The Fifth Dimension and the Future of Mankind
Book
The Fifth Dimension and the Future of Mankind (1940) is a book by Vera Stanley Alder where she proposed 'giving the world a mind', as a solution to world problems.
Quotes
edit- Civilization is at the cross-roads. The issues are now so obvious that no argument is necessary. Forces of tyranny are arrayed against those who are minded for liberty and peace... Men are spending most of their substance on material for mutual slaughter. In such a way are the first two thousand years of the Christian era drawing to a close... The world presents a panorama in which progress and barbarism, organization and chaos, brilliance and stupidity seem inextricably mixed. p. vii.
- Is there true cause for hope or for despair? Is it possible to read the riddle of human evolution, to discover the clue to future progress, and to find the means by which humanity can be set free from the present apparent deadlock? For civilization has reached an impasse involving other things than war, an impasse involving economics, health, morality, and self-knowledge. Is there any way of piercing the fog of surface happenings, and of understanding the true trend and significance of events?
- In my last two books we studied life as presented to us by the great minds of all times, including the present epoch. We studied the world-wide science by means of which the greatest discoverers and prophets in history have acquired their wisdom and knowledge — the science of Meditation. viii
- Surely, if there is a sincere wish to discover truth for a good purpose, that desire is answered. Our purpose in this experiment will be to perceive the divine plan of evolution and progress so that we may intelligently and wholeheartedly collaborate with it. As we use the age-old sciences of Concentration, Meditation and Contemplation for ourselves, in order to form our own individual channel and link with reality. xi
- There is the setting of our minds to work in as active and original a manner as we are able, along a definite and undeflected path of thought; by this means we finally achieve that one pointed condition called Concentration. This implies that the note of our will and our enquiry sounds as a steady unchanging vibration throughout the ethers. Inevitably it draws towards it all of similar vibration, all the knowledge which has to do with our subject. Quietly we assimilate and sift this knowledge. That is Meditation. xi
- It is clear that so far human beings are not managing their world very well. There is something wrong somewhere. p. 13
- In themselves, human beings have been given amazing bodies, whose natural state is that of joyful health and energy. They have been given mental powers whose possibilities are immeasurable, and creative ability which is allowing them to master all the substances and forces of nature one by one. They have been provided throughout their history with a succession of leaders and teachers who have bequeathed to them doctrines and laws which, although quite simple, would ensure an ideal social life. p. 13
- What have they succeeded in making out of this wonderfully generous heritage of theirs? Has generosity begot generosity in their hearts, or beauty aroused thankfulness? Has strength flowered to further strength, and opportunity led to wisdom? The picture before us of human quality and human achievement is kaleidoscopic, showing closely intermingling facets of beauty, of worth, of genius, of bestiality, of idiocy and of crime.
- It is difficult indeed to pronounce judgment upon this jangled pattern, to discern whether its greatest trend is towards the light or towards the darkness. Man has made of his world a patchwork of disconnected bits and pieces. His most obvious lack seems to be that of coherency. p. 14
- Within his world of plenty he has produced want. In face of the ordered march of nature he often produces disorder, disharmony, discord, disconnectedness. Capable of creating beauty, he yet seems content to dwell mostly in conditions of hopeless ugliness.
- Of his magnificent body he makes on the whole a travesty. His mind, as an actual potent instrument, he usually ignores altogether. He sets self-preservation as his goal, yet bends all his efforts and his wits to the production of conditions which result in wars, disease, and other methods of self-destruction. His mental life must habituate itself to a code of contradictions, misfits, conflictions and inadequacies which inhibit coherent thought. In many ways the present life of humanity presents a quite mad spectacle to the unbiased eye.
- When powerful nations treat other nations without apology to anarchy, robbery, slaughter and persecution and the only remedy which can be found is further slaughter by those who would keep the peace, it is indeed no longer a world in which anyone can shirk the urgent responsibility for putting things straight, and for establishing a new and a better order.
