Multiverses and Timeline Jumping
What we can learn from films like Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and Everything Everywhere All At Once
The content creation of sci-fi, fantasy, magic, and superhero movie themes is overwhelming and fantastic (if these are your genres, they sure are mine!). Within them, the idea of the multiverse and timeline jumping prevails. Imagine that the current universe we live in and believe to be real is actually just one universe in many. In fact, imagine there are infinite versions of us and this world existing right now at the same time, that play out in a mind-boggling array of differences and that may or may not follow our laws of physics.
Though not new in movies (remember Back to the Future?), there seems to be a resurgence of the idea of alternate realities and our ability to access them in popular media (tv shows, comics, and movies). To me, this hints at our need to imagine a better world under the pressures we live in. Along with our desire to explain our place in existence. The idea of the multiverse, or of alternative universes and timelines that all exist at the same time is not new in human history either.
The theory of the multiverse, of alternate realities and timelines, has been around since humans began communicating stories through art and the written word. Hindu texts as far back as almost 3,000 years ago mention alternate realities. Ancient Buddhist teachings reveal the concept of timelines and alternate worlds as a garland of flowers that reflect on each other. Some ancient Greek philosophers believed that as atoms collided, these accidental collisions created alternate worlds.
Modern scientists have been studying the possibility of multiverses, pocket universes, and parallel worlds since the early 1900s. Considering what we are currently able to observe and measure with our available technology is limited, these theories are based on complicated quantum mechanics. Just like our ancient ancestors, scientists are searching for the answers to some of the core questions of the human condition, where did we come from, and what is our place in the Universe?
And so, we reflect on this search of the cosmos and our place in it, through art. In Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, a mix of magic, the occult and quantum mechanics, the hero is able to travel through time and space. One scene takes the characters catapulting through universes. Each fall through the multiverse reveals a layer of amazement, one world made entirely of dripping paint, another where cartoons are real, another still where dinosaurs still exist. Is it slightly ridiculous? Yes, maybe. But what if it wasn’t?
Everything, Everywhere All At Once has similar goofy scenes, taking it to the extreme where if anything is possible then why not do the most ridiculous thing you can imagine. Better yet, what if doing the most implausible, ridiculous thing actually helped you traverse the multiverse so you could access the talents of the other versions of you?! The possibilities of who and what you could be are endless (even a sentient rock, resting in the mountains).
Both films have a core theme of wanting to find the timeline that addresses the character’s deepest wishes and needs, of a loving family, and a purpose that makes sense in the grand scheme of a painful and chaotic existence.
Similar but slightly different is the concept of Timeline Jumping. This practice is where you use visualizations to access the next or the future ideal version of yourself and your life. This isn’t something only achievable to a select few, but a powerful meditative technique that calls on the potential that exists within all of us. The potential to envision and therefore experience what we give our energy and time to. This diversity in potential exists beyond what we can see and what we are used to experiencing, yet it is there, in the higher spiritual dimensions around us.
When we consider, with an open mind and heart, that these alternate universes and timelines exist, we can imagine that what we want is possible. If you are stuck feeling like nothing will ever change, that you will never experience what you desire, that your deepest happiness is not possible, then I ask you, to consider the alternative. What if you could have and be what you truly desire because it already exists?
“Every universe is covered by seven layers—earth, water, fire, air, sky, the total energy and false ego—each ten times greater than the previous one. There are innumerable universes besides this one, and although they are unlimitedly large, they move about like atoms in You. Therefore You are called unlimited.”
Bhagavata Purana 6.16.37
The recent use of the multiverse and timeline concepts shows us that we are still questioning and searching for our place and our power as beings. It doesn’t mean that with a flourishing movement of the hand, we can jump to a place where our ideal life exists, but it does mean that we could (if we dare), access the resources and spirit of the ideal life we dream of. That, along with intent, with the direction of our energy we could begin to materialize the life and the experiences we desire. And if we choose to align our thoughts and actions with the truest and highest version of ourselves we will begin to move into the life we imagine (that timeline where we exist as we wish to exist).