while measuring in one direction, to keep in mind two others—to remember. But it is possible to keep them in mind as concepts only, that is, associating them with different concepts—pasting upon them different labels. So, pasting upon the first two directions the labels of length and breadth, it is possible to measure the height. It is impossible otherwise. As perceptions, the first two measurements of the cube are completely identical, and assuredly will mingle into one in the mind. The animal, without the aid of concepts, cannot paste upon the first two measurements the labels of length and breadth. Therefore, at the moment when it begins to measure the height of the cube, the first two measurements will be confused in one. The animal attempting to measure the cube by means of perceptions only without the aid of concepts, will be like a cat I once observed. Her kittens—five or six in number—she dragged asunder into different rooms, and could not then collect them together. She seized one, put it beside another, ran for a third and brought it to the first two, but then she seized the first and carried it away to another room, putting it beside the fourth ; after that she ran back and seized the second and dragged it to the room containing the fifth, and so on. For a whole hour the cat had no rest with her kittens, she suffered severely, and could accomplish nothing. It is clear that she lacked the concepts which would enable her to remember how many kittens she had altogether. 

It is in the highest degree important to understand the relation of the animal consciousness to the measuring of bodies. 

The great point is that the animal sees surfaces only. (We may say this with complete assurance, because we ourselves see surfaces only). Thus seeing only surfaces the animal can imagine but two dimensions. The third dimension, in contradistinction to the other two, can only be thought; that is, this dimension must be a concept; but animals do not possess concepts. The third dimension like the others appears as a perception. Therefore, at the moment of its appearance, the first two will inevitably mingle into one. The animal is capable of perceiving the difference between two dimensions: the difference between three it cannot perceive. This difference must be known beforehand, and to know it concepts are necessary.

Identical perceptions mix into one for the animal, just as we ourselves confuse two simultaneous, similar phenomena proceeding from the same point. For the animal it will be one phenomenon, just as for us all similar, simultaneous phenomena, proceeding from a single point will be one phenomenon

Therefore the animal will see the world as a surface, and will measure this surface in two directions only. 

But how is it possible to explain the fact that the animal, inhabiting a two-dimensional world, or rather, perceiving itself as in a two-dimensional world, is perfectly oriented in our three-dimensional world? How explain the fact that the bird flies up and down, sideways and straight ahead—in all three directions; that the horse jumps over ditches and barriers; that the dog and cat appear to understand the properties of depth and height simultaneously with those of length and breadth? 

In order to explain these things it is necessary to return to the fundamental principles of animal psychology. It has been previously shown that many properties of objects remembered by us as general properties of genus, class, species, are remembered by animals as individual properties of objects. To orientate in this enormous reserve of individual properties preserved in the memory, animals are assisted by the emotional tone which is linked up in them with each perception and each remembered sensation. 

For example, an animal knows two roads as two entirely separate phenomena having nothing in common; that is, one road consists of a series of definite perceptions colored by definite emotional tones; the other phenomenon—the other road consists of another series of definite perceptions colored with other tones. We say that this, that, and the other are roads. One leads to one place, a second to another. For an animal the two roads have nothing in common. But it remembers in their proper sequence all the emotional tones which are linked with the first road and with the second one, and it therefore remembers both roads with their turns, ditches, fences, etc. 

Thus the remembering of definite properties of observed objects helps the animal to orient itself in the world of phenomena. But as a rule before new phenomena an animal is much more helpless than a man.

An animal sees two dimensions; the third dimension it senses constantly, but does not see. It senses the third dimension as something transient, just as we sense time

The surfaces which an animal sees possess for it many strange properties, first of all, numerous and various motions. 

As has been said already, all those illusory motions which seem to us real, but which we know to be illusory, are entirely real to the animal, the turning about of the houses as we ride past, the growth of a tree out of some corner, the passing of the moon between clouds, etc., etc. 

