Exploring Alternate Realities: The Psychology Behind Vivid Dreams

Dreams and Identity: Exploring Multiverse Possibilities

Ever since I could remember, my dreams were always extremely vivid and sometimes a little bit scary. Some of them felt real, where I was still myself, but in a slightly modified version of an experience I’ve had, I would compare it to a drunken déjà vu. However, in some dreams, I am a completely different person. I’m a different gender, a different race, a different species, sometimes on a different planet. For a long time, I believed them to only be vivid dreams coming from my overactive imagination. I never talked to anyone about it; my family was religious, so I didn’t find very many answers there. It was only recently I delved into some conspiracy theories and different religious opinions on dreams being glimpses into alternate realities. Although I have never been able to wholeheartedly agree with any one religion or theory, keeping an open mind about the possibilities needs to be further incorporated into everyone’s interactions with society. Trying to understand my subconscious has led me to discover many opinions from various parts of the world, all of which should be considered and respected.

The Vivid Dreamscapes: Unveiling Alternate Realities

One of my favorite dreams takes place in a city I would relate to, Los Angeles, but in this dream, I am in the future. I am at a point in time where most of the population has transitioned to anti-gravity vehicles while some of the middle and lower class still drive on surface roads. I had been in a car accident with my roommate Monica. My vision was off, and my head was randomly throbbing. I assumed I must have had a concussion. Monica was sitting on the couch; I was getting ready to leave before she asked me if I was leaving.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I assured her as I placed the remote next to her.

“Oh, okay,” she said with a smile.

She wasn’t the same as she was before the accident; I think she was in a coma for a while, but I couldn’t remember. I walked through the house, looking through the windows at the different colors of the sunset. Each moment felt like a cut from a scene as if my life was playing in fragments. I was suddenly downstairs, talking to my roommates and doing the dishes while I looked at the city through the kitchen window. I listened to them drone on and on about their boyfriends and what they had done the weekend before until they faded out completely. I dazed off into the skyline of the city. The sky looked purple but became dark orange as it met the city. I felt like I could see it all, a perfect outline of the place where I lived. Tall buildings pierced the sky, dimly lit apartments in between the suburbs of the city, freeways that curved in every direction, taking strangers in a hundred different ways, and the glowing cars that would zoom through the air like streams of wingless birds.

“No credit? No problem!” shouted the car dealer in an obnoxious Brooklyn accent.

It shook me back into reality as I nodded my head in agreement. The next thing I could remember was getting into the perfectly smooth anti-gravity car I had just purchased. I turned it on, lifted the steering wheel gently, and slowly lifted out of the exit platform. I zoomed off into the sky, my head forcibly pressed back into the seat and the wind blowing through my clothes. I dived underneath a freeway, keeping up with the cars probably on their way home from work. I began to appreciate the beauty and glow of the freeway systems, the feeling of going on a long road trip, getting places just a little bit slower. I couldn’t remember what happened next; maybe the scene wasn’t important enough.

Although the study of dreams is very vague, dreams have been an interest for thousands of years, “Our ancestors were as curious about dreams as modern scientists are today. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed dreams provided messages from the gods. In ancient China, people treated dreams as a way to visit the world of the dead. Ancient Egyptians were convinced that those who could interpret dreams possessed special powers.” Whether it be reincarnation or your soul simply moving onto a different place, most cultures have pondered the mystery of dreams and their meanings, each of them a different variation of ultimately the same thing. All of these should be considered and respected as they may be very important to a certain culture.

Multiverse Theories: Bridging Dreams and Reality

Scientifically and very theoretically speaking, there is speculation that there are multiple universes that play out every decision we’ve ever made in different realities. This is an astronomical theory called the multiverse (Parallel Universes: Theories & Evidence 2018). Infinite, bubble, daughter, mathematical, and parallel universes are all theories about how multiverses could be real. Through my studies and investigations, dreams can be incorporated into this theory by considering them to be small peeks into the realm of another universe. As some theories believe that we have no direct connection to these other versions of ourselves, this theory considers all of the counterparts to still be one. This would then hypothetically allow us to connect with these universal doppelgangers, perhaps through our dreams.

There are some reasons to believe, however, that worlds can interact. As has been pointed out by others, if a counterpart has a brain identical to mine and identical memories, etc. then by the law of the identity of indiscernibles, the counterpart is me. As the counterpart develops a history that diverges from the parent world, anything is possible, but at the moment of inception, he must be me. If he is me then interaction must be possible as I can infallibly know what the other is thinking (at least at the inception of the branching event) and that is a genuine piece of knowledge about the other world.

Although these theories are all unsupported, they keep me skeptical, but I am continuously curious as to what other theories might make sense of my vivid, lifelike dreams.

Keeping an Open Mind: Embracing Curiosity and Respect

Over the past year or so, I spent time looking into different concepts and ideas, and I’ve concluded that I might never know why I have such consistent, intense experiences when I sleep. However, the journey I’ve made has exposed me to unpopular opinions and outrageous ideas. Each one I had to take into personal consideration to determine whether I agreed with it. This allowed me to exercise, keeping an open mind. More often than not, people come to conclusions without being impartial to any contradictory ideas, usually leading to controversy. With science developing at such a rapid rate, I believe it is important to keep an open mind now more than ever. Accept information with skepticism, but not judgment. Have a conversation, not an argument. Respect other’s opinions as they respect yours.