Seven Dimensions Of the Mind

ART BY S. RAJAM

EDUCATIONAL INSIGHT

A Mystical Map of Existence & Consciousness

MAJOR EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK BY SATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI

The Author: This pencil portrait of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is one of 20 created by Natalie Levin for the book excerpted in this feature. The book’s seven chapter spreads are shown here, illustrated with symbolic art by S. Rajam of Mylapore, South India.

ATGURU SIVAYA SUBRAMUNIYASWAMI’S FRAMEWORK OF seven dimensions of the mind divides consciousness into seven categories that range from gross to extremely subtle. The first two describe physical existence—the inside and outside of things. The third dimension is mankind’s normal level of consciousness, consisting of thoughts and emotions about our own and others’ lives. The fourth through the seventh dimensions can be described as the inner, mystical or higher realms of consciousness. They are within everyone but require training and practice to be accessed with continuity. This unique framework is useful in providing guidance in our efforts to access inner states of consciousness. This requires knowing which dimension of the mind the inner state is in. Like following a mariner’s map, once we pinpoint a superconscious experience we are able to return to it again and again, just as sailors can reach a shore on a chart. Gurudeva gives a helpful key to experiencing the states of consciousness in the fourth through seventh dimensions by relating them to the chakras. Specifically, he states that, while in meditation, to experience states of inner consciousness within the fourth dimension, look at the world from the chest area (anahata chakra); for the fifth dimension, look out from the throat area (vishuddha chakra); for the sixth dimension, look out from between the eyes (ajna chakra); for the seventh dimension, look at the inner world through the top of the head (sahasrara chakra).

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Author’s Introduction to the Dimensions

The dimensions are a positive and helpful way of looking at life and understanding the experiences we have on the inward path. By identifying experience as being within one dimension or another, we are able to know at all times just where we are in consciousness, and that knowledge is the control over awareness that we need to continue the upward climb. At all times we are flowing through all of the dimensions. They all exist in total completion right now within us. However, we are only conscious periodically in one or another of them as awareness magnifies itself and registers the dimension by focusing upon it, shall we say.

Prelude: Awareness and the Seven Dimensions

Awareness itself functions differently from one dimension to another. When we look at life from the fourth dimension, we see more in depth than we can from the third or the second. Remember when we studied the second dimension, we found no depth at all? Then we created the third. We put depth and life, vigor and vitality to the second dimension of things that was just sitting there. Next we became tangled in this vigor and vitality, in the relationships between people and people and people and things, and the subconscious was created. The sense of ego, of personality, evolved out of the third dimension, for it is composed strictly of odic, magnetic force. The intellect and emotions dominated us.

When we released awareness to travel freely in the mind by managing positively the second and third dimensions, we entered another perspective. We gained the overview, a mountaintop consciousness from which we could see a nine-day scope of time and look into and through all of the intricacies of the third dimension and how it is created. In a sense, we put more light into the third dimension, the dark area of the mind. [Here, the term awareness refers to: Individual consciousness; perception; knowing; the witness of perception, “the inner eye of the soul.”]

When we are in inner darkness and confusion, that is the third dimension totally. But as we brought more light into the third dimension and saw how it was constructed, we were in the fourth dimension and could also look into the deeper dimensions. From the fifth dimension, we became aware of the intricacies and the inner workings of the fourth dimension, seeing what psychic nerves look like, seeing how psychic nerve currents draw their energy from the central source of energy. In the fifth dimension, we became aware of a bright light that filled the cranium. In a flash we intuited vast knowledge and saw the creation, preservation and destruction of objects over seemingly great spans of time simultaneously in the now. A deep love, a universal and all-embracing love, unfolded. Compassion burst forth as we came to understand the predicament of our fellow man.

Awareness, too, changed. Instead of traveling or flowing through the mind, now it could focus and look into any area without seeming to move. Experiences came before our inner vision, and we could even bring past and future into the now. Later we evolved into the sixth dimension, where all form is reduced to sound and color. The devonic or heavenly realm of forces as represented by Gods, Deities and devas became manifest. From the sixth dimension, which corresponds to the ajna chakra or third eye, inner worlds opened and light flooded through the entire body.

The seventh dimension, or sahasrara chakra, brought us into pure consciousness or pure space void of form—awareness aware only of itself. Here awareness finally withdraws even from the magnificent visions of superconsciousness, and with no objects is able to contemplate itself as kaif». Finally, the snake swallows its own tail, awareness dissolves and only That remains, the Self God beyond all dimensions of the mind.

Of course, it is one thing to hear about the dimensions, to be intellectually fascinated by the vastness of this perspective, and quite another to make them an experiential part of our lives. That is what must be done next. Identify the dimensions within the context of your own personal experience. Ask yourself, “Which dimension does this kind of happening belong to? How does one dimension relate to and exist within another inside of me?” Mark off the various areas of the mind. Map them out carefully and you will identify and enjoy aspects of yourself you never knew existed before.

