I don't get it ... i know time is the 4th dimension ... but, whats up with the other 7.
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Anonymous2008-03-10 18:04
Ok, pretend that a third dimensional being crosses into a two dimensional space, and from the perspective of two dimensional beings (we'll call them flatfuckers) they only see the intersecting area in 2D since they can't perceive any further dimensions. Now, based on that analogy, you can have a higher dimension crossing into the third and fourth dimension, and using another analogy, if each dimension is a point and you were to fold your paper to make dimensions intersect, that would be accessing an even higher dimension. So yeah, it's all based on kindergarten logic and clever analogies.
Imagine a birds-eye view Flatland, everything is two-dimensional, that is, there is length and width, but no height. There is no third-dimension. Likewise, the inhabitants of flatland would also be two-dimensional. Take a piece of paper and make a square. Inside of it draw a few happy faces. Those are what the people of Flatland would look like on a good day.
Now let us imagine that a three-dimensional man walks across Flatland. What would this look like to the inhabitants? Draw some footprints in your square. What would the Flatlanders make of these strange shapes that seem to quickly appear out of nowhere and then just as quickly disappear again? Are they ghosts or spirits? U.F.O.'s perhaps? Is there the possibility that it may be God? If so, which one is God? And what is he trying to communicate by presenting this apparition? Each different interpretation of this communication would no doubt spark a new religion based upon it.
The religious leaders as well as the scientists of Flatland would have to get to work to provide a suitable explanation as to what they were witnessing (those that would actually admit to seeing it in the first place that is). Would they identify the toes as being part of the feet? Would they identify and classify a left foot and a right foot? Would they know that the 1st left footprint and the 2nd left footprint were actually one and the same?
This is all directly relatable to the quantum dilemma we are currently facing, except that we are having trouble imagining a four-dimensional reality due to the limitations of our three-dimensional perceptions, just as our friends in Flatland are struggling to understand a three-dimensional reality due to the limitations of their own two-dimensional perceptions. I won't even bother to mention the fact that Dr. Stephen Hawking suggests that there are actually no fewer than 11 dimensions... that would be pushing it. Abbot also goes on to visit an imaginary place called Lineland.
The long and short of it is that we have no way of knowing what reality really is because we just can't see the whole picture. We can't see the hundreds of possible dimensions because we only have the mental faculties to see three-dimensions, just as the Flatlanders can only see two-dimensions. Quantum Theory points to the holographic nature of the universe, which science is just beginning to unravel. We can no longer fight or ignore the implications of this new science, it's time to incorporate it into our existing understanding, and coincidentally this as of yet unraveled science provides a rather nice framework for understanding the science of Reiki.
Reiki energy, for all those who have experienced it is unquestionable and no explanation for where it comes from is needed. Reiki healers, Reiki teachers and Reiki practitioners all connect to Reiki energies in their own ways, based on the methods they were taught. There is no right way and no wrong way to connect to this energy and the fact that it exists is indisputable to those who have witnessed it. Reiki energy exists in a dimension that most of us are not able to directly perceive.
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Anonymous2008-03-13 9:03
>>7
No, that reiki energy part is bullshit.
Big time troll there.
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Anonymous2008-03-13 12:18
And yet both are untestable
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Anonymous2008-03-13 12:21
Of six placebo-controlled studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, four showed statistically significant positive effects of Reiki, both physiologically and emotionally, that could not be explained by the placebo effect.
Higher dimensions, on the other hand, have no supporting evidence.
All those dimensions were rolled up into spaces beyond our detection. In other words, Western science said:
"We don't know, and we give up, so let's roll the unknown into tiny strings and weave them out of sight."
In other words, FAIL. Don't expect any more solutions from this Western-dominated system of FAIL. We'll have to wait for "Chindia" to arrive at the level of prosperity that allows significant high-energy physics, to take the next step in understanding. The Western physicists have gotten fat and lazy, and they've obviously GIVEN UP.
>>11
Don't make me break out the garden hose analogy.
The fact that you don't understand the reasoning does not make it bullshit; there's plenty of bullshit to go around in string theory, but not in this particular area of it.
Also, CERN isn't Western? Physics research in the US is suffering heavily in large part due to your anti-science administration cutting funding everywhere, but Europe is still doing just fine.
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Anonymous2008-03-13 13:10
Anything past the fourth dimension is supposed to be there because mathematicians can imagine it to be there. The "imagine this point representing a dimension, and have this dimension cross into it to make a new dimension" is a loose analogy, but basically means that if you can imagine anything, and have enough faith in it provided you create your own self supporting theorems, then it's acceptable truth.
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Anonymous2008-03-13 14:56
>>13
What the fuck is wrong with you that you can't see the difference between geometry in higher dimensions in pure mathematics and why string theory invokes higher spatial dimensions? Were you dropped as a child?
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Anonymous2008-03-13 19:14
Just because a theory exists in mathematics does not mean it exists in reality. This is the same trap that philosophers fall into.
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Anonymous2008-03-13 20:15
>>14
what difference? string theory is pure mathematics
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Anonymous2008-03-13 22:03
People in this thread are getting confused about what "reality" and physical theories really mean. Physics is the process of ascertaining which mathematical models best describe, and give best predictions of, physical observations. There is not this sense of something being more "real" because you have greater intuition about it... that's just a load of bollocks.
So far string theory has yet to provide any predictions whatsoever: until that time, it is not science. But just because the mathematics for it invokes however many dimensions, well... who gives a fuck? If having 23 dimensions best describes what we observe, then so be it, regardless of what we FEEL should be the case.