Multiverse - an interesting story

Posted By: Arathas

Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/17/07 13:02

Hi,

as most of you may know: There's a theory (it's origins in the quantum-theory) that's called "multiverse". It's saying that, if every tiny bit in the universe exists not in one place, but in all possible places at once (as is proven), there may be a "multiverse", which means that every possible thing that CAN happen DOES happen. Thus, in this process, creating a really really big amount of parallel universes, the multiverse.

Well - this theory always seemed possible to me, but as I cannot prove it whatsoever, I never really was sure about it (how could I? How could anyone?)

Last weekend however, I met a guy and he had this story to tell: He had a car accident, crashed into a tree and was in a vegetative state for about 6 months then. He was in a hospital for these 6 months, drooling, with his eyes open but seeing nothing.
He himself however did know nothing of this car accident. He just "lived on" with his life, for the full six months: He went to work, he had sex with his girlfriend, he lived a fully normal life. As if he never had this accident. And then, one day, after about 6 months, he suddenly woke up inside a hospital bed.

He said he really remembers this life he had for these six months. He said it felt "real", not like a dream. And all things that happened seemed to be real, too. There was nothing as you may have it in dreams, extraordinary happenings or so. Just plain normal life. For him, that is. Everyone in "our" universe only saw a drooling young man in a hospital bed.

So what *MAY* be concluded from this is: His mind/consciousness went into a parallel dimension for these 6 months. He really "lived" there, but wasn't even aware that this wasn't our world.
That means ... well, possibly his counsciousness slipped into a parallel-universe strikingly similar to ours - with the small difference that he didn't drive his car into that tree there. This universe (and a heap of slightly changed ones) may exist.

I know this sounds crazy. But it's the most logic explanation for me. Why else does he still have vivid memories of six whole months?

Posted By: fastlane69

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/17/07 16:56

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But it's the most logic explanation for me.

Let's apply Occam's Razor here (the simplest explanation is usually the correct one):

Isn't it a simpler reason to state that he dreamed the whole time he was vegitative rather than g into a parallel dimension? After all, dreams warp our sense of time such that what seemed like hours in a dream could be minutes in real time.

This sounds more logical to me than applying quantum phenomena.

So my followup question to this would be: how would you tell the difference between a realistic dream and a quantum dimensional leap?

Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/18/07 02:07

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I know this sounds crazy. But it's the most logic explanation for me. Why else does he still have vivid memories of six whole months?

It may simply have been the result of damage because of his accident, perhaps his brain simply needed 6 months to recover before it was 'able to accept' what has happened? Perhaps this dreaming is what made it possible for him to actually make it and live? A strong will to live?

I don't think his dream was an actual experience, because did he ever physically leave the hospital? If not, then how come he experienced what happened to him in two universes? Wouldn't that be a bit strange? I don't think it's possible to be aware of such things, because we don't actually experience this �f there is a thing as multi-verses. Those 'other' people are not you, but more or less 'clones' of 'you'. That begs the question though, how would you recognize yourself in those other universes when their lives have been completely different? I think people tend to underestimate the importance of single events in one life when it comes to the possible future.

Anyways, I think it's save to say he was simply asleep and dreamed it all,

Cheers

Posted By: Shadow969

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/18/07 04:10

multiple universes? How can you distiguish them, if none of them has end? I mean they will be fully overlapped by each other, same as being one universe

Posted By: Arathas

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/18/07 06:42

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I don't think his dream was an actual experience, because did he ever physically leave the hospital?

As I said, I think that IF he slipped into a parallel universe, it was his consciousness, not anything physical.

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Those 'other' people are not you, but more or less 'clones' of 'you'.

Yep, or so it should be. And IF there are multiple universes, then there are a great number where the car took off the road and crashed into the tree also, but in a slightly different angle or so. And there's a great number of universes where the car missed the tree by inches. And of course there's a great number of universes where all things seem to be totally different from this universe, where you wouldn't recognise yourself probably.

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That begs the question though, how would you recognize yourself in those other universes when their lives have been completely different?

That's why I think that IF your consciousness slips into another universe, then it will be one very similar to ours. Maybe such things happen all the time, and there's nature-rules to it such as: Your consciousness always seeks its way into the universe most fitting to this one.

Well, that brings on a religious topic: If your consciousness CAN slip into another parallel universe, maybe that's what happens when you die. You'll never know it, but your consciousness may just slip into the "closest" (in a sense of close-to-another-parallel-universe) body of one of your clones. That does not mean that you "take on" this other body - it's still a form of "you".

I think maybe that's what happening when you got a good idea all of a sudden and out of the nothingness: Maybe in some parallel universe, a version of you died, and his consciousness plunges into you. And all of a sudden, you've got some new ideas and don't know where they came from. And that's all you ever experience of this "other" you. If that's what happens, it's happening all the time, everywhere ... and it's a sort of a good thought, I think. It means you'll really ever completely vanish when the last version of you dies.

Posted By: fastlane69

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/18/07 17:58

If your conciousness did slip into another universe, then wouldn't your brain flat-line.
If we are to believe that there is a coorolation between brainwaves and conciousness, then the precese of one implies the other or the absence of one implies the other.

