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In quantum physics—the scientific study of the nature of physical reality—there is plenty of room for interpretation within the realm of what is known. The most popular mainstream interpretation, the Copenhagen interpretation, has as one of its central tenets the concept of wave function collapse. That is to say, every event exists as a “wave function” which contains every possible outcome of that event, which “collapses”—distilling into the actual outcome, once it is observed. For example, if a room is unobserved, anything and everything that could possibly be in that room exists in “quantum superposition”—an indeterminate state, full of every possibility, at least until someone enters the room and observes it, thereby collapsing the wave function and solidifying the reality.
The role of the observer has long been a source of contention for those who disagree with the theory. The strongest competition to this interpretation, and probably the second most popular mainstream interpretation (meaning, a lot of incredibly smart people think it’s a sound theory) is called the Everett interpretation after Hugh Everett, who first proposed it in 1957. It’s known colloquially as the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI), because it postulates simply that the wave function never collapses; it simply branches into its own unique world-line, resulting in every possible outcome of every situation existing in physical reality. If you’re having a hard time getting your head around that statement (and the fact that it’s held to be correct by the likes of Stephen Hawking), allow us to spell out some of the implications for you—but first, you may want to plug your ears to hold your brains in.
10. There Is A Multiverse, An Infinite Number Of Parallel Physical Realities
You’re probably familiar with the concept of “alternate universes,” and if so, probably because you’ve seen it in fiction. After all, one of the very first instances of the concept appeared in DC comics, first touched upon in a couple of issues of Wonder Woman, but firmly established in a 1961 issue of The Flash. The fictional “Multiverse” concept established by DC, and taken further by Marvel, is simply the concept that there exists infinite alternate realities, each containing separate and unique versions of their characters, which exist outside one another and often cross over.
This is the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics in a nutshell (without the crossing over, so far as we know). It states that since the wave function never collapses, every possible outcome of any event is realized in a separate and non-communicating physical reality, which actually exists alongside our own. It is interesting to note that this seemingly coincidental use of alternate realities, perfectly describing MWI, was put forth in a fictional medium just four years after Everett’s initial proposal of the interpretation. If MWI is correct, it is certainly not a coincidence—for fiction may be more than just made-up stories, as we’ll see later.
At any rate, this means that there is a version of you whose car broke down this morning, forcing you to take the bus (or, if that happened this morning, then vice versa). There’s also a version of you who was attacked by a dive-bombing kamikaze bald eagle, for this doesn’t just apply to mundane stuff; as a necessary consequence of Many Worlds, it must hold that…
9. Highly Unusual, Unlikely Events Must Happen
Let’s consider an NFL football game being played. Assume that every time the quarterback throws the ball, there is a gigantic invisible die being rolled, a die which contains an infinite amount of values. The most common, likely outcomes—receiver catches the ball and scores, catches the ball but gets tackled, ball is intercepted, and so on—are assigned to a very high number, perhaps billions, of values. Very unlikely outcomes—say, the ball bounces off of the sole of the sprinting receiver’s shoe as he is hit by a linebacker, is barely scooped up off the turf by a running back, who somehow eludes all the tacklers and scores—are assigned to a low number of values. But crucially, they are still assigned.
MWI concludes that all values are rolled in some timeline somewhere, even the most unlikely ones—and inevitably, the timeline where the low-probability value gets rolled will be ours. As evidenced by the play described above, which totally happened and decided the outcome of a divisional playoff game. And there is no ceiling of improbability, other than physics—whatever could possibly occur.
We have no way of knowing whether or not even those physical laws remain consistent across all possible world-lines, because we unfortunately can’t communicate with or visit them to ask. So even when confronted with circumstances that appear to be impossible, like a glowing ball of light that shoots fireballs at a police helicopter, or a missing woman unknowingly standing in the background of a photo being taken of her family for a newspaper story about her disappearance, it helps to remember that nothing is impossible on a large enough scale—indeed, given an infinite number of chances, literally anything you can imagine is not only possible, but inevitable. And just as inevitably, the impossible or unimaginable—given billions upon billions of chances—will happen here in our world-line. Which leads to a couple of interesting observations about human nature…
8. You Have Done And/Or Will Do Everything You Could Ever Conceive Of
If you find it impossible to imagine a man inexplicably killing a bunch of people for no reason, or someone surviving injuries that would destroy a normal person five times over, or a pilot managing to land an airplane with all controls restricted or disabled without incurring any major injuries, you may be finding it a little less impossible now—considering what we know about how probability works in a Multiverse. But as soon as we begin to apply this to ourselves personally, the implications threaten to become overwhelming; for there are billions of versions of you—all of which are undeniably you—but many of which are very, very different from the “you” of this world-line.
