Multiple Universes

I have a flash of memory from when I was a child where I was standing in my room looking around. I noticed the bed, the dresser, the bookshelves, and the many things that lay strewn about. I also noted the spaces in the room, the emptiness that was existed between the things. It occurred to me- quite suddenly- that there could be another universe stacked on top the one I was in. I imagined having the vision to see another Poonam busily drawing a picture on the ground, or else another family in my house altogether as I stood there and looked on. Why not? I thought. If the universe is infinite and if the divine is omnipotent, why can’t there be infinite parallel worlds stacked atop one another? Why do I presume to believe I must be able to see or sense them, and take that as the only evidence that they do or do not exist? My human form is limited. I may not be endowed with the ability, the faculty to see or understand such a limitless world. Humbly, I am an amoeba compared to this universe and as such cannot comprehend all that I do not know.

Quantum theory has been coming up a good deal in my life lately, though. I read a book, Why Does the World Exist?, which is an existential detective story after my own heart. I’ve never quite had to take notes while reading a book for pleasure, but I did for this book- it was imperative. There are too many intricacies, philosophically, physically, and spiritually in this book to be captured in one read. Though much of the book was over my head, I came away with the sense that quantum theory has yet something to offer the world. The notions of dualism and nondualism coexisting, the notions of particle instability bringing about the creation of the world somehow make sense to my soul despite their paradoxical nature. As Jim Holt, the author, wrote, “The universe itself, through laws of quantum mechanics, bounded into existence out of nothing. The reason there is Something rather than Nothing is, as they fancifully put it, that nothingness is unstable.” My mind, of course, cannot grasp these concepts without further study, but I found myself once again confronted with quantum theory through the movie Coherence. This film took me by surprise completely. I wasn’t expecting much, and yet my brain was fully rearranged after watching it. It follows the thought experiment of Schrodinger’s Cat through a complex human lens. What if there are multiple versions of ourselves running around here, only slight variations of the self I pretend to know right now. What if there is another Poonam writing this sentence as a write it and decides to put. a. period. after. every. word.?  put a period after every word? If there are infinite variations of myself, at any given moment am I the best version or the worst? At what point do I find out which self has won the momentary battle? What if, as do the characters in The Golden Compass (another book I recently read that smacks of philosophy, quantum theory or “Dust”, and religion) and as do the characters in Coherence, I attempt to bridge the gap between these parallel universes? What is gained? What is lost? What is the point? At a time in my life where I can see the branches of reality playing out in multiplicitous and myriad ways, I find myself wondering how it is that this reality has won out. What randomness (or carefully calculated science) has led me to the me I know now? The box will be opened: am I alive? Dead? Or am I both?