Summary:
• The theory of relativity states that time can “warp” in relation to speed and gravity. Experiments with precise clocks confirm this: that time itself can slow down, making travel into the future possible, at least in theory. The study of quantum mechanics reveals that subatomic particles behave unpredictably and can exist in multiple states; this has inspired theories such as the many worlds theory.
• People have long imagined parallel universes and time slips. Although some scientific theories allow for these possibilities, those theories are controversial among scientists because they might be impossible to prove. For example, the many worlds theory and various block-universe theories are based on mathematical equations, not on physical evidence. We do know that relativity and quantum mechanics reveal that physical reality is much stranger and less predictable than it seems.
• The many-worlds theory raises spiritual questions about morality if alternate versions of you exist. If there are alternate versions of you, each of you behaving differently, does moral responsibility still matter? It does matter, because another version of you in another universe is not you in this Universe; your own choices in this Universe remain your responsibility.
• Time slips, if they exist, are thought to be temporary portals within this Universe, usually into the past. However, physical evidence of time-slips is extremely rare and inconclusive. Theoretically, a time-slip’s portal would have to move with Earth’s position in space, or else the traveler would die in outer space when traveling to another time. This variable makes the idea of time-slips even more complicated.
• Parallel universes and time slips might have spiritual meaning, but any lessons they might teach may differ from person to person. Testimonies from travelers, if true, may someday be taken more seriously by scientists. However, definite proof of parallel universes or time-slips could create dangerous new problems for humankind, especially if people tried to manipulate alternate universes or change history.
For centuries, people have imagined the possibility of other universes and of traveling backwards in time, a form of time-travel. Such ideas appeal not only to many storytellers, they also appeal to many philosophers and scientists.
- The idea of parallel universes is that two or more universes occupy the same space but have little or no interaction between them. A simple analogy is radio broadcasts that share the same sky but do not interfere with each other because each broadcast has its own radio frequency.
- The idea of a time-slip refers to a portal into the past or future—a form of time-travel. If you could enter a time-slip, then your location might not change but your time in history would change, perhaps by years, decades, or centuries.
Parallel universes and time-slips may not exist, however. Some scientific theories suggest that they could exist, but the theories are controversial because they are difficult to prove, maybe impossible. They do have some spiritual implications.
Physics is the science of how matter and energy behave. One of the most important theories in physics is the theory of relativity, which asserts that time itself is not independent of the Universe but actually a flexible dimension of the Universe. Time is not rigid but can “warp” (twist) in relation to gravity and velocity (speed). Scientific experiments support this. For example, if two very precise clocks show the exact same time and then one clock is put on an airplane and flown at a high altitude extremely fast while the other clock is kept on the ground, then eventually the clock on the airplane will slow down in a very, very, very small way. This is because the airplane carrying the clock is traveling faster than the clock on the ground. For the clock on the airplane, time itself slowed down.
If, somehow, you were in a spaceship traveling at nearly the speed of light for a few minutes, then from your perspective only a few minutes would pass—but from the perspective of someone back on Earth, much more time would pass, perhaps years, depending on how long you flew at nearly the speed of light. That difference in time is called time dilation. So, traveling at nearly the speed of light could be a method of time-travel into the future. The theory of relativity predicts this, although it does not provide a method of time-travel into the past.
Another important theory in physics is called quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of matter and energy at the smallest possible scale: atoms and subatomic particles. To us, the behavior of subatomic particles can seem impossible because they obey their own set of natural laws; nevertheless, their behavior does adhere to some mathematical equations that physicists use to model their behavior. For example, every atom has a subatomic particle called an electron. An electron seems to spin in two opposite directions simultaneously, a concept called super-position. But when a physicist attempts to measure this, the electron then appears to spin in only one direction; until then, the electron seemed to be spinning in two opposite directions. The physicist cannot know in which direction the electron is spinning until the physicist directly interferes to find out; in other words, the physicist becomes an unwilling participant in the electron’s behavior. In experiments, subatomic particles sometimes behave like particles but at other times they behave like waves—not waves of particles, but waves without particles. Physicists can determine the position (location) of a subatomic particle or they can determine its momentum (direction), but they cannot determine both at the same time. Where is the particle? Where is it going? Trying to answer one of these questions prevents an answer to the other. Consequently, physicists cannot predict the behavior of subatomic particles. Instead, physicists can only calculate some statistical odds for each possible outcome: there is no certainty, only possible outcomes. Physicists call this the Uncertainty Principle.