You will observe that man is a whole, the totality of all existence residing within him in various layers of subtle and gross vibration, evolving ever more subtle as the continuum penetrates deeper into his being, reaching ultimately the timeless, spaceless Reality of himself which he then identifies as the one Reality in all of existence.

BAANI SEKKON

The Seven Dimensions in a Nutshell

First Dimension

The inside of physical objects that you cannot see or touch.

Second Dimension

All physical objects that you can see and touch.

Third Dimension

The interrelated magnetic forces that exist between people and people and their things.

Fourth Dimension

Awareness cognizing the interrelated forces of the fifth, fourth and third dimensions. A natural state for those who meditate.

Fifth Dimension

Awareness of forms in their totality in progressive states of manifestation.

Sixth Dimension

The rarefied area of mind where forms are conceived of inner sound and colors.

Seventh Dimension

Awareness expanded into endless inner space.

First Dimension: The Inside of Objects

The first dimension is the inside of things that you cannot see or touch. The inside of a piece of fruit is the first dimension; the outside or surface of the fruit is the second dimension. The inside of the physical body, the Earth, a tree and a stone—these all lie in the first dimension. To bring the first dimension out, simply open up the fruit. The part that was previously unseen as well as untouched but which is now visible and tangible has been brought into the second dimension.

It is interesting to note that most of modern science is dedicated to unfolding knowledge of the first dimension, and that within the molecular, atomic and sub-atomic elements of matter the other seven dimensions are discovered. Thus the scientist, by looking into matter, finds the deeper dimensions to the point of reducing matter to energy and energy to sound and light. Further reducing sound and light to consciousness and anti-matter, he verges on the brink of contemplative realization similar to that discovered in deep meditation. Therefore, all dimensions of the mind exist in every cell, every atom in the universe.

Within the first dimension of the mind, called arehmushum, there are energy flows. Energy in its static state. Energy spinning. Energy lifting, pushing, pulling, rising, falling, attracting, repelling, changing form, filling, emptying, appearing and disappearing. Eighteen forms of energy exist in the first dimension, interacting and causing the phenomena observed in the physical world and studied by science as gravity, momentum, inertia, magnetism, electricity and various forces. We can see these energy flows very readily in nature as we witness, without holding previous concepts, the actions and interactions within plants, within stones, within water, wind and fire.

Inside a human cell: While the surface of a cell is simple (the second dimension), the inside is complex almost beyond imagination. Here the artist cuts into a cell to reveal a few of the tens of thousands of inclusions. All of the main images use Australian-aborigine dotted-art backgrounds.

Second Dimension: The Five Senses

The second dimension consists of things which can be both seen and touched—the surfaces of objects such as flowers, stones and water. When we observe these objects without thinking about them, without feeling like or dislike—just pure perception—then we are aware of the second dimension.

It appears flat, consisting of only two layers of form, for it is seen without evaluation or analysis which gives depth to our observations. If we close our eyes and then open them very slowly, holding the mind steady, we can sit without relating to anything we see and therefore see it objectively as it is. This flat view of the world of objects can be experienced more easily by opening just one eye than with both eyes open. There is a tendency to get involved with what we see when both eyes are open. What we perceive are things that can be identified with the five senses—things we can smell, hear, touch, taste and see. These perceptions are all two-dimensional through the senses. Through interpretation they do flow into deeper dimensions of the mind.

The mystic, in looking out at the world of objects, sees the second dimension as a coherent conglomeration of “things.” Recognizing the limited mind function of things, or the boundary of second-dimensional intelligence, he does not become entangled in his relationship to them. Nevertheless, he does relate to the second dimension by using it, by observing it, by appreciating it, or by renouncing it. He places the two-dimensional world where it belongs.

Forms are always changing in the second dimension. However, the substance out of which they are made is recycled from one form to another form. According to the mystic’s perspective, all forms exist in all time cycles within the mind. There is nothing created; there is nothing preserved; there is nothing destroyed. All things exist simultaneously, coming into various dimensions of manifestation from time to time.

The decay, the change of form in the second dimension through time cycles, is apparent when things of short time cycles are viewed—a flower, for instance. The brief time span of a flower lets us view its budding, blossom, life and decay within a matter of days or even hours. The atoms of a flower will go to some other forms once that flower has demagnetized itself by breaking through a time cycle. A banyan tree or mountain are examples of objects with apparently more permanence, or which take years or centuries for the process of decay to become visible.

The second dimension has been and always will be created through certain aspects of time cycles and is comprised of two parts: time continuity or memory and the instinctive consciousness that works involuntarily according to habit patterns in man as well as in animals. Nature, then, is related to the instinctive mind. The memory patterns of a flower are very strong. It comes up the same year after year, century after century. It does not forget how to form itself. So, the second dimension is created by the instinctive forces of nature, the instinctive mind of animals and man in conjunction with the memory patterns of the grand mind of nature—created by man according to his needs and desires.

