Dimensions Beyond the Usual Three

The idea of parallel Universes and additional hidden spatial dimensions is a common feature in pop culture as well as in areas of scientific research such as quantum mechanics and Superstring Theory, but is there any actual empirical data supporting their existence?

The concept of dimensions beyond the usual three pervades our culture. In a recent episode of the Netflix series, Stranger Things, the following exchange takes place at a funeral home after one of the main characters has apparently been put to rest:

Mike, Lucas, and Justin question Mr. Clarke at Will's wake.

Mike: So, you know how in Cosmos, Carl Sagan talks about other dimensions? Like, beyond our world?

Mr. Clarke: Yeah, sure. Theoretically.

Mike: Right, theoretically.  

Lucas: So, theoretically, how do we travel there? 

Mr. Clarke: You guys have been thinking about Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven' you? Well, basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it. Which means there's a world out there where none of this tragic stuff ever happened. 

Lucas: Yeah, that's not what we're talking about. 

Mr. Clarke: Oh.

Dustin: We were thinking of more of an evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows. You know the Vale of Shadows? 

Mr. Clarke: An echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic...

Mike: Yeah, exactly. If that did exist, a place like the Vale of Shadows, how would we travel there?

Lucas: Theoretically.

Mr. Clarke explaining the Acrobat and the Flea.

Mr. Clarke: Well... Picture an acrobat standing on a tightrope. Now, the tightrope is our dimension. And our dimension has rules. You can move forwards, or backwards. But, what if right next to our acrobat, there is a flea? Now, the flea can also travel back and forth, just like the acrobat. Right? 

Mike: Right.

Mr. Clarke: Here's where things get really interesting. The flea can also travel this way along the side of the rope. He can even go underneath the rope.

Boys: Upside down.

Mr. Clarke: Exactly.

Mike: But we're not the flea, we're the acrobat. 

Mr. Clarke: In this metaphor, yes, we're the acrobat. 

Lucas: So we can't go upside down?

Mr. Clarke: No.

Dustin: Well, is there any way for the acrobat to get to the Upside Down?

Mr. Clarke: Well you'd have to create a massive amount of energy. More than humans are currently capable of creating, mind you, to open up some kind of tear in time and space, and then you create a doorway. 

Dustin: Like a gate?

Mr. Clarke: Sure. Like a gate. But again, this is all...

Lucas: Theoretical.

Mike: But, but what if this gate already existed? 

Mr. Clarke: Well, if it did, I, I think we'd know. It would disrupt gravity, the magnetic field, our environment. Heck, it might even swallow us up whole. 

In the scene above Mr. Clarke touches on two types of alternate dimensions. The first is Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, which, according to Wikipedia, states that "there is a very large—perhaps infinite—number of universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes."

The second type discussed by the boys and Mr. Clarke are parallel planes of existence, and one in particular: "An evil dimension, like the Vale of Shadows," according to Dustin. 

So we have two types of alternate dimensions. The first is a scientific theory, the second a commercialized mockery of an esoteric tradition, while the means to bind the two together within the narrative, the acrobat and the flea analogy, is a simplification of a single aspect of Superstring Theory. So there are actually three varieties of alternate dimensions being referenced in this single scene: Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, Esoteric Planes of Existence, and finally Superstring Theory, which itself requires a total of ten dimensions of space-time.

Let's see what the skeptics say concerning just the scientific extra-dimensional theories:

"For a start, how is the existence of the other universes to be tested? To be sure, all cosmologists accept that there are some regions of the universe that lie beyond the reach of our telescopes, but somewhere on the slippery slope between that and the idea that there are an infinite number of universes, credibility reaches a limit. As one slips down that slope, more and more must be accepted on faith, and less and less is open to scientific verification. Extreme multiverse explanations are therefore reminiscent of theological discussions. Indeed, invoking an infinity of unseen universes to explain the unusual features of the one we do see is just as ad hoc as invoking an unseen Creator. The multiverse theory may be dressed up in scientific language, but in essence it requires the same leap of faith."  Paul Davies, A Brief History of the Multiverse

Concerning string theory, according to Wikipedia, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, in his 2005 book The Trouble with Physics,

"claims that string theory makes no new testable predictions; that it has no coherent mathematical formulation; and that it has not been mathematically proved finite." Also "string theory has yet to come up with a single prediction that can be verified using any technology that is likely to be feasible within our lifetimes."

If we write off Multi-World Theory as fantasy and Superstring research as being pure theory devoid of any empirical verification, that leaves us with just three dimensions of space and one of time, along with perhaps another four dimensions of momentum space, but most importantly with only the three observable dimensions of space. 

Finally we come to the other sort of alternate dimension which was discussed within the scene, that most persistent of delusions: the Parallel Plane of Existence, which in this instance is a realm labeled the Vale of Shadows or The Upside Down.

Concept art from Stranger Things.

Readers of my book, The Gnostic Notebook: On Plato, The Fourth Dimension, and the Lost Philosophy will recognize Plato's World of Forms as both the archetypal prototype of and the dualistic opposite to "the Vale of Shadows, an echo of the Material Plane, where necrotic and shadow magic" stem.

In my next post, we will delve further into the nature of these esoteric parallel planes of existence.