MY SON and I have often talked about things that are way beyond the average child. Son is about fifteen, but he frequently has startled me, even from childhood, with some of his remarks. Not so long ago he said one night that he did not believe Einstein was right about the fourth dimension being Time; after thinking it all out, he believed that if knowing the laws of the second dimension would enable a one-dimensional figure to travel sideways, as well as forwards or backwards; if knowing the laws of the third dimension would enable a two-dimensional figure to travel up, as well as front, back and sideways; knowing the laws of the fourth dimension would enable us three-dimensional figures to travel through solids.

This was not a new idea: it was not new even to me. But it did surprise me to have him figure it out. He said it would be easier to understand the fifth dimension than the fourth, for in going from the third to the fourth we were going from the material to the spiritual; whereas, in going from the fourth to the fifth, we were going only from one plane of the spiritual to another.

Here is one reason why this remark startled me—I know he is right about it: In the past ten years I have had occasional dreams—and I always recognize them, consciously, as different from the ordinary dreams that we all have—in which I “fall awake,” or, to be more exact, half awake, into a different world.

I am conscious of the fact that my physical body is lying inert, and that the real “I” shoots off and travels through the ether at an enormous rate of speed, through