Man himself controls these time cycles to a certain extent, but not totally. For one thing, he holds the second dimension together in consciousness in short, medium or long time cycles, depending upon the nature of the object’s construction. If he actually constructs it himself, then the amount of energy and thought put into planning and clear thinking will either lengthen or shorten the time cycle. Because his body is of the second dimension, as he enters into a particular time cycle he adds power to that cycle and objects in it and can act either as creator, preserver or destroyer and thereby lengthen or shorten a natural time cycle. A man could allow a chair to sit until it went into its natural decay, or he could enter the picture as another second-dimensional object and preserve or destroy it.

The second dimension is the exterior world which most languages describe abundantly, making it seem real to us and giving it a sense of permanency, for man’s mind gives substance or recognition to things that are named or labeled. Most people acquire a possession, and instead of using that possession and disposing of it, they use it and become attached to it through like and dislike. It becomes a part of their mind. It becomes real to them. They take it seriously, and when the time comes to dispose of that possession, they are unhappy. This indicates the narrowing down of the mind which has been caused by language and attitudes which build possession and the significance of physical things out of proportion.

See and touch: The second dimension consists of physical objects, everything we can see and touch. Here it is cleverly depicted by the artist as eyes in hands. The sidebar icon is a plant cell on a leaf.

BAANI SEKKON

An Acharya’s Meditation

One day, decades ago, I had a meditation that took me without notice into the first dimension. Prior to that, I had more or less dismissed it. After all, it’s only one, and there are six more that are higher, and presumably more important. In this meditation, I was suddenly confronted with how vast the first dimension is. It had such depth and complexity. I realized it is far more significant to the workings of the cosmos than the second dimension, which we can see and touch. In fact, the second dimension is a mere surface, like a cell wall or the skin on our body, beneath which is the real workings of the cell. From that day, I have so appreciated what Gurudeva calls “the inside of things we cannot see and touch.” The inside is far bigger and substantive than the outside. What we don’t see and don’t touch is infinitely larger than what we do.

Professor of biology Michael Denton, in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, explains human cell complexity [the first dimension of our own bodies] with an example: “To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalelled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like portholes of a vast space ship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings, we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity... beyond our own creative capacities, a reality which is the very antithesis of chance, which excels in every sense anything produced by the intelligence of man.”

Third Dimension: Thoughts and Feelings

It is in the third dimension that most people live most of the time. This is the world of thoughts and feelings, of emotions and intellectual theory. It thrives on novelty, new ideas, new feelings, new fashions, new discoveries, new anything. The third-dimensional world is changing rapidly.

When we open our eyes and look into the exterior world, where we perceive things through sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, the five senses are going to naturally react. They react according to the personality and habit structure of man. If he smells something he is accustomed to smelling, he likes it. If he encounters an unfamiliar smell, the animal nature will recoil and he will say, “I don’t like it.” He forms likes and dislikes, loves and hates which later build through repetition into joys and sorrows. The flurry caused by this attraction and repelling in the nerve system of man as he relates to people and objects is the birth of the third dimension in man.

Man creates his own personal ego through these subtle reactions of his nerve system to the world of things and the world of other people. Once sufficient experience has been developed into habit patterns of action and reaction, he begins to dissect those things. He collects in his mind all of the good, positive, familiar impressions that he has grown accustomed to. Then he discards those impressions that have stirred his nerve system and those that are unfamiliar. Thus he enters fully into the third dimension of the mind, where most of the world as we generally know it takes place—much more so than in the first or second dimensions.

It is when we bring our subconscious and our intellectual facilities into the second dimension that we cause the third dimension to happen. We look at the world about us, up and down, right and left, and we begin to form comparisons in our analyzing things of the second dimension. Our likes and dislikes are the third dimension. The first and most simple structure of the third dimension is created in this way. Next we evaluate the likes and dislikes themselves, simultaneously creating the next more complex strata of third-dimensional existence. That is, we analyze our impressions, weighing them against the impressions of others. We think about our own thoughts. We have feelings about our feelings, and out of these ongoing comparisons the interwoven structure of this dimension evolves. Through our ratio of comparisons, first of objects, then of our interaction with objects, through nerve system response, and finally of our self-created thoughts and feelings, the third dimension gains prominence and severely entangles awareness in a fascinating and seemingly endless cinema.

