ON MATTER, MOTION, TIME AND DIMENSIONS

By Professor Sir Dr. Tan Man-Ho

(An excerpt from the original work, Real World Views, Book 6, In the Light of the Great Philosophical System of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky: The Journey Beyond by Professor  Dr. Tan Man-Ho entitled "On Matter, Motion, Time and Dimensions", April 1976 - October 1976 Discourses, Chapter 1, Section A: "On Matter, Motion, Time and Dimensions", pp. 1~11)

A.   ON MATTER, MOTION, TIME AND DIMENSIONS

1  Great Nature bestows in beings a definite grade of psyche and surely, in its movement itself the very psyche matter is able to see itself and control itself.  This is not easy. As my very peculiar psyche has initially commenced from the malenmao form and remains in it for a very long time until somehow it transforms into the gurousp form.  The psychic elements become posited in my essence and constantly emanating and issuing cosmic properties into the exterior world through my moving center as materialization, and such motion is also a property of Great Nature in its perpetual self-creation, development, alteration and ceasing-to-be.

2  The movement of Great Nature, the one familiar to our vision, may be interpreted as the issuing of the ray of life by subtraction of motion.  I will not force you to believe that this visible motion may be issued from the initial starting point of the ray of life, from the Absolute.  By the rapid subtraction of motion and self-annihilation in its emergence, the Will of the Absolute vibrates the whole growth of the universe being and body.

3   Great Nature possesses this very psychic motion which we have always looked upon it as vibration of fine qualities of psyche matters and we do not know how many levels of such psyche matters there are in the universe.  Each level leads to different partial reflections according to their reflection properties.  this reflection proceeds from within, from the interior and whose psyche-issuing permeates throughout the whole universe being.  The being-psyche matter generates its own perception dimensions and through this dimension it becomes aware of the dimensionality of the universe. Great Nature sees itself through its own reflection.  We see much as our psychic matters permit us to do so.  This reciprocal self-observation by Great Nature itself has the troublesome barriers of not seeing things correctly.  That is to say, Great Nature's useful portion.  Like us, sometimes, it just lacks such fine psyche matters to see the real body of Great Nature itself.

4   Without been told it is difficult to know the psyche centers, i.e. moving, instinctive, sex, emotional and intellectual centers.  It knows no such centers for these centers of issuing will come only as appearancial reflection, as something interiorly perceptible.

We can become conscious of these centers of vibration only after we have become aware of their issuing and to become aware it must be at least appearancial and reflectable interiorly or else, we have no means to know them.  Material-reflection is an exposition of self-observation, and for those who do not make such observation, their crystallization would be faulty.

5   The psyche octave notes are constantly moving or in movement, and disappear into one another.  The movement can  be represented by an enneagram.  The movement is music of the psyche.  The notes are the centers and each of these centers shows consciously or unconsciously in the trialectic movement of the enneagram.  Our being arises as a result of the operation of these centers.  First and foremost the basic note is the physical note, the foundation of beings and forms the bulk.  Within it, these 7 center must shine themselves constantly, passing over from one into the other.  The laws of three operate through the whole movement - X arises as active force, Y as passive force and Z as neutralizing force.

6   Mind phenomenologies are time-like.  They are movements along time dimension.  Physical phenomenologies are space-like.  They are movement in space dimensions.  The mind may be looked upon as a time machine, always staying in the present, and traveling into past and future as a variance of the sensible eternal now, which is its constant.  The mind can also be looked upon as the functions of the brain.  Yet these functions run on something and this something is called the mind fuels or psyche hydrogen.

7   In the language of dialectical materialism what reincarnation in religious doctrines may be looked upon as the dialectical movements of the higher psyche matters, its characteristics how, its quality-quantity transmutations and leaps of the levels for the coming-to-be of something new.  Some of the psyche matters of lower being level are good foods for higher beings.  In the process of perpetual creation of beings into beings, to wit, that of reciprocal feeding, whether visible or not, certain higher matters definitely pass into one another.  Seeing depends so much on the presence of the quality of higher psyche matters in us, the perceptible forms of which we called mind phenomenologies.

8   The movement of psychical phenomenal forms and of physical bodies can be repeated, that is, re-posited for re-issuing.  In the first case, it is time-like, and physical space is a point that is too small with zero activity (in space) but tremendous activities in time.  The psychical body tends to move but in time, across many lines of ‘super-successions’,  one moment this line, next another and next yet another, etc.  That is, there is a fourth dimension that penetrates into everything subjected to space in the universe.  Through its inter-penetration in space, the object is not destroyed because the psychic phenomenon does not move in space dimension; it moves in ‘zero-space’ dimension or the fourth axis.  It is a multi-dimensional movement in time, or a many-dimensional-time being moving itself into itself without ever been warped by space or material beings, but whose center of multi-dimensionality must be concentrated and posited in space.  In other words, mind occupies space, but the activities of itself cannot be done under calculations;  using space dimensions (zero-physical-distance-activities).

