A PERSONAL JOURNEY
Among people in the community who follow the news on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), I have a reputation of being at once a believer and at the same time, a skeptic. I’m fairly convinced that there are likely “alien” drones, probes and/or possibly “manned” ships in our atmosphere on occasion. I believe this for a number of reasons. First of all, trained, professional military personnel, airline pilots and others are reporting such phenomena in ever increasing numbers (possibly, because we have more of our own craft flying about.) Secondly, there are a number of members of Congress, specifically Representative Tim Burchett (R, TN)1 and Representative Anna Luna (R, FL) who from a public policy perspective have met with Department of Defense (DOD) personnel in secure rooms called Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIF rooms) and they have emerged from these briefings more convinced than ever that the U.S. government appears to be hiding evidence of “nonhuman intelligence” that has been discovered, uncovered and retrieved over the past seventy-five years or so. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) and Senator (R, FL) Marco Rubio (now Secretary of State) are among members of the upper chamber who are likewise engaged with the topic.
Something else that makes me wonder whether we are being visited is the fact that there has been a quantum technological leap in torpedo and missile technology in the U.S., Russia and China which suggests that there “may” be some reverse engineering of greatly advanced and sophisticated systems going on. It’s one thing to see Russian nuclear capable rockets from thirty years ago lumbering across the sky. It’s quite another to see current Russian Avangard or more precisely, Oreshnik missiles slam into the ground at speeds greater than 8,000 mph. And the Avangard is actually capable of speeds three times that of the Oreshnik. I’ve never before seen an object travel at Mach 10, yet alone Mach 30 (“Mach” representing the speed of sound) strike the Earth. It is positively terrifying to witness and apparently useless to attempt to defend against. Where did this ability suddenly come from?
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) which is the investigative body for the DOD as far as UAP are concerned claim that they can solve or identify 736 out of 757 most recent cases, but 21 of these cases have defied resolution. These cases involve phenomena that contradict our laws of physics, such as having no visible means of propulsion while being able to hover without motion in gale force winds or making impossible aerial maneuvers at ninety degree angles. Some objects are too small for an average-size person to fit in. Others are as large as a soccer stadium. A total of 21 cases seems disappointingly meager, almost insignificant, but there have been thousands of reports over the past decade also and therefore (all other things being equal), hundreds of unknown objects. The Pentagon admits (1) that there are what seem to be machine-like objects in U.S. skies. And, (2) these objects are not from another country, and finally (3) they are not made in America. What, then, is left for the public to conclude?
This is not to say that we should believe every Tom, Dick and Alf. I have weighed the points above against what I’ve read and learned concerning news and science. For example, the recent frenzy of reports of drones and objects reported as being similar to aircraft and helicopters occurring in New Jersey and other North Atlantic states have been for the most part (and in my opinion) just that; drones, aircraft and helicopters. I’ve written elsewhere on my blog that this “flap” or cluster of reports bore hallmarks of mass hysteria. Still, there are interesting and occasional accounts and video available if one is intent on not throwing the baby out with the bathwater and if a person patiently and dispassionately sifts through the video and other affidavits.
ORIGINS
The prospects of alien life reaching our planet is also daunting given the vast distances in our galaxy and beyond. Even at light speed which–according to Einstein–cannot be overcome, voyages would take years even from the closest star system to Earth. And of the several thousand exoplanets discovered in the past half century, not a single one is deemed capable of life as we know it. I’ve blogged about some of these planets in detail in other posts include Kepler 16, Wolf 359, 51 Pegasi b, PSR B1257+12 b, Gliese 667 as a three-body problem and PSO J318.5−22, a Rogue Planet, among others. One of these planets I mentioned circles a dwarf star, another a red giant, another a pulsar and still another no star at all. In the process I’ve added discussions on alien DNA, and alternatives (to carbon) as a base for life (e.g. ammonia, silicon, barium and so on), and I’ve also touched on frozen water worlds. Kepler 131b appears to be a rocky planet that is not quite in the habitable zone (habitable as in the Goldilocks Principle: “Not too sour, not too sweet. Just right!”) However, what makes a planet such as Kepler 131b different assuming it has intelligent life–or even human life–is that Kepler 131b has such a huge mass that a civilization might never be able to achieve escape velocity (the speed which is necessary to launch a payload into space.) The escape velocity of Earth is 24,923 mph. That would be the speed needed if someone were to fire an artillery shell out of a giant canon into space. Because a rocket engine continually applies power to the rocket as it climbs to the upper atmosphere until burnout, the speed needed in practical terms is something less than that. The escape velocity of Kepler 131b, with a mass greater than sixteen times that of Earth, a rocket must be prepared to travel at a speed more than three times the 25,000 mph it takes to escape from Earth’s gravity. If a civilization were capable of breaking free of their surface under those conditions, it would definitely be alien to us.