The theories of relativity and quantum mechanics have influenced spiritual ideas by revealing that physical reality is not as simple as it appears. Time is not independent or rigid. Natural laws that apply to us do not always work at the level of subatomic particles. These theories were developed and tested early in the twentieth century. They continue to be tested, and physical evidence from those tests supports the theories. That is important to remember.
When a theory is proposed and discussed by scientists but cannot be proven or disproven using physical experiments, then the theory is called “scientific” only because scientists talk about it. That does not mean the theory is true. For that reason, many scientists dislike calling any theory “scientific” unless it can be tested with experiments that try to disprove it. Otherwise, it is only an idea without any proof. Unfortunately, many people with little understanding of science might assume that the theory is true—but only because it is called “scientific.”
In the latter half of the twentieth century, some theories related to quantum mechanics were developed based on mathematical equations. Unlike the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, however, these later theories might be impossible to test. They include:
- The many-worlds theory, also called the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Due to the Uncertainty Principle, physicists studying the movement of subatomic particles can determine only one outcome. That outcome occurs in this Universe. The many-worlds theory proposes that all of the other possible outcomes that could occur actually do occur—in parallel universes. It proposes that every possible outcome, by occurring, creates a new parallel universe, instantaneously. If this theory is accurate, then the number of parallel universes could be almost infinite. This theory may seem strange, but it fits within the mathematical equations involved.
- The block-universe theory, also called the block-time theory. It involves dimensions of this Universe, not parallel universes. It proposes that every dimension of this Universe exists together simultaneously: the physical dimensions of height, width, and length, and also three dimensions of time—the past, present, and future. The theory assumes that the future is already pre-determined but that we humans don’t know it until the future becomes the present. The combination of these dimensions is called a block, and that block is the Universe.
- The growing-block-universe theory is similar to the other block theory except that the future is not considered a dimension. The future is not yet determined, and so the block “grows” as the future arrives, becoming the present. This theory and the block-universe theory do not propose that time-travel into the past is possible, but they do propose that the past is a dimension that exists. In other words, the past is not gone forever.
The block-universe theory and the growing-block-universe theory have a similar problem: we live in the present and can record the past, but we cannot enter the past to confirm that the past exists as a dimension of the Universe. Consequently, these two theories compete with each other and also against a third theory, called presentism, which proposes that time has only one dimension, the present, and that the past and future do not exist.
The two block theories and the many-worlds theory are based on mathematical equations, not physical evidence. Scientists cannot even begin to test the many-worlds theory until, somehow, they detect a parallel universe—but the many-worlds theory suggests this could be impossible. In other words, the nature of the theory itself may make it impossible to prove, and likewise impossible to disprove. When the theory was first proposed in 1955, it was considered so strange that many eminent physicists ignored it. It has since attracted support from some physicists but not all, and remains controversial. In our attempts to explain quantum mechanics, some physicists believe the many-worlds theory offers better explanations than any other theory they know of. Other physicists believe the theory is bizarre, and they wonder why any physicist treats it seriously.
Since subatomic particles seem to obey their own set of natural laws, any theory explaining their behavior might work only at the level of subatomic particles. In other words, it might not work for anything larger than subatomic particles, which means it might not apply to humans or to human activities. Most advocates of the many-worlds theory believe that it does apply to human activities, but it remains a theory without definitive proof.
