  We present a new approach to the issues of spacetime singularities and cosmic
censorship in general relativity. This is based on the idea that standard
4-dimensional spacetime is the conformal infinity of an ambient metric for the
5-dimensional Einstein equations with fluid sources. We then find that the
existence of spacetime singularities in four dimensions is constrained by
asymptotic properties of the ambient 5-metric, while the non-degeneracy of the
latter crucially depends on cosmic censorship holding on the boundary.