HYPERSPACE
So, mainly for those reasons I have decided to look elsewhere for a possible point of origin, and that search has taken me to the higher dimensions (referred to as hyperspace.) Looking to a higher dimension would also explain the changing shape that some observers of UAPs report. Now, any spatial dimension above the third dimension (such as the fourth dimension) is purely hypothetical, though it does exist in mathematical equations and so far as it refers to time. There is not direct empirical data to support the spatial notion because our senses are so finely tuned to the three dimensional world in which we live. Only string-theory, which itself has fallen somewhat out of vogue of late provides a framework for this. So, what follows in this post is based on the assumption that higher spatial dimensions do exist. In some sense this post is just an academic exercise of interest only to science-fiction writers and amateur students of physics and cosmology. There must be a context in discussions like these, even though our 3D+1 reality may not be representative of what lies beyond. But without a benchmark or a trail of breadcrumbs, it is entirely possible to lose our way, and possibly our minds as well.
THE MULTIVERSE
Higher dimensional theory, multiverses (aka as parallel universes, many worlds theory, even polycosmos) are properly part of what we know as hyperspace. The term hyperspace was first used in 1866 (or 1867 in other sources) and was called “hyper” (above) and “space” to indicate its domain. What follows is strictly theoretical, but scientists who believe in this will tell your that each universe may very well have different physical laws. How many universes might their be? Two? Twenty? Two thousand? No one really knows. What evidence there is for the multiverse comes from modeling the exponential expansion in the fraction of the first second following the Big Bang. Even if another universe has gravity and electromagnetism, these forces might be much weaker or much stronger then they are here. Yet, there is still not a consensus among scientists that the multiverse exists, and you are likely to find either the term “universe” or “multiverse” in textbooks depending on the leanings of the authors.
THE FIRST THREE DIMENSIONS
The first three dimensions are relatively easy to describe. They are length, width and height. In some cases, you might use geometrical symbols (x, y, and z) or other terms to describe the three labels, but the meaning is the same. As an example, consider the floor plan on the right. The bottom half of the plan describes what is essentially a two dimensional home. If you add a second floor, you now have a three dimensional home (for the sake of this example.) So, homes are either two-dimensional or three dimensional. All other things being equal, adding a third dimension to a home increases the cost. As you get older, you also find getting around in a two dimensional house is easier, because you can avoid steps. But having a second floor (i.e. a third dimension) gives you more freedom and advantage in different ways. You have more living space on a small-sized lot, a better view, an apartment for your mother-in-law to move in and so on.
Adding a third dimension to other products in life also gives you advantages as well. Take the two ultrasound photos below. The black and white image of the baby gives you a two dimensional image (length and height.) You can see a flat image of how the baby is lying. But it is only a very fundamental image and there is not a whole lot of information or detail for an obstetrician to visualize. You cannot see both eyes and the far side of the head, for example. The doctor’s freedom is restricted. The second photo below is a three-dimensional image.
Note how the head of the baby seems to “leap” off of the background in the second photo. A fourth dimension to this 3-D image adds time to the photo. To convert the second ultrasound image to a four-dimensional image, you could video the infant for maybe twenty seconds and save the file in an .avi or .mp4 format, and that would include motion, but more importantly, time (twenty seconds.) Time is the only four-dimensional effect that we directly experience. But there appears to be more to the fourth dimension than that. If we wanted to convert the three-dimensional image to four spatial dimensions, we could not. First of all, because we do not have that technology yet, and the result would make the image more confusing. We can convert a cube into a four dimensional solid (called a tesseract), but that is pretty much as far as we can go and still have a consensus.
