In this writing, I'm going to be tying together a lot of ideas. so hold onto your seats! 

We sometimes joke about how foolish people were when they thought the world was flat.  "How provincial!" we'd say, "Obviously the world is a SPHERE."  And we'd ponder for a moment how they could have gotten that 'flat' idea to begin with and then we shrug our shoulders and go on with our lives on our little sphere. 

But - I think that when people thought the world was flat - it REALLY WAS! 

What?  Well, let's first get a better conceptual grip on this whole 'dimensional' thing to begin with - how do flatness and sphereness relate to each other? 

From "Dimensionality & Probability" by Tom Burke: 

"There are an infinite number of points, locations, if you will, in the universe.  How can there be an infinite amount of something within a finite space?  Easy, dimensions."  . . . . 

"I use the word in it's original sense - height, width, and depth.  Imagine you are making a sandwich with two dimensional [width and height, no thickness] slices of cheese.  How many cheese slices would you need to make a stack 1/2 of an inch thick?  Since the cheese has NO thickness you would have to keep piling it on forever and you would never get any closer to done.  In other words, you would need an INFINITE amount of two dimensional pieces of to fill ANY three dimensional space.  Infinity residing within limits.  Just like there are infinite decimals between any two numbers. . . . . 

"In three dimensions the effect is slightly more difficult to visualize.  It makes it easier to imagine it like a movie.  A movie is not actually moving pictures, but a series of two dimensional still pictures with information, stored in depth (along the film).  On the film each inch or so of depth contains new height and width information.  The world around you right now is just like that picture, except the display is three dimensional and the new pictures are stored in the dimension of time.  Movement is how we see time." . . . . "If movies flash at 24-36 frames per second - what about 'actual' movement? Move your hand in front of your face for one second.  How many discreet locations did your hand exist in during that time?  Infinite, right?" . . . . 

"But what is time as a dimension?  Any dimension can be described by the vertical lines that cross through it.  For instance, a horizontal dimension can be described by the vertical lines tht cross through it.  Likewise, time can be described by all the movement that ever has and ever will happen.  Read that last part again - ever WILL happen.  What about choices, what about free will, what about conscious creation?  Well, there has to be a dimension above time.  We know that each dimension contains an infinite measure of those below it.  . . . . Extend this out and you realize that in any FIFTH dimension (fourth being time), there are infinite timelines.  What to call this fifth dimension?  I call it probability.  It is the dimension that provides free will and choice.  It is the dimension that our choices really affect, directing our timeline." 

So - you comprehend the concepts of how our intellects understand dimensions now.  Am I saying that people used to be two dimensional?  In answer to that, let me offer this quote: 

"The physical aspects are NOT the reality.  The PERCEPTION is the reality." - Elias 

So when people thought the earth was flat, the earth WAS flat.  They were perceiving their reality, BELIEVING in their reality, through a core belief of a two dimensional framework.  So, the earth was flat.  

Then, people started to grow and expand their minds again.  We started reaching OUT of the two dimensional framework of thought and into the THREE dimensional framework, and in doing so, added a whole new depth to our experience.  (pun intended).  So then we 'discovered' that the world was really ROUND - NOT flat.  And there were arguments back and forth between those that were still insisting that the world was flat and those that just KNEW it was round. 

We can then follow along with those who desired the three dimensional experience, leaving the two-dimensional believers to THEIR realities.  So, having fully accepted the 'three dimensional' belief, we continued to expand our minds and then started to look at the concept of TIME.  We know that scientists and philosophers and artists played with this concept for years.  At first we believed in the inescapability and linearity of time - "Time marches on".  We believed we lived within a framework of time, that we were subject to its tick tick tickings. 

Hmmmm.  But then, inevitably perhaps, we started thinking and theorizing again.  We started to look WITHIN time instead of just across the surface.  We started to perceive that time maybe WAS malleable in some way.  We stopped believing we were victims to linear time and started seeing it as a tool or idea. 

And as we perceived, so it was. 

