Ah, yes... Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time may have been a wonderful novel but she did touch on one geometric concept that is central to the concept of the Perennial Philosophy inherent in Alchemy.
The Tesseract
Lets move first from simplicity to complexity.
The above rotating model demonstrates my personal hypothesis of the motion of the Universe. To begin with, notice the cube in the immediate center of the structure. As it progresses to the right, it widens and then moves backwards to the left side of the image, finally collapsing in on itself and returning to the center to begin the cycle over again.
Let's compare this to the model of the Big Bang.
In the beginning, the Earth was without form and void... oh, wait. Sorry wrong story. Or is it? More on that later.
In the beginning, the entire Universe was completely contained within a space smaller the the head of a needle, ultimate density, and within this space were the four primary fources, electromagnetic force, strong and weak nuclear forces and gravity. For some reason they broke apart causing the universe to inflate (known as the inflationary period). Within an extremly short period of time, the universe blew up from the size of a pin head to the size of a grapefruit. Look again at the Tesseract. As the center moves outward to the right side, it expands.
Here comes the tricky part and is dependent on the critical density of the universe. I refer the reader to NASA's website which explains it much more succinctly than I can in this post. While current research might suggest that the universe is flat, I respectfully disagree for the sole purpose that if it is open (or flat) then General Relativity is an imcomplete theory. With Relativity having proven its effectiveness in more than just Theoretical Physics, but also in practical reality, I am inclined to believe that Einstein was right when he offered mathematical proof of a closed universe.
That said, let's assume that the universe is shaped like a balloon. Now we have to understand the basic concept of relativity and time, which essentially says that every point in space is unquestionably connected with a specific time - thus the "space-time continuum". So, for instance, where you sit right now is not only where but also when. That space under your butt will be fractionally different and continues to become so as you read this.
Let's imagine that we can pick a point on the Tesseract and say that that's where we are now. Try to follow that point and imagine that as we travel from the past into the future, we begin to notice that our past is actually becoming our future. Go ahead and try it. I'll stop typing for a second so you can look back up at the image.
Done? So in summary, we are here now, because we were here before and we will continue to be here because we are here now.
Suggested follow up reading:
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time
Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and Special Relativity
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