An alternate universe is a type of parallel universe. According to the many-worlds theory, it may begin as our Universe but, eventually, an event occurs with multiple possible outcomes. The theory says our Universe experiences one outcome while alternate universes experience the other outcomes. And because there are so many events with multiple possible outcomes, the number of alternate universes could be almost infinite.
If parallel universes do exist, then the spiritual implications can be fascinating and maybe even scary. Perhaps within an alternate universe (or many of them) there exists another version of you, perhaps with better human relationships or with more accomplishments than you have in this Universe. Is there another version of you, a version whose moral behavior is better than yours? Maybe the ultimate good version of you? Is there another version of you but whose moral behavior is essentially evil? The ultimate bad version of you?
Do moral standards and moral responsibility really matter if, during your lifetime, your best possible behavior and your worst possible behavior are both occurring, somewhere? This question might be intriguing, but it is not a convincing argument. It is not convincing that your own moral behavior does not matter because, in an alternate universe, which may not exist, there could be another version of you, or perhaps not, who might be behaving very differently. In the many stories of NDEs, nobody was ever told during their life review, “In your lifetime, you failed to perform as well as another version of yourself did in a parallel universe, but you did perform better than the worst version of yourself in another parallel universe.”
Another version of yourself is not you. You are you. You are responsible for your own behavior and therefore your moral reasoning and decisions do matter. This is also true for siblings who are identical twins. Your twin is not you. You are you.
Another spiritual implication of the many-worlds theory involves the integrity of God. Could there be an alternate universe in which the Second World War was won by Nazi Germany? In our Universe, in the early 1940s, the National Socialist (Nazi) dictatorship in Germany perpetrated the most systematic campaign of mass murder in history. With the organizational efficiency of a factory system, the Nazi dictatorship tried to mass murder entire religious and ethnic groups, including Jews and Slavs (eastern Europeans). Many millions of innocent people were murdered, using shootings, poison gas, starvation, and other methods of killing. Jews were the primary target of the Nazi dictatorship, but not the only target. Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered, including approximately 1 million children. The Nazi campaign against the Jews is now called the Holocaust or, in Hebrew, the Shoah, which means “the Catastrophe.” Meanwhile, the Nazi dictatorship was fighting the Second World War in Europe and North Africa. Ultimately, however, the Nazi dictatorship was defeated and destroyed in 1945.
If every possible outcome occurs in alternate universes, as the many-worlds theory proposes, then the Nazi dictatorship in an alternate universe may have won the Second World War and continued the Holocaust. The consequences of that possibility are sickening to imagine. How can a God of Love allow that outcome under any circumstances?
There are several answers to that question. First, there is no definitive physical evidence that the many-worlds theory is accurate. Second, if parallel universes do exist, then how those universes work could be very different from what the many-worlds theory proposes. Third, even if this Earth never experienced the mass atrocities of the Nazi dictatorship, this Earth’s history would still be shockingly violent: thousands of years of warfare, slavery, sexual abuse, brutality, bigotry, persecution, torture, forced starvation, genocide. And throughout those thousands of years, horrific suffering has caused countless people to lose their religious faith and to argue against the existence of God. So, the many-worlds theory does not really ask any new questions about the integrity of God. Instead of asking why God allows atrocities to happen, we should ask, why do we allow atrocities to happen? And while atrocities are happening, why do we do so little to stop them?
Fourth, Earth is not a heavenly afterlife and never can be. It is not supposed to be. And despite the atrocities that occur in countless places and times, Earth is not an eternal hell. The spiritual purpose of life on Earth is for each individual soul to experience spiritual freedom, to experience love in the many ways available on Earth, including, sometimes, the absence of love. From the happiness of two people eager to marry because they are in love, to the anguish of losing someone special who is loved—a child, a spouse, a special friend, anyone who is dear to you. From the joy of watching a younger generation grow and develop, to the shocking horror of young people dying young. We care and we grieve because we love. If reincarnation exists and if every soul has planned its lifetime on Earth before birth, then every soul has volunteered for these experiences, no matter how difficult or painful.