The differences between those versions are as staggering and vast as your imagination, and the reality of their existence forces us to examine human nature a bit differently. Of course, you would never kill anybody (we hope), but have you ever thought about it? There is a world-line where you did. In fact, there’s a world-line where you’re the worst mass murderer ever. Conversely, there’s another where your tireless efforts and dedication to the cause brought about world peace. Did you have a band in high school? That band is the dominant musical force on the planet, somewhere. Have you always kind of wondered what would have happened had you mustered the guts to ask out that one girl or guy that one time? Well, you get the idea.
This could actually explain a lot: strong feelings of deja vu, feelings of a close connection with someone you’ve never met, morbid fascinations with things that should repulse us, or even instances of people acting strongly “out of character” in our own worldline. For as we will see, some may have a degree of “resonance” with other world-lines or versions of themselves, which can bring about the knowledge that:
7. You’re No Different From Anyone
Hinduism, along with various other religious and philosophical traditions, presents the idea of reincarnation: that as human beings, we take physical form on Earth many times, learning from both our past and future 'lives.' The purpose of this learning is fundamental to our existence. This perspective mirrors the concept of the Multiverse, and considering our earlier discussion of being a mass murderer, it’s reassuring to know that experiencing all aspects of human nature is an inherent part of our evolution.
However, this isn’t an endorsement of harming others or engaging in immoral acts—Hindu teachings assert that the cycle of learning ultimately aims to uncover everything there is to understand and transcend our physical form. Ideally, by now, across countless lifetimes (world-lines), we would have already learned all there was to know from exploring the darker sides of human nature. The crucial point, though, is that our experience remains uniquely ours—an idea we’ll delve into more shortly—and that every human being must fully experience their own existence before we can transition to whatever lies beyond.
Some envision the end of this cycle as a journey toward godhood, where we ultimately become rulers of our own universes. Others, however, believe that the cycle of existence simply repeats itself—once everything decays and the heat death brings the end to all realities, the knowledge we've gathered will be used to reignite the cycle and create a fresh Multiverse. Naturally, this brings us to a thought-provoking conclusion...
6. All of This May Have Happened Before (And May Happen Again)
If reality follows an endless loop—where the cycle is 'Big Bang, expansion, contraction, collapse, and then Big Bang again'—then, based on our understanding of the Multiverse and its boundless world-lines, you have lived before. In fact, all the infinite versions of yourself have already existed and will continue to exist, as will the rest of us, alongside every possible idea, creation, and situation in all of our past and future realities.
In a single stroke, this idea clarifies both deja vu and strong feelings of destiny. Even though deja vu may feel random or pointless, and premonitions occasionally prove false, they only apply to our particular world-line. It appears that some individuals (or everyone, to varying degrees) are able to resonate with alternate world-lines—a concept that was first explored in comic books.
A frequent manifestation of deja vu is experiencing an event that feels familiar, as though we’ve already lived it in a previous dream. While some may view this as precognition, it likely represents resonance with parallel (or earlier identical) world-lines—especially when you consider that the “dream world” could itself be a distinct world-line, as real as the one we experience while awake.
Naturally, if everything that has ever existed or will exist has already occurred, it brings us to the conclusion that...
5. There Are No New Stories, Songs, Events, or Anything Else
Many creators of stories, songs, and other forms of art often express a sense that their works already exist in a fully realized form, awaiting discovery, like fossils buried beneath the surface. In an infinite Multiverse, this notion holds true, as the creations themselves are indeed already present.
Art is a distinctly human pursuit, one aimed at expressing aspects of the human condition that might otherwise be difficult or even impossible to convey. While no language can fully capture the essence of what love “feels like”, art offers many avenues to communicate these emotions—through creative works that resonate with us (yes, that word again). It's through these artistic expressions that many of us come to our first understanding of what love is—and that’s just one example. How could an artist possibly convey an emotion to the viewer, listener, or reader that they have never personally experienced?
In our Multiverse, this is explained by the fact that these expressions of human emotions, thoughts, and perspectives have always existed, existing as long as the impulses that gave birth to them. This very piece of writing, which has been written before to guide another version of you toward knowledge you already possess, serves as a perfect example.
