Visualize, if you can (or want to), what comes to mind when you read the term “far away”. The logical human response to this term is to use one’s self as a point of reference and then begin to imagine points in space and time which are furthest away from the origin point of self. The concept of “far away” will vary with person to person, depending on their age, their geographical/spatial understanding, but imagination is ultimately the only limitation to this exercise.

What is interesting about the process is that at first, one would think of spatial distance alone. At the generally accepted “furthest extent” of this train of thought, the first uncertainty faced is that while the furthest reaches of our known universe is completely unknown and also expanding, it is impossible at this stage to know in which direction has the furthest extent of the universe expanded in relation to where our planet is currently situated. Meaning, the furthest possible direction to travel, even theoretically, is unknown. (Despite the fact that no one really knows what is beyond the point of the furthest reach of the expanding universe).

The second uncertainty faced is, is it further to travel as far backwards in time relative to where the individual is now, or forward in time. This opens a new line of questions, logically you might be thinking, the answer has to be forward in time, because the past is “said” to be estimated around 13.8 billion years, when the big bang occurred, but time existed before that event even in this universe alone. Did space and time exist elsewhere (outside of this dimension) before that event, will space and time as we know it, exist in this universe/dimension for another 13.8 billion years from the moment you read this text? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then you’re beginning to face a paradox.

Things really start becoming complicated when you apply the concept of inter-dimensional travel/displacement. For arguments sake, dimensions other than the one we currently find ourselves within exist, and you also possess some means to traverse these alternate dimensions. Dimensions are not geographically/spatially linked, time is also entirely independent from each/any dimension you travel to. So then no dimension can be considered “further away” than another, because space and time, our two points of tangible distance are now eliminated. The same amount of energy is required to travel to any variable dimension (for the sake of the exercise) so essentially, these dimensions, though seemingly cut off from us, are now closer to us than points of vast or even short distances of space and time, that exist/existed in our own dimension.

This now makes the exercise far more complex for many reasons, primarily, as there are now an ∞ amount of variable dimensions, all equally connected to the initial point of self. With the proposition of ∞ dimensions, comes an ∞ supply of variables. The basic principals of physics required to keep the some hundred trillion atoms that make up the individual cells in our bodies from destabilization may simply not exist. By the very nature of ∞, there has to be dimensions where that is the case. But by the same principal, dimensions depicting a religious afterlife, planes described in ancient myth and legend, too have a place in the theoretical Omniverse.

In the concept of “shadow dimensions” and “mirror dimensions”, it has been suggested that fragments of a dimension, like ours for instance, can/could be taking place simultaneously in multiple dimensions or shadow/mirror dimensions. For example, the concept of a dimension consisting purely of consciousness, a virtual archive of every sentient being to have ever existed in a specific dimension. Essentially a separate realm, possibly devoid of time, containing what some would call the “immortal soul”. Theoretically, the co-existence of these two (or more) dimensions, could be part of bridging a possible dimensional shift after what we consider to be death.

Ultimately, if we accept ∞ (for the sake of this exercise) and concede that what we know of time and space are utterly detached from theoretical dimensions under the umbrella of ∞, we come to a very strange and eerie realization. As difficult as it is to imagine, if you entertain the Multiverse/Omniverse theory to some of its furthest reaches, theoretically, a version of yourself has already gone “beyond”. Having lived out a mortal existence to its extent, separate from the time we are perceiving now, IF the “soul/spirit” exists and IF a dimension of “afterlife” is one of the ∞, then not only are you already in “heaven” or “hell”, but you are actually closer and more intimately bound to the eternal ‘Great Beyond’ in this very instant, than you are to the moment that you began reading this exercise.

In some ways, contemplating this exercise of imagination, as utterly ridiculous and inconsequential as it may seem, even for a moment, is to theoretically go beyond, what many deem to be “The Great Beyond”.