Welcome to Parallel Universes

Posted on January 28, 2004 20:6 PM EST

Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know.

If each of our brains is unique, then we must all interpret these electrical signals in unique ways. If that is the case, the worlds we all know must be unique. For example, if the parts of our brains that understand colors interpret electrical signals differently, what is blue in my world might be red in your world. If I were to see the world through your eyes, interpreting it through your brain, everything that is blue for me would appear red. So, quite literally, each of us are living in unique, different and parallel worlds. Our worlds are as different from each other as we are different from each other.

This is one example of parallel universes.

There is another example. The cyber world. This has been described as a newest frontier. It's growing at a mind-boggling pace every day, every hour, every minute. A lot of today's businesses in the physical world have a counterpart in the cyber world. And those that don't are fast getting there. People have cyber identities and counterparts. Ideas, messages, emotions, money, etc. are sent back and forth in the cyber world. Products and services are bought and returned and exchanged in the cyber world. People meet, chat, fall in love in there. People make love in there. Cyber world has words, pictures, colors, music, video. Just looking at the physical infrastructure of the cyber world - the semiconductor devices, the copper, the fibers, the magnetic media, all of which exist in our physical world - we could not imagine what a vast and rich and complex tapestry the cyber world is.

This is a parallel universe that all of us reading this article know of. This is a parallel universe that so many of us visit daily. This is a parallel universe in which many of us are earning our livelihood and spending a good part of our earnings and time.

Given this simple and in-our-faces examples of parallel universes, why do so many of us find it difficult to accept the existence of parallel universes? Parallel universes as defined by Richard Bach or other people who include science fiction authors, swamis and shamans, children, artists, and some others who are clinically categorized as mad people.

A parallel universe is a universe that is separate from the universe we know of. It is not just another planet in our universe. It is an entirely different universe. It may or may not have physicality as we know it. We most probably cannot travel to it through physical means - just get into an automobile or space craft to drive or simply walk into it. And when we reach the parallel universe, we may not have a form as we have in the universe we know of. Those are some of the characteristics and definitions of parallel universes.

Recently, there was an online book club discussion about the book "ONE" by Richard Bach. For those of you who have not read the book, it is about the author Richard Bach and his partner Leslie Parrish, visiting many different parallel universes and discovering alternate ways of living, discovering basic truths about life and love, etc., etc. During the discussion, someone asked people if they believe in the existence of a parallel universe. The answer was supposed to be a score from 1 to 10. 1 being least or no belief, and 10 being most belief.

I was surprised that most people responded with a 1. I had expected that there would be more people who would say at least a may be, if not an outright yes. I did not expect that most people would say a categorical, no, they did not believe in it, you don't have a benefit of doubt, thank you very much!

May be I was fortunate enough to have a background and upbringing that predisposed me to understand the truth about the existence of parallel universes. I was brought up a Hindu with stories of abodes of various gods and goddesses. Some of these abodes were other planets, some of them were in the sky, some of them were in mystic places on our own planet which could not be easily reached or experienced with our physical body and senses. Those stories must have helped. An empathic and open mind must have helped. Being a dreamer with a wanderlust heart must definitely have helped.

All of these ideas and arguments are okay to amuse my head, which is mostly in the clouds anyway. But of what use are they to my feet which are firmly on the Earth? The possibilities are as endless as the number of parallel universes that are possible. I will give just a few of them here:

1. Before I read Bach, I had a depressing sense of catastrophic doom about the future of our planet. Some of the phenomena like increasing population, decreasing forests, extinction of species, depleting natural resources, polluting the environment seemed irreversible. The Earth was doomed to be a giant garbage ball with no hope of redemption, no matter how clean or environmentally friendly life I lead. The way we are going, I still don't have any great hopes of redemption for this planet. But the idea that there might be a parallel universe where Earth is still an unpolluted paradise is beautiful. The possibility that there might be a parallel universe where people make different choices and live differently is uplifting to think of. Who knows, may be, I might even discover a doorway into such a parallel universe. And that doorway might be nothing more dramatic than the choices I make daily as I live my life. These possibilities bring a smile to my face, lighten the burden on my heart. Instead of living my life with the gloom of inevitable planetary doom, I can live life smiling about the fact that there might be at least one universe where we managed to save our beloved planet.

2. Parallel universes may be totally similar to our universe as we know it or totally different in every possible way. Some of these differences may be that some tasks which are difficult in our universe may be absurdly easy in a parallel universe. Example of such a task would be to come up with the solution to a nagging problem. Or to dream up an innovative idea. Or to nurture and heal a broken heart. There might be a parallel universe in which you can totally read the hidden nature and intentions of the other person like an open book. It doesn't always happen, but once in a while, especially when the need is great and I let go and just let happen, I might find myself transported into a parallel universe where some tasks are absurdly easy. I accomplish those tasks and come back to reap the benefits in this universe as we know it.

3. Identities. Who am I? A 27 year old South Indian human male? A software professional? A responsible son? A romantic lover? A warm friend? No matter how many labels and adjectives we may use to describe ourselves in this universe, there are some of us who feel those labels to be constricting or limiting or just not enough. Why should I be just a male? Why can't I be female at will and then get back to being a man again? Why should I be human? Why can't I be a wolf whenever I want to be? Why should I just walk? Why can't I just fly wherever I want to? You get the drift here. Parallel Universes help me be all things I want to be and more. All I have to do is just find the right doorway into them. Suppose I were to assume the lotus position, go into a trance and find a doorway to a parallel universe; a universe where I am a wolf, leading a pack across a vast wild landscape, hunting, mating, taking care of the young. Then I come back and describe to you my wonderful experience of being a real wolf. Would you call me delusional? So what? I got my kicks out of it. I experienced what it is to be a wolf. Have you not had a dream in which you were eating this wonderful dish prepared by your mother? Does the fact that it was really a dream diminish your enjoyment of the dish while the dream lasted? What's delusional? What is dream? What is real? How do you define real? Go back to top of this article.