Someone on HeyNielsen brought up the question of how we would explain Dan's traveling, in light of current scientific advances and whatnot. The following was my response to him...

It's really not all that hard to figure. String theory---and strangely enough, the Bible---offer answers to this. Briefly, the universe is made up of not FOUR dimensions but TEN dimensions. Four we see---length, width, height, and time. The other six are hidden from us.

Now, add in the spiritual planes of Heaven and Hell---both having the three dimensions of length, width, and height, but both are eternal and thus lacking the fourth element of time. Now add 'em up---4 (earth) + 3 (heaven) + 3 (hell) = 10. String theory confirmed! What this means is that as the physical and spiritual realms are linked, linear time and NON-time are similarly linked.

Think of each point along the linear timeline being connected to one SINGLE point of non-time---an eternal "now", as I call it, where every point of linear time (past, present, future) is represented in the immediate present in non-time. As Jesus put it, speaking to the scribes and Pharisees---"Before Abraham was (past tense), I am (present tense)."

As non-time is connected to every point in linear time, it should be possible to move from your current placement in linear time to non-time, then from non-time into any point in linear time---regardless of where along linear time the traveller had originally come from. This would explain Livia moving forward, and Dan moving back. This doesn't explain ALL of it---like how Dan and Livia return to their NATIVE time---but it's a start.

Sorry... showing off my inner geek

Don't apologize - that's some pretty interesting stuff! Or at least, I found it interesting. I'd never heard of String Theory and any of that before now.
Thanks for posting that. Hopefully it'll spark some discussion.

So.... to return this to a previous discussion that got lost in a non-time thread (i.e., mods moved a perfectly good thread into a dead thread).....

Can we apply such a theory to the connection between Dan's 1997/1998 cell phone and the call from Elliott Langley while Dan was in a different linear time?

Or is the explanation a bit simpler than that? Was Langley, in fact, actually in the same linear time as Dan despite our understanding that the call was originated from 2007?

I do, by the way, like this theory and find no problem reconciling it with my faith.... bearing in mind, of course, that the ability of any human being to leave and return to a linear timeline is only possible within the confines of a brilliantly written Science Fiction story.

I may have forgotten a detail or two, but I think it's more likely that Langley knew all along about Dan---to include his 1998 cell phone number. If we consider that Langley might actually be Dan and Livia's SON (another pet theory of mine), it would fall into place perfectly.

I think it unlikely, however, that we can apply this theory to Langley calling from 2007 to Dan's 1998 timeline. If you'll notice, Dan is never in two eras at the same time. He doesn't fade from one time to the next, as if the timelines themselves are connected. First he's in 2007, then BANG he's in 1998 (or whenever). There's never any connection between the two. Applying this theory to the phone call would mean drawing an unbroken line from 2007 (if indeed he is in 2007) through non-time into 1998, by necessity connecting the timelines.

This is just my opinion. I ain't a scientist, so I can't really speak to this authoritatively.



Same here. It actually sparked quite the discussion on the Christian message board that I used to moderate (I've kinda got a reputation of being an "outside-the-box Fundie" hehe) because it seems to solve SO MANY seemingly impossible questions concerning salvation.



Depends on how accurate you feel your holy book of choice is. For example, in the Bible (MY book of choice hehe), there are places where people are shown to have moved great distances in very little time (Jonah, for one, and also Jesus "instantly appearing" in another city) and also a solid body moving through solid matter (Jesus walking through a closed door, but still being able to touch and be touched)---evidence of moving from a possible three-dimensional reality into our four-dimensional reality.

Anyway, this thread was not supposed to turn religious in nature. I tend to get in trouble when my posts do that hehe

I once thought the same, but then multidimensional spacetime isn't that simple. String theorists still disagree on whether you need 10-(dimensional)space, 11-space, or 26-space. Both 11- and 26-space take the same timeframe; linear time permeates everything.

But here's an interesting thought experiment using your idea: if the other 3+3 dimenions was heaven and hell, and there's no time. Instead of describing it as eternal, I'd describe it as frozen, unmoving. The concept of motion needs the notion of time.

Extra-dimensionaly space isn't hidden from us. It's just too small for us to perceive.

And check out M-Theory. String theory is so 1980s.

Let me speculate about time travel now: For time travel to occur, we need a more than one time-like dimension. If time only happens a long a line, we can only move in reverse/forward time. If time has 3-dimensions, and if it is curved, then we can bridge two paths in spacetime via a tunnel like the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

So, I'm inclined to believe in 26-space, with a curved time-dimension.. but I'll let someone else do that math here.

Or too big.....a Nova program about String Theory in 2006/2007 (theory still alive and kicking) said one theory is that we cannot see the other dimensions because we and our universe is too small. They used an ant on a wire as an example. The ant can only see the wire it's on and cannot be aware that that wire is part of the larger world, because the ant physically cannot see past the wire.

Many theologians believe that time does not exist, because it is linear and that if it did exist, once we got on a path, we could never get off. However, we change our lives constantly and so, the theologians believe that everything happens in the present and because man cannot comprehend the entire present, he created time to cope.

It makes sense that there are mulitple dimensions, but how can you quantify the number, if you cannot prove its existence in the first place?