When we sit with others in a room, the third dimension claims such priority that most of the activity takes place there. Of course, the second dimension is all about us and was prepared earlier. Someone had to arrange the furniture, clean the room, or even prepare a meal. But when we gather in the room, sit down together, we immediately lose consciousness of the second dimension. Instead, we relate almost exclusively to our feelings, emotions, desires, concepts, likes and dislikes. In talking, laughing and arguing back and forth we thrust our pranic life force into the third dimension, stimulate and are stimulated by the energy that others dedicate to the discussion. As the forces mix and mingle among everyone in the room, they produce either positive, creative overtones or negative, contentious ones, according to the chemicalization of the entire group mind.

The businessman or artist has cycles as well, but they are more consciously directed. In fact, they are partially creating the forces that influence others in the world. Their control of the forces of the third dimension comes through dealing positively and dynamically with themselves and through maintaining an active, creative state which dominates rather than is dominated by the swirling energies of other people. Through discipline, knowledge and restraints, they direct the mental and feeling forces positively and smooth out the cycles of inner-dimensional life.

The mature meditator remains independent of fluctuating cycles by not identifying falsely with the inevitable changes inherent in third-dimensional existence. He works to hold awareness constantly in the fourth dimension, from which the first, second and third are viewed in affectionate detachment. The fourth dimension is home base, the area of mind he returns to after meditation, not allowing awareness to flow to the extremities of gross instincts and intellect found in the third dimension.... In man the instinctive cycles comprise a relatively minimal portion of the third dimension. Emotional and intellectual cycles are more prominent. All people have emotional cycles. They are not always cheerfully liking and they are not always sorrowfully disliking. They are not always full and they are not always hungry. A constant ebb and flow of the odic forces characterizes this dimension. It is always in flux, always changing.

Between people: The third dimension, where humans mostly live, is about people and their relationships with other people and with things. The sidebar icon is the artist’s interpretation of the intertwining of energies between people, shown as two trees wrapping around one another.

BAANI SEKKON

Third Dimension in Depth

The third dimension is the essence of duality, the shifting of forces constantly. Within the changing world of the third dimension are two basic and intricate energy flows. The first is a flow of force between people and things. This is a one-way flow through which people relate to objects. The second is a flow between two people or more and also between people and animals. Visualize a stream of energy generated in the body by the processes of life. This energy or prana constantly flows out from the central source of energy and constitutes the aura, constitutes the physical energy that moves the body, constitutes thoughts and feelings. This prana creates a force field around the body. As soon as two people associate, these force fields interact, or the two energy streams interchange. Should these energies be of a like nature, the result is friendship. When we understand these energies as they combine, attract and repel in human relationships, we then begin to discover the constituent parts of what we call the world.

From the point of view of the second dimension looking into the third, awareness is awed by the seemingly powerful feelings, emotions and motivating forces of the third dimension. We feel victims of forces beyond our power to control. Generally, if we go into a study of the mind from this perspective of looking, in a sense, from the second dimension into the third and fourth, we analyze the surface by asking ourselves, “Why did this happen to me? Why did that happen? What did I do to deserve this?” Many, many people live their entire lifetime in a conscious-mind state, trying to analyze the subconscious, and discover very little for their efforts.

Fourth Dimension: Mountaintop Consciousness

The fourth dimension is the natural state of mankind, the state he resides in unless external events consume awareness. This is where life should be lived every day, having that mountaintop consciousness that looks over, in and through everything and gives the facility to enjoy and participate fully in the world while knowing at all times exactly where we are in the mind. It gives the experience of a pure state of awareness flowing through the mind and is the threshold to vaster inner space and spiritual realization. It is a beautiful place to be, and you can be there all of the time by feeling the power of your spine. The minute you feel that radiant energy in the spine, you are disconnected from the third dimension and soar into the fourth.

As this transition occurs, the first glimmer of inner light within the head is seen. It is usually a pale, moon-like glow seen at the top of the head from the fourth dimension looking into the fifth. This light illumines the darkness of the third dimension. The third dimension is the dark area of the mind, and we only see our way clearly in it through the two lights of the fourth dimension: sunlight or electric light, which man himself has invented to light up the third dimension and remove the fear of unknowing which is equal to the fear of darkness.

When we can hold ourselves in consciousness steady enough to see yesterday and tomorrow right in the same moment, we are in the fourth dimension. When we can hold ourselves steady enough to see the flow of force and vibration in the inner atmosphere between other people and ourselves, we are in the fourth dimension.

When we are emotionally tangled or upset and we see that we are emotionally upset, we’re in the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is the watcher. If totally enmeshed in the third dimension, we would be upset but would be too identified with the emotion to be able to simultaneously observe, “I am upset. I feel confused and terrible!” When we watch the mind think, we are using a faculty of the fourth dimension. Only the fourth dimension can observe the thinking process at work. That is a good, clear way to look at the fourth dimension—as simply the watcher, the witness. There are millions of different ways consciousness can and does function in the fourth dimension, but this is the best way to define and learn of it.

