The idea of alternate realities – alternate history, parallel worlds, the multiverse – has been popular in fiction for a while and sometimes also in imaginative science.
And we can make use of alternate realities for healing as well.
Here are a couple of examples from my own process:
NEW PARENT DYNAMICS
In our consensus reality, my parents have been married since well before my birth.
And for a while now, it has come to me to imagine my parents as divorced for a long time and with new families, and explore how that is for me and how I am in that context.
Here, I find myself new as well, and I am enjoying it. I feel lighter. Freer. With input from more adults in my life. With a richer and more varied extended family. More people to connect with. More free from the strong dynamic between my parents that has been difficult for me since my childhood.
I enjoy feeling into it and allowing it to work on me and perhaps even transform me.
As with so much else, this exploration is something that emerged on its own and I have consciusly joined in with it. It may have emerged because I have inquired into how it would be if my parents divorced early in my life. I imagine it would be OK and perhaps even good for me in some ways.
Since I don’t live with them, my inner world is where they mostly live. And in my inner world, they can be anyone. So why not choose something that feels healing and live in that world for a while and allow it to work on me? (And, in reality, to me it’s all in my inner world no matter what.)
HEALTHY SCHOOLMATES
When I was in elementary and middle school, I was in a class with a good deal of bullying – mostly of the psychological variety. And I experienced being on the receiving end of it, along with others. (Including my favorite teacher who had a breakdown and disappeared for several months.)
This impacted me and created or reinforced social anxiety, general anxiety, low social self-esteem, and so on.
So it’s something I have been working on, including through a kind of alternate reality.
I see and feel myself back in elementary school. I visualize the bullies, and I visualize them as completely whole and healthy, and kind and wise. I visualize them as the most whole and healthy and even awake version of themselves. (This is a potential they have in them so it’s not that much of a stretch.) And I interact with them and dialog with them here and listen to what they have to say.
For instance, some of them talk about having a difficult situation at home, and they take out their pain on others, including me since I seemed to have a much easier life. (I was good at school, I could answer the teacher’s questions, my family had money and resources, we had a good house, I was athletic, fast and strong, and so on.) Others talk about feeling intimidated by the same people, and joining in with them in the bullying so they themselves would avoid being a target. They all say they love me, are genuinely sorry for what happened, and see the potential in me for full healing from it.
HEALING THROUGH ALTERNATE REALITIES
As mentioned above, to me the world and the past happen within me. So why not explore some alternate realities? Why not feel into how it is for me and how I am in that world? Why not stay with it for a while, revisit it now and then, and allow it to work on me and see what happens?
This is a kind of exploration that reflects and is reflected in our culture’s current interest in alternate realities, alternate history, parallel worlds, and multiverses.
A FEW ADDITIONAL NOTES
I imagine some may see this as “just fantasy” and for that reason not having any effect or being a flight from reality.
For me, it’s different.
It certainly has an effect when I imagine it and explore how I am in that reality and allow it to work on me. It may not be enough in itself for deep and thorough healing, but it’s a piece of the puzzle. It pulls in the right direction. It creates a new context that’s very conducive to deep healing.
And it’s not that separated from this version of the world. My parents very well could have been divorced. And these classmates had and have the potential for being whole, healed, kind, wise, and even awake. I am just connecting with those versions of the world.
INITIAL DRAFT
In waking life, my parents are married and have been since long before my birth.
And recently, it has come to me to imagine my parents as divorced a long time and with new families.
In that context, I find myself as new as well, and I am enjoying it.
I enjoy feeling into it and allowing it to work on me and perhaps even transform me.
As with so much else, this is something that has emerged on its own and lives its own life. I am mostly just noticing and joining in with it.
Why has this emerged? Perhaps because I now and then have consciously explored how it would be if my parents divorced. I imagine it could have been good for me, in some ways, since there are dynamics between them that have been difficult for me.
Why is it enjoyable to live in this new world with divorced parents? For the same reason. It feels lighter. Freer.
Since I don’t live with them, my inner world is where they mostly live. And in my inner world, they can be anyone. So why not choose something that feels healing and live in that world for a while and allow it to work on me?
This is a kind of exploration that is metaphorically reflected in our culture’s current interest in alternate realities, alternate history, parallel worlds, and multiverses.
In our consensus reality, my parents have been married since well before my birth.
And for a while now, it has come to me to imagine my parents as divorced for a long time and with new families, and explore how that is for me and how I am in that context.
So how is it?
In that context, I find myself as new as well, and I am enjoying it. I feel lighter. Freer. With input from more adults in my life. With a richer and more varied extended family. More people to connect with. More free from the strong dynamic between my parents that has been difficult for me since my childhood.
I enjoy feeling into it and allowing it to work on me and perhaps even transform me.
As with so much else, this exploration is something that has emerged and lives its own life, and I notice and join in with it.
Why has this emerged? Perhaps because I now and then have inquired into how it would be if my parents divorced relatively early in my life. I imagine it could have been good for me, in some ways.
Why is it enjoyable to live in this new world with divorced parents? For the same reason. It feels lighter. Freer.
Since I don’t live with them, my inner world is where they mostly live. And in my inner world, they can be anyone. So why not choose something that feels healing and live in that world for a while and allow it to work on me? (And, in reality, to me it’s all in my inner world no matter what.)