If there is intelligent life in the fourth (spatial) dimension, they would have more freedom than we to come and go in our three dimensional world. They would appear to change shape to us as they passed through our world. While we don’t know for sure absent any empirical or verifiable data, scientists believe that were intelligent life to exist in the fourth dimension (or an even higher dimension), that this life could come and go in our dimension with impunity. They could steal gold out of Fort Knox, even the yokes out of eggs without breaking them. This is because their dimension would provide access to “foolproof” security systems made in our dimension. Their ships could appear and disappear spontaneously, appearing to change shape as they entered and withdrew from our dimension back into theirs. Likely, they would need some sort of access points, similar to portals. These portals could be anything from Einstein-Rosen Bridges (i.e. wormholes) to rabbit holes. The could be clearly marked of not marked at all, possibly explaining why some people mysteriously disappear and are never found. Perhaps some local space phenomenon could open these gateways or, it the lifeforms there were sufficiently advanced, they might be able to “fold space” or open portals on their own.
It’s also possible that the small exotic drones being reported by Navy pilots in restricted air space are operated from the fourth dimension. We have drones flying in Syria that are piloted from Nevada. There has been a recent (since 2015 or so) increase in the number of UAP seen or challenged by the U.S. Navy off the East Coast in an area known as the Virginia Capes. This is restricted air space for military aircraft to maneuver and possibly to discharge munitions. The War Zone and/or testimony to Congress by naval pilots has compiled reports of UAP’s waiting for Navy jets to approach the entry points for predesignated areas to areas such as W-72 and W-386. These are “doorways” at certain coordinates and altitudes. Naval carrier and escort ship radar picks them up as well. Coincidentally, naval radar systems were reported to have had a major update or upgrade around that same time which may account for the increased number of UAPs which were not perceivable prior to the upgrade. I have to wonder if the new software was able to perceive them?
THE FOURTH DIMENSION
So, I’ve written extensively on the fourth dimension. Rather than repeat myself (with the exception of the brief quote below), I’d like to add more material about the fourth dimension and hyperspace in general. I’m going to avoid the mathematical proofs and detailed discussions about branes, vibrations, etc. just to keep it simple.
As I mentioned in my post on the fourth dimension:
“As three-dimensional beings, we find ourselves conveniently placed in a three-dimensional existence. If we were to suddenly find ourselves in a four-dimensional reality, our organs would fall out because out bodies could no longer contain them, or they might collect in a pile in the bottom of our pelvic area. If we were “thrown” into the fourth dimension, we would die almost instantaneously. That’s because atomic particles such as electrons and elements such as magnesium would likely behave or appear differently in the fourth dimension than in our existence, and we need these particles and elements in their current 3D states to survive. There would not be oxygen as we know and need it present in the fourth dimension, or we would quickly suffocate.”
But what if a craft from the fourth dimension crashed in our world? There was a reported incident where a DOD crash retrieval team found a thirty-foot machine that had crashed and was partially embedded in the ground. I was estimated to be about thirty feet in size, but when one of the team members entered the craft, he noted that it seemed as large as a football stadium. Then, he felt ill, disoriented. There was also some sort of temporal distortion as well. He was inside the craft for only a few minutes, but to his comrades it was more like four hours. Now, normally I would to get much more collaborating information on an incident like this before repeating it. I only do so now because these subjective experiences are exactly what you might feel if something from the fourth dimension entered our world and landed (crashed) near you. You would not be ripped apart as you might be if you were thrown into the fourth dimension. In a very real and important sense, in this scenario you are still in our 3D world. But the craft is giving you a “taste” of another reality. Other possible “quirks” you might experience within the object might be a change in the gravitational field, temperature changes, air pressure changes, or you might be overwhelmed with bright, perhaps unfamiliar colors, sounds and so on. Whatever you might encounter would depend on the physiological needs of the pilot. If the pilot was human, you might feel no effect. The effects of all of these variables would be compounded by your fear, anxiety, sense of wonder and so on.
THE FIFTH DIMENSION
Another posit of the many worlds theory is that there is a different “you” in each reality as you may know from watching Sci-fi shows on Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime. In one reality, you set your alarm for 6:00 a.m. and you get up when it rings. In another reality, it does not ring because you forgot to arm it. In still another reality you sleep through the alarm and so on. Next, you dress. In one reality you wear red socks and in another blue socks, and in still another you choose black socks, white socks, or brown socks, etc. In one reality you walk to work. In another you drive and arrive safely. In another reality you drive and die in a car crash enroute and so on. Every possible outcome is acted out in a different timeline. All of these possible timelines occur in the fifth dimension (we think.)
