Professor Raymond Falgui English 10 May 19, 2014 Of Myths and the Multiverse Myths and fantasies have long been a part of the history of mankind and they have always been regarded as apart from reality, however new studies suggest that the existence of a Multiverse may be able to prove otherwise. According to The New Websters Dictionary myths are defined as traditional stories that tell of supernatural and fantastical creatures and or beings that embody the dominant culture at the time. In every country in the world it is almost guaranteed that there are beliefs of creatures apart from men and gods that live in places where men do not usually go (i.e. caves, woods, rivers, oceans etc.) and sometimes in places that are not in this world. They possess powers that men dont usually have that allow them to live longer than men. They are also quite superior in terms of knowledge (Keightly 3). The origins of these creatures of legends, myths, and fantasies always seem to have been connected with the history or religion of the place where their stories have started and they also change along with the variations of faith in the region (Keightly 2). Among these creatures the most well-known and often times overused in storybooks are the Fairies of the western romantic world. The word Fairy came from the French word Faerie which may mean any of the following: illusion or enchantment, the land of illusions or Fairy Land, the inhabitants of Fairy land, creatures of Fairy-land including both full-sized romantic fairies and the pygmy elves (Keightly 8-10). Nature Spirits, Ghosts, Giants, Hags, Monsters, hobgoblins and imps, fairy beasts and plants are some of the creatures that are considered Fairy peoples (Briggs 25- 82). Del Rosario 2
It is a curious fact that in every culture a version of such magical creatures exists. For instance the Fairy of the English people may have come from the Peri of the Persians and the character Morgain or Morgana of the West may be the same as the Merjan Peri of the East. (Keightly 4-5). Also the Italian Fata, Spanish Fada or Hada, the French Feerie, and the English Fairy are terms which describe the same imaginary being (Keithly 5). In the Philippines, an example of a well known fairy or encantada that could possibly refer to the same being is Maria Makiling. The creatures of Philippine mythology can also be classified under the same categories as that of the western categories. The creatures of Philippine Mythology include Demons (kapre, pugot, tikbalang), Dragons (baconaua, buwaya), Dwarfs (matanda sa punso, laman lupa, nuno), Elves (Encanto, encantada), Ghouls (Aswang), Giants (bannog, ikugan) Merfolk (Sirena, catao, ugkoy), Ancestral spirits,Ghosts, Angels and Deities (Ramos 1-18). A number of explanations may be offered, most of which are psychological in nature, to explain these similarities. An example would be according to Julius Heuscher, for (Carl) Jung the reason for the existence of such similarities of fairy tale themes is the collective unconscious of a cultural group and the similarities of the symbols they contain that are recognizable to the whole world (34). However, there is also the possibility that these similarities are caused by fact that they do exist in another world sometimes and only momentarily visible to us. Almost all attempts at explaining and deconstructing myths and fairy tales are based under the assumption that these stories are not real. They are just a means of the human mind of coping with reality. Statements like the use of psychoanalytic concepts can reveal the reflection or expression of fundamental instinctual need, fears(,) and conflicts in parts of many of these stories (Heuscher 50) and Entertaining, moralizing, offering instinctual abreaction and escape from the dreary everyday surroundings are facets of the fairy tale which are derived from their basic purpose which is to portray, the meaning of human existence (Heuscher 53) do in fact prove that studies on myths and fairy tales are largely metaphysical and are regarded as creations of the mind and figments of imagination. No one ever really considered the possibility that these creatures can and do in fact exist in another world or in this Del Rosario 3
paper another universe. A reason for this may be because in the early days we didnt really know how to explain such things. An irrational fear of the unknown was developed and for the most part of history this fear was utilized to control people. One example would be religious groups labeling these mythical creatures as tools of the devil. Another reason may be because encounters with Fairies are almost necessarily brief, for under ordinary circumstances men are supposed to see them only between one blink of an eye and the next (Briggs 130). The biggest reason for ignoring the possibility of the existence of these creatures is that currently the earth is the only planet capable of sustaining life. This is fairly understandable but with the advent of new discoveries about space and the universe, the previous statement almost becomes obsolete. The earth is only a part of a vast, expanding, and, as far as scientists can tell, infinite universe. Moreover, with the emergence of theories of the origin of the universe, there may be not just one universe but an infinite number of universes a Multiverse. Suddenly there is more than enough room for both humans and mythical creatures alike. For all we know in another universe Fairies refer to us as their mythical creatures. Many questions may arise as a consequence of this proposition and I will attempt to answer all of them if the space and time permits. Some of the questions may be Is life even possible in another universe? or How do these creatures find their way to our universe? To answer these questions, let me first introduce the 4 levels of parallel universes according to Max Tegmark a cosmologist and professor at MIT. The level I parallel universe, suggests that space is infinite and the uniform distribution of matter in space suggests that another universe, one with the same physical laws and a copy of you exists, can exist through different spatial combinations of matter (3). In the level II parallel universe, other universes are depicted as individual bubbles that continually expand in space. These universes have entirely different sizes and physical constants. For instance their acceleration due to gravity my ot be 9.81 meters per second. You cannot travel between these universes because they are more than infinitely far away (5). Del Rosario 4
The level III parallel universe is essentially a realization of all the quantum events that happen in every moment of your life (9). Lets say that today I chose to not take the train to school and I was late for class which caused me to fail my class and I eventually never got a job so I became a homeless person. The level III universe suggests that world where I chose to take the train and eventually become the CEO of a billion dollar company does in fact exist and is simultaneously occurring as the original timeline. The level IV parallel universe is a universe where all the mathematical equations that we could possibly conjure or think of are realized. In another universe two plus two is not four. In this paper I will focus more on Levels I and II. In order for life to be possible in another universe three conditions must be satisfied: a) The distance between the earth and the sun must remain the same b) The distance between the earth and the moon must also stay the same c)The atmosphere must also be retained (Hare 110-111). In a level I parallel universe this is possible provided that a year is in this parallel universe is longer or shorter in such a way that it makes up for retaining the distances of the sun and moon. The third condition follows from the first two. This may explain the variations of time in experiences of travelling to different worlds in fairy stories. The level I universe is also limited to explaining mythical creatures that are almost identical to us or are human-like. Examples of these creatures are ghosts and fairies. The appearances and sightings of ghosts may actually be just momentary sightings of the copy of the person in another universe. Their appearance in this world may be because of the transfer of consciousness between you and your copy. This transfer of consciousness occurs during an out of body experience (Hare 122) which in a Filipino context is often referred to as a bangungot or nightmare in which you see yourself on your bed fast asleep. Most out of body experiences have one thing in common and that is the people who experience it often float or appear weightless. This may be explained by the fact that in order for the physical laws to remain constant the mass of objects in another universe is lower than ours but the volume remains unchanged (Hare 16). People who claim to see ghosts do not actually see the spirits of the dead but the manifestation of a counterpart in this universe. Also these manifestations or projections of the physical Del Rosario 5
body during the transfer of consciousness between counterparts may be used to explain the sightings of the fairy peoples or the diwata that appear to be glowing and weightless. Now with regard to the creatures that do not look like us, like the monsters, dwarves, pygmy elves etc., I will be using the level II universe as a framework and the Filipino concept of malik-mata. As stated in the previous paragraphs level II universes exist apart from each other and do not therefore depend on each other after the chain reaction which created them in the first place. They develop individually and therefore account for the differences in appearances of such creatures and also the development of apparent supernatural powers. In a universe where there are different physical constants the physical laws here may not apply to them. The ability to control fire may be due to the fact that the conditions here give them the ability to cause spontaneous combustion here but not in their world. Since it was also established that these universes do not interact because the continually expand how then do these creatures find their way here? The key here is that the reason for their non-interaction is also the reason of their possible interaction. As these universes expand it is inevitable that they find themselves touching each other momentarily or colliding. That momentary interaction may be the reason for the concept of malik-mata, where out of the corner of your eye or maybe even right in front of you, you find yourself looking into another universe and seeing the creatures that reside in it and then when you look back they are gone. The arguments presented here may be to skeptics, an incredible waste of time and to big of a leap to even consider but let me end with a quote from Once Upon A Time a TV series that combines all the fairy tales ever told and recognizes their world is as a world as real as ours. In this scene the skeptic heroine of the series insist that the Mad hatter is insane for believing that the world of fairy tales is real he answers: [A] real world. How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands, each just as real as the last. All have their own rules. Some have magic, some don't. And some need magic. Like this one. Del Rosario 6
Works Cited Briggs, K.M. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature. London: The Chaucer Press, 1967. Print Hare, Michael. The Multiple Universe: On the Nature of Spiritual Reality. New York: The Julian Press, Inc. 1968. Print Heuscher, Julius. A Psychiatric Study of Fairy Tales: Their Origin, Meaning, and Usefulness. Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher, 1963. Print. Keightly, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology. London: Gale Research Company, 1870. Print Ramos, Maximo. Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology. Philippines: university of the Philippines Press, 1971. Print. Tegmark, Max. Parallel Universes. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.