The Fantastic Wonderland And Where To Get In?
To begin with, I’d say, this post is not very much scientific rather a blog essay, but I did some googling work ;)
Last Friday, I had lunch with a classmate from school, she is majoring in political science. However, she has an I-am-absolutely-not-serious personality. She is very artful; she draws beautiful characters that only appear in some Japanese manga, she writes lovely fanfictions and stories of romance. When we were eating, she said this to me: ”Hey Johnny, does our dream take us to another dimension?” I said yes, and I thought this topic is fascinating to think about.
It’s attractive to many of us that have you ever wonder why we spend 12–18 hours awake and 8 (hopefully) hours to sleep every day? Are we “work” and “sleep,” or we live different kinds of lives in multiple universes that “waking up” and “go sleep” is the process for us to travel through portals that connect us to “us” — in a different dimension?
When I was young, I often hear a story of a wise man in ancient China named “Zhou Zhuang,” and once he had a dream.
Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. (Wikipedia)
What an inspiring story, it proposed a question of how we should perceive the reality, and by the way what is reality? Is it where we are living now, like here or every night when we turned off the lights and closed our eyes — that’s the reality?
On Reddit, I found many discussions about people wondering whether they have entered another universe through their dreams. According to people’s description, somehow their experiences make a lot of sense to me. From which I think We did enter another world in our dreams.
I sometimes dream, although not very often and detailed information always faded away when I wake up. There was something I remember clearly, was that I had imagined the same place from time to time. Like, the surroundings, the textual, the sounds were so realistic in my dream. I often dreamed about that I was waiting in the same place, but I have no reason for what and who I was waiting. I have also had some dreams that I live in a world where people can fly, not like we grow wings or merely floating in the air, but once we jump high and swing our arms, we can keep flying and moving. These were some abstract and ridiculous dreams. For something that was more like stories that also had happened, but I can’t recall. One thing for sure is that every time I dream, it was just so genuine，tangible that I never thought my stupid brain could conjure such a fantastic wonderland. Additionally, there was something that is very magical to me personally, that whenever my mom calls me saying I went lost in her dreams, I will get sick. That was freaking accurate during my elementary school period to my high school period.
Dreams in Chinese culture are often said to be life omens, future predictions, and messages from whoever important to you. There is a saying
“What you are missing in a day is what you will be dreaming at night.”
Thinking scientifically, the words are implying that it is our subconscious which has manipulated our dreams. Based on what we see and encounter in our daily life, some may look impressive, some may unnoticeable, however altogether recorded by our unawareness, therefore, to be reminded in our dreams.
Again, to her question: “does our dream take us to another dimension?” I did some google search about the topic, mixed with scientific hypotheses, studies and artistic thoughts from people’s interests to this topic. It turns out whether yes or no, we shall believe there is a wonderland. Simply, because it is marvelous, mysterious, sometimes awful or sweet but anyway a new experience.
Speaking of other dimensions, we better first know some hypotheses about multiple universes. And they are the “Bubble Universe,” “Membranes,” and “Quantum mechanics” hypotheses. This video has helpfully explained the concepts. In summary, the “Bubble Universe” indicates Other parts of the universes that are so far away or hidden in the black holes that we can’t see them. If each of them separate mutually un-seeable “Bubbles” in the universe had slightly different laws of physicians, then by definition we could only exist in one that had the right physical laws. “Membranes” implies what we think of the universe; it’s a three-dimensional universe that embedded in a super nine-dimensional universe. If space had nine-dimensions rather than three, there’d be plenty of space for other three dimensional surfaces appeared like ours. Quantum mechanics explains every possible timeline in the universe is real, and they happen in an ever larger, ever branching way. Like, a universal choose-you-own-adventure where every possible story happens. If this were the case, we might not realize it because we’d be stuck living out just one of the infinitely many possible lives available to us.
In a sense, the wonderland is existing somewhere, and the shuttle bus to there could be our dreams. The last concept — Quantum mechanics make the most sense for me to believe the existence of the wonderland. Thinking personally again, I make a lot of decisions, and I am the one of what is called the indecisive. I just can’t make a decision, and I will have all the possibilities happen in my brain, like perform a plot in a drama. If as Quantum Mechanics says,
“…that every possible outcome is realized somewhere, we only just see the one that has materialized in this world we now inhabit, with the others branching out into parallel dimensions of their own. — Brent Swancer”
Then, my dreams did take me to other dimensions in which I only had chosen one way to settle with. There is another magic experience I think we may have in common, and it is called “deja vu” — the feeling of familiarity; the feeling of having “already lived through” something (Definition from Wikipedia).
“Which could be a stray memory from an alternate you who has been there crossing over to you and making it you feel like you’ve been somewhere even if you yourself have not. Brent Swancer”
It’s been countless time since I had experience with deja vu, it often makes me feel magic, especially when I have done something regretful, a strong impression just strikes on my back head, and I would suddenly come to realize — “I may have experienced this somewhere.” The somewhere could be in my dream or in my subconscious, which I also consider as a certain kind of dream just without the rite of going to bed.
Anyway, all of these hypotheses are not yet experimented and proven to be true. But I am glad that we ask this question: “Does our dream takes us to another dimension?” I remember in one of my science and history class; the professor said it is our abstract thinking that motivated us to keep wondering the universe. Maybe this question is a rise of awareness to the next level of physics, astronomy, cosmology，and anthropology. Also, a strange thought; this question may be a hit to “We may never live life in reality, but inside endless dreams, one and one after.” Good night :)
Share some links/articles related to this topic, have a look if you are interested.
Dreaming and Travel to Other Dimensions by Brent Swancer.
Are Some Of Our Dreams Glimpses From A Parallel Universe? By MessageToEagle
Thank you for reading, hope my poor writing didn’t bother you that much. I am doing a 30 days writing challenge, I gotta keep practicing writing. I will try my best to do better! Have a wonderful day, my friend:)