Then, we began to examine the concept of probability.  The idea that we can CHOOSE which probability (which of the infinite timelines) we want to experience.  Suddenly all kinds of conflicts arose in our belief systems, (just like they did during the transition from two dimensional perception to three dimensional perception.)  For instance, 'How can you choose a probable world where you DIDN'T lock your keys in the car, when you know you did?' brings up the questions, 'Is time REALLY linear or isn't it?' 

And, the kind of question that has rumpled many a conscious creator's brow, 'How can you choose a probable world where your family gets along well if the rest of the family doesn't want to 'make nice'?' or 'How can you say that something does NOT exist in your reality when it most clearly DOES exist to someone else?' 

The reason for this apparent mental conflict is that our core beliefs are once again CHANGING and EXPANDING.  Just like the flat earthers eventually moved into the round earthers (or into another existence all together), we are moving from 'one worlders' to 'infinite worlders'.  What does this mean?  It means that we have been believing that the world exists as one unified sphere in the space-time continuum, which it has.  As our perceptions and awarenesses expand to include the concept of probabilities, we are moving into THAT dimension.  We are learning to move WITHIN the dimension of probabilities just as we once learned that TIME was not the absolute it appeared to be. 

When core beliefs change, the assumptions that once went along with the old core beliefs must ALSO change.  So the argument of four dimensional people that, "We all have to live in the same world!" which once seemed so definite, is now not necessarily 'true' any more.  This can be, to say the least, a little confusing and upsetting to the psyche, particularly when many of us had believed we were at the pinnacle of scientific understanding of reality.  Well, maybe we WERE at the pinnacle of four dimensional living, but, once again, we're starting a WHOLE NEW grade in school. 

How do we make this perceptual transition into fifth dimensional awareness so that we can consciously create our realities the way we truly want?  How do we even start thinking in terms of multiple WORLDS when many of our old attitudes and beliefs about life and about ourselves are based in the idea that all of us have to SHARE one world, with prescribed limits?  Einstein has said that we cannot solve our problems at the same level of understanding that we were in when we created them.  (This idea in itself, is a wonderful description of how we challenge ourselves to grow beyond ourselves.) 

One 'conscious creation' answer is to stop accepting those beliefs that say we CAN'T.  The answer isn't to reduce our needs down to the bare minimum.  Well, that's ONE answer, but our minds beckon us with knowings of an abundant universe, so equally sharing the 'limited' resources that we have doesn't feel like the ultimate answer anymore.  The answer to, for instance, a lack of money, in our lives (to bring the concept home) is to STOP BELIEVING IN THE LACK.  And in order to do that, we have to release the core belief in there being only ONE WORLD WITH LIMITED RESOURCES. That is the CORE BELIEF that we are in the process of altering. 

We have to accept that THE world, doesn't actually exist like we so exclusively thought it did! 

Starts to sound like magic to our rational, logical minds that SEE and BELIEVE what they see.  But now we know that what we SEE actually COMES from what we believe, and we've been looking in a mirror, making faces, trying to figure out where to go from there. 

What we need are ideas to bridge the concepts in our minds, to connect them, to make them REAL for us.  (It is said that half of what we learn we already know.) 

One of the best bridges to this fifth dimensional awareness/perception I've  seen comes from the entity Seth as channeled by Jane Roberts. 

excerpt from The Seth Material by Jane Roberts, page 115-117.  

"None of you sees the glass that the others see . . . . Each of the three of you creates your own glass, in your own personal perspective.  Therefore you have three different physical glasses here, but each one exists in an entirely different space continuum." (emphasis is mine) 
. . . .
"Now Mark, you cannot see Joseph's glass, nor can he see yours," Seth said. "This can be proven mathematically, and scientists are already working with the problem, though they do not udnertand the principles behind it.  Now there is an infinitesimal point where Mark's perspective and Ruburt's overlap.  Again, theoretically, if you could perceive that point, you could actually see the other two physical glasses. 

