One obvious implication of conceptualizing
time as a spatial dimension is the possibility
of psychic phenomena such as precognition
and retrocognition.
Foreseeing the future is the basis for prophecy.
Similarly some psychics claim to be able to
enter an altered state of consciousness and
describe past events.
Ouspenksy complicates the matter by suggesting
that the problem with prophecy is that there
may be multiple possible futures, just as
there may be more than one present and past.
With everything happening at once, it is the
narrow slit of our sensory perception that
allows us to selectively tune into only one
version of reality.
The movement of that slit of perception through
the dimensions of space is what we call the
experience of time.
Theoretical physicists have also considered
the possibility of multiple dimensional reality
and simultaneous time.
Science fiction writers have translated such
theories into time travel and alternate
realities that co-exist within the dimensions
of spacetime.
We will revisit the concept of multidimensional
reality later under the heading of string
theory.
