Foreword
The Fourth Dimension of Space is a memory-haunting phrase, often heard, yet little understood. In this slender volume the author has attempted to explain what is meant by it, and to usher the reader into some of those fascinating halls of thought to which it is the door. Although the exposition is along known and already conventional lines, it is hoped that there is enough new and original matter to justify the book, and enough simplicity of presentation to justify its title, A Primer of Higher Space.
When you get drunk, really drunk, like drunk enough to elaborate ruefully on some esoteric tirade, inflicting your intellectual ambrosia (that inexplicably becomes vapid sludge upon your vocalization of it) upon innocent bystanders, about which topic do you blather endlessly? For me, it’s multi-dimensional space, and it’s all Claude Fayette Bragdon’s fault.
THE BOOK
A Primer of Higher Space: The Fourth Dimension (to which is added Man the Square: A Higher Space Parable) is an 81 page book originally published in 1913 on the author’s own Manas Press (2nd revised edition by Alfred A. Knopf pub.). The book is divided up into three parts:
1. A Primer of Higher Space - 18 concise pages of analogy, hypothesis, definition, example, reasoning, deduction and an elegant and brief explanation of why the fourth dimension as space and the fourth dimension as time are homologous. The last section of the primer discusses (again, very briefly - four paragraphs) “The History of Higher Space Thought,” and how it is at least as old as the “Ancient Wisdom of India” and is found in the “philosophical systems of Parmenides and Pythagoras.” Plato uses it allegorically in The Republic, and reference to higher space can also be found in the works of Kant and Swedenborg as well. He ends the primer with a humbling, yet hopeful thought “The higher space hypothesis makes man in his present estate appear but as an earthworm in power and knowledge, nevertheless it holds out the promise of eternal progress.”
2. Plates - 30 “plates” or one-page diagrams/drawings with accompanying explanations. The first plate explains the fourth dimension spatially, as the next logical progression from one-, two- and three-space, using the typical diagrams of line, square, cube and tesseract, or “tetra-hypercube.” Using the line/square/cube paradigm is a recurring theme throughout the book, and is one of the many vehicles Bragdon uses to take us on his journey of understanding. Other plates include “Lower Space Systems in Our World,” “An Interpretation of Certain So-Called Psychic Phenomena in Terms of the Higher-Space Theory,” several plates on the numerology connection between “magic squares,” “magic cubes” and “magic tesseracts” (they are “magic” in mathematical terms; numerical symmetry being at the basis of such).
3. Man the Square: A Higher Space Parable - In this last 17 pages of the book, Bragdon applies his line/square/cube archetypes to wisdom, life/death, consciousness, the concept of time, spirituality, and the physical nature of life as we know it, to arrive at conclusions such as “As is the great, so is the small: as is the outer, so is the inner.” There is no birth, there is no death, there is only the manifestation of the “cube” (human/consciousness) upon the “plane” (present) and their respective disassociation as well. Man the Square ends with “The Sermon on the Plane” and a brief interpretation of said sermon, which is a geometric and mathematical parallel to Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount.”
SUMMATION OF BOOK
I am inspired by Claude Bragdon’s brevity. A Primer of Higher Space is a very concise and simple look at the broad concepts of multi-dimensional space. The writing is only mildly anachronisitic… it’s the heaviness of the religious and spiritual overtones (most prevalent in Part 3: Man the Square) that are the most distracting, yet at the same time enlightening (if you are open to such things - if not, just skip the last part). The book seems to be more of a recapping of related concepts than the forging of new ideas and principles. Claude Bragdon is very methodical in his exposition, yet restrained. His ego does not get in the way of his science/parascience.
THE AUTHOR
Saying too much about author, architect, yogi, theosophist, illustrator, occultist, mathematician, artist, designer, scientist, spiritualist, numerologist Claude Bragdon would be akin to spoiling the end of a suspenseful movie. He is a fascinating, yet somewhat obscure figure in the more esoteric corners of turn-of-the-century America.
Bragdon’s many interests can be woven together by his fascination with the ethereal side of numbers as evidenced by some of his more famous quotes:
- “Mathematics is the handwriting on the human consciousness of the very Spirit of Life itself.”
- “Architecture is frozen music.”
- “Music is number made audible.”
I have provided some links at the end of this review to provide the interested reader with avenues for self-study on this fascinating modern renaissance man.
BUYING BRAGDON
Buyer beware! It seems as if you can buy Claude Bragdon books from many places including Amazon, Alibris (link below) and Esotericism (link below). However, ask questions first. If it is easy to find, it is most likely a current reprint, and a shoddy one at that. The reprint I purchased from Amazon years ago was very disappointing. It looked like a hastily-xeroxed copy on plain, white 8.5 x 11 copy paper with a brightly colored, cheaply-applied cover. If you are only looking to read the book, this may be fine for you, but if you are looking to buy an original, or at least something that resembles a “book” and not an elementary school student’s workbook, ask questions first and understand what you are getting in advance. Every so often, a copy of a Claude Bragdon book will appear on eBay at a reasonable price, but again, make sure you ask questions and know what you are getting prior to bidding.
IN CONCLUSION
If you must scribble calculations and diagrams on beaten up cocktail napkins with a fine-point Sharpie that you carry around for just such emergencies, nearly every time you get hammered, this is the book for you! If you enjoy geeky forays into mathematical science fiction and yet can tolerate religious application of the concepts in easily digestible chunks that are meant to be taken seriously and sacredly, this book may also be a fun read for you. If you’re the kind of person who gets annoyed with the impossible, often storming out of “out there” movies, mumbling “That can’t ever happen! That’s impossible!” skip this book.
This wasn’t the book that changed my life, but it is the book that spawned the years of questioning and searching that eventually did lead to a new religion and world view. Whether you are into really getting loaded on high octane liquor and freaking out in some mad, recursive geekfest, or questioning the very nature of reality and existence, Claude Bragdon is there to help you in your quest!
LINKS
Little bit about Bragdon and some GIFs of some of the drawings (not plates) in this book:
http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/America/Chinese.htm
Link to Bragdon’s architectural drawings held at the Rush Rhees Library at the
University of Rochester
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/rbk/BRAGDOND.stm
Claude Bragdon’s astrological chart:
http://www.khaldea.com/charts/claudebragdon.shtml
Excerpt on Love and Sex from Bragdon’s Book Yoga For You
http://www.argotique.com/texts/bragdon.htm
"Deflating Hyperspace" by: David Pacchioli (Research/Penn State, Vol. 16, no. 4 (December, 1995))
http://www.rps.psu.edu/dec95/hyper.html
Where to buy Bragdon Reprints: Alibris.com
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?wauth=claude%20bragdon
Another Place to Buy Bragdon Reprints: Esotericism.co.uk
http://www.esotericism.co.uk/esoteric-classics.htm
Recommended:
Yes
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