What about you? Perhaps you have known a very strange experience that makes you wonder if, somehow, you entered a parallel universe or a time-slip. If you believe that you have, then the rest of this section is for you.
Numerous stories of people who say they experienced either a parallel universe or a time-slip can be found on the Internet and in various books. The credibility of those stories varies greatly, however, and so you should be very skeptical. The vast majority of those stories are only testimonies, and testimonies are not reliable evidence of multiple universes or time-travel. A number of stories could be rumors, told and re-told, but the original source may not be credible. Perhaps the person telling the story misinterpreted some details, or only imagined the event, or simply lied—which are simpler explanations than traveling into another universe or experiencing time-travel.
If alternate universes do exist, then some versions of Earth may not have experienced major events that this Earth has experienced. For example: during the year 2020, a global pandemic due to the COVID-19 virus caused millions of deaths and caused billions of people to live their lives very differently. But on an alternate version of Earth that never had COVID-19, all of those consequences may not have happened. On that alternate Earth, most people might not know what a pandemic is.
Or an alternate universe might be almost identical to the universe that you know (or knew) except that your own life is noticeably different. According to some stories about experiencing a parallel universe, you awaken from being asleep and discover some strange changes. Perhaps the sheets on your bed are a different color than you remember; perhaps your home contains different furnishings or decorations; perhaps your clothes are different. If you have a job, you may discover that it is now different from what you remember, perhaps with a different supervisor than you remember. You may possess some records about your friends, such as their addresses or e-mail messages, but now those records have mysteriously changed, as if some friendships never existed. Other people who know you, including family relatives, may behave differently towards you, as if they knew a different version of you, with a different history and perhaps a different personality. If you were married, you may no longer be married—and your partner may not exist, or at least cannot be found. If you are not married, you may now be married—to someone you do not know but who seems to know you, or at least knows a version of you, and can show you photographs of the two of you together.
You may feel like you awakened into a different life. Perhaps it is a better life. Or perhaps it is a worse life.
One possible explanation is that something is wrong in your mind or brain, perhaps amnesia. Another possible explanation is that you awakened into an alternate universe that contains another version of yourself. (This is not reincarnation.) The first explanation is favored by most medical professionals because it is the simplest explanation. The second explanation lacks definitive evidence that alternate universes exist, despite your belief. Nevertheless, the second explanation can become more intriguing if medical experts cannot find anything wrong with you, mentally or physically. Furthermore, your memories may include some information that the other version of you would not know. For example, perhaps the other version of you did not attend a particular school which you did attend. No records will show that you attended it, not in your new life, but you may remember many details about the school, including its location, layout, courses, faculty members, and students (except you). Retaining those memories may not persuade anybody else that you came from a different universe, but at least you can feel some confirmation.
Remember this: being suddenly inserted into an alternate life is not a punishment and it is not a reward. Your happiness must come from within yourself, not from pleasures or accomplishments experienced in the outside world. You can lose those outside things in an instant. (You can lose them without experiencing an alternate universe. Anyone can.)
According to some NDE testimonies and some mystics, every soul on Earth has a higher-self, sometimes called an over-soul, which is in constant contact with God. Your over-soul sent you and any other versions of yourself into lives on Earth. Perhaps your higher-self decided that an entire lifetime of misery would be too emotionally difficult to endure, or that an entire lifetime of relatively easy prosperity would not teach all of the spiritual lessons that your higher-self wants to learn. Therefore, perhaps, one version of you was sent to experience half a lifetime suffering harsh difficulties while another version of you was meant to enjoy those years in success and prosperity—and then, to minimize the misery across a single lifetime, the two versions of you exchanged lives.
