In Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History Of Time," he pondered that if we exist in perhaps hundreds or perhaps even an infinite number of parallel universes, how is it possible we are conscious in them all at the same time? This lead to the theory that other forms of intelligent life in the universe might have the capacity to experience existence in parallel universes simultaneously, whereas humans might have the limited capacity to experience consciousness in a linear manner. In other words, he surmised even though all our parallel lives are happening "at once," from our perspectives we might experience each conscious episode in each parallel universe one episode after the another in a linear manner.
However, suppose we could inadvertently "step over" from one parallel track onto another with almost no perceivable differences? Then the "knowledge" our consciousness carries with it at the quantum level might give us a faint perception that some unknown detail has suddenly changed. Perhaps we go into the office on a Monday morning and the carpets are beige instead of blue? Yet everyone insists they were always beige for several years. Everything else appears the same. Did you step over into an almost identical, inperceivably different parallel universe -- or is your mind playing tricks on you? The same question arises with "de ja vu" where we are certain we have been somewhere we know logically we are visiting for the very first time. Perhaps in another parallel universe we were there?
Even more remarkable to consider is that many parallel universes could be identical for all intensive purposes, except for variations at the quantum level -- so from our perspective we are repeating an episode in a parallel universe verbatim. Therefore our consciousness somehow "remembers" at the quantum level or experiences a sense of "de ja vu." In fact the place we have never been to is somehow familiar because our conscious deep down is remembering the previous episode which seemed identical.
Stephen Hawking's books, from "A Brief History Of Time" to his other books, are brilliant and raise these paradoxes of modern physics theories on space/time and parallel universes. Another book to follow-up with is "Cosmic Wormholes" (sorry, cannot remember name of author) and "The Dreaming Universe" by Fred Alan Wolfe, PhD. You will never view reality quite the same after reading these two remarkable books which follow along the lines of Professor Hawking's theories.
I'm also planning on reading "Black Holes, Wormholes, and the 10th Dimension" by Dr. Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City Univiversity of New York and his other book "Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universe, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension" (Oxford University).
Derrick
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
-- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)
