They would be thoughts and imaginations, not observations of external facts.
Now, this field of investigation is one which requires to be worked at.
At present it is only those structures and movements of the brain molecules which correspond to the realities of our three-dimensional space which are in general worked at consistently. But in the practical part of this book it will be found that by proper stimulus the brain molecules will arrange themselves in structures representing a four-dimensional existence. It only requires a certain amount of care to build up mental models of higher space existences. In fact, it is probably part of the difficulty of forming three-dimensional brain models, that the brain molecules have to be limited in their own freedom of motion to the requirements of the limited space in which our practical daily life is carried on.
Note.—For my own part I should say that all those confusions in remembering which come from an image taking the place of the original mental model—as, for instance, the difficulty in remembering which way to turn a screw, and the numerous cases of images in thought transference—may be due to a toppling over in the brain, four-dimensionalwise, of the structures formed—which structures would be absolutely safe from being turned into image structures if the brain molecules moved only three-dimensionalwise.
It is remarkable how in science “explaining” means the reference of the movements and tendencies to movement of the masses about us to the movements and tendencies to movement of the minute portions of matter.
Thus, the behaviour of gaseous bodies—the pressure which they exert, the laws of their cooling and intermixture are explained by tracing the movements of the very minute particles of which they are composed.
CHAPTER VIII.
RELATION OF LOWER TO HIGHER SPACE. THEORY OF THE ÆTHER.
At this point of our inquiries the best plan is to turn to the practical work, and try if the faculty of thinking in higher space can be awakened in the mind.
The general outline of the method is the same as that which has been described for getting rid of the limitation of up and down from a block of cubes. We supposed that the block was fixed; and to get the sense of what it would be when gravity acted in a different way with regard to it, we made a model of it as it would be under the new circumstances. We thought out the relations which would exist; and by practising this new arrangement we gradually formed the direct apprehension.