Strong emotions in repetitive dreams could offer cosmic clues about another version of you, according to this controversial idea.
How many times have you woken up feeling euphoric or deeply disturbed by a dream so vivid it felt indistinguishable from reality? The kind of dream that lingers. Perhaps you notice recurring motifs: specific places, faces, symbols, or even fantastical settings. You are quick to dismiss these as psychological quirks of the brain, and chances are, you will have forgotten about such dreams by midday.
But what if your dreams weren’t just caprices of the sleepy mind? What if they were revealing glimpses into a mirror realm in which your consciousness was wandering? To go even further, perhaps recurring dreams suggest a connection to another reality. For David Leong, Ph.D., an academic specializing in metaphysics and epistemology (the study of distinguishing opinion from justified belief) this might not be just an interesting hypothesis, but the truth.
“Dreams may be windows into distinct realities governed by their laws, in which the mind, unfettered by the constraints of wakefulness, can explore and interact with new forms of existence,” says Leong, an honorary professor at Charisma University in Turks and Caicos.
His hypothesis builds on the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum theory, which suggests that every decision or event creates branching realities—an infinite array of parallel universes. Leong applies this idea to consciousness. He speculates that sleep reduces the influence of our physical senses and rational mind, giving consciousness the freedom to bypass the usual boundaries of time and space. While scientific studies don’t currently support this idea, in Leong’s view, dreams might serve as portals to other versions of ourselves existing in other dimensions.
“AT THE MACROSCOPIC LEVEL, WE ASSUME objects have fixed properties like position or velocity. But quantum experiments challenge this assumption,” Leong explains. The observer effect—where simply observing a quantum system can influence its state—shows that reality is far more fluid than it appears. “Seeing is believing” might hold true in our everyday world, suggests Leong, but at the quantum level, it breaks down, likely shifting according to the observer’s interaction.
In 2022, physicists Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work on quantum entanglement. Their experiments challenged the classical notion of local realism—the belief that physical properties exist independently of observation. They demonstrated that particles, even when separated by vast distances, could instantly affect each other. This fact suggests a reality far more interconnected and flexible than scientists previously thought.
Building on their research, Leong explores the concept of “local” and “nonlocal” consciousness. Local consciousness is accountable to our five senses, shaped and sculpted by the body’s sensory input. Nonlocal consciousness, however, transcends the senses, allowing us to experience “broader, interwoven realities,” he says. This concept aligns with speculative ideas such as panpsychism, where awareness is considered a fundamental feature of the universe itself, he says.
Fascinating as this may sound, not all dreams serve as gateways to parallel timelines. Whether dreams return is key here. “Recurring dreams, especially those with vivid and consistent scenarios, might suggest deeper connections to other realities,” Leong claims. On the other hand, dreams tied to personal experiences often feel disjointed, with distorted time. The most surreal and incomprehensible dreams are likely the subconscious processing your life here on Earth, he says. But, if it feels like you’re visiting the dream rather than imagining it—like a play with a beginning, middle, and end—you probably are visiting this other world, under Leong’s hypothesis.
Leong also hints that strong emotions in persistent dreams could offer cosmic clues—signals of how another version of you is experiencing life in a parallel world. “Say you have a repetitive dream of being stuck in high school,” he suggests. “While it may reflect unresolved psychological themes, such as feelings of stagnation or anxiety about personal growth, it could also indicate that in another reality, you are still in high school, dealing with the same challenges your waking self has moved beyond.” This emotional resonance—like the frustration of being stuck—could ripple across dimensions, creating a feedback loop between your conscious mind here and one of your alter egos elsewhere.
YET, AS CAPTIVATING AS THIS HYPOTHESIS MIGHT BE, it runs into a significant problem: there’s no empirical evidence to back it up. Quantum phenomena, such as entanglement and nonlocality, challenge our traditional views on time and space. Yet, no scientific studies conclusively support the idea that dreams are portals to other worlds. Mainstream neuroscience and cognitive science, on the other hand, find this hypothesis heretical—if not downright unscientific.
The activation-synthesis theory, for instance, sees dreams as the brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. It’s the time when the brain is highly active, colorful dreams occur, and the body experiences temporary muscle paralysis. There’s no evidence of peering into other dimensions whatsoever. Similarly, the memory consolidation theory frames dreams as a tool for organizing daily experiences into long-term memories—not interactions with different selves. The threat simulation theory says dreams serve a survivalist, biological purpose, helping us practice responses to danger—again, there’s no cosmic link.
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