Dimensional

A point…

Existence was bright. Existence was clear. Existence was complete. There were no words to describe it nor any reason to do so. There was nothing else. He was a single complete entity that encompassed his entire universe. He lived and was content. Thoughts flowed freely. It was enough to simply exist.

A line…

Suddenly everything changed. With a sickening jolt he found himself in a new world, infinitely larger than where he had come from. He became aware of space in both directions. It was exciting and terrifying. He was no longer the whole of his universe. There was more and he wasn’t sure what existed in this new place. With an effort he didn’t realize he was capable of, he moved for the first time. There seemed to be no limit to how far he could go, and he continued on and on.

He froze when there was something ahead. An obstruction that prevented him from going any farther. The obstruction seemed to notice and started moving toward him. It was a being like himself, and he was suddenly afraid. No longer alone he awaited the arrival of the stranger. They approached slowly and he could feel the warmth radiating from them. The being started moving away from him and then towards him in a sort of rhythm.

It took a long time before he realized the being was trying to communicate. In a flash of delight, he understood and started mimicking its movements until they were moving in unison. It was glorious! He was no longer the entire universe, but he was also not alone. The two of them moved together happily.

A plane…

After some time, he felt a change. The other being felt it as well and their movements fell out of sync. They both vibrated with fear as their world changed around them. The other being suddenly disappeared from his sight, and he felt painfully alone again. Looking ahead and behind he could see no sign of the one he had moved with so happily for so long.

He felt a touch and tried to figure out where it was coming from. Slowly he realized he could perceive more than what was in front or behind. It was hard, but he began looking around him. After turning he realized the other being was still nearby after all. It seemed to be trying to move with him like before, but their world was so much larger now. Side by side they started moving through this new place.

Before long they came across an obstruction. Using their newfound awareness, they looked left and right and realized they could move around the obstruction instead of being stopped by it. When they reached the other side, they found a gap and felt another being moving around inside. They entered and greeted the being. There was surprise, and then alarm. Clearly not expecting the intrusion, they shivered in fear.

The two travelers moved together in front of the frightened being until they calmed down. Soon the movements of the three synchronized, and they were as one again. The three of them stayed together, moving happily together for a long time.

A space…

Then another sickening lurch and the three of them lost sight of each other as they fell. A new sensation in their changing universe. When the motion stopped it took some time before they were able to locate each other. Instead of perceiving only their edges though, they now saw an entity with volume. Their forms were still the same, but there was now more to them than that.

They had always been complete entities, but now their size encompassed a certain volume of space. Through their will they were able to stand up and move around in their new forms. It was both exciting and terrifying, especially since falling created the sensation of pain when their motion ceased. It was very strange, but after some time they figured out how to control their new bodies. They appeared to be inside an enclosure with an opening at the back. They each recognized it as the structure they had entered before, but now it had height and shape. This was a new concept, and the three of them took turns staring at it and each other.

A new sensation hit them, and they understood it as sound. Beings in this space were using portions of their three-dimensional bodies to create vibrations in the substance around them. Much like the first pure communication between the original two beings, these waves traveled from one to another. The three of them experimented with making their own waves until they were able to synchronize with the sounds they heard.

Another being approached the three and started making waves at them as well. The group tried many different sounds and eventually they formed a community. They moved around the space making sounds and exploring the world around them.

Life was full and complete for the new community. The original being was happy with the world he lived in now. The universe was so large he could not see the end of it. He could move without restriction. If he came across an obstacle, he would go over or around it. There was nothing to stop him now. His community of beings continued making happy waves at each other and they grew close.

Time…

As if being torn from a dream, he was suddenly in a different place. He was aware of the world he lived in before, with his community, and could see all of their movements and waves in front of him. Instead of seeing it as it happened though, he saw all of it at once. From their beginnings in the previous space all the way past his current location until the end. It distressed him to see the end of his own short existence. He also saw the longer lives of the other beings as they moved and created waves until their own existences ended.

He reached out and touched the new shape of the being in front of him. Instead of the simple touch he experienced during his first encounter with this entity, he was able to touch them near the end of their existence. He heard the joyous waves coming from the entity, briefly recognizing him before their life ended.

There were others, many others. He saw the scope of their existences before him. He saw their lives from beginning to end and it both awed and terrified him. He could move around and touch any one of them at any time he wanted. They did not seem to see the universe as he did though. They moved within this new dimension at a fixed rate and did not seem to be able to change it, while he moved freely. It was a strange feeling, and he started to be lonely as he could no longer have community with his friends. He could not slow down enough to match their pace through time, and he had to move beyond them.

Traveling he saw so many others appear, exist, then cease to exist. The sum total of all of their movements and waves appeared before him to examine in whatever order he chose. They moved this way and that way. They created waves between them and reacted to the others in good and bad ways. It was an amazing thing to view the entirety of an entity’s existence. All laid out before him.

The multiverse…

Another lurch in the being’s existence fractured the vision he had only just grown accustomed to. Looking toward the entities he had been viewing he not only saw their movements and waves throughout their existences, but he also saw an almost infinite branching of it. Every movement they made could have been done in different ways. Every possibility was laid out before him. He saw the results of the various choices each being made throughout their lives branching out in a marvelous tree of choices.

The lives of all of these beings were interwoven in a way that made it impossible to separate one from another. Each action was interdependent on the actions of others. Lives began and ended based on the spectrum of choices. Individuals became impossible to discern in the great woven tapestry before him.

He remembered being a separate entity in a different place and realized he was only at a single moment in time and his existence was interwoven within the choices of those others around him. He could perceive everything now all at once and it was beautiful.

Back to time…

After an immeasurable period, he felt another lurch in his existence. Suddenly the wild branching of lives before him solidified into the lives of individuals once again. He found the companions he had traveled with and grew happy. He examined their beginnings and their ends and worked hard to find the point where he had left them to come to this strange place.

Beyond the point where he left, some friends did not exist long while others had much existence ahead of them. He concentrated hard on the point just after he had left to see what movements his departure had made and what waves they created when he was gone.

Back to space…

His concentration was interrupted by another painful lurch as he suddenly found himself among the friends shortly after he had left them before. Their waves expressed wonder and excitement at his reappearance. He tried to express to them what he had seen, but he could not make them understand what they could never perceive.

Having seen the entirety of the existences of these individuals changed his view of them completely. He knew which would exist longer and what choices they made that would result in different things. It was too much to explain, but tried to help them make choices that would extend their existence.

He had a growing fear of how blind he was though. The consequences of the branching of his own choices were lost to him now. He could no longer see what was ahead as he once again existed within that beautiful tapestry he had seen. His companions could not understand his fear, though they did heed his warnings.

Back to a plane…

While sitting with two companions making waves about their daily motions, they felt a crushing sensation and suddenly they could only perceive each other’s edges. Their positions blocked each other, and they no longer could perceive up or down. One of his companions grew very afraid. They seemed frantic and moved away very quickly, leaving only the two of them together.

They tried to create waves to communicate like before, but there was no medium to convey the waves between them. They could perceive each other’s edges, and nothing else. They began moving together as they had done in the beginning. The synchronicity was a comfort to both as they once again grew accustomed to their new existence.

Back to a line…

With another crushing sensation the two were thrust back into an existence where they could only perceive what was in front and what was behind. This was where they had learned to move together in the first place. It held fond memories for them both, but after having moved so freely in so many ways before they were terrified to be thrust back here.

He tried to comfort his friend by moving forward and back as they had done before. To move together and comfort one another. The other could not be consoled though and moved away so quickly he could no longer perceive them. He moved forward and back great distances looking for them to no avail. Eventually resigning himself to travel forward in the hope that one day he would encounter his friend again.

Back to a point…

He traveled for a long time before encountering anything. What he met was not his friend though. It was an ending. Something which should not exist in this realm of infinite distance. For a long time, he contemplated what he saw before him. It would be the last step in his own long journey. It was where he began so it was only right that it was where he would end.

How complete he remembered being before he was thrust into the different dimensions he never knew existed. He knew only himself and he was everything in existence. At the time it was a perfect balance, and he was content. How could he return knowing that instead of being a totality, he was merely a mote of existence? An infinitely small one, unable to perceive or interact with a larger universe. What of the beings he shared motions and waves with? Would he ever move with them again?

As he contemplated, he could sense even this narrow reality closing up around him. Whether he chose it or not he would soon find himself back where he started. Would he feel complete as he had before all these new experiences? Or would he forever pine for the brief vision of a different existence? Perhaps one day he could embark on this journey once again. He thought this with hope as the line of his existence collapsed, and once again he became his entire universe.

Bright and shinning, but forever alone.

Written by Bradley Thiel - 10/2023