The strongest evidence for the existence of other dimensions is the paranormal.

Unfortunately, the conditioning of our minds precludes the acceptance of such untoward knowledge. We literally cannot see what is right under our noses.

Those of us who are suspicious all is not what it seems and the “authorities” know nothing at all, are driven to become collectors.

We collect newspaper and anecdotal accounts of UFOs, ghosts, reincarnation, telepathy, and so forth, in an attempt to override our internal filters and convince ourselves of something every so-called “primitive” shaman and psychic knows unquestionably.

In some instances, a person will go beyond these built-in prejudices and then become alarmed at the glimpse of a much wider reality than he or she ever dreamed possible.

Our whole society is basically in a state of denial and has been for centuries.

Although time is generally considered to be the fourth dimension, the author says it is only a limited definition, part of the fourth dimension to be sure, but also something that exists as part of a vast “now” from the infinite past to the infinite future, containing perhaps many three dimensional universes other than our own.

Likewise, space is infinitely interconnected, and an event that happens in Helsinki can effect an object in Cape Town, as the two points are in close proximity in the fourth dimension.

This mind-twisting concept could explain poltergeistic effects such as knocks coming from the inside of a table, and teleportation.

The human mind can enter the fourth dimension – indeed it is part of the fourth dimension.

We do it every night when we dream, but we are so unaccustomed to the lack of normal 3-D parameters that we become totally disoriented.

The behaviour of flying saucers seemingly demonstrates a capability of utilising this strange fourth dimension.

Oddly enough, our observation of this behaviour may be educating and transforming us without our realising it.

An amazing passage in this book details the experience of British psychic Matthew Manning with the apparition of Robert Webbe, who once owned Manning’s house in the 18th century.

This apparition had some curious characteristics that leads one to suspect Webbe was not “dead” in the conventional sense, but was a living being caught up in the more spacious reality of the fourth dimension (as of course was Manning). Webbe was as real as the furniture in the room.

Incredible as it sounds, Matthew handed the figure a wooden doll’s clog that belonged to his sister. The apparition of Webbe then put it in his pocket before he vanished.

On another occasion, during an automatic writing session in 1977, Manning put the proposition to Webbe:

“I think you are a ghost and you died 250 years ago”, whereupon the answer came back: “You are mistaken. I am no ghost. I am here. You frighten me.”

Webbe claims the year is 1726 and Manning is nothing more than a voice in his head, referring to the psychic as “a ghoulie of tomorrow”!

One can envision poor Webbe being driven half-mad by visions of a strange young man in his 18th century dwelling, culminating in the finding of a peculiar wooden artefact in his pocket.

Granted that the experience was exactly as Manning recounts it, the implication is these experiences were partly physical and partly mental, supporting the notion of multiple connectivity linking two vastly different points in time.

It appears we end up in the fourth dimension after we die, which helps to explain why any communications from beyond are often so lacking in specifics, particularly with regard to time.

The author raises a question that is profoundly disturbing to those of us who have pondered deeply on such matters.

He mentions a possible seventh plane of existence, perhaps comparable to the nirvana of the Buddhists where there is a kind of “merging” with all consciousness and creation.

This raises the idea of total loss of identity, which all physically-based beings would equate with a second permanent death.

Or, it may be more in line with a continually receding horizon – once you reach it, it is still off in the distance. Or it could be something else again.

I suppose we shouldn’t worry about it as you have to die here in order to get to the next level, but I would like to think there are a variety of options.

The ultimate conclusion is that everything, including the physical universe and the human body, is in effect a mental “construct”.

All of the highly intricate scientific ideas humanity has come up with are simply the creations of the minds of the scientists themselves.

As there is no time in the fourth dimension, somehow the universe accommodates those minds in advance of the fact, reverse causality in other words.

The brain itself is not the mind, and is an obstacle that needs to be transcended.

Ralphs admits the “massive potential of the human character for wishful thinking and self delusion” (not to mention ego, greed and over rationalisation) create immense problems in the ability to communicate with the dead or to understand psychic powers.

A rich and thought-provoking book that gives insight into the little understood paranormal reality.

– Reviewed by W. Ritchie Benedict in New Dawn No. 92