Concept of Parallel Universes
There is a natural phenomenon that we experience as humans that is poorly understood by most people. It is usually explained by our parents with a cursory "You should try to see the other person's side". We discard this as a shallow statement because it implies that there is only one "right" and we must gamble that we are wrong. There is another way to understand the idea without the danger of admitting guilt. I call this phenomenon the Concept of Parallel Universes and Dual Reality. With such an imposing name, your first reaction may be to assume it is science fiction and/or I have fallen off the edge. With a pursuit of understanding, you may come to believe it is true.
The first hurdle is to understand the idea of TIME as a forth dimension. We may be side by side in the market and point to a grocery cart describing its position as on the first floor, 10 feet from the east wall and 15 feet from the north wall. As usual, the existence of the cart is described in 3 dimensions, vertical (up & down), north-south, and east-west. If you call the security guards attention to it and he sees it on the camera, he will have a mental concept of the cart being there. (In his mind it will be there and it will be there at the same time as your vision). On the other hand, if you send a video tape to a friend he will have the same concept of the cart being there as did the guard. However, it will be at a different time! Viewing the tape and making it could be a week apart and by that time the cart will be in a different place! By that time, the cart could be a twisted pile in the parking lot. The reality of the person watching the tape would be the same as the guards watching it on closed-circuit and differ only by time. The difference in time is so great that the example seems ridiculous, but it is still a true statement. Think about what happens as the time span lessens. You could show the tape to a friend a day later and again the concepts are the same but differ by only 24 hours. You could broadcast a TV signal to an astronaut on the moon as you are watching it in the market. But because light travels at 300,000 kilometers/sec and the moon is 384,000 kilometers away, then the astronaut's vision is occurring more than a second after yours. Again the cart could be 2 aisles over by the time he sees it. Therefore his concept is not the same as yours. Here is where it gets deep. Imagine now that he is standing 3 feet behind you and you are looking at the cart. [ 3 ft. = 1 m, Speed = 300,000,000 m/s, Time = Distance / Speed, Time = 1/100,000,000 seconds.] His vision is a hundred millionths of a second later than yours. It can not be the same as yours! Your whole universe can be very close to others' universes, but they are not the same, they are parallel. Something can be true in your universe and at the same be untrue in another's.
Then there is the problem of how we perceive our universe.
Every experience you have had since the time you were an infant and the combined experiences of your ancestors (your instinct) will affect your perception and understanding of even the most minute detail around you. Conversely, the experiences and instincts of other people will likewise affect their perception and understanding. You and another person could be standing side by side and looking at the same thing, but what you individually see are entirely different! Back to the grocery cart. Imagine that the store manager, a homeless woman, a boy, you and I are all looking at the cart. You might see it as a handy tool for carrying the groceries when you shop. The manager might have an image of a damaged cart needing replacement. The boy might have an image of jumping on its rail and coasting down the parking lot. The bag lady might be making plans to replace her old cart. I see it as a useful source of parts for building a chicken cage and using the wheels as casters for a wooden kitchen cart. It is the same physical cart, but simultaneously our images are not even remotely similar! To each of us, our images are real and true. But our realities are not the same as each other's, they are dual realities.
When we were children and came crying to our parents about the unfair and selfish acts of our siblings or ex-friends, mother would comfort us, tell us it would be all right, and advise us to look objectively and see the other kids side. We appreciated the comforting but resented the advice. It meant we were expected to admit we were wrong when we knew we were right. Even adults will apologize and say they are wrong (with their fingers crossed) to appease another person with whom they have argued. Every person has a universe in which the things they observe and the things they conclude are true. But is it fair to expect any other person's universe and reality to be the same as yours? Why do we so much resent, even hate, another person because it is not?
People tend to form cliques or groups of friends. Most observers of this phenomenon point out that the people in the group have common interests or common views. I believe that the cohesion is caused by how much their universes are parallel and by how close their realities are. People who share a common view may come to the same conclusion through different paths, but will appreciate each other because they have the same reality. People also tend to avoid, shun and ridicule the groups who have a different reality. I agree every person has a right to their opinion and, as long as it does not interfere with my rights, they are welcome to it. We go to church to deepen our understanding of the scriptures and we continue going to school as adults to increase our knowledge. I believe it our responsibility to ourselves to continue growing spiritually as well as academically. It should also be our responsibility to mature rationally by seeking to understand how and why other peoples universes are so different from our own. The more I learn about others' realities, the more I understand my own.
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and Dual Reality
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