Understandings gained from the fourth dimension tend to make one a good teacher and philosopher. Artists are in the fourth dimension. Each time you designed or created anything, you were bringing the beauty of the within through your nerve system into manifestation. Didn’t your whole nerve system feel good? That was the subsuperconscious fourth dimension of you. It finds expression in the creative intellect that wants to know for the good of the other fellow, that seeking to know.

When we say a person is open-minded, more willing to listen than to banter back his own ideas at you, he is conscious in the fourth dimension. He’s a new-age person. When he says something, it’s because he has something to say and generally his perspective of looking at the world is quite different from the material attitudes of people around him. He is able to see all four sides of a subject at the same time and to understand what people mean even if their viewpoint differs from his own. He is inspirational. He has and enjoys happiness. He is creative, unique, and works out of the box. He is independent, relying on himself and the power of his spine. He is quick to help others but slow to get entangled with their third-dimensional forces. He is highly motivated, with well-defined purposes and goals. He expends his energy well, not wasting or draining the power that propels him onward and inward. He is enthused, charmed with life, charged with great desire to pursue the spiritual path.

It is not as difficult as we sometimes make it seem to be in the fourth dimension. Most people spend quite a bit of their time in the fourth-dimensional realm without even realizing it. But the discovery of the fourth dimension or any dimension is the discovery that we’re already there and knowing when we are there and when we are not there. If we know that, we automatically know how to be there when we find we are not.

The transition from the third dimension into the fourth comes when our subconscious has released itself from opposing forces sufficiently to recognize that awareness travels in the mind and to identify with awareness instead of states of emotion and intellect through which it passes. We then gain a certain control over previous congested areas of the third dimension. More perception comes. We are able to see the third dimension clearly, to hold for longer periods of time our proper relations to the second, third and fourth dimensions.

Cognition: The fourth dimension is the subsuperconscious mind where we see the interrelatedness of all things, understanding the within as well as the outside. It is the world of knowing. The sidebar icon is Sri Chakra, a mystical yantra used for meditation.

BAANI SEKKON

Steadiness in the 4th Dimension

It’s very easy to get into the fourth dimension, very easy. It’s a little more challenging to hold that detached perspective when things are not going as well as we would like—but then it’s easy to return when the forces smooth out. Whereas man himself creates the third dimension in daily life, the fourth dimension is the being of man and how he relates to himself within himself. Yet, it is not powerful like the fifth dimension, but serene and quiet. It is the home base for the jnani. He never moves further out in consciousness than the fourth dimension, never becomes attached or identified with thought, emotion, or even the multitudinous forms of superconsciousness. He is the watcher, and his awareness is centered, hovering like a hummingbird, governing the flow of the externalities of life while resting in the peace and enlightenment of his own being. From his established silent center, he looks at and into every aspect of the interrelated states of mind, the interrelated states of the nerve system as seen by the fourth dimension. His awareness remains basically within the fourth dimension and does not have to flow out into the third or second, because the visionary powers and faculty of inner sight already sees out through the third and second dimensions, acts, and governs those dimensions as well as the personality effectively from the fourth without ever leaving it. From this vantage point, we can view the building of emotional involvements within the third dimension, observing the workings of the emotional and intellectual units of ourselves and others. From this detachment, we gain the ability to dissolve confusions, conflicts, and the various and varied entanglements that are encountered daily.

Fifth Dimension: The Mind of Light

The perspective that all is well in the world, the experience that everything is as it should be, perfect right now, is of the fifth dimension. In this state we realize a great bliss, a comprehensive, all-encompassing acceptance of the universe as it is, which reveals that the whole of existence is working proportionately one with another. Everything is right, just right, and if you moved even one thing—you wouldn’t want to move one thing. You wouldn’t want to change or improve one thing, or stop something or start something, because everything is all right. Now, you would never feel that way in the third dimension or even the fourth, which would inspire philosophical discourse.

The fifth dimension is powerful. It eradicates concepts of imperfection in the flash vision of perfect harmony of all things. It is pure insight. Then insight is translated to the fourth dimension, where it can be comprehended by the outer consciousness of man. Metaphysicians call the fifth dimension the “mind of light,” for it is the superconscious area from which the clear white light is inwardly seen to fill the head. Others call it God. As man comes into the sixth dimension, that light extends throughout the physical body and can even be seen in the feet as he walks.

When people function in the fifth dimension, they are not out of touch with daily realities. It makes them extremely alert and bright. They’re right there. They see things that have to be done and do them. Since they draw from a vast storehouse of energy and a broad evolutionary vantage point, they even do unfamiliar tasks with confidence—as though they had performed it a thousand times. They haven’t done it before, but they have. They feel they have. Nothing seems strange or awkward. Everything is familiar, and they bring grace into every department of life.

