Strong emotions in repetitive dreams could offer cosmic clues about another version of you, according to this controversial idea.
How many times have you woken up feeling euphoric or deeply
disturbed by a dream so vivid it felt indistinguishable from reality? The kind
of dream that lingers. Perhaps you notice recurring motifs: specific places,
faces, symbols, or even fantastical settings. You are quick to dismiss these as
psychological quirks of the brain, and chances are, you will have forgotten
about such dreams by midday.
But what if your dreams weren’t just caprices of the sleepy
mind? What if they were revealing glimpses into a mirror realm in which your
consciousness was wandering? To go even further, perhaps recurring dreams
suggest a connection to another reality. For David Leong, Ph.D., an academic
specializing in metaphysics and epistemology (the study of distinguishing
opinion from justified belief) this might not be just an interesting
hypothesis, but the truth.
“Dreams may be windows into distinct realities governed by
their laws, in which the mind, unfettered by the constraints of wakefulness,
can explore and interact with new forms of existence,” says Leong, an honorary
professor at Charisma University in Turks and Caicos.
His hypothesis builds on the Many Worlds interpretation of
quantum theory, which suggests that every decision or event creates branching
realities—an infinite array of parallel universes. Leong applies this idea to
consciousness. He speculates that sleep reduces the influence of our physical
senses and rational mind, giving consciousness the freedom to bypass the usual
boundaries of time and space. While scientific studies don’t currently support
this idea, in Leong’s view, dreams might serve as portals to other versions of
ourselves existing in other dimensions.
“AT THE MACROSCOPIC LEVEL, WE ASSUME objects have fixed
properties like position or velocity. But quantum experiments challenge this
assumption,” Leong explains. The observer effect—where simply observing a
quantum system can influence its state—shows that reality is far more fluid
than it appears. “Seeing is believing” might hold true in our everyday world,
suggests Leong, but at the quantum level, it breaks down, likely shifting
according to the observer’s interaction.
In 2022, physicists Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton
Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work on quantum
entanglement. Their experiments challenged the classical notion of local
realism—the belief that physical properties exist independently of observation.
They demonstrated that particles, even when separated by vast distances, could
instantly affect each other. This fact suggests a reality far more
interconnected and flexible than scientists previously thought.
Building on their research, Leong explores the concept of
“local” and “nonlocal” consciousness. Local consciousness is accountable to our
five senses, shaped and sculpted by the body’s sensory input. Nonlocal
consciousness, however, transcends the senses, allowing us to experience
“broader, interwoven realities,” he says. This concept aligns with speculative
ideas such as panpsychism, where awareness is considered a fundamental feature
of the universe itself, he says.
Fascinating as this may sound, not all dreams serve as
gateways to parallel timelines. Whether dreams return is key here. “Recurring
dreams, especially those with vivid and consistent scenarios, might suggest
deeper connections to other realities,” Leong claims. On the other hand, dreams
tied to personal experiences often feel disjointed, with distorted time. The
most surreal and incomprehensible dreams are likely the subconscious processing
your life here on Earth, he says. But, if it feels like you’re visiting the
dream rather than imagining it—like a play with a beginning, middle, and
end—you probably are visiting this other world, under Leong’s hypothesis.
Leong also hints that strong emotions in persistent dreams
could offer cosmic clues—signals of how another version of you is experiencing
life in a parallel world. “Say you have a repetitive dream of being stuck in
high school,” he suggests. “While it may reflect unresolved psychological
themes, such as feelings of stagnation or anxiety about personal growth, it
could also indicate that in another reality, you are still in high school,
dealing with the same challenges your waking self has moved beyond.” This
emotional resonance—like the frustration of being stuck—could ripple across
dimensions, creating a feedback loop between your conscious mind here and one
of your alter egos elsewhere.
YET, AS CAPTIVATING AS THIS HYPOTHESIS MIGHT BE, it runs
into a significant problem: there’s no empirical evidence to back it up.
Quantum phenomena, such as entanglement and nonlocality, challenge our
traditional views on time and space. Yet, no scientific studies conclusively
support the idea that dreams are portals to other worlds. Mainstream
neuroscience and cognitive science, on the other hand, find this hypothesis
heretical—if not downright unscientific.
The activation-synthesis theory, for instance, sees dreams
as the brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity during the rapid
eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. It’s the time when the brain is highly
active, colorful dreams occur, and the body experiences temporary muscle
paralysis. There’s no evidence of peering into other dimensions whatsoever.
Similarly, the memory consolidation theory frames dreams as a tool for
organizing daily experiences into long-term memories—not interactions with different
selves. The threat simulation theory says dreams serve a survivalist,
biological purpose, helping us practice responses to danger—again, there’s no
cosmic link.
In addition, almost all of the most prominent schools of
modern psychology steer away from metaphysical explanations. Behaviorism, for
example, regards dreams as byproducts of learned behaviors, conditioning, or
stimuli experienced during waking life, offering no deeper meaning. Some
psychologists say dreams are expressions of unresolved conflicts or
unintegrated parts of the self. Even the more “liberal” psychoanalysts remain
focused on the personal meanings of dreams. Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as the
“royal road to the unconscious,” reflecting hidden desires and conflicts. Carl
Jung offered a more metaphysical take by proposing that dreams connect us to a
collective repository of archetypal experiences shared by all humans. However,
he never implied that dreams were gateways to other realities.
Psychologist and physician Dr. Howard Eisenberg explores the
intersection of psychology, quantum physics, and consciousness in his book,
Dream It to Do It. He suggests that what we perceive as reality might be a
collective illusion fueled by Western academia’s blind faith in empirical
observation. Generally aligned with Leong’s thinking, Eisenberg argues that
perception itself may be responsible for constructing the solidity of our
reality.
His argument borrows from the observer effect, which says
that observing the world around us is a process that collapses potential
realities into one fixed outcome. “In modern quantum mechanics, we no longer
view objects as collections of particles but rather as ‘waves of probability,’”
Dr. Eisenberg says. There are no physical building blocks, no inherent
solidity. Simply put, we—all of us together—created the solids we perceive.
“As strange as this may seem, we are the ones caught in a
dreamlike state,” Eisenberg adds.