Quantum Immortality – A Solution to the 3 am Existential Crisis

Have you ever had a near-death experience in your own head? or even in real life? Trapped in an escalator? Or a natural catastrophe? Ever imagined yourself in a plane crash giving you a 3 am existential crisis? Well, say no more because after this article you may as well deepen it or get temporary answer until our science cures this too.

Escaping a near-death experience may either make you extremely confident of your luck or make you too religious at once, but quantum mechanics calls you the 1 in 100 realities that experienced this near-death situation, and finally you came out while the 99 of them died. It’s a mere probability wave deciding this version of reality to unfold and 99 others too. Confused already? Let's start from the basics.

What is quantum mechanics? Well, it’s a branch of physics that governs the behaviors of the smallest particles, like electrons, etc. It consists of a realm of bizarre principles like superposition, entanglement, and time. One such theory of quantum mechanics talks about the many-world interpretation (not multiverse), suggesting that every quantum action spawns a multitude of universes, each with a different outcome. All the universes coexist and work simultaneously. This theory gives a radicalized view about survival and consciousness. It breaks and builds hope.

The theory of quantum immortality has the philosophy that each time our consciousness faces a death situation, it divides into millions of universes, and the situation itself also divides into possibility waves, and you survive in one such reality while dying in all the rest. The twist? Your consciousness is active only in the reality where you survive, meaning that, from your subjective eyes, you never really experience death. This is subjective immortality. Over time, this creates the illusion of eternal survival, even as external observers in other universes witness this death. The theory is yet confusing, as it states that your awareness follows survival because you cannot perceive the reality where you are not alive; hence, this is quite a challenge to prove.

The term probability waves is the same as the wave function in quantum mechanics. This mathematical construct describes the likelihood of a small particle's state, like momentum and position. According to quantum immortality, in every life-or-death situation, the wave function branches and your consciousness actively takes the path of the wave of survival. The theory stays in the realm of conjecture.

The main focus of quantum immortality is the concept of subjective and objective reality. Let's take an example: imagine getting back from a fatal plane crash. One might call it a miracle or even a subjective invincibility or one of the rarest forms of good luck. This gives rise to so many cultures, worship, concepts of divinity, and religions, but on the other hand, objective reality says that even though you might feel that your consciousness has survived the plane crash, it's not true; the accident has been fatal in all the other countless universes. Objectively, your survival isn’t special. It's just that your consciousness by its nature has followed one of the million possibility waves. The universe doesn’t care about your perception; it's simply a huge permutation combination.

While the subjective reality governs our limited perception, it's not the full picture of how consciousness works. This article probes a deeper question about existence and how quantum mechanics has reshaped our grasp of what’s “real.” The quantum principles of many-worlds interpretation bind all the possible outcomes into a single coexisting event, creating an ever-expanding multiverse.

The future endeavors of these theories could lead to us living in a worldworld of endles possibility. If there is a way to live each of those said outcomes by diverting the nature of consciousness, it might as well create an almost sci-fi practical case of stimulated life. But this could also lead to a persistent survival, leading to the basic question of who controls I.” The possibility of endless survival would stop aging, accidents, and miracles. Science would overpower philosophies of luck and fate. If consciousness can hop between quantum realities, we can upload it to a quantum chip or card, and hence our unique mind would live on and on even after our body perishes, leading to an infinite loop of similar personalities and thoughts. This would also become a reason for economic growth throughout countries competing to create the best stimulation tourism away from your main timeline. AI would mimic human consciousness with almost 98 percent accuracy, blurring the line between man and machine. Life would almost be like a movie, and you would have the remote to it. The concept of linear time would change invariably. Time is a sequence of events, and quantum immortality would create various time zones rather than one single timeline, each governed by the same laws but with different end sequences. Time would be less absolute and more alternate. Time would be nonlinear, as consciousness would jump from realities. For example, surviving a terminal illness could lead you to a universe where the illness didn’t progress, effectively rewinding your sense of time. Your consciousness would create a false sense of eternal time, and hence time would not be a fundamental truth but a programmable feature.

Quantum immortality raises the possibility that time is nothing but an emergent property; time exists as a feature of the framework of every universe but not as a universal constant between all the different realities. Modern physics was halfway there when time was questioned to be relative, bending with gravity and speed. Time isn’t a parameter, as it is not as measurable as momentum or position. Consciousness may as well overpower time, hence creating a new dimension to our thought process.

The main problem comes when we are supposed to prove this theory to the world. The multiverse theory is untestable, as our consciousness is not heightened enough to observe various realities at the same time. Science demands tests and experiments, and until and unless we have the science to bring back dead people with exact memories, we will not understand the aftermath of death or the concept of realities. Can consciousness choose a definite path? Or is it controlled? Science has no definite answer as of now. Until we conduct more experiments on consciousness and its nature, we cannot build enough systems for powering such complex ideas. The paradox is deepened as we cannot study the branching off of consciousness in macroscopic systems like the human mind. Quantum mechanics is usually studied in microcosmic particles as of now. Various trials were conducted by scientists throughout history to get an idea about the different universes—Schrödinger's cat analogy and quantum suicide by Max Tegmark—but there were many who criticized the ideas, like David Wallace, who suggested that consciousness fades through a continuum.

Well, can we prove it? We just don’t know.

 As of now, this article is meant to give you hope; whether or not you survive this universe, there is a luckier version of you in a different one, and the fun part is that they have the same consciousness that you do. You should practice gratitude every morning rather than getting an existential crisis, as you might as well be that lucky version who has survived yet another day while all your coexisting realities have never gotten a chance to get up from the bed. The limitations are human constructs, but possibilities are universal. Quantum immortality doesn’t give you a desired life but rather a candle of survival within the endless dark canals of realities. There exists a chance to be different, and you might think luck doesn’t favor you, but it’s a possibility that luck has been the luckiest to you. The universe doesn’t care if you get up tomorrow or not; you exist and are valued based off your consciousness that has the ability to choose its path, but today? Today it has chosen you in this universe. As you read this article, you might feel like a microcosmic system in a macrocosmic world, but isn’t that the very reason for you to grab the chance that your universe provides you with today? Your existence is the crisis that may or may not survive in the same universe as today. We are nothing but specks of dust in a desert of possibilities, grateful that today we exist as we are. 

As the BHAGVAT GITA SAYS 

Chapter 9, Verse 29

"I am the same to all beings; no one is hateful or dear to Me. But those who render devotion to Me with love are in Me, and I am also in them."

THE UNIVERSE IS NUETRAL TO YOUR EXISTENCE IN THE MOST BLISSFUL WAY POSSIBLE.