We appear to be four-dimensional beings passing through a three-dimensional experience. One metaphysician has said that the fourth dimension is the first — the first being pure Spirit or absolute intelligence, from which the three-dimensional world proceeds. We are cosmic beings temporarily caught, as it were, in a finite net. Undoubtedly we have come up through endless eons of evolution, through the instinctive intelligence of the animal to the self-consciousness of the human, and are apparently ready to take the next step which is a greater consciousness of the cosmos and of our unity with the whole. 
Know Yourself! You Are More Than You Think
Back of our evolution there appears to be a cosmic impulse compelling progress, pushing us forward. There also appear subjective memories, emotions and cravings, and the world of experience, not all of which are altruistic or salutary, but which pull us forward. We are pushed and pulled at the same time, whether it be within or without drawing us onward. This mind is expanding. We continuously slough off the old ideas and take on new and generally better ones. We have come to the point in our evolution where we are asking ourselves: What am I? Where am I going? What it is all about? There seems to be something in us which demands an answer. … As we make a survey of the enlightened thought of the ages, we come to the conclusion that a cosmic necessity is impelling our progress.

From “Know Yourself! You Are More Than You Think”  – Ernest Holmes (1970 , compiled and edited by Willis Kinnear)