But in addition to all this, many motions must exist for the animal of which we have no suspicion. The fact is that innumerable objects quite immobile for us—properly all objects—must seem to the animal to be in motion. AND THE THIRD-DIMRNSION OF SOLIDS WILL APPEAR TO IT IN THESE MOTIONS; I. E., THE THIRD-DIMENSION OF SOLIDS WILL APPEAR TO IT AS A MOTION. 

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Let us try to imagine how the animal perceives the objects of the outer world. 

Suppose it is confronted with a large disc, and simultaneously with a large sphere of the same diameter. 

Standing directly opposite them at a certain distance, the animal will see two circles. Beginning to walk around them, it will observe that the sphere remains a circle, while the disc gradually narrows, transforming itself into a narrow strip. On moving farther around, the strip begins to expand and gradually transforms itself into a circle. The sphere will not change during this circumambulation. But when the animal approaches toward it certain strange phenomena ensue. 

Let us try to understand how the animal will perceive the surface of the sphere as contrasted with the surface of the disc. 

One thing is sure: it will perceive the spherical surface differently from us. We perceive convexity or sphericality as a common property of many surfaces. The animal, on the contrary, because of the very properties of its psychic apparatus, will perceive that sphericality as an individual property of a given sphere. Now how will this sphericality as an individual property of a given sphere appear to it?

We may declare with complete assurance that the sphericality will appear to the animal as a movement on the surface which it sees. 

During the approach of the animal toward the sphere something like the following must happen: the surface which the animal sees starts to move quickly; its center spreads out, and all of the other points run away from the center with a velocity proportional to their distance from the center (or the square of their distance from the center). 

It is in this way that the animal senses the spherical surface—much as we sense sound

At a certain distance from the sphere the animal perceives it as a plane. Approaching or touching some point on the sphere it sees that all other points have changed with relation to this particular point, they have all altered their position on the plane—have moved to one side, as it were. Touching another point, it sees that all the rest have moved in similar fashion. 

This property of the sphere will appear as its motion, its “vibration.” The sphere will actually resemble a vibrating, oscillating surface, in the same way that each angle of an immobile object will appear to the animal as a motion

The animal can see an angle of a three-dimensional object only while moving past it, and during the time it takes, the object will seem to the animal to have turned—a new side has appeared, and the side first seen has disappeared or moved away. The angle will be perceived as rotation, as the motion of the object, i.e., as something transient, temporal, as a change of state in the object. Remembering the angles which it has seen before seen as the motion of bodies—the animal will consider that they have ceased, have ended, have disappeared—that they are in the past

Of course the animal cannot reason in this way, but it acts as though it had thus reasoned. 

Could the animal think about those phenomena which have not yet entered into its life (i.e., angles and curved surfaces) it would undoubtedly imagine them in time only: it could not prefigure for them any real existence at the present moment when they have not yet appeared. And were it able to express an opinion on this subject, it would say that angles exist in potentiality, that they will be, but that for the present they do not exist. 

The angle of a house past which a horse runs every day is a phenomenon, repeating under certain circumstances, but nevertheless a phenomenon proceeding in time, and not a spatial and constant property of the house. 

For the animal an angle will be a temporal phenomenon and not a spatial one, as it is for us. 

Thus we see that the animal will perceive the properties of our third dimension as motions, and will refer these properties to time, i.e., to the past or future, or to the present—the momentof the transition of the future into the past. 

This circumstance is in the highest degree important, for therein lies the key to our own receptivity of the world; we shall therefore examine into it more in detail.

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Up to the present time we have taken into consideration only the higher animals: the dog, the cat, the horse. Let us now try the lower: let us take the snail. We know nothing about its inner life, but undoubtedly its receptivity resembles ours scarcely at all. In all probability the snail possesses some obscure sensations of its environments. Probably it feels heat, cold, light, darkness, hunger—and it instinctively (i.e., urged by pleasure-pain guidance) strives to reach the uneaten edge of the leaf on which it rests, and instinctively avoids the dead leaf. Its movements are guided by pleasure-pain: it constantly strives toward the one, and away from the other. It always moves upon a single line, from the unpleasant to the pleasant, and in all probability except for this line it is not conscious of anything and does not sense anything. This line is its entire world. All sensations, entering from the outside, the snail senses upon this line of its motion, and these come to it out of time—from the potential they become the present. For the snail our entire universe exists in the future and in the past—i.e., in time. In space only one line exists. All the rest is time. It is more than probable that the snail is not conscious of its movements. Making efforts with its entire body it moves forward to the fresh edge of the leaf, but it seems as though the leaf were coming to it, appearing at that moment, coming out of time as the morning comes to us.

