A Wrinkle in Time
Oct. 28th, 2004 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahoganyA recent discussion on LJ prompted me to dig into my beliefs and figure out where some of my ideas come from. Oddly enough, some of my ideas - my beliefs in fact, come from a relatively simple children’s book. I didn’t realize how profoundly A Wrinkle in Time affected me until now. I was probably about nine or ten when I first read it, and I read it numerous times throughout my childhood.
At some point in the book, the author engages in an explanation of time. She starts off with a dot. Then she says that the next step is to take the dot and stretch it into a line. Next we take the line and stretch it sideways and voila, we have a square, take the square and stretch it upward and we have a three dimensional object. Madeleine l’Engle describes Time as the fourth dimension in which the three dimensional objects are moved in a line. I think at that point, the novel moves in a different direction.
But in my mind, it didn’t end there. I followed the analogy to what I thought was it’s natural conclusion. So, time is linear, then the fifth dimension would have to include all of the alternate realities. If we see time as a vertical line, and we expand it sideways that would encompass each of the possibilities that could have happened at any point on the vertical line. The sixth dimension is where I get stuck. What happens if you take time and stretch it upward as well as sideways. What happens then? Perhaps the ability to manipulate and move back and forth on both the vertical and horizontal planes?
I’ve been stuck on this one for nearly twenty years. I’ve always thought that we are only able to comprehend one or two dimensions beyond our reality, but I’ve also firmly believed for quite some time that it’s our physical bodies that keep up trapped moving in one direction on the time plane - which I’ve always thought explains ghosts to a certain extent. They are removed from their physical bodies, and are therefore capable of travelling in both directions along the vertical line.
It’s a pure fantasy, now that I can step back a bit and recognize it for what it is, but my problem is that these ideas have become such a part of my thinking that I don’t even realize the extent to which they’ve influenced me - particularly my understanding of Catholic theology and my perception of God, and my soul. I’ve thought for some time that God’s perspective must be the seventh dimension. I can’t imagine what that is - I can’t even really conceive of the sixth, but I’ve always thought that in the seventh, the rules of time and matter and space as we know it don’t apply.
So now what? My understanding of God, and my eternal soul is based on my interpretation of a children’s book. This can’t be good. Eesh. How embarrasing. The problem is that these ideas are so deeply engrained that unless I’m presented with an complete alternative suggestion for comparison, I can’t imagine thinking otherwise.
At some point in the book, the author engages in an explanation of time. She starts off with a dot. Then she says that the next step is to take the dot and stretch it into a line. Next we take the line and stretch it sideways and voila, we have a square, take the square and stretch it upward and we have a three dimensional object. Madeleine l’Engle describes Time as the fourth dimension in which the three dimensional objects are moved in a line. I think at that point, the novel moves in a different direction.
But in my mind, it didn’t end there. I followed the analogy to what I thought was it’s natural conclusion. So, time is linear, then the fifth dimension would have to include all of the alternate realities. If we see time as a vertical line, and we expand it sideways that would encompass each of the possibilities that could have happened at any point on the vertical line. The sixth dimension is where I get stuck. What happens if you take time and stretch it upward as well as sideways. What happens then? Perhaps the ability to manipulate and move back and forth on both the vertical and horizontal planes?
I’ve been stuck on this one for nearly twenty years. I’ve always thought that we are only able to comprehend one or two dimensions beyond our reality, but I’ve also firmly believed for quite some time that it’s our physical bodies that keep up trapped moving in one direction on the time plane - which I’ve always thought explains ghosts to a certain extent. They are removed from their physical bodies, and are therefore capable of travelling in both directions along the vertical line.
It’s a pure fantasy, now that I can step back a bit and recognize it for what it is, but my problem is that these ideas have become such a part of my thinking that I don’t even realize the extent to which they’ve influenced me - particularly my understanding of Catholic theology and my perception of God, and my soul. I’ve thought for some time that God’s perspective must be the seventh dimension. I can’t imagine what that is - I can’t even really conceive of the sixth, but I’ve always thought that in the seventh, the rules of time and matter and space as we know it don’t apply.
So now what? My understanding of God, and my eternal soul is based on my interpretation of a children’s book. This can’t be good. Eesh. How embarrasing. The problem is that these ideas are so deeply engrained that unless I’m presented with an complete alternative suggestion for comparison, I can’t imagine thinking otherwise.
