The Fourth Dimension: Sacred Geometry, Alchemy and Mathematics

Not quite what I expected.

Thoroughly good read

Amazing book everyone should read

I wholeheartedly recommend “The Fourth Dimension: Sacred Geometry, Alchemy, and Mathematics” to everyone familiar with the work of Rudolf Steiner. Regrettably, the previous reviewer had not studied the basic Steinerian concepts thoroughly enough to comprehend much of the rich and meaningful material in “The Fourth Dimension”. First reading some of Rudolf Steiner’s basic Anthroposophical books (“Knowledge of the Higher Worlds”, “An Outline of Occult Science”, “The Philosophy of Freedom”, “Theosophy”, “A Road to Self Knowledge”, “Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts”) will help the reader more fully understand his lectures. Keep in mind that the lectures were never intended to be published and read by the general public. Many books are available to read for free online at the Rudolf Steiner Archive (rsarchive.org).

great book

If you are a fan of geometry (sacred) and straight- its all the sacred, Steiner makes a great case for the forth dimension and proves with proofs. Hes the cats meow

Steiner goes over the mathmatical relationship between the astral and the physical. For anyone serious about The Occult, Metaphysics, and/or having an out of body experience, this is a must read.

In this collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, Steiner argues that our conscious experience must operate in four dimensions of space rather then the three dimensional spatial world we see around us. Steiner argues that in order to fully see an object or geometric relation in one dimension we need to jump to another higher dimension eg. to see the boundary of two dimensional circle we must see the circle from our perspective in three dimensional space. Steiner contends that a purely mental image in the mind is a two dimensional inverted image of the physical objects in our world. In perception, this mental image and physical object that it is mental image of, are both located in the same part or parts of space. However, in order to locate both the object and our mental image of the object in the same location we need to jump to four dimensions, as a result, we must see the process of perception as four dimensional. Steiner also looks at how movement into a higher dimension requires curvature. For example, a one dimensional line A-B becomes a two dimensional circle when the line is curved around to join the points A and B. In the lower dimensional space the points A and B that go off into infinity at polar opposite ends meet at the same point in space in the higher dimensional space. In three dimensional space, lines of force which expand out or diverge out in space from a point source at infinity have an opposite force which converges inward from spatial infinity. The inward and outward lines of force meet and cancel each other out forming a two dimensional boundary. Steiner argues that different planes of existence, the physical, astral, mental planes etc. occupy different dimensions. While Steiner’s references to “Occult Science” and concepts like “Astral Planes” may seem alienating to 21st Century readers, one can speculate that much modern academic science is really not that far removed from Steiner’s views. For example, modern physicists often make reference to a higher dimensions in their models of the universe and perhaps more significantly, Cognitive Neuroscience also contends that many brain processes involve the transferring of information between hierarchies of dimensions.
For example, visual scientists often define the problem of visual perception as involving understanding how the brain recovers the image of a three dimensional object from the two dimensional image projected on the retina of the eye. Contrary to the materialistic view of perception made by Cognitive Neuroscience, Steiner would have perhaps argued that the two dimensional image is not a retinal image but an Astral image and the “problem” of visual perception is not really a problem at all if we understand vision as occurring in four dimensional space and not the physical three dimensional world. This view overcomes the paradoxical notion that somehow the brain creates our visual world inside our heads and the baffling question of how the brain squeezes the entire outside world into our head. Steiner would argue it doesn’t since the world we see is a function of the mental realms which exist on higher dimensions then the physical brain. Interestingly, if one looks at how objects in the world are mapped to visual processing areas of the brain one find strange inversions of the object mapped to the brain as if the visually perceived object is mapped to the visual cortex in such a way that the brain representation is left-right reversed, upside down and back to front. Exactly, what Steiner predicts from his four dimensional view of perception.
Steiner’s lectures are followed by a series of question and answers in which Steiner discusses a number of topics about geometry, mathematics, imaginary and complex numbers and Einstein Relativity. In is helpful to read the extensive notes in the back of the book in order to follow Steiner’s thinking on these topics. I think scientists, especially those involved in the cognitive sciences, should look at Steiner’s work more closely, especially as cognitive science straddles the line between what Steiner called a “science of phenomenology” as opposed to a “mechanistic science.” Modern brain science has turned phenomenology into a mechanistic science which may have limits as to how fruitful it is given the reduction of mind to brain. Understanding the brain as a lower dimensional representation of the mental realms of existence may not only help our understanding of the mental realms but the brain as a representational system as well.