ALTERNATIVE REALITIES AND PARALLEL UNIVERSES
Are there many parallel universes and would it be possible, say, if I were to die tomorrow would find myself in one of them? The notion of cosmic ordering is full of the theories of quantum physics, this is just one of the Cosmic Ordering insights into parallel universes. The full insight into Cosmic Ordering can be read in the book by Stephen Richards, Cosmic Ordering Guide: where dreams can become reality.
A parallel universe is basically just another name for an alternate reality. I have always believed in parallel universes, although I was a bit a sit-on-the-fence believer as I often thought it was quite difficult to believe in the concept since how could anyone ever prove such a thing exists.
Well, after finding out many things that go beyond words I am now quite convinced they definitely do exist. If we go back, metaphorically speaking that is, to 1954, a young Princeton University doctoral candidate named Hugh Everett III came up with a radical idea: parrallel universes - like our universe - exist. These universes are all related to ours; indeed, they branch off from ours, and our universe is branched off of others. Within these parallel universes, our wars have had different outcomes than the ones we know. Species that are extinct in our universe have evolved and adapted in others. In other universes, we humans may have become extinct.
This is a mind-boggling thought, and yet, it is still comprehensible. Notions of parallel universes or dimensions that resemble our own have appeared in works of science fiction and have been used as explanations for metaphysics. But why would a young up-and-coming physicist possibly risk his future career by posing a theory about parallel universes?
Alternate realities or parallel universes are an alternative reality to the reality you are currently living in. What it means is that if you made a different choice somewhere during the course of your life then could you have gone off at a tangent, so to speak, and be living that different life in some parallel universe!
The ‘Many-Worlds’ theory of Everett was attempting to answer a rather sticky question related to quantum physics, and that was: why does quantum matter behave erratically? The quantum level is the smallest one science has detected so far. The study of quantum physics began in 1900, when the physicist Max Planck first introduced the concept to the scientific world.
We are making choices constantly, all day and every day of our lives so the idea of alternate realities would seem to suggest there could be literally billions or an almost infinite number of possible alternate realities or parallel universes.
Planck’s study of radiation yielded some unusual findings that dumbfounded the laws of physics and suggested that there are other laws at work in the universe, operating on a deeper level than the one we know.
Physicists studying the quantum level noticed some peculiar things about this tiny world. For one, the particles that exist on this level have a way of taking different forms arbitrarily. For example, scientists have observed photons - tiny packets of light - acting as particles and waves.
I mean, imagine if you looked and acted like a solid human being when a friend glanced at you, but when he looked back again, you’d taken a gaseous form. WOW! The idea that there could be billions of alternate realities might seem a little difficult to grasp at first, but it can be explained by science.
This idea has come to be known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The physicist Werner Heisenberg suggested that just by observing quantum matter, we affect the behaviour of that matter. Thus, we can never be fully certain of the nature of a quantum object or its attributes, like velocity and location.
This idea is supported by the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. As far as the idea of alternate realities and parallel universes is concerned, I believe we can prove they do exist. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr says that all quantum particles don’t exist in one state or the other, but in all of its possible states at once! The sum total of possible states of a quantum object is called its wave function. The state of an object existing in all of its possible states at once is called its superposition.
According to Bohr, when we observe a quantum object, we affect its behaviour. Observation breaks an object’s superposition and essentially forces the object to choose one state from its wave function. This theory accounts for why physicists have taken opposite measurements from the same quantum object - the object ‘chose’ different states during different measurements.
Bohr’s interpretation was widely accepted, and still is by much of the quantum community. But lately, Everett’s Many-Worlds theory has been getting some serious attention.
DREAMING AND PRECOGNITION
Through the process of dreaming and precognition we can all find an alternate reality, and since we all know that dreams do exist due to the fact that sometimes when we wake we wonder if we have been in some type of alternate reality to the one we know.
Have you ever woken up and all of a sudden you feel like you have been thrust back into the ‘real’ world, even though the dream often feels real while we are actually in the dream state.
The reason I say we can prove that alternative realities do exist is because so many people throughout time have had exceptionally clear dreams seeing themselves in life threatening situations or actually dying or being killed and then waking from these dreams and telling other people about the dream or precognition. Some have then deliberately avoided being caught up in these circumstances in the future by staying clear of certain areas or situations they recognised from their dream and subsequently changed their reality. Others have also told people about their dreams and have ended dying just like in the dream.
Young Hugh Everett agreed with much of what the physicist Bohr had suggested about the quantum world. He agreed with the idea of superposition, as well as with the notion of wave functions. But Everett disagreed with Bohr in one vital respect. To Everett, measuring a quantum object does not force it into one comprehensible state or another. Instead, a measurement taken of a quantum object causes an actual split in the universe.
The universe is literally duplicated, splitting into one universe for each possible outcome from the measurement. For example, say an object’s wave function is both a particle and a wave. When a physicist measures the particle, there are two possible outcomes: It will either be measured as a particle or a wave. This distinction makes Everett’s Many-Worlds theory a competitor of the Copenhagen interpretation as an explanation for quantum mechanics.