The snail is a one-dimensional being. 

The higher animals—the dog, cat, and horse—are two-dimensional beings. To the higher animal all space appears as a surface, as a plane. Everything out of this plane lives for it in time. 

Thus we see that the higher animal—the two-dimensional being as compared with the one-dimensional—extracts or captures from time one more dimension. 

The world of a snail has one dimension; our second and third dimensions are for it in time. 

The world of a dog is two-dimensional; our third dimension is for it in time. 

An animal can remember all “phenomena” which it has observed, i.e., all properties of three-dimensional solids with which it has come in contact, but it cannot know that the (for it) recurring phenomenon is a constant property of the three-dimensional solid—an angle, curvature, or convexity. 

Such is the psychology of the receptivity of the world by a two-dimensional being. 

For such a being a new sun will rise every day. Yesterday’s sun is gone, and will not appear again; tomorrow’s does not yet exist. 

Rostand did not understand the psychology of “Chantecler.” The cock could not think that he woke up the sun by his crowing. To him the sun does not go to sleep, it goes into the past, disappears, suffers annihilation, ceases to be. If it comes on the morrow it will be a new sun, just as for us with every new year comes a new spring. In order to be the sun shall not wake up, but arise, be born. The cock (if it could think without losing its characteristic psychology) could not believe in the appearance to-day of the same sun which was yesterday. This is purely human reasoning. 

For the animal a new sun rises every morning, just as for us a new morning comes with every day and a new spring with every year. 

The animal is not in a position to understand that the sun is the same yesterday and today, EXACTLY IN THE SAME WAY THAT WE PROBABLY CANNOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE MORNING IS THE SAME AND THE SPRING IS THE SAME. 

The motion of objects which is not illusory, even for us, but a real motion, like that of a revolving wheel, a passing carriage, and so on, will differ for the animal very much from that motion which it sees in all objects which are for us immobile—i.e., from that motion in which the third dimension of solids is as it were revealed to it. The first mentioned motion (real for us) will seem to the animal arbitrary, alive.

And these two kinds of motion will be incommensurable for it. 

The animal will be in a position to measure an angle or a convex surface, though not understanding their true nature, and though regarding them as motion. But true motion, i.e., that which is true motion to us, it will never be in a position to measure, because for this it is necessary to possess our concept of time, and to measure all motions with reference to some one more constant motion, i.e., to compare all motions with some one. Without concepts the animal is powerless to do this. Therefore the (for us) real motions of objects will be incommensurable for it, and being incommensurable, will be incommensurable with other motions which are real and measurable for it, but which are illusory for us—motions which in reality represent the third dimension of solids. 

This last conclusion is inevitable. If the animal apprehends and measures as motion that which is not motion, clearly it cannot measure by one and the same standard that which is motion, and that which is not motion. 

But this does not mean that it cannot know the character of motions going on in the world and cannot conform itself to them. On the contrary, we see that the animal orientates itself perfectly among the motions of the objects of our three-dimensional world. Here comes into play the aid of instinct, i.e., the ability, developed by millenniums of selection, to act expediently without consciousness of purpose. Moreover, the animal discerns perfectly the motions going on around it. 

But discerning two kinds of phenomena, two kinds of motion, the animal will explain one of them by means of some incomprehensible inner property of objects, i.e., in all probability it will regard this motion as the result of the animation of objects, and the moving objects as animated beings

The kitten plays with the ball or with its tail because ball and tail are running away from it. 