- The leaders of men can only act as public opinion or public strength of mind or character allow them. Dictators can, and do in part, mould public opinion, but alternatively they can be moulded by it. Most strong men are both potential tyrants and potential benefactors. The issue is largely determined by the desires of the people around them — their ‘environment’. Only a definite social condition allows a certain type of leader to come to power. It is the mentality of the public—made up of the mentalities of you and of myself—which rules the issue. We, and only we, are in the last analysis responsible. p. 16
- It is for each and every one of us to begin at once to do our share of thinking, and help to make public opinion an entirely new and courageous and clear and omnipotent thing.
- The average person does not think at all. His brain, under various stimuli from his environment, reacts almost automatically. It produces ideas and phrases for him. These it either picks up like a wireless receiver from the crowded ether, or repeats from its own stored memory. It is almost impossible for the average person to pronounce a sentence or an idea or state a fact which is not merely lifted from his memory, either from what he has read, learnt, or heard. Most people do not realize that this is so.
- The solution to the world’s troubles will depend, in the last analysis, upon clear thinking by a few, backed up by the intelligent understanding of the many. It is extremely urgent that this clear thinking is developed as rapidly as possible, in order to avoid many more years of wasteful warfare and suffering. p. 18
- Primitive man plans for the next few hours. Average man plans for the next few years. Superman plans for the coming centuries. p. 18
- The fact that there are now acknowledged to be four dimensions should be enough to make any thinking man question: ‘Well, what about a fifth dimension—where is it ?’ Having brought our train of thought up to this point we are now ready to meditate upon this question of the fifth dimension.
- We have been considering life as it has been built up through a series of dimensions, from the first to the fourth. We cannot yet say which of these dimensions was the first to manifest, or whether they all began to function simultaneously. As the fourth dimension appears to be the one through which the actual life forces play and by means of which they reach concrete forms, we must consider it the most causative or influential of all of them. It represents the nearest approach we have made to the life imbuing all things. But this last and inner dimension has no boundaries; it stretches formlessly in all directions—it is everywhere. p. 55
- Let us now consider how evolution passes gradually from under the rule of one great dimension to another.
- How Evolution Proceeds: We have built up before us a vision of a new type of plan upon which the living universe is constructed. We have visioned seven dimensions, representing life expressed in seven classes of vibrations. Through the release and use of energy these vibrations or frequencies can be altered and speeded up, therefore shifting any phase of life into a higher dimension.
- For instance, the plant takes carbon and other raw mineral elements, and produces a release of energy through atomic interaction between them. The result is an alteration to higher frequencies, and subtler combinations which produce the sugars and salts of cellular life. Man consumes the plant, and in his turn blends these sugars and salts, producing among other substances the energy he uses in thinking. By this process the original mineral elements have been so subtilized and their vibrations so heightened that they have reached a gaseous state and pass out into the air upon the delicate radiations of man’s aura. Through these means a comparatively inert crystallized piece of carbon or other element out of the earth has been liberated and transmuted to a state where it has the freedom of the air and can be radiated from planet to planet. p. 80
- The process of change whereby any substance can be speeded up to a higher vibration and thus shifted into a subtler dimension is called Transmutation.
- The opposite process, whereby any substance is reduced to a lower vibration and thus shifted down¬ wards through the dimensions towards solid matter, is called crystallization. Thus a man gets an inspiration from the highest dimensions.
- He works out the idea and plan (fifth dimension) and imbues it with the ardent energy of his heart and passion. It has now become so cohesive that it radiates electrical energy and has crystallized a vehicle of fourth-dimensional substance. Finally it becomes possible to produce it in terms of the lower three dimensions, and it takes shape as some inspired work of art, of literature or of science, having crystallized into solid matter. Thus a divine message or inspiration must be clothed in matter of all the dimensions before it can be expressed in earthly life, whilst a crude chemical element from the earth must be transmuted upwards by man into the dimension of thought so that it can be used to capture an inspiration ! The inspiration is then crystallized downwards again into solid matter and expressed through the use once more of mineral and vegetable substances. This continuous cycle shows us the interdependence of spirit and matter, and the interchangeability of energy and solid. p. 81
- From the highest to the lowest, the life of the individual is influenced by fear or dread, which naturally inhibits him in all phases of his outlook. This fear usually persists throughout life, because in any case it becomes part of the fabric of his character. This terrible heritage of fear is due also to the crime of separatism, and the fact that life between nation, between class and company, is competitive and rivalrous, producing an uneven sharing out of land and of material and of opportunity in a world of plenty. The individual is, therefore, brought up at present in the thrall of a vicious circle. p. 150
- We can each in our own particular niche set up a growing fourth-dimensional viewpoint and radiation, becoming little lighthouses guarding and emanating the influences of the future... Before we can thus radiate, this vibration must be firmly established within ourselves — we must get the picture clear, keep it so, and live it. We will then sound a creative note out into the universe, the power and effect of which will be commensurate with the strength of our own convictions. Faith the size of a grain of mustard-seed can move mountains.