In the beginning, we discover the fifth dimension only through flashes, brief insights. People have had intuitive flashes that have altered and changed the pattern of their entire life. The still, small voice, or the inner voice, comes directly from the fifth dimension. The third eye functions from the fifth and sixth dimensions. Then one of the difficulties comes—that of translating knowledge and insight into a conceptual understanding. Very often fifth-dimensional insight is so deep, so subtle that we cannot label it and therefore cannot reconstruct it in our memory patterns. We think, “Oh, this is so clear, so obvious I could never forget it.” Ten minutes later we are struggling to maintain the continuity of the experience which, dream-like, begins to fade. Yet, as we become more and more acquainted with these strata, the memory is impressed easily on the physical brain cells, and the fifth dimension comes more into focus for us.

In the fifth dimension of the mind the total evolution of form is perceived. When we see a flower, we not only see it as it is at that moment, but simultaneously actually see the stages of its life from creation to preservation to disintegration. This is where we see “life in a blade of grass and the universe in a grain of sand.” All things are within all things. The fifth dimension is not timeless, but it has no consciousness of time or even of the third dimension.

Great inventions and music have come from the fifth dimension in a flash, followed by years of working all of the details through to the fourth and third dimensions. Awakened psychics enter the fifth dimension and are able to read patterns of the future and past through the third eye.

The fifth dimension can be related to the kalingkasim° chakra, located at the throat. People who are conscious in the fifth dimension have a deep universal love for other people. They are often humanitarians. Life for them is a joyous, even blissful, experience with events happening in perfect timing. Other people like to be with them, for they are open, right there, present to the needs of others. The forces of their life are not so much consciously directed as directed superconsciously from the fifth dimension itself, which keeps all aspects in proportion. Of course, they also need a strong fourth-dimensional capacity to follow through on these subtle directions, and a strong third dimension to sustain the forces of superconsciousness. If they find themselves struggling with forces of the third dimension, the rules and regulations of which may not be totally familiar to them, they resolve their problems from the fifth dimension. Solutions come clearly to them, and with strong fourth-dimensional capacity they follow through and do it.

In the fifth dimension we have no sense of ego, no personal me or mine, which after all are composed of the elements of the second and third dimension. People who experience this metamorphosis from ordinary consciousness, and then discipline themselves so the intensity of fifth-dimensional being is sustained, love their fellow man with quiet compassion.

They are great humanitarians and understand the predicament and problems of others without criticism. Timing in their lives is right, and things happen for them. They’re open. They’re right there. They receive positive direction from the fifth dimension, which periodically, shall we say, adjusts their forces, keeping all other aspects in line. They find out how to do things—they’re creative.

Superconsciousness: Here a seeker awakens the light of the mind, and it floods down his spine. From this dimension he sees past and future, unfolds new knowledge and creativity. The sidebar icon shows the evolution of a seed into a sprout and finally a mature plant.

BAANI SEKKON

Blissfulness in the 5th Dimension

The way to get stabilized in the fifth-dimensional consciousness is to lead a positive and virtuous inner life and a positive and virtuous outer life. This simple act brings the subtle layers of existence to the forefront of awareness. In the initial stages of meditation, the fifth dimension seems extremely tenuous, almost non-existent or out of reach. Gradually, after years of sustained sadhana, we come to relate freely within its realms. It becomes very much a part of life as we discover it during meditation, then later in the midst of ordinary activity. When this happens, dramatic changes in our life manifest due to awareness’ migration to a new channel within the spinal column.

If you visualize the símshumbisi» current as a cord of wires all together, awareness would generally flow through just one of them. In order to get into the next wire, it is not possible to jump across the hiatus in the middle. You must go to the top, to the fifth dimension, for that is the only opening. Most people are only aware of one or two currents and believe that is all that exist. Most devotees on the path have already experienced the re-channeling of awareness from the fifth dimension. They may not know what happened exactly, or even when, but something did happen, and here they are seeking within, whereas before the within was perhaps a mental concept. Re-channeling could happen during an intense sorrow or joy, by meeting a holy being or even during sleep.

Sixth Dimension: The World of Sounds & Colors

The sixth dimension is color, sound and vibration, as well as subtle forms and beings composed of these elements. The colors of the sixth dimension are unlike colors we have ever seen on the surface of the Earth. They are brighter, yet more subtle, and they mix and mingle. In other words, colors pass into and through each other, creating exquisite varieties of color with form. The beautiful actinic body of light, that pure inner body, exists in the sixth dimension.

Awareness in the sixth dimension has an all-knowing capacity which is difficult to translate into fourth-dimensional conceptual understanding. Therefore, mystics often have deep sixth-dimensional experiences, but cannot always recall the experience later. This dimension is outside of the normal processes of thought and time, and a prolonged experience may seem to last an entire month, while its actual duration on the physical plane is only two seconds; and such vast experience cannot register within the faculty of time-space memory patterns of the fourth dimension. But from the fourth dimension, the aspirant would intuit later certain aspects of the experience and bring them through to work with and use in his daily life. Extended practice of kaif» [awareness aware of itself] and other disciplined contemplative efforts bring more and more awareness of the deeper dimensions into daily perceptions.

