Dear Multiverse

Three magical portal in between various realities, multiverse theory concept illustration
image: iStock

I read a really interesting book recently by Laura Mersini-Houghton. She’s one of the world’s leading cosmologists.

She says we live in a multiverse, not a universe.

Ours is only one of a vast number of other universes. And as weird as it sounds, there are probably other versions of You in some of these. 

What? I know! Bear with me; I’ll come back to that part in a bit.

I did say this week’s blog was going to be a bit different. 

So, hear me out.

The Earth is a pretty big place, the solar system even bigger. And beyond that are other stars with their own solar systems. In fact, if you tried to fly a typical passenger airplane to the nearest star (apart from the Sun) it would take you twenty million years to get there. And that’s not even factoring in the return journey. It’s a long way. 

But miniscule by cosmic standards. 

Our galaxy (the milky way) contains a few hundred billion stars each separated by about that distance. And the milky way is only one of a few hundred billion other galaxies spread out in our universe.

So I think we can all agree that the universe is huge.

But according to Mersini-Houghton and a host of other cosmologists, there’s literally trillions and trillions of other universes.

How can that be?

Well, our universe wasn’t always as big as it currently is. There was a time – about 13.8 billion years ago – when it was absolutely tiny. So tiny, in fact, that it was smaller than an atom.

Then it inflated, like a balloon being blown up. About 13.8 billion years later you and I were born. Quite a bit happened in the middle, but I won’t bore you with the details.

But let’s wind back to when it was a baby universe. That’s what cosmologists affectionately call our universe when it was first born and was tiny. 

It was the size of a quantum particle. Despite the name particle, a quantum particle – like a proton, electron, or quark – isn’t a solid thing like a particle of dust or a grain of sand. It is also a wave of energy.

Our universe, with all of its stars, planets, and people, was once a wave. Like a wee vibration.

Quantum Theory outlines the rules by which quantum particles and waves operate. Things in the quantum world are pretty weird. Particles can be in many places at the same time and different particles can be connected instantaneously over vast distances.

Back in the 50s, a PhD student named Hugh Everett III, wondered if the rules of quantum theory could be applied to our baby universe.

Everett’s theories didn’t catch on at the time and many believe he was treated unfairly. He eventually left physics altogether.

In the years since his death, however, his theory – The Many Words Interpretation of quantum mechanics as it’s come to be known as – has become one of the dominant theories of reality. 

According to the Many Words theory, there’s a near infinity of universes and an infinite number of versions of You and Me doing lots of different things. In one universe, you turned left this morning, in another you turned right. In one, you’re a president or prime minister, in another you’re an actor, or a plumber, or a nurse, or anything you can conceive of. You can see why physicists at the time didn’t support it.

Mersini-Houghton built on Everett’s ideas and reasoned that our baby universe was merely one of countless trillions of other potential universes, all waves on a landscape of vibrating strings (known as string theory), each with varying likelihoods of springing into being. And even right now, as you read these words, trillions of baby universes are bursting into being somewhere.

She did the math, and calculated that our universe must have been then, and still be today, connected with many of these other universes. The word in physics for this sort of connection is entanglement

Many people are familiar with the popularised idea of two particles separated by a vast distance. Flick one of them (in physics it’s called making a measurement) and it instantly determines the state of the other, no matter how far apart they are. It’s because they are connected – entangled.

Doing the math, she proposed that if this is true, then our universe must still bear the marks of entanglement with another universe today, like a dent or stretchmark of sorts. She even calculated precisely where in our universe we should find it and how big it should be.

She was spot on. 

A couple of years ago, a special satellite was studying the sky to form a special detailed kind of map of the observable universe. It found the dent, the stretchmark. And it was exactly where Mersini-Houghton said it was going to be.

Strong evidence for entanglement with another universe.

Strong evidence that we live in a multiverse. 

Our universe, vast as it is, is just like a droplet of water in an ocean of universes.

I did say I’d write something a bit different this week.

References

If you’re interested in reading more, Laura Mersini-Houghton-Houghton’s book is called, ‘Before The Big Bang: The origin of our universe from the multiverse‘.

