Yesterday was a difficult day. To the complexity of maintaining a strict quarantine, we had to add that our dear friend and companion, our dear Labrador Pancha, left us. She was almost a sister to my daughters, and for 14 years she only gave us love, affection, company, as well as making us laugh like very few people could make us laugh.
In other words, since yesterday we have been having a bad time, or worse. Unavoidably, her presence is still everywhere in our home and we can feel it.
I am one of those people who strongly believe that our companions in the animal kingdom, be they pets or other animals with whom we circumstantially share our lives, are like “envoys” who come to us as a way of mutually enriching our cognitive and emotional capacities, as well as to protect us while they are with us. And who knows, they may even keep doing so when they cease to be on this plane of existence.
At the end of the day, time is only a palpable concept if we tie it to speed and acceleration (in terms of physics), while at the quantum level it is presumed that the past, the present and the future coexist in a field of indefiniteness (at least until defined). Albert Einstein said that reality was an illusion (although a very persistent one). But whether we like it or not, in terms of its existence in this temporal universe, or in this illusion that we call the present, it would be logical to assume that our beloved Pancha is gone.
But if the existence of multiple universes is a strong probability that mathematically is also highly logical, as maintained by Professor Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the most important centers of studies in science and engineering in the world, maybe and somehow, she is still around.
The concept, although novel for many, is not a marginal one any longer, and it is shared by more and more members of the scientific community, including several renowned CERN specialists in Switzerland, who assure that the evidence, at least for them, is quite clear.
If so, then Panchi (or another version of her) possibly exists in other realities or universes. And perhaps (this is now a direct extrapolation of mine), her absence here may allow us from time to time to observe, or somehow feel, one of her other universal versions in ours, something that when she was here could not occur, or at least seemed much more difficult (in fact, we have solid evidence throughout history of people who have been seen in more than one place at a time, and several religions have called this oddity “bilocation”).
In the case of our dear Pancha, it is presumed under this theory that it will not be exactly her, because both she and the version of me who will probably be with her (as all of our storylines should have similarities) will have made decisions at some point which would have turned us into the versions of “us” that correspond to that other Universe.
And it is likely that in more than one occasion we have been -the ones from “here”- whom have taken actions which have “crossed us ” to that other parallel reality, a universal exchange that according to the theory, should be happening constantly and imperceptibly.
And no, I am not under the influence of any narcotic. Instead, I am describing, in an overly simplified manner, Professor Carrol´s theory, a man who has not only an important career as a scientist and author, but also a convincing amount of empirical studies on the subject that point almost inevitably towards that conclusion (I recommend you watch his lecture for the 2019 Chicago Humanities Festival called Many worlds at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxpH0TxFvfY , as well as his TED talk that you will also find online)
In fact, many of us have had experiences of what are commonly called “extrasensory” perceptions, where we have seen, heard or felt things that we cannot explain, perhaps seen people or occurrences that seemed from the “past” within our linear time, or images of realities that are just slightly different from what we expected or remember them to be, even repeated events (the so-called déjà vu) that could be explained as glitches of our own mind – but which some may argue that they are glitches in the timeline of our existence-. These and many more situations may generate some doubts in the accepted explanation of reality, or even if not, still may fit oddly within it. Sometimes it feels as if the past, the present, and perhaps the future, may intermingle.
If Carroll, and many of the other reputable scientists who support this theory, were to be correct (we could include here Stephen Hawking, whose last paper opened the door to this possibility, as well as a new proposed theory which leans towards the possible existence of multiple universes as an explanation for the unusual conditions at the quantum level), then this explanation could put us on a (novel) way of potentially understanding these and many other situations, and observations, that today remain in the realm of the uncertain.
Even for those of us who are people of faith, none of these concepts would go against our religious beliefs, since nothing prohibits God … well, nothing. So creating more than one universe would be within His infinite purview, and so He neither needs to explain to us why, nor do we have to fully understand it. What we can do, within what we call free will, is to try to discover, interpret, and admire it.
So, it is our reality today that we must mourn our dear friend. We wanted her to stay, and in fact we know that she tried, because she showed us how much she also wanted to live. But we did not know how – or could not- change that set of circumstances that led us to that difficult moment.
Death itself, no matter how unavoidable, is always intense. But what is harder is the loss of a loved one. As my 9 year old daughter said as she experienced something like this for the first time in her life, “how can it hurt so much” while she cried inconsolably. The pain of departure is part of the process. But it is very likely that Panchi is still close to us. Possibly in one or more nearby universes. And if the right conditions exist, who knows, we may somehow come across “her”, o a version thereof, again. And we will once again feel the proximity of all that reciprocal love that we had, a love that surely crosses all universal realities that may separate us today.
IA
Ignacio Alperin nació en Argentina, creció en Australia y vivió temporariamente en varios países alrededor del mundo. Posee una experiencia internacional extensa, y diversa, obtenida en una carrera profesional alejada de lo lineal. Hoy en día es Profesor de Entrepreneurship en los MBAs de la Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), Profesor de Creatividad e Innovación (Grado) en UCA Internacional, es un Emprendedor serial, consultor, orador en eventos nacionales e internacionales, evangelista secular, y artista plástico.
Ignacio Alperin was born in Argentina, grew up in Australia and lived temporarily in several countries around the world. He has extensive and diverse international experience, obtained in a professional career far from the linear. Nowadays he is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the MBAs of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA), Professor of Creativity and Innovation (Degree) in UCA International, a serial Entrepreneur, consultant, speaker in national and international events, secular evangelist, and an artist.
© 2020 Ignacio Alperin
IGNACIO ALPERIN: THE ART OF THINKING OUT LOUD / EL ARTE DE PENSAR EN VOZ ALTA 