There is the notion of Monism which states that only one of the many timelines or alternative possibilities is truly ‘real,” and the others timelines were nothing more than possibilities and mere artifacts of no consequence. However, in true quantum mechanics, there is no real timeline and each of the possibilities is equally valid.2
THE SIXTH DIMENSION
Like most higher dimensions from the sixth dimension upward, the current notion is that they are are very tiny, even less than microscopic. Part of the reason for this is that when two protons collide at a great enough speed, a tiny black hole would be formed for a fraction of a second before collapsing. But this collision would open a tiny bubble on interdimensional space with different laws of physics than our own. This is known as vacuum decay. But if the dimensions were large, and therefore the space were likewise larger, this “cosmic bubble” would grow at light speed and the gravity involved in the dynamic would obliterate us. Because this has not yet happened, the hypothesis is that these remaining dimensions are tiny. Creating this miniature black hole is the current focus of research at CERN. Still, these tiny dimensions have a profound influence on how our universe functions and remains stable overall.
In string theory, additional dimensions help unify gravity with the other forces of nature. The sixth dimension could be considered a space where different possible realities or parallel universes exist, or where different states of physical systems can be understood. If time travel were ever realized, it might be most likely a sixth dimensional function.
The sixth and seventh dimensions have been claimed by cartoon characters, or metaphysical and theosophical states of being and consciousness that have nothing at all to do with science. So, at this this point I’ll pause. However, if you want a peek at the remaining dimensions, see here.
IS TRANSDIMENSIONAL COMMUNICATION POSSIBLE?
It is possible in science fiction movies and television series perhaps. Mystics and people involved in the occult may tell you they’ve projected themselves to different astral planes or dimensions and have been in telepathic communication with angels and demons, perhaps the spirits of the departed. Young people who practice what is known as “shifting” believe that there is a dream-related state whereby you are caught up in or approach another dimension. It is tragic to read how hard they try to push themselves into a dissociative state that smells of schizophrenia. In spite of their enthusiasm and ill-advised practices, there is neither empirical evidence nor a mathematical/scientific framework to support these beliefs. At least hyperspace, itself, has some basis in modeling. There no are ghosts in hyperspace. Some devotees say that ghosts are from another dimension, and that Heaven and Hell are different dimensions. None of this has any shred of evidence, though there certainly is ample room for spatial dimensions in the Bible. Keep in mind that Kaluza and Einstein likely did not have theology in mind when they developed their theories.
Hypothetically, at least, communication is possible, and if you watched the movie Interstellar, you’ll find a good introduction to it there. What, then, are the ways that information might be exchanged across dimensional boundaries. One possibility is M-theory which develops the notion of virtually infinite one-dimensional strings in addition to multi-dimensional branes that vibrate at certain frequencies. The frequency they vibrate (oscillate) at depends on the tension, energy and other space-time properties in their surroundings. Like strings, branes (from the word “membrane”) are not made out of anything (such as gas, particles and so on) as far as we know. They just “are.” And while strings and branes are thin, they are incredibly dense, able to distort time and space and generate graviton waves which affect even light, causing multiple images of a distant object.
It is possible that the vibrations or other effects on space-time can create quantum field interactions which could disrupt the boundaries of dimensions to allow data to seep though. Certainly, worm hole and quantum tunneling whereby particles burrow though dimensional borders might also occur. But as theoretical as wormholes are today, a stable wormhole is ever more far-fetched. I’ve heard it suggested that in the case of someone who has a recurrent dream that plays over and over in their sleep and has the same outcome each time might be a result of an adjacent and alternate quantum timeline where the dream actually occurred. Perhaps in real life the person was robbed of his watch at gunpoint at some point in time. However, in their dream, the robber shoots them as well as steals their watch. But I don’t know how this could be tested and the fundamental assumption does not even have a theory attached to it (assuming alternative outcomes are even possible.). At this point, we are moving as much towards philosophy as we are physics. But for me to repeatedly remind you that this is all theory, or at present, far beyond our current grasp and so on does not discount the possibility. Just consider how far we’ve come in the last century and a half and the significance of the discoveries that we’ve made.
WOULD PARALLEL UNIVERSES EACH HAVE THEIR OWN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS?