When you are in a coma, you are not brain flat-lined.
When you are asleep, you are not brain flat-lined.

The best arguement for cross universe travel would therefore be a case where a person is in a true vegetative state (brain flat-line) and they come back and can relate experiences. This would show that conciousness is not tied into brain waves and therefore is tied into something else.

So it boils down to your story teller using vegetative in the right sense of the word (brain flat-line) or in the wrong sense (merely unconcious or comatose). It boils down to having a brain monitor on him the whole six months or merely sampling (so that it's sometimes flat but sometimes active)

Bottome line however dude is I would not trust my universal worldview on the story of one person. And look up occam's razor when it comes to logic: multiple universes is not the simplest explanation and thus according to the razor it's likely not the right on.

Posted By: AlbertoT

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/21/07 18:21

The multi universe theory is not so popular nowadays, in the scientific comunity even though it is still supported by great scientists

Obviously it has nothing to do with the example provided in this thread

Although it seems a crazy theory, the alternative and widly accepted theories are even worse.
Briefly, the supporters of the multi universe theory simply beleive that :

a) two entities can interact just in case they are in direct contac or if they can exchange messages

b)
an atom is just a particle
It can not be both a wave and a particle at the same time

Probably you ( and me ) have no problem to agree with above claims
Unfortunatly the lab evidence are against a) and b)

The multi universe theory claims that a) and b) are still true but we have a limited knowledge of our universe

Although the theory of multi universe has been almost abandoned the most popular theory nowadays ,the theory of string has actually strong similaritis with the theory of the multi universe

Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 09/21/07 20:53

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If your conciousness did slip into another universe, then wouldn't your brain flat-line.
If we are to believe that there is a coorolation between brainwaves and conciousness, then the precese of one implies the other or the absence of one implies the other.

Yeah, which is why it's unlikely that this happened. Death is generally defined in most countries as a situation in which the brain flat-lines. That is, there is no major central nervous system activity and there is no detectable electrical activity in the brain's cerebral cortex. At this point, the person may be declared dead in many jurisdictions. The patient may appear to be breathing, as a result of the action of a respirator. Her/his heart may still be beating, either on its own or as a result of a heart pacemaker. But he/she is judged to be dead. Unplugging the patient from life support systems at this point will not actually kill the patient; she/he is already considered to be dead. Hence they would have pulled the plug on that guy in such an event. Brain flat-lines in a vegetative state usually is reason enough to give up on the patient,

Cheers

Posted By: Neuro

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 10/04/07 16:08

You guys should watch this movie with Tim Robins called "Jacob's Ladder". Similar idea to the multiverse theory. A vietnam vet gets shotup badly and is taken to the hospital. He then wakes up and realizes it was only a flashback nightmare. He continues to live his life years later but strange events keeps on occuring which eventually led up to him finding out he was infected by a chemical agent in vietnam. The film ends with us finding out that he never actually made it ouf of vietnam, and that his whole life experience was just a "dying hallucination". Frickin trippy...

Another interesting "multiverse" a short story is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

Posted By: testDummy

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 10/05/07 14:55

(I watched "Jacob's Ladder" a number of times years and years ago, and I think that I probably could have recommended it (also), except that Neuro might have just spoiled the ending.)

Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 10/05/07 17:05

Quote:

You guys should watch this movie with Tim Robins called "Jacob's Ladder". Similar idea to the multiverse theory. A vietnam vet gets shotup badly and is taken to the hospital. He then wakes up and realizes it was only a flashback nightmare. He continues to live his life years later but strange events keeps on occuring which eventually led up to him finding out he was infected by a chemical agent in vietnam. The film ends with us finding out that he never actually made it ouf of vietnam, and that his whole life experience was just a "dying hallucination". Frickin trippy...

Yes, I remember that movie, it's pretty cool.

Still, the jump from dream to multiverse is a big one in my opinion,

Cheers

Posted By: Nems

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 10/05/07 18:11

I like theories like this, they are good for paradigm shifts.

A part of the initiates discovery of the 'speres' in my culture describes a few of these realms and access to them from both unconscious volition and a determined physical approach.
Whilst Ive experienced both unconscious and 'light bulb' revelations Ive yet to see an actual determined physical approach.

Its more than likely that a multiverse view is the correct one for me as a monoverse just isnt a sustainable idea really, considering the duality of our universe.

I think past life experiences could fall into this catagory too as my cultural belief describes so called past life as co-existing realities, hence the easy access to some memories, feelings and coincidences.

Certainly wave dynamics indicate multiverses by the mere process of just being a wave, go up out of range then go down out of range and all we see is the in-betweens.

And yet, its more than possible that none exist at all and that were are just memories of an instance in time that because of the vastness of space, perpetuates as echoes maybe...?

Posted By: Neuro

Re: Multiverse - an interesting story - 10/07/07 01:08

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(I watched "Jacob's Ladder" a number of times years and years ago, and I think that I probably could have recommended it (also), except that Neuro might have just spoiled the ending.)

Woops...my bad! But then again, anyone following this thread would probably get the idea of whats going to happen anyways