Charles Hinton
In The Fourth Dimension, mathematician and spiritualist Charles Hinton explores the capacity of human beings to perceive higher dimensions through a process of esoteric training. He argues that acquiring an intuitive perception of higher space requires that we rid ourselves of the ideas of “directionality” inherent in our position as observers of a three-dimensional world. Hinton calls the process “casting out the self”, equates it with the process of sympathy, and implies the two processes are mutually reinforcing. In this sense, recognizing and eventually perceiving a higher dimension is not simply a mathematical exercise, but an important to point the way toward a higher realm of existence in both intellectual and genuinely spiritual terms.