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19 Comments

  1. Suzi Allen on October 1, 2022 at 8:51 am

    I’ve often thought we live in a parallel universe and there are other « versions » of us somewhere out there. Quite bizarre you should post this today when I’ve only recently been revisiting these thoughts……. Very interesting!

  2. lisa on October 1, 2022 at 11:53 am

    I love this post! I love easy to understand explanations of mind-bending awe-inspiring cosmic stuff 🙂

  3. Stella Hooper on October 1, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    Thank you David! Fascinating reading, albeit totally mind-boggling!

  4. Maggie La Tourelle on October 1, 2022 at 3:50 pm

    I LOVE all this and have been interested for many years. What you are saying David was confirmed by my mother when she had late-stage Alzheimer’s. During this time she said many interesting things including: ‘It’s difficult working between two worlds’, ‘We’re all living in another world’ and ‘There are two of you’, about which we had many discussions. As her ego diminished and past and future rolled into the present, she transcended this world and told me about the other world. I recorded our conversations for three years and wrote them up as a book for the benefit of others.

    • Sandra on October 2, 2022 at 2:10 pm

      Thank you David, multiverses, very interesting. Some years back I bought 2 copies from Cygnus Books, for a friend and I, of Maggie La Tourelle’s “The gift of Alzheimers”. It had a deep effect on me. It’s an amazing read and beautifully written about her experience with her mum being between worlds. I experienced the same with my mum. A few months later I attended a presentation by an NHS Nurse on NDEs at Alternatives in Picadilly, London. There was a Q&A session at the end. A comment by one of the attendants took my interest. I went up to her afterwards as I thought she might be interested in knowing of and getting a copy of this amazing book. When I spoke with her and told her about the book, author and title, she replied: “that is me, I wrote the book”. I was speechless! Thank you Maggie La Tourelle for your beautiful book.

    • David Hamilton on October 5, 2022 at 12:56 pm

      That’s amazing that your mother said this. I’m sorry she has passed away. I’ve had a copy of your book for a few years. I have so many I haven’t read yet, despite my best intentions. When I get some time, I will definitely have a read of yours. 🙂

  5. Ann Ayton on October 1, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    Not only a wondrously articulated article David, as usual, but lovely comments too. Going to look up your book Maggie.

    • David Hamilton on October 5, 2022 at 12:56 pm

      Thanks Ann. I hope you enjoy Maggie’s book too. 🙂

  6. Fiona on October 1, 2022 at 4:37 pm

    Fascinating! I have never been competent in math but I find quantum physics so interesting!

  7. MIchelle Anne Taylor on October 2, 2022 at 10:19 pm

    I am looking forward to following your learning journey as you make the complex simple for us. Thank you for taking the time to explain it. I’d love to hear how you see this information changing the way you see us operating in our world.

  8. Wendy mcdougall on October 19, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    This is so comforting to learn that there is so much more out there and my interpretation of this is death is not the end

  9. Wendy mcdougall on October 19, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    Fantastic article – thank you David. It’s comforting to learn that there is so much more out there and my interpretation of this is death is not the end

  10. Joanne Campolito Roach, BSISE on October 23, 2022 at 11:46 pm

    Dr Hamilton,
    Thank you for all you do, and for writing this article! For many years, I embrace the multiverse concept, having personal experiences consistent with theory. For my best well-being and also to propagate overall light energy, I mostly keep these direct experiences to myself. We pray that you will continue this beautiful luminous work and thank you for allowing us to pray for you!
    Kind Regards, Joanne Campolito Roach, BSISE

  11. Joanne Campolito Roach, BSISE on October 24, 2022 at 12:05 am

    Dr Hamilton,

    Thank you for all you do, and for writing this article! For many years, I embrace the multiverse concept, having personal experiences consistent with theory. For my best well-being and also to propagate light energy, I mostly keep these experiences to myself. We pray that you will continue this beautiful luminous work and thank you for allowing us to pray for you!

    Kind Regards, Joanne Campolito Roach, BSISE

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