Fortunately, being inserted into a version of your life that is harsher than your previous version does not condemn you to a lifetime of misery and failure. Now, you could be suffering a spiritual crisis that other people cannot understand, facing obstacles which you did not expect to face—but you are better prepared than most people to overcome those obstacles. In the previous version of your life, you learned some lessons for success. Now go apply them. If your relationships with family members or other people are broken and need emotional repair, go repair them. Maybe the previous version of you decided to quit trying—but you do not recall those setbacks or emotional injuries, which means you can now surprise everyone with your love and dedication.
At the other extreme, if you are now living a version of your life that is easier and more prosperous, then remember how lucky you are. Help others. Love others. Avoid being overly judgmental or emotionally indifferent. Others are now suffering as you once suffered. You are now lucky, but they need the type of luck that love provides. Perhaps nobody but you can remember how difficult the previous version of your life was, but those special memories of yours can still add to your wisdom.
In some stories of parallel universes, the person experiences a terrifying event that should have killed the person, such as an automobile accident in which survival looked to be impossible. But somehow, mysteriously, the person survived, as if the event never happened. The person may remember that the event happened but does not remember how the event ended. So, the person’s life continues—and then the person notices differences between the version of life before that event and the version after.
If you expected to die in such an event, whose outcome you do not remember but somehow survived, then maybe you did die in that universe. But you may not have replaced another version of yourself in a parallel universe. (If you were meant to die, you would be dead.) The reason why you remembered the deadly event is because it is also a spiritual experience. It is a miracle worth remembering, but only by you. It is a signal, a sign, that you should treat your physical existence as a gift. What you do with that gift is your choice, but do not waste the gift and the miraculous event it represents. Perhaps you are that person living another version of your life—but your memories were exchanged so that you realize that the miraculous event was real. Otherwise, if a memory of that miraculous event had been inserted into your mind without any other changes in your life, you might dismiss the event as only a dream or a hallucination and then forget it. You are not meant to forget it, you are meant to be influenced by it. Think of it as a near-death experience without any bodily injuries or other physical damage.
What about time-slips? Time-slips may not exist, although there are many stories about them. A time-slip is not an alternate universe; if it exists, it exists within this Universe. According to the stories, a time-slip is an invisible, temporary portal between different dimensions of time, typically from the present into the past and then returning to the original present. The visit is relatively brief. A time-slip can occur almost anywhere: inside of a building, or outside in a forest, in a rural area, or in a town or city. In the typical story, one or more persons, usually less than five, are walking or riding in a vehicle—and suddenly their surroundings change, as if they entered a different place. Instead, they are visitors to a different time. In some stories, the visitors saw people from that historical time and perhaps interacted with them. In other stories, the visitors encountered a neighborhood but without any inhabitants—and without any sound. The visitors could hear themselves walking and talking, but otherwise there was silence, not even natural noises such as wind or birds. The place appeared deserted.
Physical evidence from a time-slip experience is extremely rare. And inconclusive. Visitors could see the historical place and actually touch it, but in some stories it no longer exists in our present: at some point between the time-slip and our present, the place got destroyed. Physical ruins may still exist or maybe nothing physical at all, although the place might be mentioned in historical records. In some stories, when a visitor in a time-slip uses a traditional camera to shoot photographs, those photographs do not appear when the film is developed. And if any photographs from a time-slip do exist, skeptics are likely to treat those images as forgeries. If you could travel back to the nineteenth century, acquire a newspaper from that time and then return to the present, would your newspaper be considered proof of time-travel? Probably not. That newspaper would match the same edition available in an archive of historical newspapers, but the fact that your historical newspaper looks new does not prove that you acquired it in the nineteenth century. A replica can be counterfeited, which is a much simpler explanation than time-travel.
