Signs of Reality Dimensions

I've recently joined the Bible Study group at Trinity Cathedral, Omaha, led by Dean Pritcher.  We've been studying the Gospel of John, particularly the 6th Chapter.  It's been an occasion for me to revisit the old philosophical distinction of appearance and reality, prominent in the philosophies of the 19th Century Europeans.

The idea of distinguishing appearance of a thing from its total reality in 19th Century parlance need not bog us down.  The point to the distinction is in getting at dimensions of reality in which we can be sure we know the things of that dimension we're dealing with--we know in truth of what exists per dimensionaa; and we can prove it!  Here's a list of the type of things we know, positively.

1.  We know physical things in this world. If we have doubt as to what we are seeing, feeling, touching, etc. we have developed ways to test to know positively that it's what we take it to be!  Methods of verification involve using a property list of each particular physical thing and testing for the properties' presence in certain circumstances.


2. We know a spiritual reality.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to criticize his Jewish brethern for thinking that, in the feeding of the five thousand story for instance, partakers simply ate bread, etc.--nourished their bodies.  No, to Jesus, the participants in the meal came to experience the spiritual reality of a higher power, viz. God. In this myth, bread was a sign of a spiritual presence: "God's in His heaven!"

By a process of simultaneity, the participant of the feeding both ate bread and, religiously experienced God's presence in the world.  One is reminded of Pascal's contention, "The heart has reasons, the mind doesn't comprehend."

The Hebrews would say about entering a spiritual reality, that one must listen to the "still small voice."
Samuel thought his rabbai was calling him in the middle of the night, but no, it was God.  Being receptive to experiencing the spiritual world or dimension is akin to the the sense of hearing in physical reality.  Indeed, in the early Church writings, the believer was advised--"he who has an ear, let him hear."  And, it was said in one Gospel that while Jesus was near water, a bird descended nearby, crying, "Behold, my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

It is this foundation in acknowledging that we are not simply rational beings, a fallacy in ancient Aristotelian thinking, but by means of our experience, the physical becomes a sign, e.g., a sign of the spiritual.
That is to say, we are something other than a computerized problem-solver.  We don't always think logically, because we humans are more than logical automatons. Rather, we also experience, i.e., we come upon other dimensions of reality by seeing the physical entity as a sign of something in another dimension.

Failure to recognize that man is not merely a thinking being but an experiencng creature, who brings to bear all the attributes of  his body and mind, so as to come upon other dimensions of the real beyond physical world.  Specifically, to contend that man is qua nature rational, i.e., is distinguished by virtue of his ability to reason, denies the validity of occult and metaphysical experiences by which people gain access to some other dimension of reality. e.g., as have been in fact reported by countless persons, e.g., over the air-waves in the night talk shows and on the prestigeous Coast-to-Coast program.  By denying the quality of experience which enables a physical object to point to a spiritual truth, religious practice is mocked, such activities as attending church, praying and reading the Bible. Moreover, it casts the believer into a schzoid straight-jacket attended to by lunatic psychiatrists and head-nurses, as depicted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  Nevertheless, we ought not restrict our humanity through which we can become the beneficiaries from experiencing another realm, e.g., the spiritual.

3.  We come upon legitimate relations among physical objects through the mental process of creativity.  The artist knows his view of what he puts on canvas is indeed creative.  It is unique unto himself.  So too, the scientist posits his theoretical construct to account for certain relationships among the physical data he has collected or analyzed.  Such creative efforts are not always useful in the end to provide insight into the nature of the physical world, but nonetheless, many times prove successful in capturing interrelationships which other scientists can draw upon and use in their own analyses.

In William James' most famous book, Varieties of Religious Experience, cases drawn from historical records  show how religious experiences have provided meaning to the experiencers and have virtually changed lives.  Suddenly, an experiencer discerns a vision of what he can do to help his fellow man.  It is this revelatory experience that can propel him into the world with purpose and direction he heretofore did not possess, James argues.  In these cases, the spiritual experience becomes a sign  pointing him, i.e., the experiencer, in a new direction to act.

4.  Through the power of signs, some physical objects enlighten us to the economic world.  A piece of silver becomes a coin; and a coin commands a modicum of economic worth, which the possessor can make use of to achieve his wants and desires.  It was Karl Marx who came upon the idea that indeed the economic world mirrors the physical in such a way that any commonplace physical occurrence can be translated into economic terms.  That is to say, he saw that some physical objects became signs that revealed an economic dimension.

5.  Similarly, there exists a psychological, mental world, which events in each person's life can open up to reveal.  Many scientists have contended for years that psychologists are merely re-describing what a person has done or said in psychological terms, i.e., inferring particular states of mind of the doer.  I regard this comment to be insightful.  What a person does or says are indeed signs of his psychological states of mind.  Indeed, such re-descriptions, e.g., appearing in the works of Freud, are indicative of the mental dimension and may be useful in mapping strategies for a sufferer's therapy.

6.  The cultural dimension has been studied by historians, linguists, and sociologists.  This is the reality given in signs of physical, speech utterances capable of linguistic interpretation.  It enables the passing of ways of doing things from one generation to another; and has led to human progress.

7.  The  genealogical dimension places each person in a family historical tree so as to, primarily, follow how diseases and physical traits appear from one generation to another.   

and,

8.  There's the obvious realm of consciousness, which everybody who can experience himself is privy to. It's known to others only by sign, viz., when the conscious individual reports on paper or aloud what he is consciously experiencing.     


The Dimensional Foundation 

I have isolated at least 8 dimensions of reality.  And importantly, a physical thing can become a sign of another dimension; and a real thing in another dimension can become a sign in the physical realm.  Altogether, the 8 dimensions comprise the totality of reality--of all that is.  That is to say, we know nothing other than something within some one dimension of reality.

In this dimensions schemata, the spiritual realm, specifically, is but one reality.  Some theologians may have contended that the spiritual realm in some "truly" all-encompassing "thing-in-itself" is the only existent really  real.  Yet in our experiential, dimensional scheme, the spiritual realm is just a fraction of reality we humans are capable to experiencing, i.e., knowing by experiencing.