How many dimensions actually exist?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How many dimensions are there? How many dimensions can we humans perceive? Now the word dimensions is used in science in a particular way.
That’s why we have three dimensions and there is time. So space time, continuum is what Einstein said is the basic building block of everything. So now in string theory, people bandy around 11 dimensions, 17 dimensions, 18 dimensions, 25 dimensions.
But even the string theorists themselves, they can’t conceive these dimensions. So when they talk about higher dimensions, they are simply talking about the postulations that come from their mathematical theories. So these higher dimensional science talks about, they are basically predictions from mathematics.
They are not something which are perceivable with the senses or even conceivable with the mind. It’s more of mathematics says this should be there, this should be there, this should be there. So what has happened is, with respect to many times in string theory and theories like this, originally science started by observation and we have a theory to explain observation.
So observation is pratyaksha pramana. Theory is anuman pramana. So observation is empiricism.
Empiricism and theorizing is rationalism. So science starts with empiricism, moves towards rationalism where we come to the theory and then again we do experiments which is again empiricism. And then we come to a conclusion which is rationalism.
So now what has happened within science itself, pratyaksha and anuman are sometimes at war with each other. So is what we observe more important and should the theory explain what we observe? Or if a theory is mathematically sound, is that more important even if we can’t observe anything related to the theory? So there are two whole bodies of thinkers within science. Some say the empirical is more important.
Some say the rational, the mathematical, the theoretical is more important. And string theorists, they have happily left reality to go into the world of their mathematical imagination. They say that we have no connection with reality at all.
They have this many dimensions, that many dimensions. So these dimensions which science talks about, string theorists talk about, they are mostly mathematical postulations with no root in reality. Now scriptures don’t use the word dimensions in the same sense in which it is used over here.
Where dimension is seen as a feature of material reality. But scriptures do explain to us that there are levels of reality. There is gross physical reality, there is subtle material reality and there is spiritual reality.
So at the level of subtle material reality, things can be accessed in ways which are not accessible at the physical level of reality. So for example, if an ant has to move from that end of the room to this end of the room. The ant may, if it is going along the wall, it may move like this, then it may move like that.
So it is going basically in one dimension, length and then breadth and then length. But if it goes diagonally, basically it goes faster. But now suppose it wants to go from here to the top of that wall over there.
Then it may go like this, it may go like this, it may go like this. But if it just goes diagonally on this rectangle, then it accesses three dimensions, it will go much faster. So basically, the higher the dimension that one accesses, the quicker one can access certain things.
So basically, at the level of the mind, higher dimensions can be accessed. Not in the sense of mathematical distance, but dimension in the sense of the means to access certain things. So that is why at the level of mind, yogi, dharmanic and desire, I can go from here to there.
And immediately he is there. Because he is tapping into levels of reality which are not accessible normally. And that is how he can transfer himself from one place to another.
So rather than using the word dimensions, we can focus on levels of reality. There are multiple levels of reality and we have access to the sensory level of reality. But beyond the sensory level, there is a mental level of reality.
And beyond that is ultimately the spiritual level of reality. And that is the reality to which we belong and that is where we are meant to ultimately return.