The bear will fight with the beam which threatens to throw him off the tree, because in the swinging beam he divines something alive and hostile.

The horse is frightened by the bush because the bush unexpectedly turned and waved a branch. 

In the last case the bush need not even to have moved at all, for the horse was running, and it seemed therefore as though the bush moved, and consequently that it was animated. In all probability all movement is thus animated for the animal. Why does the dog bark so desperately at the passing carriage? This is not entirely clear to us for we do not realize that to the eyes of the dog the carriage is turning, twisting, grimacing all over. It is alive in every part—the wheels, the top, the mud-guards, seats, passengers— all these are moving, turning. 

Because of the same law an animal can never understand a picture. The picture is immobile, while for the animal the world is always moving, never coming to a state of rest and immobility. 

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Now let us draw certain conclusions from all of the foregoing. 

We have established the fact that man possesses sensations, perceptions and concepts; that the higher animals possess sensation and perceptions, and the lower animals sensations only. The conclusion that animals have no concepts we deduced from the fact that they have no speech. Next we have established that having no concepts, animals cannot comprehend the third dimension, but see the world as a surface; i.e., they have no means—no instrument— for the correction of their incorrect sensations of the world. Furthermore, we have found that seeing the world as a surface, animals see upon this surface many motions which for us are non-existent. That is, all those properties of solids which we regard as the properties of three-dimensionality, animals represent to themselves as motions. Thus the angle and the spherical surface appear to them as the movements of a plane. After that we came to the conclusion that everything which we regard as constant in the region of the third dimension, animals regard as transient things which happen to objects—temporal phenomena. 

Thus in all its relations to the world the animal is quite analogous to the imagined, unreal two-dimensional being living upon a plane. All our world appears to the animal as the plane through which phenomena are passing, moving upon time, or in time.

And so we may say that we have established the following: that under certain limitations of the psychic apparatus for receiving the outer world, for the subject possessing this apparatus, the entire aspect and all properties of the world will suffer change. And two subjects, living side by side, but possessing different psychic apparatus, will inhabit different worlds—the properties of the extension of the world will be different for them. And we observed the conditions, not invented for the purpose, not concocted in imagination, but really existing in nature; that is, the psychic conditions governing the lives of animals, under which the world appears as a plane or as a line. 

That is to say, we have established that the three-dimensional extension of the world depends upon the properties of our psychic apparatus. 

Or, that the three-dimensionality of the world is not its property, but a property of our receptivity of the world. 

In other words, the three dimensionality of the world is a property of its reflection in our consciousness.

If all this is so, then it is obvious that we have really proved the dependence of space upon the space-sense. And if we have proven the existence of a space-sense lower in comparison with ours, by this we have proven the possibility of a space-sense higher in comparison with ours. 

And we shall grant that if in us there develops the fourth unit of reasoning, as different from the concept as the concept is different from perception, so simultaneously with it will appear for us in the surrounding world a fourth characteristic which we may designate geometrically as the fourth direction or the fourth perpendicular, because in this characteristic will be included the properties of objects perpendicular to all properties known to us, and not parallel to any of them. In other words, we will see, or we will feel ourselves in a space not of three, but of four dimensions; and in the objects surrounding us, and in our own bodies, will appear common properties of the fourth dimension which we did not notice before, or which we regarded as individual properties of objects (or their motion), just as animals regard the extension of objects in the third dimension as their motion. 

And when we shall see or feel ourselves in the world of four dimensions we shall see that the world of three dimensions does not really exist and has never existed: that it was the creation of our own fantasy, a phantom host, an optical delusion, a delusion—anything one pleases excepting only reality. 

And all this is not an “hypothesis,” not a supposition, but exact metaphysical fact, just such a fact as the existence of infinity. For positivism to insure its existence it was necessary to annihilate infinity somehow, or at least to call it an “hypothesis” which may or may not be true. Infinity however is not an hypothesis, but a fact and such a fact is the multi-dimensionality of space and all that it implies, namely, the unreality of everything three-dimensional.

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