I believe in parallel realities. It’s true. When I was a child, people told me that it wasn’t possible—that there were no alternate universes out there. They said there were no alternate Cory’s in alternate plains of reality. This made no sense to me whatsoever. How couldn’t there be an evil Cory in an alternate reality, where Hitler had won WWII? After all, Star Trek, Comic books, and Science Fiction novels were all telling me these things were possible for years. I would rather believe that, like Captain Kirk, I had some twisted counterpart somewhere, menacingly twisting his mustache, waiting to strike at me through some dimensional doorway.
As I got older, I would think back on this belief. I no longer believed in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or even God for that matter. Why did I still cling to the possibility of a multi-verse? Perhaps what I really didn’t want to believe was that everything we did, every decision we made, was the only possible outcome in living our lives. I wanted to believe that in some other reality, there was a Cory who made different decisions than I had. Perhaps he made them for the better or perhaps he made them for the worse, but at least other options were being explored. I liked the idea that in one reality, I might be an outright asshole, where-as in another I might be a saint. I would spend hours dreaming up these scenarios. The possibilities were endless, and this was comforting to me.
Now, the idea of alternate realities still sparks my imagination, but it’s not the same belief I used to hold. I have studied a variety of theories pertaining to alternate realities and our universe. It turns out that my belief was a commonly held in the scientific community for many years, but has since been replaced with a new theory that sort of sullies my view of alternate dimensions. They say that there are alternate universes, but that they bare little resemblance to our own. They may have entirely different laws of physics and unrecognizable life forms existing within them.
For me, it’s kind of a bummer. The possibilities for my imaginary counterparts are now gone. Hell, even my imaginary counterparts are now gone. Now all I can imagine are universes where the gravity is ten thousand times stronger than it is here, or where magnetism is one of the weakest forces and the only life form in existence is a sentient gas ball. It’s not exactly limiting, but it really takes away from the human drama. And for some reason, my belief is now less comforting to me. Because believe it or not, the reality of these endless possibilities on a universal scale are still a lot less assuring to me than a famous, evil, Cory, twisting his mustache and waiting for a chance to strike.
