Science is no stranger to the big questions. From the beginning of the universe to the fabric
of reality itself, we’re always trying to find answers. But, when it comes to the multiverse,
the boundaries between right and wrong, between probable and improbable,
dramatically widen, enough to leave you questioning your very existence in time.
So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
would you know if you were trapped inside a parallel universe?
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Midway through the twenty-first century, we’re at a potentially crucial bridge for modern research
between the macro and micro worlds. Work around quantum physics has taken off in a big way but,
bizarrely, its greatest impact could yet be to do with one of the largest structures imaginable;
the multiverse. Starting with Hugh Everett’s Many Worlds Interpretation - a
then game-changing theory when it was put forward in the late 1950s - we’ve grown to
develop a number of hypotheses around the idea that this world isn’t all there is.
Broadly, it’s said that whenever a decision is made, reality is split into two separate
planes. Usually, this is visualized via large and clear decisions, such as choosing between an
apple and orange for lunch, or taking the left or right turn at a junction. The idea is that
even when you decide to turn left, there’s another you in another, parallel universe,
that decides to turn right, and your lives diverge forever based on that one point in time. However,
at the quantum level, the same concept can be applied to create an infinitely more
intricate mesh; a truly neverending multiverse of realities. Now, every time an atom splits,
every time a molecule is made, or even every time light moves between wave and particle…
a new reality is potentially born. Only, here, the differences between each and every one of
them are so infinitesimally small that we (in our macro state) could never hope to recognise them.
In an extreme variation, we could be talking about one world where the only difference is
that you have one hair less on your head than you do in this one… or another where
the atmospheric makeup of a planet that’s thousands of lightyears away is just ever
so slightly different, but everything else is the same. Importantly, this isn’t where all
multiverse models lead, most don’t go so far… but the principles at play can still take us there,
and perhaps it could be argued that it’s even an inevitable endpoint. To even try
to contemplate a reality web that’s so closely woven between one layer and the next is, frankly,
a major headache for us mere mortals. But, could that mean that we’re actually moving across that
web all the time, we’re just wholly unaware because nothing’s ever actually noticeable?
In a recent video, we took a closer look at the story of Lerina Garcia. To briefly recap,
Garcia was aged 41 in the year 2008, when she posted claims on a Spanish online forum about
how she believed she had woken up in a parallel universe. Among the apparently unexplained changes
she encountered on that one fateful day were; waking up in a bed made with sheets she didn’t
own… arriving at her place of work only to find that her office and position had changed,
as if overnight… and realizing that not only was she still dating her ex-partner,
but her until-yesterday-current partner was literally nowhere to be found.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the story has never been fully corroborated… but some have suggested that
Garcia may have fallen victim to a so-called reality slip. Her surrounding world was
otherwise unchanged - she reported no major differences in global politics for example,
or fundamental physics - it was just that certain parts of her own life were inexplicably altered.
It’s said that Garcia herself believed that she had entered a kind of parallel universe.
If, for the sake of argument, we take Garcia at her word, then here is an example of someone
entering a parallel world and realizing that they’ve done so. But, although the changes were
apparently noticeable to Garcia, she would still have needed to skip A LOT of timelines to make
those changes possible, as per Many Worlds-style multiverse models. Consider her reported change of
position at her place of work. How many decisions does it take for you to land a job in the first
place? How many assignments need completing, meetings need to be held, deadlines need to be
met, etc.? There are countless different points in time at which her path might’ve diverted,
all of which she will have presumably had to have reversed back through… to then emerge
with a different job entirely. Even the unknown bed sheets she woke up in: To buy bed sheets,
you need to enter a certain shop, choose to spend a certain amount of money, decide on that one
product based on countless other preferences… and all while the subatomic world silently hums
through endless splits and decisions of its own, all around you. All of those moments in time would
need to have been skipped back through, just for Garcia to awake on some unfamiliar cotton.
Interestingly, Garcia did reportedly visit a doctor to check, among other things, whether
she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. So, even with such personally massive changes,
she seemingly had some inkling to doubt herself. And, as it happens, no substances were found
in her system, although doctors could find no other explanation for her experiences, either.
Consider, then, how it might feel if you ever felt your life was different, but much less
dramatically so. If you felt that there was just something off but you couldn’t put your finger
on what exactly that something was. You perhaps wouldn’t be worried enough to visit a doctor,
as Garcia was, but you might be left with a real sense of unease. Of course, there are certain
real life phenomena that inspire something similar, in some people, including déjà vu,
the Mandela Effect, and lucid dreaming. Sometimes these sensations are loosely referred to as
“glitches in the matrix”, sometimes it’s joked that they’re the multiverse at work. Regardless,
if parallel universes do exist - which increasing numbers of theories reckon they do - then could we
ever hope to confidently tell the difference between one and the next, and the next? If
we ever were presented with proof, would we believe it, or even properly recognize it?
As per some of the more extreme interpretations, the multiverse - if it does exist - is
unfathomably rich and complex. In just the time it’s taken for you to watch this video,
reality will have subatomically split off into countless different directions… leaving you here,
in this reality, but other yous, enjoying any one of those other realms. Say you had,
in the last eight minutes, moved just one rung up or down, just one step left
or right across the multiverse frame, could you ever really know that it had happened?
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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