I attended the Rudolf Steiner Institute in Massachusetts this summer where Nick Thomas guided a group of 20 of us in a two week journey into the realms of Projective Geometry. Nick led us on an elementary and quite mind bending exploration of the potential for this branch of mathematics, of which Euclidean Geometry is a mere subset. What is so fascinating is that Nick is researching how “tension” between this geometry and Euclidean (conventional) geometry can be a helpful way of understanding gravity, the apparent curvature of space and a host of other phenomena that physics is at pains to explain. It is both refreshing and exciting to experience a new approach to physics that is more comprehensible than super-string theory and quantum mechanics and that in a strange way makes sense. His work will bear fruit if other scientists are able to take it up and develop it further.

While I am not a research scientist, I have found over the years that thinking through elementary ideas in projective geometry has sharpened my ability for accurate imagination and has given me tools for better thinking through ideas connected with karma and reincarnation. I highly recommend it and Nicks latest book, Space and Counterspace, A New Science of Gravity, Time and Light. Here he develops a provocative new geometric basis for physics based on the work of Rudolf Steiner, George Adams and Lawrence Edwards – Excellent work!

While investigating the connections between projective geometry and Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, I came upon this beautiful diagram that shows an infinite network of interconnected dodecahedrons (12 pentagons). If we can imagine that space is in fact structured, then what might that structure look like? Apparently there are many interesting solutions. This diagram is far more regular (Euclidean) than any proposed by Einstein which would be warped by the matter that created them. Matter creates the structure of space and the structure of space only exists in its interrelationship with matter.

Do parallel lines ever meet? In Projective Geometry they do, at infinity. They lead us through simple line drawings into a realm of beauty and new possibilities for intuitive thinking where sense and spirit touch creative forces that lie within all of us.

8 sessions beginning Friday 18 January 8:00 to 9:30 pm
Stroud, Glos, UK
Cost £80
To register please email warrenleecohen[at]hotmail.com