"Physical objects cannot exist unless they exist in a definite perspective and space continuum.  But each individual creates his own space continuum.  . . .  I want to tie this in with the differences you seem to see in one particular object.  Each individual actually creates an entirely different object, which his own physical senses then perceive." . . . . 

"You, Joseph, perceive Mark sitting in the chair," Seth continued.  "He sits in his own chair which he has constructed in his own space continuum and personal perspective. 

"You and Ruburt perceive Mark, and yet neither of you sees Mark's Mark.  As he sits in his chair, he is constantly creating his own physical image, using his own psychic energy. . . .  So far we have here, then, one Mark, constructed by himself. . . . While Mark creates his physical image, you do not see it.  At this time, there are three entirely different Marks in the room." . . . . "There is the Mark which Mark has created, an actual physical construction.  There is another, created by you, Joseph.  There are two more physical Marks, one created by Ruburt, and one by your cat.  If another person entered the room, there would be still another physical Mark. 

"In this room then, there are four physical Ruburts, four physical Josephs, and four physical cats.  There are indeed four rooms." 

And then there are the entities that remind us all the time, like Abraham  (channeled by Esther Hicks), that we get what we focus on, and to change our reality, to switch to the probability we like better, we must change our FOCUS - we must stop holding onto what IS as the only reality and use our imaginations to foster change. 

Once again, easily said.  So we've been milling about, asking each other questions like, "How can I focus on having a lot of money when I obviously don't - aren't I just deluding myself?" or "Aren't I ignoring the suffering of the world when I'm only focusing on what makes me happy?"  These aren't easy questions when we start getting real with them - each of us has to work through our own emotional issues with them. 

One of the challenges is that a large chunk of WHO WE'VE ASSUMED WE ARE and WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A DECENT HUMAN stem from beliefs in there being only one world.  And we spend a lot of time trying to find ways of accepting or justifying our new beliefs about this fifth dimensional reality during this transition. 

Back to the flat worlders again - can you imagine how tenaciously they might have clung to their ideas?  "If the world is round, then how come the horizon is a flat line?"  They had physical evidence to support their view.  And at first, the round worlders were reaching into a dimension not as yet perceivable by their senses.  "Prove it!" the flat worlders would yell.  The round worlders would start with, "I just KNOW it - trust me!"  And then, "THERE!  Can you see it?"  I can imagine that the round worlders must have finally come to the conclusion that unless someone WANTS to see that the world is no longer flat, unless they have no resistance or fear of self-loss over the round world idea, they will NOT accept it, and so they will NOT see it. 

In his book Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, Richard Bach said, "Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours."  Yes, we have a lot invested in our four dimensional understanding of the world, and in our four dimensional understandings of ourselves.  We have four dimensional identities for ourselves, just as most of us has fourth GRADE identities for ourselves as we were growing up.  We became new people when we entered fifth grade - had new ways of doing things, new responsibilities, new potentialities.  This DIMENSIONAL shift is a little trickier because we are moving out of an entire FRAMEWORK of beingness. 

From my own experience, the biggest challenge is in letting go of who you've been (your entire life - all within that one FRAMEWORK of awareness) is that fear that you will cease to exist or become someone you don't like, don't recognize, and don't feel is YOU anymore.  But just think back to the YOU in fourth GRADE, and then the YOU in FIFTH.  You were different, but you were still you.  And even though expanding your awareness into a new dimension of discovery seems to require letting go of a LOT MORE of who you thought you were, you'll ALWAYS be you.  Death IS an illusion - no matter what form it comes in. 

So let's be gentle with ourselves as we gradually or not so gradually learn to accept our new selves and learn to move and consciously create within the framework or dimension of PROBABILITIES.  Just think - there's another dimension above probabilities after we get THIS one down pat!   *grin*. 

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.  What the catepillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." - Messiah's Handbook, from Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach. 

(c)2000, Kristen Fox.   Published in the December 2000 - January 2001 issue of the online Conscious Creation Journal. http://www.consciouscreation.com   Feel free to copy this article for personal use - please include this copyright notice.