The Science in the Fiction

A Glimpse into The Multiverse?

My fascination with the concept of multiple universes increased dramatically after a life-altering event.

I fell off a diving board and suffered a subdural hematoma that left me temporarily blind and paralyzed giving me a lot of time for pondering “What ifs?”

I was fortunate my dad was willing to spend hours in the middle of the night talking to me about the concept.

What ifs were seriously impacting my ability to sleep.

At one point I told him in a different universe I died.  

His response?  “Well you’re alive in this one so go to sleep.”

Drawing from those musings I turned the concept on its ear in the Metatron’s Army series.

My plot angle was boosted by stories of people’s reactions to the phone call they got informing them I was in a coma and probably wouldn’t live through the night.

I died 3 times in 3 days – twice the day my dad rushed me to the hospital and again 3 days later.

Heightened Awareness

The stress and trauma of such a life-altering event was immense.  Injecting the scientific concept of multiple universes into the Metatron’s Army series proved therapeutic even as it brought about some of the fiercest differences of opinion with my future astrophysicist friend.

My high school Physics teacher was willing to spend hours in the library after school discussing it in-depth.

More Resources

I added my Pre-calc and Biology 2 teachers to the opinion/philosophy pool.

Both were willing to talk with me about it in-depth after class. 

Ironically my math and science teacher were on opposite sides of the multiverse coin.  What fascinated me was that they were using the same mathematical equation to justify their viewpoint.

Different interpretations.

There’s a Reason for That

I approached the math teacher after noting the discrepancy in how we used the same equation to solve a test problem.

I would get it right in physics but wrong in math.

Thus began a series of fascinating philosophical discussions.

What?  No Way!

No I’m not crazy.  I’m using logical deduction.

As part of my research I proposed one of the issues impeding progress was the seeming fact no one considered we might be living in a black hole.

My friend was – for some reason – vehemently against this idea.

How Can You Say That?

How can you think that?

The thought developed as I pursued the cosmological aspects of physics during which I learned that the creation of a black hole could produce baby universes.

By this point my physics teacher was sharing industry journals he subscribed to – provided I read them in the school library.

After school.

While he was grading papers.  

I had to give them back when I was finished.

I also had to explain how the information did or did not support my philosophy.

The librarian was curious if I was considering a career as a librarian.

I told her no, explained what I was doing, and was the recipient of a one-on-one tour of the resources available that could help me in my research efforts.

This was a world of difference from my Catholic school experience where I was forbidden from checking books from a certain section out of the school library.

Books that might help me in my efforts.

So I walked to the public library on my way home from school.

Where they refused to check out the books to me because I was a child.

That weekend I brought my dad so he could check them out for me.**

After I read these books we would have an in-depth discussion.

What put an interesting twist on it was that there was nothing to disprove the idea, something my friend’s engineer father thought funny and had him ultimately agreeing with me.

The dad.

My friend refused to accept the conclusion.

Validation

I published the Metatron’s Army series beginning in 2016.  8 years and 13 books later I came across an article that grabbed my attention because it addressed the concept of living in a black hole.  What struck me most other than the idea black holes can spawn baby universes was the mention of Event Horizon in a context that brought to mind the app I developed.

So named for the very context mentioned in the article.

It’s a theme peppered throughout the Metatron’s Army series.

From BBC SCIENCE FOCUS published September 13, 2024. (link as of October 13, 2024)

Mathematically speaking, the properties of space outside of a black hole’s event horizon are simply an inversion of those within.  

Might you agree or disagree based on math vs. physics?

Other studies have also suggested that the creation of a black hole can produce ‘baby universes.’ 

Multiple universes.

Creative Inspiration

For my Event Horizon app.

From BBC SCIENCE FOCUS published September 13, 2024. (link as of October 13, 2024)

Black holes also have event horizons beyond which all light and matter is trapped. The Universe has something similar; the cosmological ‘event horizon’, beyond which we can’t see because light from there can’t reach us. 

I always maintained we could find a way to see beyond.

If we wanted to.

This is something that drove my friend crazy.  He insisted if it was possible we would have already done it.***

In another universe we did.

** The nuns deducted this based on a paper I wrote and blew a fit.

My dad and both of my paternal grandparents stepped in to ensure bias didn’t factor into my grade.

*** Reminds me of the quote “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”