I am a dreamer, as in, I often dream and will wake up and remember the dreams. Sometimes my dreams are fantastical, sometimes they are scary, sometimes they are mundane. But I often wonder about why we dream. Do they mean anything? Are they a glimpse into our id? Or… are they a glimpse into the multiverse?
The multiverse theory goes that there are infinite universes and infinite versions of you. In the multiverse, every possibility does happen somewhere. And the theory with dreams is that dreams connect the conscious of other versions of you and allow you to essentially view other versions of your life.
The whole multiverse theory is a little wild and I usually think that dreams are just a fun distraction the brain develops when sorting through the day’s events. However, last night’s dream was so vivid, mundane and random. It made me wonder, is there something to the multiverse theory?
In real life I was pre-med in college and changed majors to construction management. I’ve since worked in most areas of construction and have been a construction consultant for the last 10 years. I live in the Rocky Mountains, am married with three kids. I’ve been through cancer and was a life-flight away from death. However, In my dream, I was an engineer and worked at a government contractor vehicle manufacturer, I specialized in armor plating for various vehicles. I had just developed an armor plating that was lightweight- able to be used on aircraft. Could offer transparency with some loss of strength, and withstand an onslaught of 50caliber fire from a Gatling gun for over an hour, as well as RPG fire.
I was working on a government order, for Canada, go figure. I was walking through the facility with a bit of a heavy heart. I knew I had cancer and that it wasn’t looking good. I was about to go back into treatment. I stopped and talked with a group and at the end of the conversation, one of the guys said, “You’re an icon, there will never be another like you.” I walked away somewhat distraught. I guess they could see the toll cancer had on me. I walked past a wall full of the prominent engineers and designers from the past. There was a photo of a man I knew to be my mentor. I remember thinking he was a god among engineers when I worked under him. He was so disciplined, so smart, and so compassionate. I didn’t think I was as good a leader as he was, but it was a moot point now. I wondered sarcastically if they would put my picture up on the wall and if that’s all that would be left of me?
I drove home and when I was almost home. A car side-swiped me when I neared my home. It was a ridiculous accident, it was the other driver’s fault and I was irritated because it was in my new car – which was electric, but the brand was unique to that reality. An older man got out and was assessing the damage, the damage to his car was much worse that mine as he had lost control and hit another parked car. The police came and took statements and the older man and I were talking. It turned out, he lived in my neighborhood, then asked for a ride since his car was being towed. I was reticent, but he insisted.
During the ride back, he wouldn’t stop talking while I remained mostly quiet, he asked what I was doing that evening and I said, I’d likely go to the beach. He laughed and said he’d like to join me. I declined and he kept insisting.
I dropped him off and went home. My home was empty, I lived alone, no wife, no kids. It was somewhere on the east coast, it felt like Delaware or New Jersey. I unwound for a bit, ate dinner and decided to go to the beach. I went outside to get in my car when the old man walked up with two young people who he introduced as his grandchildren, they looked like they were in their high teens, low twenties. Again, he insisted they join. The children looked more apprehensive and I felt apprehensive as well. I talked with him a bit and he said that he had promised to take them to the beach, but his car was now wrecked. Finally, I agreed and we left.
They asked me a little about my life, but mostly talked amongst themselves. When we got to the beach. I watched them for a bit, then told them I was going to walk to the Marina. The girl wanted to join me. As we walked, she asked why I liked about the marina. I told her I had a boat docked and that I thought I should check in on while I was around. She asked if something was wrong since I didn’t talk much. I told her about my cancer and that I was about to go into treatments again. She seemed to understand and said she’d help me smile again.
When we got to my boat, she exclaimed, “this isn’t a boat! It’s a yacht!” I chuckled, and she exclaimed, “I told you I’d get you to smile!” I just thought back to how much time this boat took and what I had sacrificed for it. I went through and checked all the rigging to see that everything was in order. I seemed to just understand how everything worked.
I woke up and the knowledge slowly ebbed away. It was… haunting.
That dream is a thinker for me. It makes me wonder. Could that really be a peek into the multiverse? I have a hard time believing every dream is a peek into the multiverse, but maybe. Of course that would mean my dream where I can fly – some where in the multiverse we evolved to fly? Dreams where I can do magic – Multiverse?
I suppose it can make sense.
However, that would also mean the nightmares are real somewhere in the multiverse. While I don’t have a problem with nightmares, two of my children do and prefer to not dream. The other is a lucid dreamer and enjoys dreaming. I also have many lucid dreams and that is a whole other can of worms for the multiverse theory. Would it mean that you are controlling another reality or is it that you leave the reality and reconstruct it in your own conscience?
It goes back to why we dream and what controls the dream content. The strange thing to me is that when I am thinking about someone, I never dream about them. But if I am working on a problem and am stuck, a dream will often show me the answer. Then, when I haven’t been thinking of someone, I’ll have a dream about them. How would that fit in with the multiverse narrative? What controls what universe you peek into? is it your collective conscience? And what does the multiverse mean for a soul? Would all the versions of you be part of one soul? What does that mean for an afterlife?
Some speculate that we live in a simulation and that our multiple selves are simply part of a quantum computing algorithm where all possible outcomes are calculated at once. It’s an Interesting idea. But if that were the case, why would we have insights into other realities? Why would that be part of the simulation?
It’s interesting to think about, but, the life of that engineer is not my life here. It’s fun to think about, but is unknowable. But to think that there’s more than this, especially after everything I’ve been through is somehow comforting. But it’s also a bit much to Imagine all our realities merging! But maybe it will just feel like this life was a dream.