The nervous system of matter is always one level of being below the ‘mind level’  ‑  that is why we can distinguish them. In the nervous system, space becomes more important.  In other denser bodies, space dimensionality is absolutely necessary.  The three-dimensional space becomes distinguishable, and time becomes separable from space.  Time appears to be one dimensional, if you ‘feel’ for it.  By observing the mind phenomenologies, past and present becomes inter-penetrable.  Now or eternal now can be timed slowly; things go in spirals.  When we look at a massive physical body in motion, there is only one line of time (one-dimensional time) whereas in the previous observation of mind phenomenologies, time seems multi-dimensional, and not too easy for certainty calculation.  Now in the observation of bodies, which have space-like properties, as with massive bodies, calculation becomes easy.  Time is separated in our cognition from space and space only exhibits three-dimensionality. Newtonian classical mechanics arose as a careful observation on the behavior of massive bodies moving at low speeds.  Theories are developed based on this frame of reference, and it is natural to view time as a simple one-dimensional independent being which is irreversible and divisible.  Newtonian mechanics investigates the motion of mechanical bodies.  It ‘rested’ its mind on the space like aspect of the real world with the simple idea of a one-dimensional time separated from space.  In relativity, when ‘observers’ must be taken into consideration, there is an interest for-time-like phenomenon. Because time, at knowing-and-seeing level, can be multidimensional.  The Newtonian system is subjected to the limitation of categorical application, not suitable for certain phenomenon of a time-like reality peculiar to the Einsteinian domain of fine vibrations.

Motion in fourth dimension is, to a great extent, invisible to a majority of people.  The perpetual change of its co-ordinates, independent of whatever forms of spatial movement is a property of motion in the fourth dimension.  These movements along the fourth dimension may not be ‘extracted’; they are invisible, but they become visible in conflict, as they emerge into spatial dimension.  When conflict arises in the fourth dimension, we should go through it, study it, find the reason and root cause of its arising.

9   According to the science of thermodynamics, everything in nature passes to its final state by a process called ‘increase of entropy'  When this state is reached, further progress will be impossible and the universe will be dead. Distant nature will be like the stillness of the grave while the entropy entity would be continuously exploding like a sun.  The other theory is the proportion of the cyclic universe.  Here, when the universe dies in one place the products of its death are periodically being used to produce new lives in other places.

The first theory and the second theory appear contradictory.  One postulates a stop-of-progress, while the other, a continuity or a cycle.  But according to the psychological approach, there is no contradiction.  There is no stop-in-the-progress of the universe but this stop will be a continuity in another way.  Stop is a stage of progress, the continuation of this stop and ‘stillness of the grave’ is the other line of program of the universe.  It merely reflects entering a new level of being of the universe.  Entropy is disorderliness of the ‘world atoms’ dispersed as radiation.  Therefore dead at one end is life at the other end.  Radiation is so much transformable for solidified matter.  The becoming of the earth and the possible transformation into a sun can be verified by a study of entropy of the earth and by a study of the potentiality for the absent of radiation arising out of the entropy of our earth.  If this is so, the earth will enter a higher level of being; its radiation could provide ‘lives’ to the moon.  The moon will become a new being called earth.

We see but only the interconnectedness of all the levels of being-matters interpenetrating one another.  What one ceases to be, others come to be.  The theory of entropy is but one side of the ‘body of an elephant’ studied by the six blind men. It is a matter of degree of accuracy.

For those who think dialectically, who do not permit a ‘stop’ to the changes and motions of the universe, will disagree with the well established thermodynamic theory of the ultimate-ceasing-of-all-changes-in-the-universe.  That is impossible.  The universe being has “eternal” life. 

The nuisance of the law of creation of waste heat in any change upsets the harmony of the universe.  The waste heat wherever it ‘touches’ on matters, agitates them, disorganizes their energy to produce more heat and ultimately, the universe will be entropied to the full.  Then every change will stop; the universe will become a bulk of radiation without forms; there will be no life, since life will be in possession of a physical connectedness.  Heat can destroy consciousness.  The universe becomes heat devoid of forms.  Such is the vision of the entropy of universe.  But is that all!  Have we really discovered the nature and abilities of heat completely and thoroughly by 1976?  Does heat really acquire forms or return to forms or to other motions after it has reached this stage?  Does rate of vibration slow down?

