When you cancel the mass/energy of the universe with the gravity of the universe, you get a sum very close to zero. Hawking calls it the biggest free lunch ever.
Recently, Freeper betty boop speculated on the possibility of an extra time dimension. That is to say, in addition to the 4 dimension view which includes a time dimension, what if there were an additional, 5th dimension of time?
As soon as she mentioned it, it rang true to my Spirit and all sorts of pieces started falling together.
Extra time dimensions have previously been shunned by physics basically because instead of the time dimension in 4D being a line - this occurs before that - from the viewpoint of an extra dimension, that timeline becomes a plane and past, present, future are all accessible. This means that cause and effect can be inverted to effect and cause thus unsettling the most fundamental concept of causation.
Nevertheless, it rings true because....
Dark matter which represents 23% of the mass of the universe is like ordinary matter (Higgs boson/field theory, etc.) which represents 4% in that they are both characterized by positive gravity. Dark matter is a more extreme manifestation in space, e.g. black holes and massive neutrinos (if any.) Dark Matters: New Telescope to seek elusive matter and energy.
On the other hand, dark energy which represents 73% of the mass of the universe is characterized by negative gravity and thus, acceleration.
And much like there is a duality between particle and wave - there is a "duality" between gravity (field) and space/time.
In fact, one should view gravity as a warping of space/time that causes objects to orbit and spin into the space/time indentation caused by higher, positive gravity. Conversely, viewed as an indentation of space/time a certain escape velocity is necessary to free ordinary matter from the indentation. In black holes, not even light has sufficient escape velocity.
When we look at gravity as space/time then Einstein's desire to transmute the "base wood" of matter into the "pure marble" of geometry becomes accessible.
In the space "vacuum" which accounts for 73% of the mass of the universe, gravity (space/time) is negative, causing acceleration and strongly suggesting something else factoring into the balance. betty boop's extra time dimension fits that speculation to a "T". Constraints on extra time dimensions
Moreover, it potentially utterly solves the mysteries of non-locality, superposition and absence of dark energy in local space.
Concerning non-locality, since time would be a plane instead of a line, superluminal activity would be expected. With regard to superposition (Schrodinger's cat) all states would exist from the aspect of the extra time dimension, the determination of one being currently relevant only in the 4D block. Moreover, because the 4D plane of time is accessible by the extra time dimension - not only present and future events in the 4D block become malleable, but past as well - though, of course, none would notice such a change in 4D.
Finally, gravity (which represents space/time) would be the necessary coupling between the 4D block and the extra time dimension. Where activity is sparse, i.e. the "vacuum" of space, gravity would locate towards the extra time dimension, appearing negative in 4D, a space/time "outdent" which causes acceleration.
And for Grandpierre, Menas Kafatos and Robert Nadeau and others who seek an integrative science, the extra time dimension potentially hosts consciousness and resolves any issue concerning a renewing of the cycle of the evolution of consciousness, i.e. top down and also bottom up concurrently.
And because an extra time dimension yields our familiar 4D spacetime as a block --- and hence, the time dimension therein as a plane rather than a line --- it also potentially explains virtually all psychic phenomenon - remote healing, near death experiences, precognition, retrocognition, extrasensory perception, extra body experiences, etc.
And if all of that were not enough, it also reconciles very nicely with Scripture, including how there can be both predestination and free will!
Just some “food for thought” …