the beauty of quantum immortality 🦋
“what happens after i die?”, is a question that has been asked by many throughout the course of history. yet, us humans were never able to find the one true answer to what awaits us once our life in this reality comes to an end.
unless...? ;)
this brings forth the concept of quantum immortality, which is a theory stating that our consciousness will continue to experience lifetimes where we are alive, after we “die” in this timeline or reality.
Hugh Everett was an american physicist, who proposed the very fundamentals of quantum mechanics in his PhD in the 1950’s. he introduced the idea of quantum events leading to the universe branching into several different timelines, where each timeline represents a different outcome. therefore, if we choose to, we can continue to keep experiencing timelines, or realities, where we survive, thus leading us to believe we are “immortal”. this is known as the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI).
circa 1980’s, the physicist and cosmologist Max Tegmark delved again into the concept of quantum immortality, suggesting that we actually die many times in our lifetime, however, our consciousness continues to experience timelines where we are alive.
here’s an analogy of quantum immortality to better help you understand:
imagine a person playing a game of russian roulette; hence, the gun leads to different quantum outcomes.
- basis the MWI, the gun fires (due to an “upward spin” in a subatomic particle) in some timelines/realities, killing the person.
- while in other timelines/realities, it doesn’t fire (due to a “downward spin” in a subatomic particle), so the person survives. from the point of view of the person in the experiment, they would only experience the timelines where they survive.
the very fundaments of quantum immortality and reality shifting intertwine with each other when inspected at a closer level. both focus on the existence of an infinite amount of realities, and seeing as we shift realities for every decision taken, even the smallest ones, it can be deduced that we permashift to either an alternate version of our CR, or any other DR after we experience death in this reality. meaning, we can experience whatever it is we desire after death, there are no limitations or set rules.
to answer the question at the beginning, there is no definite answer to where we go after death. given that the magic systems for this reality are the law of assumption and the law of attraction, it can be said that we will shift wherever we believe or assume we go after death, thus, in a way, demonstrating quantum immortality.
a few resources you can explore that discuss quantum immortality are:
Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark
Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed by Jim Al-Khalili
The r/quantumimmortality community on reddit,
though note that the users will have differing opinions of the concept, so it is best to conduct your own research.