The Six Dimensions of Reality
Unlearning and Rebuilding Your Perception
The first step in our journey is to develop a shared baseline mental map of what our reality actually is. This is necessary as we will be dealing with introspection which will be an important underpinning for many of the concepts that we will discuss.
In the process of deconstruction, we will need to coalesce on fundamental building blocks in order to develop a new perspective of who we are, what truly matters to us, and what fulfillment actually means. Having a common root as a shared starting point is essential for us to develop our own interpretations that, while unique, are still tethered to a trunk much like the leaves on a tree.
The best starting point to find a common ground is through science. That is because science and our understanding of it involves knowledge that is functionally definable, with limited room for interpretation. Theories give way to laws that are reproducible and verifiable, and the result is a rigid and solid bedrock from which to construct a framework on top of.
We cannot build a shared mental model without getting in hard-sync at the root. It is from this root that we will work our way into the more metaphysical and spiritual realms layered on top. In a way, it is the front door - a familiar and comfortable passage for many of us to walk through. And while we will ultimately have our own variations and interpretations of what reality is, like the many leaves on a tree, they will all rustle in synchrony as the winds of life buffet around us.
When I refer to reality, I am referring to what each of us are experiencing in our life, while we are awake, dreaming, sleeping, working, and in any other situation or state we find ourselves in.
Dimensions
There are six dimensions that when combined, conjure up this phenomenon that we call reality:
Material
Perception
Emotion
Cognition
Will
Awareness
I use the word dimension not in the capacity of mathematics and physics. For example, these six dimensions do not represent classical physics nor string theory dimensions. Rather, they represent facets that together create the spectacle that we describe as reality.
None of the six dimensions in and of itself can manifest our reality. In fact, it is the intensely complex, dynamic, and constant interplay between all of these dimensions that produces reality as we know it.
Faith
Of importance is how FoFty does not include faith, and that there is a clear delineation of where FoFty ends and where faith - and some religions - begin. This is by design, so that we can be as inclusive as possible and interface with many faith-based systems. This demarcation will be crystalized later when we discuss “Awareness,” the 6th dimension, and the implications of The Self in a later manuscript article.
For now, it is important to comprehend the general concept of how FoFty’s framework for reality is constructed, its borders, and how it can integrate with other faith-based systems.
Simulation
So how does this all translate into this reality being a simulation?
Consider the “Material,” or the first dimension - this is the tangible universe that we know of, bound by the laws of science and consistent to all. In the vertical scale between science and spirituality, it is the dimension that is the most “scientific.” Photons in the form of “light” that we “see” from galaxies light years away, the surface of the chair you are sitting on, the soundwaves bouncing around the room you are in, the microscopic particles suspended in the air around you, the one hundred trillion neutrinos passing through your body every second, and the muscle tissues of your beating heart.
This is the operating system we find ourselves in, and just like any operating system it has its set of rules of how it operates, and they exist at many levels. If you are familiar with software and operating systems, then you will know that the base level is something called the kernel, and at the top are many programs that run together in a complex mesh.
Humanity has learned about how these top level programs function (classical and modern physics), and in the past century, we have discovered the kernel itself (quantum mechanics). Much like an operating system’s kernel which is completely different from the applications running above it, so to is quantum mechanics and the “kernel” of the material dimension. The concepts and discoveries we have made in the field of quantum mechanics literally baffles us, and the bafflement increases as we build our knowledge in this space. And while we have yet to uncover the “Unifying Theory” which would connect everything together, I suspect that its discovery will be something akin to the device drivers and other control panel widgets we use in Windows or MacOS that perform an analogous connection function in those operating systems. Just don’t tell that to the String Theory proponents.
The more we learn about the kernel of the operating system we are in, the more evidence we find that we are in living in a simulation. This is a topic will discuss in more detail when we dive into the first dimension in earnest in a coming manuscript article.
Rendering Engines
Our bodies are simply highly sophisticated rendering engines within the operating system’s simulation. We are continuously rendering “reality,” even during our unconscious states that include sleeping and dreaming. Imagine the most advanced virtual reality goggles from the distant future - that is what our bodies and minds are.
As we move down from the top of the diagram, the remaining five dimensions describe our rendering engines, with the final dimension of “awareness” providing an open link to the question of “who” all this rendering that is taking place is for.
The dimensions of Perception, Emotion, and Cognition are directly linked to our rendering engine’s hardware and software - they are grounded in the sciences of biology, physiology, and evolution.
Further down are the dimensions of Will and Awareness, which are linked to the wetware of our rendering engine - they are the subjective interfaces into the inner realms of our existence. These dimensions are not directly measurable through any of the devices we have invented to date, and they rely more on the interpretation of our experiences resulting from them. They are related to the concept of the “hard problem of consciousness” that Chalmers described in 1995. Phenomenal qualities and qualia are part of these dimensions, and they revolve around the “experience” of the dimensions stacked above them.
We will discuss the details of each dimension in the the coming articles, to illustrate how they work together for us to manifest what we call reality, and more importantly, to highlight assumptions and false truths about them that have been boot-loaded into our minds.
By going through this process, we will find a common ground based on a solid bedrock, strip out as many falsehoods as we can, and create a cleanroom with broadened horizons from which to install updated programs into ourselves.
One thing I can guarantee you will find as you go through this journey: things are not what they seem.
➡️ Watch the accompanying YouTube video for this article here:
➡️ Read the previous FoFty manuscript article here:
http://fofty.net
About Sang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangyshin