Perchance to Dream

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

With these words does Hamlet ponder the consequences of suicide and death in his famous sololeque. Hundreds of hours of possible mind wresting thought and desperation condensed into a few words. That is what makes a writer great, and surely, there is no greater writer than that old English bard, William Shakespear.

Many have used this quote as a springboard into a discussion about dreams, an utterly erroneous interpretation, since dreams are the last thing on Hamlet's mind as he speaks. Hamlet speaks of a more permanent sleep, that of death. The dreams he is referring to, are nightmares that may turn into permanent reality if he does end his life. You can almost smell the fear as he utters: "ay, there's the rub."

Fear of death and its possible aftermath has been at the root of the belief in a Hell, as well as the inspiration for most horror movies. It's not so hard to believe that in death, every twisted nightmare our tortured mind created while asleep, exists out there somewhere and we get to experience it, especially if we are wrought by guilt for injustices we have done during our lifetimes. As a matter of fact, it is this fear of eternal torture and its idyllic opposite, Paradise - a place of rewards for the worthy, that are at the root of every religion that ever crossed the face of this planet. Preying at two of the most basic emotions of man, fear and hope, religious institutions have survived and thrived throughout the millenia.

But can any of it be true? Where does our poor soul go after the body has ceased all its functions? Is there such a thing as a soul? Does our consciousness continue in some form or is our last breath the end of all thought and being? So many questions, so few answers. Medical science cannot answer any question that goes beyond that last breath. Religion attempts to provide its own explanations, but without hard, scientific proof, these explanations appear like bedtime stories to the discerning mind. Surprisingly enough, one of the hardest of sciences comes to the rescue with some of the strangest hypotheses to ever come out of a scientist's mouth. I am referring of course, to Physics and our latest discoveries of how reality works. Where our world was solid and real, we are now forced to consider string theories, multiverses, parallel planes, frequencies instead of solid matter, and a universe where God does play dice.

And where does all that take us, my dear Hamlet? Anywhere we want to go, I suppose. If something exists in the realm of probabilities, no matter how small, then it is likely to exist somewhere within the expanded realm of the multiverses. The phrase "anything is possible" therefore, takes on new significance and our minds need to expand in tandem with the universe to encompass all points of view.