Imagine a world where Marvel‘s The Avengers are real or a zombie virus has ravaged the earth. Too good to be true you say? Well, not according to our trusty friend science! Now, I’m about to delve into two theories that are steeped in theoretical science, the Mandela Effect and Multiple Realities, but I’ll keep this as simple as possible – with plenty of pop-culture references to retain your attention.

Here are a few things you need to know in order to understand what I’m about to spoon feed you. The Mandela effect theorizes that memories about the death of activist Nelson Mandela in prison (which didn’t actually happen) are based on actual events that are being remembered from another Earth’s timeline. This also applies to the “Fruit Loops/Froot Loops” and “Berenstein/Berenstain” false memories. And that movie Shazam where Sinbad played a genie, which is actually titled Kazaam and starred Shaq? Yeah, you are definitely remembering that wrong.

If you’re still with me you’ll hopefully know that many scientists, including the late great Stephen Hawking, have backed up the theory of multiple realities. This theory is based on the flip of a coin scenario. Basically, you are trying to decide between eating a burger and eating a hot dog. You flip a coin to decide and it comes up heads, which means burger. But, you have also created another timeline where the coin came up tails so you went to eat a hotdog and were struck by a truck on your way to a New York Fries. This applies to even the smallest of decisions. For example, I chose not to use this “for example” sentence in another timeline, so theoretically I have both used and not used that sentence. This is more widely recognized as the Schrödinger’s Cat theory, which is basically about animal cruelty – and I know you’re going to look it up right now, you monster.

So, now that I’ve either completely lost you in one reality or you’re still reading in another, we’re coming back to the Mandela Effect. One explanation is that we’re actually tapping into memories from other timelines that diverted from our own at some point.
On a side note, there’s an interesting story about an alleged time traveller named John Titon who was using a time machine created by General Electric (yes, that company that makes your fridge) to collect an IBM computer from the 70s. He showed up on internet forums in 2000 and claimed he couldn’t get back to his own exact timeline, so was instead travelling to our future which was 2.5 per cent different from his own. You should look that up; it’s a pretty cool story even if it’s not true.

So how does all this tie into your forbidden fantasies of an intense hand-holding session with your teacher or co-worker? Well, if all of these theories have some credence to them, that means what is known as your imagination, could in fact be you tapping into memories or thoughts of yourself in another timeline. So yes, you did hook up with Christine or Todd at that office Christmas party (or both, it’s 2018 so have fun).

Furthermore, this could mean that all of our prolific writers and film creators are telling stories from a reality that actually exists. And this isn’t just a theory I cooked up while playing a very sloppy game of Cards Against Humanity. Former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell theorizes that our brains are actually creating three dimensional holograms of the world around us using information gathered from sight, touch, smell, and sound. This means we’re not seeing with eyes, but our brains. Because our minds are capable of such a high computing function, the theory is that we are also able tap into information that is outside of our own realities and the way we interpret that data is by calling it our “imagination.” This could explain how supposed ‘seers’ like Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus have made startlingly accurate predictions of our own future. It would also mean it’s very likely some minds are seeing other realities that are then crafted into the stories we know and love.

So, yes, humanity could have actually cloned dinosaurs in another world and stupidly opened a theme park to show off those deadly abominations of science. There may also be a world where wizards are real and you wouldn’t be scathingly judged for knowing what Harry Potter’s favourite snack before bedtime is. In perhaps even this future, we’ll travel to another planet where Earth’s life was first dreamt up and we discover horrific aliens that bleed acid.

In closing, I’d like to point you to a famous quote used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories:

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

Yes, Spock said it as well, but he was quoting Holmes, so pick up a book for once in your life.