Greetings, my cosmic traveler friend! As we embark on a journey to explore the dualities of mind and travel in higher dimensions, let us dive into the mystical and mind-bending realms of Tao and I Ching. While Western psychology has been struggling with the apparent dualities inherent in conscious existence since Queen Victoria’s time, other cultures and societies have been creating more accurate models of the nature of these dualities for centuries. Here I present two of these models for your consideration, so buckle up, baby! 1. The Tao and I Ching If we look at the base truths of our reality we can see from our perspective there appear to be three physical dimensions, while we experience another dimension as the passage of time. To science, this is where reality exists. At some momentary now point, despite the Universe expanding and all items within it in constant relative motion an “objective” reality exists. This presupposes an objective reality apart from mind or consciousness. However given the rapid advances of theoretical physics and the apparent facts of either string theory or M-Theory being true, we know quite concretely that we are missing dimensions that the whole would depend upon given its measurable features. Most likely our reality has either 10 or 11 dimensions and we are only aware of four of them if you believe the materialists. Now think about the directions and the cardinal points. On the plane we have four directions, depth gives us two more (up and down), and time gives us two more (past and future), despite not being able to travel from future to past in our current predicament. If we make the dualistic Yin-Yang center of our consciousness the relative center of the Universe, we arrive at the eight possible directions of travel seen in the above diagram. Each of the Trigrams represents a mode of direction proceeding outward from the center of the mind. The Yin Yang symbol is an apt one for our conscious exploration of the nature of mind as each side contains the seed of its opposite and it is depicted in motion. I would posit to you dear reader that this symbol represents the positive and negative currents of mind each stimulated by its opposite pole but different than the deeper duality of root consciousness and the mind itself. I would suggest that in order to realize this fact in action it is necessary to silence the thought track, whether that be verbal, like most people, or more like pure thought for others. Not everyone has an internal monologue, but it is easier to observe the roots of thought if you are able to silence the thought process that you have identified with in this lifetime. If you have an internal voice and silence it, you can observe the two other voices which create this experience of living through monologue. They are the twin devil and angel of your waking being, they are most noticeably not your voice. They are seeds of mental motion who, in their interference pattern of waveforms generate that stream of rambling that the unfortunate believe is their consciousness. In the sleep-walking world of this society, seemingly externalized and very dangerous to navigate, it is beneficial to surf this center wave of consciousness, whether it is breaking good or evil, because those are the rules of the game we are given. But wait, there’s more! What about the question that arises when you encounter this aspect of mind: if my inner voice is not me, and this devil and angel are not me, who, what, and where am I? We can say, that for now, you are that thing which is observing these facts of mind. In Yoga it is referred to as Purusha or Soul and for our purposes now we can also refer to it as witness consciousness. It is possible through meditation to show the conscious mind the appearance of Purusha which is then reflected back at itself to be witnessed, but itself is the thing which is doing the observing. What you have come to accept as mind is actually the motion in life-force, Chi, or Prana closest to the metaphysical consciousness of your individual Purusha. The ether is the mind, and all matter, including your body and brain are merely regularized and temporarily structured disturbances in this Universal sea of Life. The organs of sense, with their electrochemical signaling, merely translate and transmit manifest point-events to and from the Purusha. Now, what the I Ching theorizes is that moving up one level in awareness rather than giving us 10 directions of travel the map itself doubles to 64 different modes of movement. This may be great for divination and to show the combination of states of mind, but if we are to travel any further up the central axis of consciousness, the exponential explosion of states of mind quickly becomes overwhelming as the next level gives us 64 X 64 states at minimum. Better then to switch to a different map or model. 2. The Tree of Life If we think of this model as approximating similar ideas of dimensionality as the I Ching, we can use it as a map for exploration of higher dimensions. The first four dimensions of the manifested Universe being represented by the four-fold division of Malkuth into the cardinal points, then every plane on the way upward can be seen as a new dimension. This adds the element of multi-dimensional directionality to our map, as well as a description of the modes of travel between these higher coordinate points. For example, the straight path upward along the beam of consciousness takes us to Yesod, the bottom-most point of which is the dreamworld and is visited by passing through the unconscious or awakening the Kundalini. It only adds a new directionality of up and down perpendicular to all the right angles of the four dimensions. The current illustration, though not all theorists agree on