I thought this was an interesting question. Referring to the illustration above with the different bubbles, each representing a different universe, I wondered whether each would have the same dimensions that we have, and whether, for example, the fourth dimension in these bubbled universes would have the same function as ours. And, would another universe among many share our fourth dimension or a separate fourth dimension of its own? The answer seems to be “No!” Some of these universes might be absolutely barren, void of any matter or energy, so in that case what would lower dimensions even mean? How could you measure and state the x, y and z of an infinite expanse of empty space? So, clearly, since time might unfold differently in a different dimension and the laws of physics might be different, then it may well mean that you cannot get from universe “A” to universe “B” though entering our fourth dimension (not that you even could, because as my post of the fourth dimension notes, you would immediately bleed out through evisceration if you entered our fourth dimension.). And if that doesn’t kill you in less than a minute, any one of a number of other things might.
CONSTANTS IN COSMOLOGY
There are a series of critical mathematical constants in our universe that keep electrons revolving around the nuclei of atoms, the planets in our solar system rotating on their axes while revolving around our sun and our sun revolving around our galaxy. These constants include (when relevant) the speed of light and the Gravitational Constant (measuring the strength of the gravitational attraction between stars and planets, asteroids, etc.). Planck’s constant relates to photons and their frequencies, while the Fine Structure Constant (FSC) describes the electromagnetic interaction between atomic particles. The Hubble Constant measures the inflation rate of our universe, and beyond this there are five or six other constants as well. If any one of these constant values were to shift even imperceptibly, our universe could essentially cease to exist. A change in the Fine Structure Constant could disrupt the properties of molecules involved in life processes (including DNA.) Life would cease to exist on earth since the Anthropic Principle is tied into the FSC. Stars would age prematurely in this case as well, and our sun would begin to cool. Since other universes could have different physical laws and constants, then all bets are off. But maybe the other universes have the same constants with the same values?
Then again, what are the odds that the hydrogen line would be precisely 1420.4 MHz in twelve (or 2,000) universes as it is here? Or that hydrogen would even be as abundant elsewhere as it is here?
DIMENSIONAL REDUCTION (COMPACTIFICATION)
This is something arbitrarily applied to the higher dimensions to make them easier for scientists and mathematicians to study them. By assuming the sixth, seventh, and eighth-through-tenth dimensions are microscopic in size, they can fit into the model easier. There may come a point in time where we realize they are not curled in on each other or that they don’t exist at all! But for the moment, “dimensional reduction,” “compactification” and “holographic principal” which I won’t discuss here are buzzwords thrown about at the moment. Indeed, David Grusch brought these up last summer in his testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives.
AFTERWORD
I may add another (third) post on dimensions later this year. If anyone has any specific questions or interests along these lines, please post your comments here.
FOOTNOTES
1A CBS news report from two days ago documented what was carried on other platforms concerning Congressman Tim Burchett (R, TN.) According to the CBS report:
“Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said in an interview Wednesday that an admiral — whom he did not identify — had told him of an unidentified craft moving at incredible speeds in the sea.
“They tell me something’s moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater… as large as a football field, underwater,” the Tennessee congressman told former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, who now hosts a show on right-wing news outlet One America News.
“This was a documented case and I have an admiral telling me this stuff.”
If this is true (that Congressman Burchett’s comments are true, and the anonymous admiral was truthful), and assuming this was not a false echo caused by temperature inversion or whatever else a nuclear submarine crew might encounter, then determining what this was should be a national priority, regardless of where it came from.
2In this case and because this is fundamentally a Christian website with added material on politics, history, nature and so on, I have to apply my beliefs and biases (e.g. how I filter material) as caveats through the lens of my faith, especially here. And the many-worlds hypothesis becomes problematic to me for the following reason: Take a reality where God creates Adam and Eve, and sin enters the world as described in the book of Genesis. This is called original sin, and it diminishes in some fundamental way all of creation, particularly our relationship with God, our abilities, life expectancy and so on. However, an alternative reality with an Adam and Eve might not involve sin, in which corruption might not have been tainted. Or our reality where Jesus died and was resurrected, but in another reality this never happened. That would be a problem for Christians. Dimensional beings visiting earth, extraterrestrials invading our planet, humans or other entities elsewhere in the galaxy would not be a problem for Christianity in and of itself as I discuss here. But–and depending on how the multiverse played out–the many worlds hypothesis could be a problem. Then again, who knows what things might be like in a completely different universe? There could be talking animals as C.S. Lewis wrote about in the Chronicles of Narnia. Or even Hobbits.