Backwards time-travel ought to include a risk of historical paradoxes. For example, if you could travel back in time before you were born, could you murder your parents before you were born? If you did, would you then cease to exist because your parents never gave birth to you? Interestingly, any risk of committing a historical paradox rarely occurs in stories of time-slips. The typical experience lasts only a few minutes or maybe some hours, rarely more than a day. Usually, the visitors have no opportunity to search for living ancestors, or to tell anyone in the past what the future will be like. Visitors may not immediately sense that time-travel has occurred; instead, they assume a simpler explanation, such as that the people they see wearing historical outfits are presumably actors wearing costumes, preparing to perform a public show. Many visitors do not realize how uncanny their experience was until after they return to the present.
If time-slips are real and if backwards time-travel does occur, then in some stories some mysterious things have occurred that still lack a logical explanation. For example, why do some time-slips show neighborhoods that include people and sounds from that time, but in other time-slips the neighborhoods are deserted and silent? If a visitor driving an automobile is transported back in time to when automobiles looked very different or did not exist, then people living in that time ought to notice the strange vehicle. In some stories they do notice, but in other stories they do not. If a visitor during a time-slip purchases something, such as a meal at a restaurant, and pays with contemporary money, then people in that historical time ought to notice that the currency looks strange. Yet, according to some stories, contemporary money is accepted in some time-slips, despite the prices being ridiculously low in comparison to the prices we pay today due to inflation. People who have experienced a time-slip (or say that they have) openly admit that they have no explanation for such mysteries.
When considering the possibility of time-slips, there is another variable to consider: a time-slip must be connected to a particular location on Earth—or else the time-travel would kill the person. This is because the planet is constantly moving. If, at this moment, you remain in your current location but somehow travel back in time six months ago, then your exact location in the Universe would be in outer space on the opposite side of the Sun—because that is where Earth was, six months ago, orbiting the Sun. And unless you were wearing a space-suit when the sudden change put you into outer space, you would die within seconds. If a time-slip is an invisible gateway to another time, then the location of that gateway must move with the planet. That gateway must also be temporary, open only rarely, because otherwise people would be crossing into it as often as people walk in that location. If time-slips exist and if parallel universes exist, then perhaps every universe has its own set of time-slips; in other words, its time-slips cannot connect to alternate universes. Otherwise, if a time-slip transported a person to an alternate universe, that person would encounter an alternate history instead of the history of this Universe, and that alternate history could look utterly bizarre. Most stories of time-slips describe features that match the history of this Universe, not an alternate history.
Do parallel universes and time-slips have a spiritual purpose? If they do, that purpose may vary with each individual person. A lifetime on Earth does not teach only one lesson for everybody; and parallel universes and time-slips may not, either. You are unique, and so is everybody else. Each person who learns about parallel universes or time-slips, or perhaps experiences one, may learn some lessons specific to that person.
If you believe that you may have experienced a parallel universe or a time-slip, but most people do not believe you, then consider the following story. In Europe in the eighteenth century, many peasants reported seeing meteors falling from the sky. Those peasants were ridiculed, however, because Europe’s intellectuals could not imagine a scientific reason for rocks falling from the sky. Eventually, a shower of meteors was reported over a particular region of France, and some intellectuals went to investigate. They physically examined the meteors and discovered the meteors were unlike any local rocks in the region. At last, the peasants were believed, but for a long time they were not. If the physical evidence of some meteors did not become available when it did, more time would have passed, along with more disbelief and more ridicule.
So, remember those peasants who told the truth about meteors. Someday, personal testimonies of parallel universes or time-slips might be treated with more credibility. Until then, testimonies are not definitive evidence. Furthermore, if and when there is definitive proof, the results may not be desirable. Proof of parallel universes or time-slips might confront humankind with a new set of problems—possibly massive problems if some people attempt to manipulate either parallel universes or time-slips for their own purposes, trying to change reality or change history. Humankind has never faced such problems before, and the consequences could be catastrophic. Perhaps we are better off not knowing for certain if parallel universes or time-slips exist.