Consider the possibility that stories are more than just stories. The Marvel Comics Multiverse recognizes our world-line, one in which superheroes don't exist except as fictional characters in books and films. It's possible that—due to the differing physical laws in alternate world-lines—these stories aren't fiction at all but actual people and events documented from other realities. This applies to anything ever 'imagined' or 'created'—in other world-lines, Hogwarts School and Harry Potter, Camp Crystal Lake and Jason Voorhees, Gotham City and Batman, could all exist as tangible realities.
And if you're contemplating the idea that this line of thought—everything exists, nothing is truly created—suggests that nothing is ever annihilated, then consider this:
4. You Are Essentially Immortal
This is precisely the implication. Our immortality within the Multiverse can be demonstrated in numerous ways. One example is the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that energy (like the electrical charges in your brain, or the heat your body emits) cannot be created or destroyed, it merely transforms. This means the energy powering your body must go somewhere once it dissipates, and consequently, consciousness cannot be destroyed but is eternal. Additionally, consider the thought experiment known as Quantum Immortality. In this scenario (and please note, don’t attempt this), an individual sits in front of a device designed to either discharge a lethal device or produce a harmless click, both with equal probability. If the harmless click occurs, both the individual and observers experience the same result: the click and nothing more. However, in the fatal scenario—assuming the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) is accurate—the individual cannot experience the end of consciousness, as it is infinite. While observers will witness the experimenter’s death, the individual will continue on, experiencing the harmless click in an alternate world-line. This ensures that the experimenter can never face the lethal outcome, regardless of how many attempts are made, always surviving from their own perspective.
This suggests that while we all will face death, we will never truly experience it—the cessation of consciousness. How can this be? It challenges our understanding of consciousness, which leads us to a very real possibility that...
3. Nothing Is Truly Real
Throughout the course of artistic and philosophical thought, one theme repeatedly emerges, particularly in works that have left a lasting impact or have stood the test of time. From “Strawberry Fields Forever” to the butterfly dream of Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, to Descartes’ famous declaration “I think, therefore I am”, to Bill Hicks’ iconic “Life Is A Ride” speech, and even in nursery rhymes sung by children—life is but a dream. A dream of immense power, filled with countless lessons for us—but a dream, all the same.
If everything—from Atlantis, to Luke Skywalker, to your neighbor Bill—holds the same weight of reality as everything else, then what exactly do we mean by reality? And if reality is not anything more than what we perceive, then what is perception, if not our own creation?
I understand this may require some time to fully grasp, but keep in mind that there are likely billions of versions of you considering the very same question; and with billions of opportunities to arrive at an answer, one of those versions is bound to find it—as will we all.
2. We are co-creators of the physical reality we experience. Our consciousness, shared and individual, is the fundamental force shaping the world around us, constantly influencing and molding what we perceive as real.
If we see the Explicate as a mere 'projection' of the Implicate, then everything we perceive—our physical bodies and the entire physical universe—exists as projections of our untainted, unfiltered consciousness. This is a reality we are all actively involved in creating, knowingly or not, at every moment.
This concept holds the key to understanding virtually everything that seems inexplicable in the world we experience. Supernatural events, meaningful coincidences, psychic phenomena—these all make sense when we accept that our reality is essentially a vast dream, conceived by an all-powerful consciousness.
If this is the true essence of our physical reality—an idea explored for centuries by Hindu sages, grasped intuitively by generations of artists and thinkers, and articulated by the greatest scientific minds—then there remains one final statement to make. It is a statement, probably not by chance, first expressed in 1967 in a seemingly casual line of a song by one of the most influential artists of all time.
1. We are but projections of our own consciousness, reflections of a deeper, more intricate reality that we may not fully comprehend.
In the late 1970s, physicist David Bohm introduced a groundbreaking theory about the Implicate and Explicate orders of existence. According to Bohm, reality unfolds in two distinct layers: the enfolded, non-visible 'Implicate' order, which encapsulates all consciousness, and the outwardly observable 'Explicate' order, which is merely a projection of the former.
Bohm, alongside physicist Karl Pribram, who independently arrived at the same conclusion, suggested that the entire observable universe operates as an enormous hologram. Just as a laser passing through an encoded film creates a hologram, our collective energy from the implicate order (the laser) filtered through our conscious minds (the film) gives rise to the explicate, physical world (the hologram).
Michael Talbot’s insightful book The Holographic Universe delves deeply into the theories of Bohm and Pribram. But the overarching and unavoidable conclusion you’ve likely already come to is this:
