We are told that we live in a four dimensional universe. Length, width, height the three dimensions that exist in space. That which exists in those three dimensions also passes through the dimension we call time.
Time, the fourth dimension, by our perception, always marches forward. The arrow of time, as the physicists call it, always points to the future. However, as explained by noted physicist Stephen Hawking, there is nothing in physics which tells us that the arrow of time always points to the future. It may be our senses, our built-in, hardwired psyche which can only perceive the forward movement of time. In reality, in science, there is nothing to prevent time from flowing like a stream, with twists and turns and eddies which disrupt its forward flow.
But even more astonishingly, he tells us that the laws of physics, as we understand them, tell us that there must be more than four dimensions! Hawking states that for the equations of physics to work, there must be at least seven dimensions, and nothing excludes the possibility that there are many more.
These new dimensions (or at least new to us mere mortals) are not perceptible with sight, sound, taste, touch or smell – the classical human senses. These extra dimensions would require a sixth, and possibly seventh or eighth, sense to perceive.
This presents up an interesting conundrum. If the dimensions themselves cannot be perceived with our existing senses, perhaps the mechanism for perceiving them cannot easily be perceived either. the dimensions exist, perhaps there is a portion of ourselves that also exists in some or all of those dimensions. And, perhaps there is some sort of interface between our mind, brain, and the extra dimensional existence.
We may postulate that there are indeed, senses which connect to our mind and exist in those other dimensions. Perhaps they are underdeveloped, immature. Perhaps, we have allowed them to atrophy. Perhaps they are stronger in some people than others. However, it does not preclude the possibility that we do have a sense, and in existence, in those other three or more dimensions.
The newborn.
Let us, for a few moments, consider the human infant from conception to birth.
We start out with two cells, one from the father and one from the mother. The male cell literally penetrates the female cell and the two combined forming what is called a zygote. This zygote develops for a while as a bunch of undifferentiated cells. This collection of undifferentiated cells is called a blastocyst.
The blastocyst then starts to begin its transformation into a little human, the embryo. In this embryonic stage, the being is dependent upon the mother for life itself.
After about eight weeks, the embryo is recognizable as human, and becomes a fetus, where it develops from about the end of two months through the ninth month. Then the fetus is born is a human baby.
The development of the brain
What is amazing about this is that the newborn baby has almost as many neurons, or brain cells, as it will ever have. The vast majority of the brain cells are functioning at birth, with only a small percentage being created throughout the next eight years or so.
The newborn brain is a sponge soaking up information at a tremendous rate. But, let us compare the human versus the fish, or the frog, less-developed life forms. The human is helpless at birth. The fish and the frog hatch and are on their own, with no need for the parent, in most cases. They are capable, at that very early age, of getting food, recognizing danger, knowing night from day, and much more. All of this is accomplished with a comparatively tiny brain. They are pre-programmed to behave in a certain manner. They run on what we call instinct. Knowledge they are capable of learning, beyond instinctive behavior, is minimal at best.
Humans do have some instincts. They do have some automatic, or reflexive behaviors with which their preprogrammed, and which are present at birth. Some stay with us our entire lives. However, surprisingly, some of these instinctive behaviors seem to disappear if not developed.
A disappearing skill.
Many adults are afraid of the water, and cannot swim. Did you know that the human infant has no such fear?
If you take a newborn infant, just home from the hospital, filled a bathtub about halfway, and put the baby in facedown, it will instinctively hold his breath underwater, float to the surface, float on its back, and begin to breathe. It has no fear. It does not drowned. It is an instinctive behavior, regardless of the parents learned feelings towards water. Some small infants, just a couple of days of learning to be in the water, will even flip back the other way, facedown, and then flip back over just for fun! So this mental programming exists at merely hours old.
It is interesting, that if one waits too long after birth to develop this natural tendency to survive and flourish in an aquatic environment, the instinct virtually disappears. The toddler who has never been exposed to submersion and water will become afraid. The child who was exposed from birth, will not.
This points out nearly 1 of potentially many abilities, capabilities, and natural tendencies with which people are born. Many of these natural tendencies, like swimming, atrophy if not developed early in life. It is much easier, much less work, to develop an early instinct in a baby than to retrain the child on an instinctine skill that was lost shortly after birth through non-use.
Relearning lost instinctive skills.
Fortunately, as we have seen with swimming, just because an instinctive skill has been lost, or repressed, does not mean that the skill is gone forever. Some people may naturally recover these lost skills over time. Some people may, through training and coaching, reignite their ability to use those skills.
One frequently seen variation is the development of an instinctive skill when one of the normal, humans faculties has been lost. Brain damage, loss of sight or hearing, partial paralysis, and a variety of other physical limitations may bring about the presentation of one of these capabilities. This would seem to imply, while dormant, these capabilities, nonetheless, still exists within us.
Continued ...
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ1nweotz-8MZGNiNHB6YzhfNDlmNHR0NTVocQ&hl=en
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