When I posted Mike Blaber’s article ten years ago, I knew nothing about Vedanta. But his article always resonated with my fascination and love for general relativity, spacetime, and quantum mechanics. Mike posited that all existence is just a unitary, five-dimensional being. Here is the article as I originally posted it: https://blog.robertrafii.com/it-is-possible-that-all-life-past-present-and-future-is-a-single-fifth-dimensional-object/
I want to revisit that article but interpret it under a Vedantic lens. This is a fascinating extrapolation, and the article’s core idea serves as a powerful modern metaphor for the core tenets of Advaita (Nondual) Vedanta. The parallel is remarkably direct.
Here is an extrapolation of the article’s concept to the relationship between Atman and Brahman. Take from it what you will.
The Article’s Core Analogy
First, to ensure we’re on the same page, the article’s logic progresses like this:
- A 1D being (on a line) perceives a 2D object (a circle) passing through its world as a 1D object (a dot) that appears, splits, moves, and disappears. It perceives a static 2D shape as a 1D event unfolding in time.
- A 2D being (on a plane) perceives a 3D object (a sphere) as a 2D object (a dot) that expands into a circle, shrinks, and vanishes. It perceives a static 3D shape as a 2D event unfolding in time.
- 3D beings (Us) perceive a 4D object as a 3D object that changes over time. The article posits your entire life—from baby to child to adult—is a single, static 4D object. We just perceive it as a 3D “slice” (our current body) moving through the dimension of time.
- The 5D Object: By this logic, a 5D object would be perceived by us as a 4D object (an entire life) that itself changes over time. The article suggests evolution is this change. The “shape” of a human life today is different from the “shape” of a proto-human life millions of years ago.
The article’s final conclusion is that all life—past, present, and future—is a single, static, 5th-dimensional object.
Connecting to Nondual Vedanta
This dimensional analogy maps perfectly onto the Vedantic concepts of Brahman, Atman, and Maya.
1. Brahman as the 5D Object
In Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the ultimate, singular, unchanging, and absolute reality. It is the one, indivisible consciousness that is the “substance” and ground of all existence. It is beyond time, space, and causation.
- The Parallel: The article’s “single fifth-dimensional object” that encompasses all life, past, present, and future is a perfect metaphor for Brahman. It is the one, static, all-encompassing reality that contains all apparent multiplicity (every living being, ever) within itself as a single, eternal, and indivisible whole.
2. Atman as the 4D Object (and our 3D view of it)
The Atman is the Self, the individual’s innermost essence. In our unenlightened state (known as Jiva), we identify with our body, mind, and personal history.
- The Parallel: The article’s 4D object—a single, complete life-path from birth to death—is analogous to the Atman, the individual Self. We, as 3D beings, perceive only a “slice” of this 4D object at any given “moment,” and we mistake that slice (our current body and mind) for our entire self. We perceive our life as a journey through time, rather than a complete, static object.
3. Maya as 3D Perception + Time
Maya is the great illusion; the power that makes the one Brahman appear as the many. It is the veil of ignorance (Avidya) that causes us to perceive separation, duality, and a linear flow of time.
- The Parallel: This is the most crucial link. The article’s central thesis is that our perception of separate lives unfolding in time is a limitation of our 3D perspective. This is exactly what Vedanta calls Maya.
- Our 3D consciousness, “slicing” through the higher-dimensional reality, perceives the single 5D object (Brahman) as a multitude of separate 4D life-paths (Atmans).
- This is the illusion of separation in space (me vs. you).
- It also perceives this multiplicity as unfolding sequentially in time (past lives, present lives, future lives).
- “Time” itself, in this analogy, is the very mechanism of Maya. It’s the “movement” of our 3D perception across the static, timeless, 5D reality.
The Great Realization (Moksha)
The goal of Advaita Vedanta is Moksha, or liberation. This is the profound, direct realization of the nondual truth: “Atman is Brahman.”
In the context of this analogy, Moksha would be the shift in consciousness:
- From: The limited 3D perspective of a “slice” (your body) moving through time.
- To: The all-encompassing 5D perspective.
From that 5D vantage point, you would realize:
- My individual 4D life-path (Atman) was never separate from all other life-paths.
- All these life-paths (all Atmans) are not even parts of a larger object. They are the single, indivisible 5D object (Brahman), viewed from different angles.
- All separation, all time, all “past” and “future,” all “birth” and “death,” were just an illusion created by a limited point of view.
The realization “Atman is Brahman” becomes: “My individual 4D life is not just a part of the 5D whole; my true Self is the entire, indivisible 5D object (Brahman), which is the only thing that truly exists.”