The mystery of space

by Robert T. Browne

CURVATURE OF SPACE—A doctrine formulated by Riemann and which maintains that space is curved, and consequently, all lines drawn therein are curved lines. Professor Pickering aptly describes the results of movements in a curved space by pointing out that if we go far enough east we arrive at the west; north, we arrive at the south; towards the zenith, we arrive at the nadir, and vice versa.

DEIFORM—The basic idea indicated is that the universe is the form or body of the supreme deity, since He is not only immanent in the kosmos, but sustains it by His life; that in order to create a manifested universe, it was necessary to limit, or sacrifice, in a measure, His own illimitability. Viewed in this light, the kosmos assumes an added significance.

DIMENSION—(L. Dimensio, to measure), measurement; a system of space measurement. The Euclidean geometry recognizes three dimensions or coördinates as being necessary to establish a point position; witness, the corners of a cube to form which three of the edges come together at a point. These edges represent coördinates. For the purposes of metageometry, the term dimension has been variously defined, as, direction, extent, a system of space measurement, or a system of coördinates. Regarded as a series of coördinates, it became possible to postulate a system which required four coördinates to estabish the position of a point, as in the hypercube. There may be five, six, seven, eight, or any number of such coördinate systems according to the kind of space involved in the calculations. Determinations based upon the logical necessities of the various coördinate systems have been found to be self-consistent throughout and, therefore, valid for metageometrical purposes. Much depends upon the definition; for, after the definition has been once determined it remains then merely to make inferences and conclusions conform to the intent of the definition.

DIVERSITY—Philosophically, the idea indicated has reference to all dissimilarities, differences, inequalities, divergent tendencies, movements and characteristics to be noted in the universum of life; the antithesis of kosmic unity; the natural outcome of life in seeking expression; the result of the fragmentative tendency of life.

DUODIM (duo, two; dim, abbreviation of dimension)—A hypothetical being supposed to be possessed with a consciousness adapted only to two dimensions; a dweller in "Flatland" or two-space whose scope of motility is limited to two directions, as on the face of a plane; a term invented by hyperspace advocates for the purpose of establishing by analogy some of the characteristics of the four space and also its rationality.

DUOPYKNON (duo, two—pyknon, primary unit in the process of kosmic involution, a condensation)—Secondary phase in the elaboration of chaos into kosmic order. DUOPYKNOSIS (duo, two, secondary—pyknosis, process of condensation and origination)—The second period of the involutionary movement of life during which the duadic plane of the kosmos is being established; the second, in the series of seven distinct phases, of space-genesis; dual differentiation of kosmic plasm. Duopyknosis contemplates that, in the passage of the kosmos-to-be from the plane of non-manifestation to the plane of manifestation, there are seven distinct, though interdependent and interrelational, stages through which life passes, and that, of these, it is the second. It relates to the plane of non-manifestation and is, therefore, beyond the ken of the intellectuality, being a symbol.

EGOPSYCHE (Ego, the self-conscious I—psyche, soul)—The mental, emotional and physical mechanisms of man, the Thinker. These include the purely mental system, the emotional or affective mechanism, the nerve-systems (cerebro-spinal and sympathetic) and the brain; the objective or sense-derived consciousness of the Thinker which is elaborated from the total mass of perceptions transmitted through the senses; the medium of self-consciousness; the intellectual consciousness as distinguished from the intuitional or omnipsychic consciousness (q.v.).

The notion of the egopsychic consciousness is based upon data already empirically determined from the mass of evidences everywhere observable. It seems to be apparent that there is a consciousness, a seat of knowledge, in man the content of which is unknown to the sense-consciousness. Dreams, premonitions, intuitions, impressions and the totality of all such phenomena substantiate this view. Furthermore, it is agreed that the source of the intuition is not identical with that of the intellect. The egopsychic consciousness, accordingly, is purely intellectual.

FLUXION, PSYCHIC—The difference between a mental image and an object; an image is the representation of certain salient or cardinal characteristics of an object, sufficient for identification; but an image is not congruent, in every respect, with the object. Thus when we perceive an object, although as Bergson contends we perceive it in the place where it is and not in the brain, it is the image of the object which takes its place in memory and not the object itself. There is, of course, a marked disparity between this memory-image and the object. Even if the image possessed one of the properties of the object, as, size, it could not take its place in memory, and neither could it do so if it possessed any of the properties of the real object. Consciousness is such that all due allowances are made for these conditions and the mind is able to retain more or less exact knowledge of these properties in the image; but there is a difference, small though it may be. This difference is the psychic fluxional.

FOHAT (Skt)—A term applied to the Creative Logos who is said to be the generating element in the differentiation of chaos into kosmic orderliness; the supreme deity in the rôle of Creator.