Written by Joo-Hwan Han

 

We tend to think that we live in a world composed of three-dimensional space. But is the universe really three-dimensional? To explore this idea, imagine the following scenario:

 

Imagine beings living in a world made up of a two-dimensional plane, similar to characters in a computer game. These beings, limited to their two-dimensional world, can only perceive events occurring within this plane and are unaware of anything outside it, such as the three-dimensional space. Just as we, living in three-dimensional space, cannot perceive anything beyond it, like the fourth dimension.

 

What would my appearance look like to these two-dimensional characters if my body existed across their two-dimensional world? If my body intersected with their plane, it would surely appear as a cross-section, evident in two dimensions.

 

Even if I, capable of perceiving three-dimensional space, passed through their plane vertically to show my form, the characters would only see changing cross-sections of my body.

 

How then could I explain my complete form to them? One way would be to sequentially show the cross-sections from my feet to my head over time.

 

Similarly, couldn’t we, inhabitants of a three-dimensional world, understand a fourth dimension using this method? We might comprehend the fourth dimension (time-space) as a sequence of three-dimensional spaces laid out over time.

 

How would it feel for a being from the fourth dimension to observe us? Just as a two-dimensional being perceives a three-dimensional being as merely a two-dimensional surface, our world might be just a cross-section or shadow of a higher-dimensional world.

 

If our existence is not merely limited to a three-dimensional material world but includes a higher-dimensional, immaterial (spiritual) world, the existence we experience today might just be a shadow or cross-section of a higher-dimensional being.

 

When a three-dimensional being intersects with a two-dimensional plane, its cross-section is perceived as existing in that world. However, once it moves away from the plane, its cross-section no longer exists there, from the two-dimensional perspective, and it ceases to exist in that world. Yet, from our three-dimensional perspective, it continues to exist.

 

Following this logic, if we, living in a three-dimensional world, are indeed beings of a higher dimension, and our current forms are merely cross-sections into the three-dimensional world, our disappearance from the three-dimensional world (like death) does not mean we cease to exist but continue existing in higher dimensions.

 

Just as a three-dimensional being re-enters a two-dimensional plane and its cross-section reappears, a higher-dimensional being leaving and re-entering the three-dimensional world (like death and reincarnation) might manifest anew in the three-dimensional world. Could this perspective offer a new way to view death and reincarnation?