When a physicist measures the object, the universe splits into two distinct universes to accommodate each of the possible outcomes. So a scientist in one universe finds that the object has been measured in wave form. The same scientist in the other universe measures the object as a particle. This also explains how one particle can be measured in more than one state.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Well, as unsettling as it may sound, Everett’s ‘Many-Worlds’ interpretation has implications beyond the quantum level. If an action has more than one possible outcome, then - if Everett’s theory is correct - the universe splits when that action is taken. This holds true even when a person chooses not to take an action.
This means that if you have ever found yourself in a situation where death was a possible outcome, then in a universe parallel to ours, you are dead. This is just one reason that some find the Many-Worlds interpretation disturbing.
QUANTUM SUICIDE
A person cannot be aware of his other selves - or even his death - that exist in parallel universes. So how could we ever know if the Many-Worlds theory is correct? Assurance that the interpretation is theoretically possible came in the late 1990s from a thought experiment - an imagined experiment used to theoretically prove or disprove an idea - called quantum suicide.
A man sits down before a gun, which is pointed at his head. This is no ordinary gun; it’s rigged to a machine that measures the spin of a quantum particle. Each time the trigger is pulled, the spin of the quantum particle - or quark - is measured. Depending on the measurement, the gun will either fire, or it won’t. If the quantum particle is measured as spinning in a clockwise motion, the gun will fire. If the quark is spinning counter clockwise, the gun won’t go off. There’ll only be a click.
Nervously, the man takes a breath and pulls the trigger. The gun clicks. He pulls the trigger again. Click. And again: click. The man will continue to pull the trigger again and again with the same result: The gun won’t fire. Although it’s functioning properly and loaded with bullets, no matter how many times he pulls the trigger, the gun will never fire. He’ll continue this process for eternity, becoming immortal.
Go back in time to the beginning of the experiment. The man pulls the trigger for the very first time, and the quark is now measured as spinning clockwise. The gun fires. The man is dead.
But, wait. The man already pulled the trigger the first time - and an infinite amount of times following that - and we already know the gun didn’t fire. How can the man be dead? The man is unaware, but he’s both alive and dead. Each time he pulls the trigger, the universe is split in two. It will continue to split, again and again, each time the trigger is pulled.
This thought experiment is called quantum suicide. It was first posed by theorist Max Tegmark in 1997. A thought experiment is an experiment that takes place only in the mind. The quantum level is the smallest level of matter we’ve detected so far in the universe. Matter at this level is infinitesimal, and it’s virtually impossible for scientists to research it in a practical manner using traditional methods of scientific inquiry.
Before the Titanic set off on its maiden and only voyage, many people who were to be on the boat had dreams that it would sink and most people would lose their life. Many of these people told others about their horrible dream and afterwards there were three outcomes or three different realities for those who had the dreams. Some of these dreamers decided to take the voyage and dismiss their dreams and ended up losing their life when the boat sank. Other dreamers also decided to take the trip but were among the few who managed to survive. The other dreamers were so disturbed by their dream that they decided against boarding the Titanic and went on to live long lives.
This has led some to believe that our grasp of quantum physics is as basic as the understanding of ancient Egyptian astronomers centuries ago, who claimed that the sun was a god.
DREAMS CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE
Over the years we have all heard strange stories of how people would ream about meeting their demise, seeing themselves in car accidents or plane crashes and then they have either died in exactly the same way they envisioned they would in their dream or have gone on to survive because of what they foresaw in their dream.
I see this as proof that alternate realities and parallel universes do exist since some people experience a reality just like in the dream, whereas others are able to change the reality of the dream by avoiding certain situations and subsequently moving into an alternate reality.
YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
We can change the direction of our lives, we are not on a path we cannot change, we are very much in control of our lives. This is a comforting thought I believe, I would not like to think I was not in control of the direction my life will take. But in any case goal setting activities are something worth trying and giving a chance.
With an open mind, I think through dreams and precognition we can see that alternate realities and parallel universes do exist side by side with the reality we experience from a moment to moment basis in our lives and we always have the choice to take whatever direction we so desire. It also makes me think that following our intuition and analysing at least some of our dreams might also be a step in the right direction. It is certainly some interesting food for thought.
Physicists have been engaged in reverse engineering the universe - they have studied what they could observe and worked backward toward smaller and smaller levels of the physical world. By doing this, physicists are attempting to reach the final and most basic level. It is this level, they hope, that will serve as the foundation for understanding everything else.
Following his famous Theory of Relativity, my old friend Albert Einstein spent the rest of his life looking for the one final level that would answer all physical questions. Physicists refer to this phantom theory as the Theory of Everything. Quantum physicists believe that they are on the trail of finding that final theory. But another field of physics believes that the quantum level is not the smallest level, so it therefore could not provide the Theory of Everything.
These physicists turn instead to a theoretical subquantum level called string theory for the answers to all of life. What’s amazing is that through their theoretical investigation, these physicists, like Everett, have also concluded that there are parallel universes.
NEXT TIME YOU HAVE A DREAM
So, next time you have a dream then maybe you will listen to it in more detail, it might save your life in this universe!