But we only know heat from an awareness of it.  If this heat becomes too great, our awareness does disappear.  But when the universe becomes all-heat-in-its-wastes, any possibility of further changes would be but a transformation of this waste heat into useful heat and matter.  If in nature we can find a return of heat motion into its other levels, into masses, into consciousness, into beings and into elementary particles, the idea of cyclical evolution of the universe can be understood.  This is not easily perceptible completely, thus, contributing to the difficulty of our investigation.  My conscious mass at present does not possess the fine ingredients for a thorough understanding of this potential transformation.

10   The psychic center activities always generate a certain amount of heat energy.  Unless we can ‘stop’ the motions, or regulate them harmoniously, our body will not function properly.  Normally, we cannot ‘stop’ the motions, but we can redirect them at will.

Behavior is that which emerges out from the 4^th dimension.  There is always something moving along the 4^th dimension of any psychic material beings.  But we cannot really see it.  This line is invisible to a foreign body, and it is also invisible to us.  In order to see it, we must practice self-observation persistently, but only in us.  Ultimately, we might sense the existence of our own 4^th dimension.  In this dimension, we can sense to our own self quietly and no one will know what we are sensing at.  But as soon as we materialize what we have sensed, they would be able to see our inner dimension or a part of its motion.

11   These power-possessing beings may try to control you.  They can imprison your physical body, but they cannot imprison your mind because it moves along the fourth dimension.  You can vibrate in a manner as to make yourself invisible to them or to cause them not to destroy your psychical body.

Both the physical and the psychical bodies are important.  If they are seriously damaged, the being will die.  If the fourth dimension is developed, the degree of freedom will increase greatly.  This will improve mind penetration into denser matter and into people’s thinking.  Dangerous beings flow quietly along the fourth dimension but we cannot really ‘see’ them unless we make an effort to see them.

12   The universe reflects its own self.  One region of the universe ‘sees’ the other region.  For the organic film the beings see one another.  Beings at each level have its own opposite types.

13   Let us investigate this reciprocal process.  Just today this pupil of mine wonders why as the wheel of a tractor turns forward it appear to turn backwards for a while, stop and then turns forward again.  This phenomenon is puzzling since we are to relate that something called ‘light’ and that other thing called ‘shadow’ on the grid of the wheel.  The shadow turns forward but the eyes only focus on the light behind the shadow.  The dark is not seen by the brain but rather the bright is.  As the wheel turns everything becomes shadow.  The difference in light and shadow disappears in favor of shadow.  Everything now becomes normal and the wheel appears to move forward.  My psyche is much affected by the unsuspecting details of nature.

14   What do we mean by being multi-dimensional?  It means the ability to see and change approaches.  It means ‘seeing’ with Hitler’s eyes, Mao's eyes, Marxist’s eyes, Einstein’s eyes, a mathematician’s eye, a politician’s eyes, a   bourgeois’ eyes, an old feudalist’s eyes, etc.  This is not possible if we continue automatically to ‘see’ things in a one-dimensional manner, that is, only knows one kind of psyche-gymnastics. 

15   How the Will of the Absolute acts on the physical body, must be treated as a case for study.  ‘I’ move my limbs through issuing from the moving center.  It is an exertion of my will on the mechanical through the descending motion to the lower levels that my limbs are supposed to be made for.  But if another person watches me, it is self-motion of physical beings or psyche-directed motion of the physical body.

When we watch great nature, we ‘see’ precisely ‘self-motion’ of physical bodies, i.e. to say we should see the work of mind centers within the higher dimensions pushing the physical along or the physical is being mechanically push along.  We cannot ‘see’ the mind centers directly.  We can only see the appearancial forms at the phenomenal dimension in the mechanical, electrical, chemical and other processes.  We cannot directly see the various fine matters, however, we can feel their presence.  Any region of great nature that contains such fine vibrant psychic matters can already be called mind centers.

Now returning to this problem of ‘I’ move my limbs’, it implies and definitely means the inevitable connection of higher motion with the lower motion, connection of two qualitatively different levels of motions.  Consciousness would be motion at a plane, higher than electromagnetic motion (light is included), but I am not thoroughly sure.  It could-descend into electromagnetic motion, into electric motion that in turn proceeds to the chemical and mechanical level of motion.  But consciousness is never equivalent to electromagnetic motion.

Electro-chemical motion is linked to emotional function; electromagnetic motion is linked to the mental function; chemical motion must be associated with lower story function; physical or mechanical motion with moving function.  These are the possible connections amongst various levels of motion and their connection with the mind centers, both applicable to man and to the universe.  We must also observe these connections as ‘negation of negation’, which means reciprocal  intermingling of motions of the upper in the lower and of the lower in the upper in the course of the descending and ascending motions respectively.

16   By the time the Will of the Absolute reaches the earth, it will no longer be in its original form and content but ratter in the form of light, heat, electricity, etc.  That is, it includes all those so-called causes of change, motion of our environment and actions in us.