Science has recently discovered the sixth dimension. It tells us that all matter is energy in a grosser form and that even a chair can be reduced to sound and color at a sub-molecular level. And they’re right. A chair on one level sounds like a symphony and looks like a light show. But in the second dimension it is just an ordinary chair. It exists simultaneously in all dimensions and looks different from each.

The great saints and sages venerated by men have lived fully and consciously in this rarified mind strata. There are people who once lived in physical bodies and in the fourth dimension and who now live totally in the sixth dimension. It is possible to live without a physical body in this dimension and to still be fully conscious. One lives in his inner body.

Temple Deities are sixth-dimensional beings. When we visit temples, they actually do hear and see our supplications. Great beings who no longer need a physical body also reside in this dimension.

If awareness has been well schooled in concentration, it can hold itself placidly in the intensity of the sixth dimension, remaining there to view the interrelated inner forces which construct the inner bodies of man—the actinodic or astral body and the golden actinic body, which is given birth after continued experiences of Self Realization.

The sixth dimension is a guarded area of the mind, less accessible than other states. The gates to these realms are guarded by fierce and apparently demonic creatures, and entrance is onlsoy gained once it is earned. The best way to earn access into the sixth dimension is to come in from the seventh. The best way to gain audience with a king is to be a king yourself. Better not to consciously open the psychic centers of the sixth dimension, but to understand the realm. When the time is right, experience will come of itself. It is far easier anyway to enter the equally blissful seventh dimension by entering simshumbusi» energy in the spine and from there into pure consciousness—kaif». The bliss of the seventh dimension is quite different from that in the sixth.

The superconscious plane of the sixth dimension is situated at the third eye or ajna chakra. The inner mechanism of the human aura, the inner mechanism of thought forms, the inner mechanism of the astral plane and the superconscious body of light are all within this sixth dimension. The forces and rays of actinic energy, the various breakdowns of magnetic energy, the rays of the actinic force fields radiating out from the seventh dimension, and the rays of the odic magnetic force fields issuing forth from the third and fourth dimensions all come together within the sixth dimension in a tremendous intensity. The sixth dimension is therefore the heart of the generative and regenerative function of intelligence of man, whereas the fifth dimension actually governs all intelligence.

Sound and color: The deep inner world of this dimension is made of subtle sound and color, shown here as the sound-giving conch shell which holds within it brilliant colors of all shades. The sidebar icon is a steady flame, intimating the fully stilled mind that is aware of awareness and nothing else.

BAANI SEKKON

Kaif»: Awareness Aware of Itself

Anyone can experience kaif», awareness aware of itself, for brief interludes. It is much more difficult to sustain the intensity, however, for the very power that allows us to control the mind enough to touch into kaif» stimulates the other dimensions as well, setting a wave rippling through stillest consciousness. That wave travels through the sixth, then the fifth, fourth and third dimensions, right out into the second. And if there are areas of the mind, especially in the second and third dimensions, which are not under guidance of the will or which are unresolved, then that ripple will catalyze them and pull awareness out of kaif». That is why very few aspirants are able to just sit in the absolute simplicity of kaif»—they are externalized by the outer dimensions as the intensity of pure awareness radiates and reverberates through the nerve complex. Therefore, although kaif» is itself easy to attain, it is indeed difficult to sustain for longer periods and even more difficult to dissolve into im’° kaif», Self Realization. The aspirant, noting this, then dedicates himself to refining the outer manifestations of the second, third and fourth dimensions in order to gain a stable control over those forces so that when he does return to kaif» the ripple that goes out into the mind does not cause a backlash stimulation sufficient to pull awareness out to the third dimension. And you have all experienced this. You have been absorbed in a meditation only to be drawn out into a vision or into your legs which were hurting or into some thought sequences in the mind. Therefore, the realms of Self Realization protect themselves from entrance simply by the nature of the mechanism of the dimensions. The experience of kaif» is simple; our concepts about it are the biggest barrier. We often feel that pure consciousness must be earned by a saintly life, and we generally know our life well enough to disqualify ourselves. But that is the “I’m out here and heaven is in there” concept—a false concept if ever there was one. Turn it inside out. Realize and then convince the subconscious mind that you are the whole thing right now—the within as well as the without. The saint you envision living the perfect life lives in your own consciousness. All dimensions of existence reside in you, and you will never be more or less than you are at this very moment. That makes attaining pure consciousness simple, doesn’t it? And it is simple if we discard the baggage of accumulated opinions and misunderstandings.

