To understand this text you need to have zero previous knowledge in mathematics, but if you do it will be good too, I'll not use any kind of account or equation, I'll just use the conceptual part of dimensions and complex plane, and everything necessary I will explain in the text.
Complex plane
In math we have the normal numbers like 1, 2, 3, etc, these normal (or real) numbers can be represented in a line like
... ------------------------------- ...
-2 -1 0 1 2
and we can take its square roots, like √4 = 2, because 2*2=4, √9 = 3, because 3*3=9, but what is √-1 = ?, if 1*1=1 and (-1)*(-1)=1, nothing in our line of normal numbers can represent this, to solve this problem the mathematicians create a "new number" called 'i' (or imaginary) for this.
So now √-1 = i, that's the definition, so i*i = -1, and then we can have something like 2i, 3i, etc, these are the imaginary (or unreal) numbers. But wait, these are new numbers and as we saw before they don't belong to our line of normal numbers, we still don't have how represent these numbers because they don't belong to this line, they belong to another line like
... ------------------------------- ...
-2i -i 0 i 2i
so to map every number and make the imaginary and real numbers together we can cross these lines and got our complex plane.
Dimensions
Now you'll need to learn the conceptual part of dimensions, it's simple. In this image is almost everything you need about dimensions.
1-dimension you only need a number to give your position, it's a line, in 2-dimension you need two numbers, the x and y values, it's a plane, consequently in 3-dimension you need three numbers, x, y and z, and it's a space.
3-dimensions is where we live, we just have left/right, front/back and up/down.
Now let's think about dimensions in a more "abstract" way, let's try a simple thing, in the 2d-plane choose a value in the x direction for example (so x=that value), but don't choose a fixed value for y, so x is fixed and y not, let's say x=3 for example. So every point that have a x coordinate of 3 is of our interested, if we graph this, that is what we get.
In every point of this line the x-coordinate is 3, if you look closely you'll see that this thing in x=3 is a 1d-line, because lines are objects one-dimensional. Now if you think, for each value of x we choose we will get a 1-d line, then a 2d-plane is nothing but infinite 1d-lines side by side.
Consequently we have the same thing to 3d, if we choose a value, in this case x=2 (every point where the x coordinate is two), if we graph this we will get a plane, so for every x value we have a plane associated.
Now may get a little complicated, but I trust you, we saw that for each value of x fixed in the 3d-space we have a 2d-plane associated, so we can represent the 3d-space as 2d + 1d like that
For each value in the "3D" axis (like before for the x axis) the plane formed by the axis 1D and 2D changes, if you don't get it, try to see the 3d-space in this place where you are right now, the
3D axis is the height, for every height you choose (like height=3) you'll have a different plane (try to really understand this before continuing).
Now the most amazing part and maybe the most difficult to get, all this also serves for 4d-hyperspace with coordinates x, y, z and w (don't try to view this, you can't, w is in another direction that we haven't), for every value of w we choose we'll have a 3d-space associated, so if we can represent 3d-space as 2d + 1d we can also represent 4d-hyperspace as 3d + 1d, for each value of the w-axis we'll have another different space, stop and try to think a bit, suppose a w-axis you can control, for each value that you choose in this axis the space around you changes, for w=1 there is a space associated, for w=2 another space, and just by changing the value of w you can travel between different 3d-spaces. Now I hope you get all of this, if don't, try to read again, or maybe I'll made a simpler version later.
DPDR as a trip in the imaginary 4ª dimensional hyperspace
Guessing that you understand everything above this, let's now imagine our world, we live in a 3d-space with real values, they aren't imaginary, now imagine that we have a 4ª dimension, but in this case imaginary, like in the image
So for each value in the 4D imaginary axis we have a different 3d-space, in 4D = 0 we have our normal world, where everyone lives, where the imaginary coordinate is 0. Our ability is to travel in this 4D axis, if we are like in 2i, we have our 3 coordinates of the space (x, y and z) but we also have an imaginary coordinate (in this case 2), so you are in the same position in the 3d-world, but two units away in the imaginary direction, this is what causes the feeling of unreality and weirdness, and the greater your imaginary coordinate, the more distant you feel, because you *are* distant, but in another direction, even though you still have your three spatial coordinates x, y and z. I even remember moments when I could only describe the feeling of dpdr as if everything was "a bit to the left", so it's like if I was a little bit distant in that new direction, but left was the best I could think of to explain. This is how I see my dpdr, it also explain why you feel "floating" or high, or disconnected too, it's because you are distant, but in another dimension, an imaginary/unreal dimension. In short dpdr is like if we can access the 4° dimension, so we can distance ourself more and more without go in any direction of our 3d world.
I'm not a native english, so sometimes I use google translator, I hope everyone has understood.
