With the advent of Star Wars and Star Trek series and other sci-fi books and movies, words such as parallel universe, alternate reality, other dimensions, different history and multiverse have become commonplace. Theories authenticating and validating both the existence and non-existence of such entities do proliferate.
According to space.com, the concept known as a “parallel universe” suggests that there could be other universes besides our own, where all the choices you made in this life is played out in alternate realities and this is a facet of the astronomical theory of the multiverse.
The Chronicles of Narnia” (1950-56), a C.S. Lewis book series features several children who move between our world and the world of Narnia, where there are talking animals.” C.S.Lewis was one of the first people to popularise the idea of parallel universes and in his books there are pools that acts as portals to a great many different worlds where things are very different from our own – the wardrobe itself being considered a portal to another world. Alternate realities are worlds that exists next to, in parallel of, or in place of our own.
Reality is what we experience as human beings and is determined by way of our senses. These sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds. Our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of this sensory information and our brain’s sense-making mechanisms of that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with other information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it.
Now the Bible cites people who have perceived something beyond the normal. It showcases many instances where people comprehended beyond what their natural senses dictated. Their reactions and action were then an outcome of this perception. The input from their natural senses was layered over with input from another real sense called faith. This enabled them to live in an alternate reality that’s different from the normal one.
For example, an old man, Abraham, who along with his wife, had lost the ability to bear children, believed God’s promise that he would have a child . His reality was not shaped by natural senses or practical or common sense, but by his faith. He was one who lived in an alternate reality because ‘against all hope believed in hope that he might become father of many nations’. And he did have a son born to him in his old age.
Moses, commander-in-chief of the armies of the greatest nation at that time, refused the privileges of being part of a royal house. His reality was shaped by his faith that allowed him to see ‘the One no one could see’ and the reward that was He gives. Therefore, he chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life with the oppressors of his people.
Jesus, the ultimate man, walked on water, healed lepers, raised the dead, turned water into wine and allowed Himself to be crucified and buried because He allowed His reality to be forged by faith. This sense empowered Him to see past the obvious to the imperceptible and therefore, He was able to overcome even natural limits and limitations.
These are few examples, but there were many others who also did the unthinkable and many today who do the unimaginable and the impossible. All of them are able to do exploits beyond the ordinary because their reality was not confined to what their senses indicated. It is created, coded and colored by faith so that they lived beyond the natural.
Faith is the sense that enables us to live in alternate reality, a realm that supercedes the natural reality shaped by normal senses. The perks of living in this alternate reality is that things which seems impossible become possible. This alternate reality is over, above and beyond the natural reality.
The choice is yours to decide which reality you will be part of and which sense you choose to live by!
MULLINGSPICE 