Could Ghosts and Spirits be Interdimensional Beings?

What if the world of direct physical experience were immersed in a higher dimensional universe? And what if those higher or extra-dimensions were inhabited by higher-dimensional beings? Would we view them as ghosts or spirits? Would they appear to be aliens with strange powers?

The world of direct sensory experience consists of three spatial dimensions: up-down, left-right, and backward-forward. In addition, there is one time dimension-a mysterious and as yet unexplained part of the physical universe to which our life history, memories and indeed our destiny is tied. But while that may seem like the whole story, scientists are telling us that the universe may contain as many as 9 or maybe even 10 additional spatial dimensions. If life can exist in our three dimensional part of the universe, is it possible that there are higher-dimensional beings? From our vantage point, this is really hard to imagine. Higher spatial dimensions-if they exist-could only be experienced by us in a shadowy sense and best, and probably only described mathematically.

To understand what kind of relationship higher-dimensional beings would have to our ordinary world of experience, we have to do a thought experiment and take a step down-a step down to a two-dimensional world where everything is flat. When we get there, we can build up a picture of how higher-dimensional beings would interact with their low-dimensional counterparts. Such a world was described in the breakthrough PBS series Cosmos created and hosted by astronomer Carl Sagan. There he related the interesting tale of flatland:

“Let us imagine we inhabit a strange country where everyone is perfectly flat. Following Edwin Abbott, a Sharkespearean scholar who lived in Victorian England, we callit Flatland. Some of us are square; some are triang;es, some have more complex shapes We scurry about, in and out of our flat buildings, occupied with our flat businesses and dallianes. Everyone in Flatland has width and length, but no height whatsoever”

With no height nor ability to travel throught the third dimension, flatlanders have no hint-not even a remote concept of what up and down is or what it would be like to travel though the third dimension (that is, except flatlander mathematicians and science-fiction writers). Imagine for a moment that this flat world existed on top of your dining room table. The flatlanders would be confined to the surface of the table. They could never leave it, not move up or down, or perceive the three-dimensional world that takes up the rest of the room.

As Sagan relates, the perceptions of flatlander creatures are limited by being constrained to move in 2 dimensions:

“Every square creature in Flatland sees another square as merely a short line segment, the side of the square nearest to him. He can see the other side of the square only by taking a short walk. But the inside of the square is forever mysterious, unless some terrible accident or autopsy breaches the sides and exposes the interior parts.”

Now imagine that you, a third dimenional observer, enter the room and look at the flatlander world on your dining room table. Imagine the powers you would have! You could hover over the flatlanders and observe them at will. You could see inside closed rooms in their flat houses, even viewing the insides of their bodies. This could be done all at once and you could have knowledge about their entire world and aspects of it that were completely closed off to their ordinary senses. Hovering over the top of their flat world-something you can do because you can move up and down and exist in the third, higher dimension, you could see not only inside closed rooms or inside their bodies, but all at once you could view widely separated events occuring in flatland. Doesn't all this sound a little like telepathy, remote viewing, and ESP?

To describe the interactions between a being in the third dimension and the flatlanders, Sagan envisions and imaginary three-dimensional creature that's an apple. The apple comes upon flatland and says hello to a square who has shut himself alone inside his house. The apple tells the square that he is a “visitor from the third dimension”. With the apple hovering over flatland as he talks, although the apple sees the square just a few inches away, the square, being a two-dimensional creature, can't directly perceive the apple. The square can only perceive aspects of the apple that interact with his two-dimensional world. The square can hear the voice, but has no idea where it is coming from. And remember the square has shut himself inside his house! In fact, Sagan claims that the voice will appear to have come from inside the square's own body. He is hearing voices in his head. Are people that hear voices in their heads sometimes getting messages from higher-dimensional beings?

The square thinks he's losing it, and the apple, eager to make contact, gets frustrated. So he decides to enter flatland directly. As Sagan describes it:

“...the apple descends into flatland. Now a three-dimensional creature can exist, in Flatland, only partially; only a cross section can be seen, only the points of contact with the plane surface of Flatland. An apple sliterhing through Flatland would appear first as a point and then as progressively larger, roughly circular slices. The square sees a point appearing in a clsoed room in his two-dimensional world and slwoing growing into a near circle. A creature of strange and changing shape has appeared form nowhere.”

Wow, deep stuff here. Let's say that again. The higher dimensional being, as seen by the lower dimensional being, just appears out of nowhere, changes form and shape in a bizarre fashion and then disappears as he exits flatland. From the square's point of view, the apple just appeared and disappered from nowhere.

This sounds quite a bit like many paranormal phenomena, like ghosts, spirits, and even some descriptions of aliens and UFO's. Can it be possible that there are higher dimensional beings inhabiting realms we are only dimly aware of? These beings, like a three-dimensional creature observing Flatland, would have total awareness and perceptions of our world we could only dream of-because we are trapped in it and they are not. They could see everything we are doing (even into our bodies), observe widely separated parts of our world simultaneously, and appear to enter and leave our world at will. When they did so, it would seem strange and mysterious because we couldn't observe or perceive their entire body, we would only see aspects of it that directly interacted with our three-dimensional world.

Scientists love to talk about “extra” or “higher” dimensions but they steer clear of the concept of higher dimensional entities. While this is pure speculation, it could be that beings do inhabit other dimensional realms and maybe consciousness itself does.

Sagan quotes from Cosmos, Copyright 1980 Ballantine Publishing Group. Image "Spirit of the Night" by John Grimshaw, available here.