- If we are thinking and feeling aright, good action will automatically follow, the requisite magnetism will inevitably flow from us, and the necessary people will be drawn towards it. It does not matter where we are nor what is our occupation. Power works in the upper dimensions irrespective of objective circumstances. We can be as potent an influence whether we are organizing a big movement or digging in a backyard allotment. p. 221
- There must be a sun before it can shine. This state of right being must first irradiate and inspire ourselves, making of us the perfect instrument. Secondly, it must irradiate our immediate surroundings, creating harmony and understanding between ourselves and everyone in touch with us; there should be no wish to change other people, but rather the capacity to accept and appreciate them just as they are, recognizing always their latent divine potentialities, which will flower in their own good time.
- As soon as we are aware of, and in the act of establishing these first two stages, then only are we ready safely to step out and help to put the world in order. For to establish fusion one must oneself be completely fusible! To establish the life of impersonal love upon earth one must at least have a glimmer of what it is like ! Once we are tuned to the right chord within our¬ selves our whole beings will be flooded with divine melody, and the song of evolution will be clear in our ears. Once we have firmly linked ourselves with the fourth dimension, with the Christ life, with our own souls, we will vibrate with joy, a joy which informs and illumines all suffering and difficulty upon earth.
- Let us remember that soul is joy, the reflection of Spirit which is Bliss.... let those of us who would rebuild bring joy, the soul radiation, into our environment. This must be the foundation of our edifice.
- Let us find each other. Let us link up, and pool our resources of inspiration, wisdom, strength, purpose and conviction. We shall soon discover that we are sounding a note strong enough to rally both the seen and the unseen to endeavour. This endeavour will be nothing less, in the last analysis, than to prepare the way for the ‘Second Coming’, to give that particular offering which will enable the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ to emerge on earth. Those are no longer beautiful and meaningless words—in these chapters we have filled in the picture, and brought them to life.
- Let us be practical. We have the blue-print before us. We see that it is planned upon the law of synthesis, the blending of all facets and activities of life, the formation of groups, each representing all round complete links with human living. There can no longer be purely scientific groups, or occult groups, or political groups or artistic groups. Each group must possess a channel and a link to all of these. The structure for the new civilization must be planned by such integrated representative groups as these. This is the quickest and the only way to world liberation. Potential members of these groups move among us today. They must be recognized and linked together. The ‘army of the new dispensation’ must be mobilized.
- From Deity downwards the whole universe is thoroughly organized, the keynote being always the keeping of balance between all facets of existence, a balance, however, in which one aspect always slightly predominates. In the atom the predominating side is that of the ‘positive electricity’. In human living it must also be the ‘positive electricity’ which is in reality the reflection of the spiritual element. It is to be hoped that when pioneer spirits are linked together in this way they will lay the foundations of future group-work, building up a central radiation and a plan of procedure and collaboration, so that those foolproof projects for world order throughout all branches of living, for which we are waiting, will be steadily brought into being.
- When in this manner the advanced intellectuals of the world come together to meditate in unison, what power and what inspiration will be released, what vision will be experienced, and what work will be achieved! For something new will have happened.
- The entire human family is one being — but it is still scatterbrained.
- Our lunatic world must have a collective mind, sufficiently powerful to influence it, before present madness can end. p. 224
- The task that lies ahead for those who will embrace it is to Give the World a Mind! p. 224
See also
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