Parallel Universes and Eternal Return

To the May Bride
“I know that I will meet you again and that everything will happen once again exactly as it did so long ago. Except that this time I will not allow you to die. I will hold you in my arms, defending you against the dark waters of death. Because this time I will remember everything. I will remember that you have already died. But … will I remember?” ~ Miguel Serrano, Nos: Book of the Resurrection

Because You are unlimited, neither the lords of heaven nor even You Yourself can ever reach the end of Your glories. The countless universes, each enveloped in its shell, are compelled by the wheel of time to wander within You, like particles of dust blowing about in the sky. The srutis, following their method of eliminating everything separate from the Supreme, become successful by revealing You as their final conclusion (Bhagavata Purana 10.87.41)

Quantum Mechanics often mimics traditional metaphysics, as we have see the example of the ultimate indeterminateness or formless of matter. Such examples do not confirm metaphysics, but rather are what would be expected given the truth of metaphysical principles. Another such idea is “parallel universes” or the multiverse. In this conception, the universe we find ourselves in is not the only one. Every time a choice is made, another universe comes into existence where the opposite choice had been made.

However, the continual creation of new universes in time is not precisely the traditional teaching. First of all, the QM version does not take into account the notion of compossibilities, which limits to some degree seemingly possible universes. The other is that other universes may be quite different from the one we are conscious of. Although the idea of possible universes is not encountered often in religious thinking, it does have a pedigree. The Islamic philosopher Fakhr al-Din al-Razi came to this conclusion based on verses in the Koran regarding Allah as Lord of the Words [plural]. He wrote:

It is established by evidence that there exists beyond the world a void without a terminal limit (khala’ la nihayata laha), and it is established as well by evidence that God Most High has power over all contingent beings (al-mumkinat). Therefore He the Most High has the power (qadir) to create a thousand thousand worlds (alfa alfi ‘awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has of the throne (al-arsh), the chair (al-kursiyy), the heavens (al-samawat) and the earth (al-ard), and the sun (al-shams) and the moon (al-qamar). The arguments of the philosophers (dala’il al-falasifah) for establishing that the world is one are weak, flimsy arguments founded upon feeble premises.

The Hermetist Giordano Bruno makes an argument for the existence of multiple worlds based on the infinity of God. In Ash Wednesday Supper he writes:

[He] made his affirmation that the universe is infinite; that it consists of an immense ethereal region; that it is like a vast sky of space in whose bosom are the heavenly bodies…that the moon, the sun, and innumerable other bodies are in this ethereal region, and the earth also; that is is not to be believed that there is any firmament, base, or foundation to which are fixed these great animals which form the constitution of the universe the infinite material of the infinite divine potency.

Eternal Return
Friedrich Nietzsche claims the same world repeats:

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more an innumerable times more’ … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.’ ~ The Gay Science §341

The concept of Eternal Return is illustrated in the diagram. A life is represented by the circle, and the world by the plane. Life begins, it completes, and at some future time the life will begin again at the same point, and repeat the same circle. It assumes that space is finite and time infinite; thus every spatial configuration will eventually have to be repeated. Note that the center of the circle is on the material plane, so there is no sense of transcendence. Also, as Guenon points out in The Symbolism of the Cross, Infinity is incompatible with the idea of repetition. Every possibility of manifestation happens once, and once only.

Multiverse

The second diagram is adapted from Rene Guenon. Each plane represents a world and a state of being. Due to the infinitude of possibilities, no state is repeated. Thus a being that manifests in the human state will never repeat that state. This obviously precludes reincarnation in the sense of a being repeating earthbound human lives. Again, we take the circle to represent a life along with its center. For reincarnation to occur, there would have to be a new circle with a new center; this is hard to conceive.

Unlike eternal return, therefore, Guenon proposes as the Traditional view (see the above quotes) the idea of multiple worlds, represented by the various planes. As a circle closes, instead of closing on itself — and ending its possibilities — it connects to the beginning of a circle in the world above it. This continues, forming a helix with a common center. Since birth and death are the end points of the circle, we see that death in one world corresponds to birth in another, and vice versa. Now, this death is not necessarily a physical death, but may include post-mortem states appropriate to that plane of existence. Nevertheless, the the possibilities of that world have been played out, even those states will terminate.

Guenon does not, and cannot, describe the features of another world, but we may assume that a plane that is infinitesimally close to ours, may be similar in many ways but also slightly different. In this sense, we may regard it as a form of reincarnation in that a being is incarnated in a material world, though not the same as the previous one. (Note that temporal sequence does not have the precise meaning in the conventional way, but it is easier to describe it in those terms). Understood in this way, this doctrine is similar to that of Fourth Way teachings of Ouspensky.

Many thanks to Prasad Sarangapani for creating the geometric diagrams.

Posted

2011-05-24

Metaphysics, Rene Guenon

Cologero

Tags:

Eternal Return, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Giordano Bruno, Multiverse

Comments

5 responses to “Parallel Universes and Eternal Return”

Alistair Fraser

2018-03-18

Loneliness – is it a thought or is it a feeling or is it both and which came first , the thought or the feeling ?

The lonely persona can initially feel separated from the world and gather thoughts to such ultimate conclusion but as the loneliness continues , would then that same thinking process reach a limit in its capability to induce the feeling of isolation ?

