Consciousness as Fifth Dimension

Location in Three Dimensions of Space • Position in Fourth Dimension of Time • Self-Awareness in Fifth Dimension of Consciousness

Related source » Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain [Kindle Edition]
[This related source is recommended in its entirety.]
“In neurological jargon, regaining consciousness after a closed-head injury can take its sweet time, during which the victim is not fully oriented to place or clock, let alone to person.”
[emphasis added]
— Antonio Damasio, Self Comes to Mind

Illustration of spacetime curvature (Image via Wikipedia)

As an aid to intuitive comprehension of difficult concepts, analogy is a useful tool. Einstein's 4-dimensional spacetime, the mathematical "scaffolding" that supports conceptually the so-called "fabric of the cosmos" is frequently illustrated in 3-dimensional abstraction by suppressing one of the three spatial dimensions. In this manner, it becomes visually manageable to introduce the concept of time as a third visual dimension, by representing the reality of 3-dimensional volumetric space as a 2-dimensional areal-space analogy.

Not to belabor the analogy too much, it is, nevertheless, worth noting that the mind-numbing complications of up to a total of eleven dimensions [!] have been treated mathematically by string theorists who, I dare say, have just as much difficulty visualizing those extra seven dimensions (beyond the four of spacetime) as the rest of us mere mortals have.

Let me now posit the following conceptual analogy: the dimensional representation of consciousness is to spacetime as spacetime itself is to space (i.e., 3-space). Moreover, by thinking of consciousness in such mathematical terms, we have the means to illustrate consciousness visually in the context of spacetime reality!

We can illustrate this graphically by suppressing two of the three space dimensions (thereby visually representing 3-space as linear space) and allocating the remaining two of the three visual dimensions to time and consciousness, respectively. Thus, in an (x,y,z)-graphical representation of an individual's consciousness in the context of spacetime reality, we could let "x" represent the individual's self-orientation in space; "y" represent the individual's personal sense of time; and "z" represent the individual's feeling of consciousness.

An individual's conscious state of mind can only be felt by that unique individual. This means that our postulated consciousness-dimension is to be thought of as an array of infinitesimal, so-called "curled-up", orthogonal dimensions, each of which can accommodate one uniquely-conscious self.

Post 1,549 Consciousness as Fifth Dimension

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