Seventh Dimension: Pure Inner Space

No mind patterns are visible in the core of the seventh dimension. The seventh dimension is a silent world. Only the air exists there and not the smoke. Only pure energy, which is equivalent to pure space. What is seen here are particles of actinic force more intense than other particles of actinic force. Thus, rays of actinic force are seen in the seventh dimension as pure color or pure sound—for sound and color themselves are one and the same thing in their breakdown within this dimension.

When one is consciously in the fourth dimension, he sees a slight moonlike glow within the head—just a faint glow. When he is in fifth-dimensional consciousness, he comes into a brilliant inner light within the head—bright and clear. However, when he evolves into the sixth dimension, that light glows in every cell of the body—through the torso, the hands, legs and feet. Then, in the seventh dimension he comes into pure inner space, seeing within himself a vast space that goes on and on and on. At that time he is not necessarily conscious of light at all, for light exists as the interaction of pure force with magnetic forces.

The seventh dimension is clear inner space—not clear white light, just clear space. It goes on and on infinitely, like an infinite inner sky. Thus space itself, even intergalactic space in the second dimension, is dark, but our atmosphere is light due to the reflecting resistance or friction it offers light energy. Similarly, one deeply immersed in the seventh dimension would be aware of being aware without an awareness of light. In a sense he would be above the vibratory rate of light, and with no thing to be aware of, awareness becomes conscious of itself.

Awareness does not change, it only seems to change as the objects of its awareness revolve. Therefore, kaif», or pure awareness, is exactly the same in the seventh dimension as awareness which travels in the outer dimensions as niimf». The difference is in the dimensions, not in awareness. In other words, the same faculty of awareness that sees physical objects in the second dimension also perceives subtle forms in the fifth and sixth and is called pure awareness when it is able to eliminate all objects and be aware of itself. This can be observed by coming slowly out of deep meditation in the seventh dimension instead of coming out quickly as is the tendency. By consciously slowing down the externalizing process we observe pure consciousness first, followed by awareness of subtle forms of light and various consistencies of denser space which can be visually distinguished. This brings us from simply being aware immediately into processes of sight. We may also hear the inner sounds—the high pitched “ee” or the “aum.” Next, actual inner visions could be seen. As awareness moves further out into the mind, instead of focusing, it begins to travel or flow and might then come into memory patterns, then into the energy current of the nerve system and out into the physical body. At this point one would feel a blissful river of energy rushing through the body, or perhaps discomfort or even pain. Opening the eyes, awareness finally flows out into the second-dimensional world of things. It is the same awareness that functions through the dimensions, and it is closer to what you call “you” than any other form that can be identified with the mind.

Entering the seventh dimension, we enter realms of knowledge resulting from superconscious perceptions of the superconscious itself. It would be the heaven world of the Gods themselves. Their retreat place. The seventh dimension does not look back into the fifth dimension at all. It does look into the sixth and deeper into the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth dimensions, which exist in a completely different realm—a different universe, so to speak. And all of this takes place within you, within the wonderful mind of man, your mind.

Everything learned must be forgotten to enter the seventh dimension. There are no concepts there, no feelings, no thoughts, no unfolding anyone—just pure space or pure consciousness. So, in that sublime state there is nothing to do except to let consciousness be aware of itself and finally swallow itself. Then the Self alone remains. After that total elimination of consciousness into the Nothingness of Being, pure consciousness returns, forgets itself and travels as niimf» back into the mind, flows into the fifth dimension, flows out to the fourth, looks into the third and second and becomes involved. The whole thing starts over again for you. Isn’t it wonderful?

Infinite space: The artist indicates the expansiveness of space using a solar system metaphor, surrounded by the all-pervasive Aum. The sidebar icon is a traditional kumbha pot with mango leaves and a coconut to depict the placid auspiciousness of this dimension of the mind.

BAANI SEKKON

7th Dimension: Dividing Lines Merge

Between the fifth, sixth and seventh dimensions the lines we draw are understandably hypothetical. We give them boundaries and brackets in order to understand them, to define and identify these realms. The dividing lines between the first, second, third and fourth are clear and distinct. But in the deeper realms we know that they run together and merge, each existing as it does inside the other. This is intellectually intriguing, but the experience is much different. And that is what is sought, the direct personal experience.

The clear, placid, powerful seventh-dimensional space has remained the same for millions of years, untouched and untampered. Awareness travels through it viewing the various breakdowns of color, hearing the various pitches of sounds. It is the very source of the construction of all things. It is actinic energy within its quiescent state. For when actinic energy and odic energy intermingle, the mind then becomes active and awareness is thrust on the waves of mind substance and therefore views different things. Actinic or pure energy when blended together with odic, magnetic energy creates form in a similar way that the combination of air, which is invisible, with smoke creates various forms or clouds in the sky. Different patterns are made by the intermingling of smoke and air depending on the density of one and the motion of the other.