Then consider that if confined to being alone in the loneliness , the persona having resisted the potential destructiveness of the previous absolute ultimate realisation might then move through a rational change of polarity in thought even although it might seem i-rational in that faced with the ultimate rational realisation that there is no rational cure for such apparent fate in loneliness ,

The persona then having absorbed the absolute feeling of such isolation again and again and again as experience , then rationally not i-rationally they begin to consider that in a future time it might just be possible that this loneliness may be given relief and the very thought of this slight hope that is now rational due to the absorbption of the total feeling , they start to construct a dream of becoming not lonely kind of like the robinson crusoe scenario and in such dream they can control this absolute blissful time in the future that can surely arrive for now they are at the pits of loneliness and still survive then anything beyond that can only be less lonely and therefore produces the scent of the dream as a “crossing” into reality but this is a crossing completely under their control but only if they still remain in the absolute pits of loneliness
Now there is emerging a strange kind of alternative pleasure principle in that they think they really need to leave this island of loneliness but in such leaving begins the scent of the dream , that is the rush , but simultaneously they also recall that out there in the people they have a memory of feeling more lonely than they ever felt here on the island in lonely, for in the people they found that their dream of not being lonely had been removed due to the presence of such people and still the feeling of lonely was more amplified than ever .

Bearing this in mind the persona then completely rationally started to dream anew dream , it was not that of alleviating the loneliness, for that was more a sign of something that was lacking , it was not related to the presence of people or the lack of presence of people in particular but it was related to a lack of something and the knowledge that this lack was active .

now on the beach with a ship in sight on the horizon, robinson crusoe sub-consciously forms the cross x with his body jumping up and down but then he starts to think more carefully about it and stops jumping , he just forms an x marks his spot and awaits his fate but prays it has a pleasing destiny !
Cologero

2011-05-28

Thanks for the diagram, it takes some mental gymnastics to visualize the diagrams from Guenon’s verbose description. I did, however, point out that the diagram provided was an adaptation to demonstrate the point. Oddly enough, in traditional teachings there would be nothing but diagrams, avoiding the very necessity of the text. This would go along with oral teachings related to the diagrams. It is one of our goals to realize all the diagrams described in Symbolism of the Cross and we are always looking for help.

Guenon defines “infinite” very narrowly to mean unbounded in the metaphysical sense so he never uses that word as a mathematician might. By “indefinite” he means “uncountable”, or “uncountably infinite” (the last word used in the mathematical sense.) So Universal Possibility is unlimited, or infinite (see Multiple States of Being), although the specific possibilities for a being are not (the True Man actualizes all his possibilities). Nevertheless, the possible states of being are uncountable.
Izak

2011-05-28

The second diagram is somewhat incomplete, it seems. In Symbolism of the Cross (which, at the moment I admit I don’t have handy), I recall Guenon using the image of an upward spiral contained within a sphere that possesses a three-dimensional (that is, six-pointed) cross. The spiral itself would seem to be planar, not linear. I envisioned this image, basically: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_mlEZC-GqQwc/THgRr_aw–I/AAAAAAAAAY8/k_UPz-XU8-c/spiral_curve%5B1%5D.png but with planar coordinates filled in from the vertical pole (which is impossible, I think, to actually draw). That way, it allows us to recognize the indefinitude of horizontal planes, because there is no precise number of spiral swirls and thus no points of degree separating each spiral swirl from the other (one recalls Zeno’s argument about infinite space existing between two points). My point is not to say that the diagram is wrong, but that it does not seem to be the complete picture of what Guenon was describing, which is probably impossible to actually convey through illustration anyhow. The diagram here seems like more of a step in a process of mentally constructing it. It is frustrating that Guenon himself doesn’t seem to have included his own diagrams.

Also he takes pains to assure the reader that he is not talking about an “infinitude” of possibilities but an indefinite number. He seems very concerned about avoiding discussions of infinite space and states of being.

Anyhow, good discussion on metaphysics.
HOO

2011-05-25

´Employing a crude comparison to our temporal life, this could be seen as the metaphysical equivalent of furnishing your worldly house in accordance with your tastes and budget.´ [Z, 2011-05-25]
Possibly this is what Jehova (as a tribal god) did, in a way.
Z

2011-05-25

“…a plane that is infinitesimally close to ours, may be similar in many ways but also slightly different.”

Yes, a slight difference is enough to say that this state and our temporal world are not equal, therefore this other state can still exist simultaneously because it is not a question of indiscernible ‘identity’ with temporality.

A human, having imagined how wonderful the temporal can be under appropriate conditions, might be tempted to imagine another world constituted of the same (apparent) materiality as this, but where ideal conditions reign. Is there any contradiction in this?

Turning to the doctrines that deal with power, is there any absurdity in the image of a universe where some formal worlds are forged by qualified beings with conditions that please them, each world reflecting the intent of this protagonist to the extent that he was able to identify with the Supreme and allowed to partake in its creative potentiality? Employing a crude comparison to our temporal life, this could be seen as the metaphysical equivalent of furnishing your worldly house in accordance with your tastes and budget.

Inversely, other formal worlds would then reflect the perversion that ‘Universal rebels’ carry, thus creating their own hells on account of the inherent participation of their life in the Supreme and its creative power, in this case acting to their detriment.

This all tends toward a ‘Matrix’-like (as in, the movie) view of the world; but with any movie, it is difficult to address the formless worlds, amongst other metaphysical fundamentals, so such movies facilitate gross confusion (deliberately?) and pervert the truth. They constitute very dangerous baggage for anyone who happens to undergo an unsupervised awakening without the necessary understanding of theoretical prerequisites; they can be seen as one example of the malformations perpetuated under the influence of ‘neospiritualism’.

In any case, the formless states/worlds are the focus of most traditions, because even an ideal formal world carries the dangers and limitation inherent in form and manifestation. Nor can you ‘descend’ into ‘individualized worlds’ without first attaining upward development (according to the hypothesis outlined above). But such speculations are certainly apt to appeal to the imaginations of members of the ‘cyber-generations’, e.g. “Life 2.0”.