I thought that sounded something like "The Twilight Zone" when I first heard it. In the Big Book is this:
"We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which he had not even dreamed." (pg 25 Big Book)
I looked up the definition of "fourth dimension" and found this on google:
1. "A postulated spatial dimension additional to those determining length, area, and volume."
2. "Time regarded as analogous to linear dimensions."
Well, that sure didn't help me understand the meaning any better....geometry was my worst subject in school! So now I am finding myself thinking about this movie I watched years ago "Out on a Limb" based on an autobiography written by and starring Shirley MacLaine (Warren Beatty's sister--I wish he had been in the movie--I would have climbed out on a limb to him--what a hunk!). She stared into this candle while she was meditating and then she said she left her body and "flew" all around and checked out the nightlife from the sky. Then I think she got into channeling and finding out about half a dozen or more different spirits that "confirmed" she had lived past lives came through this channeler.
Anyway, a little too "deep" for me, to put it nicely.
So I looked up more about the Fourth Dimension and found an article, "Can Our Brains See the Fourth Dimension?" Because I would really like what you guys have who talk about knowing and experiencing this "Fourth Dimension" which is described in the Big Book; but I have to know what it is first. Or maybe I cannot "know" it until I "experience" it. What's it feel like? That's what I want to know. Do I feel more confident, more faithful? Are my "problems" suddenly solved?
Here is an excerpt from that article I mentioned above:
"The things in our daily life have height, width and length. But for someone who's only known life in two dimensions, 3-D would be impossible to comprehend. And that, according to many researchers, is the reason we can't see the fourth dimension, or any other dimension beyond that. Physicists work under the assumption that there are at least 10 dimensions, but the majority of us will never "see" them. Because we only know life in 3-D, our brains don't understand how to look for anything more."
So I am thinking after reading that, no wonder--maybe it is because I don't know how to look for this fourth dimension. I have been doing other searches and found other sites, AA related which do not give much info other than quoting from the Big Book and about Bill W.'s experience. And I did find some other non-AA sites which are interesting such as this explanation of the 4th Dimension..."
An object that actually exists from the time it came into existence until it ceases to exist has a duration, the fourth dimension." (Bob Singer, NASA Engineer)
"The fourth dimension thus concerns time travel, while the fifth concerns immortality." (Nathan Coppedge, "The Dimensional Encyclopedia")
Interesting reading. I was told early in AA that if I didn't understand something in the Big Book, to look it up to help me better understand it. And I think my curiosity was aroused because I have started meditating. I think I'll skip the candles....it would terrify me to go "flying around" out of my body. I don't even like flying on a plane "in" my body.
.
-- Edited by leavetherest on Sunday 17th of January 2016 02:53:14 PM
This Forth Dimension thing really isn't clearly defined anywhere. Maybe this will clear things up a little for you. We humans have Five senses. We can See, Hear, Taste, Touch and Smell. If your nose runs and your feet smell you were built upside down. :) Ok, back to your question.
AA's Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. For many drunks, spiritual awakening as a result of the steps manifests as a conscious contact with their Higher Power and thus some sort of Sixth Sense or Fourth Dimension. I'm wingin' it but I think this makes sense. Do the Steps and find out for yourself.
Marc
-- Edited by MarcLacroix on Sunday 17th of January 2016 03:42:19 PM
Oh man, ... you DO have a knack for come'n up with some very interest'n subjects, LOL ...
This is truly one that takes on a personal belief based on one's on experience ... the type experience that is nearly impossible to explain to someone else that hasn't gone through the very same experience ... you know, like Einstein try'n to explain the 'theory of relativity' to someone who simply isn't smart enough to understand what the heck he's talk'n 'bout ... you know, the faster you travel, the slower time goes, in relation to where you've been, or started from ... and Nasa proved his theory with space travel ... i.e. they set two 'atomic' clocks to the same time, sent a spacecraft into space, when it returned, the clock on the spacecraft was several seconds slower than the one left behind ... this means, if you could travel faster than the speed of light, you would start get'n younger in relation to someone left behind ... (in significant terms, that is) ... It's all based on 'you' in relation to where you begin ... and the length of time and speed of travel ... (that's the way I understand it anyway) ...
What the BB is tell'n me, is that if I work the 12 steps, with total honesty, I will come to know a world that I have never experienced before, a world free of worry and strife, I will come to know that there truly IS a power in control that relieves me of anything to be worried about ... I will have my eyes opened to see and feel a 'higher power' I've never known before ... one that if I place total faith in, I never have a cause to be afraid or fearful of anything ever again ... It IS like a 4th dimension of existence (that does not mean I can just sit back and let the world go by, I have a responsibility to share this knowledge with others who struggle through life, to help them also see the light of what truly IS ... ) (else I lose this precious gift ...) ... Marc said very well too ... to repeat what he said:
AA's Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. For many drunks, spiritual awakening as a result of the steps manifests as a conscious contact with their Higher Power and thus some sort of Sixth Sense or Fourth Dimension. I'm wingin' it but I think this makes sense. Do the Steps and find out for yourself.
You will know when this 'Spiritual Awaken'n' occurs, it may or may not be 'sudden', it CAN happen over time, but you'll know ... you wake up feel'n TOTALLY different one day, as if the great question in life has been answered "Is There a God?" ... you'll know the answer beyond any reasonable doubt what-so-ever ... and it won't matter one iota what anybody else thinks, you'll just know ... THEN you'll know the 'Peace 'n Serenity' promised in the BB ... I happen to know this for a fact ...
Happy Sobriety!
Love you guys and God Bless, Pappy
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Oh...and here I was expecting to go flying all around the room one day after my meditating like the hot air coming out of a balloon....setting myself up big time making that comment, I know.
Oh...and here I was expecting to go flying all around the room one day after my meditating like the hot air coming out of a balloon....setting myself up big time making that comment, I know.
Your time would be better spent 'Working the Steps' instead of mocking something you know nothing about. :)
Marc,
You're right. I don't know much about it. That's why I posted what I did. When I have questions about something and want to learn, that's what I do. That's how I spend my time, Marc. And you????
BTW.......I am happier than I have been in a long time and there is nothing you can say that has any power over me to take that away. And you Marc???? Are you happy? I am working the Steps (again, since I relapsed) and thank you for your interest in my program. I can post anything I feel will be helpful to me and to others on this board. At least I don't feel the need to try to attack others by calling them names and post vulgar comments about my private body parts. Nor would I ever come here and try to talk the administrator in using my services and getting upset over it like you did when he didn't. (If I had any services that is, LOL!) You need to work on your own step work and program and stay the heck out of mine. You are exhibiting dry drunk behavior and I will not allow myself to be affected by it. I choose to "stick with the winners" on my recovery path, and you Marc, have nothing I want.
