A Paraverse Interaction Map Might Be More Empirically Warranted Than a Dark Matter Map

 There they go again: claiming to have a map of something never observed. 

This time it's an article in the Daily Mail with this headline: "See dark matter like NEVER before: NASA reveals one of the most detailed maps of the elusive substance yet – confirming its vital influence on the universe."  We have these claims:

"NASA has revealed one of the most detailed maps of dark matter yet. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the map suggests the elusive substance acts as a hidden framework on which entire galaxies are built...'By revealing dark matter with unprecedented precision, our map shows how an invisible component of the Universe has structured visible matter to the point of enabling the emergence of galaxies, stars, and ultimately life itself,' explained Dr Gavin Leroy, co–author of the study."

But how can someone have a map of dark matter locations when dark matter has never been observed? Scientists say dark matter is invisible. All attempts thus far to make direct observations of dark matter have failed. Dark matter doesn't even have a place in the Standard Model of Physics, and no evidence for it has turned up at the Large Hadron Collider. 

We have in the Daily Mail article a claim that the map of dark matter was made by studying gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing is what the article is referring to when the article states this: "Because dark matter is invisible, the team looked for it by observing how its mass curves space itself, which in turn bends the light travelling to Earth from distant galaxies."

 But observations of gravitational lensing are not equivalent to observations of dark matter. Gravitational lensing is a strange effect produced on light rays bent by the gravity of high concentrations of matter. Such matter can be any type of matter: either normal matter or possibly some type of dark matter. 

As Scientific American puts it when describing gravitational lensing:

"According to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, mass warps space, so a large amount of matter in the foreground of a galaxy can bend its light in a way that makes it look slightly squashed. This is true whether the foreground mass is made of invisible dark matter or ordinary matter."
 
So if you are claiming to have a map of dark matter made by observing gravitational lensing, you are doing something rather like announcing that you have a map of UFO landing sites made by observing small burnt patches in the forest. Such patches might be produced by hot UFO's that are landing, but they also might be produced by ordinary lightning flashes, or by people setting campfires.

We have in the Daily Mail article some unwarranted language by a scientist, the language below:

"Dr Diana Scognamiglio, co–author of the study from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: 'This is the largest dark matter map we've made with Webb, and it's twice as sharp as any dark matter map made by other observatories.

'Previously, we were looking at a blurry picture of dark matter. 

'Now we're seeing the invisible scaffolding of the Universe in stunning detail, thanks to Webb's incredible resolution'." 

No, there was no actual "dark matter map" created. All that went on is that scientists saw things that can be explained by matter or things other than dark matter (as postulated by MOND theorists), and scientists jumped to the conclusion that such effects were caused by dark matter, without any adequate warrant. You can't see things that are invisible. 

The scientific paper of these claimants is entitled "An ultra-high-resolution map of  (dark) matter."  The title is inaccurate. The paper has figures, and none of them is labeled as a map of dark matter. The term "dark matter" is not even used in any of the captions of the paper's figures. We have here another case of what is so common these days in science literature: citation-hungry scientists giving their papers titles that do not match what is in the paper. 

What scientists call "dark matter" is something they believe is not actually dark matter but instead invisible matter. A more candid term for "dark matter" would be "spooky matter." Scientists boasting about having created a dark matter map may say that they "saw dark matter." But they should instead merely be saying that they saw regular matter and energy, and that they inferred dark matter or guessed that dark matter was somewhere. 

What type of "map of the spooky" would have much more empirical  warrant than the claimed "map of spooky matter" that is a claimed dark matter map? It would be what we might call a paraverse interaction map 

To explain such a map, I must explain the concept of the paraverse, explained in my 2016 post "The Possibility of a Paraverse." The term paraverse is formed from the end of the word “universe” and from the prefix “para,” which means “beside” or “to the side of.” We can define a paraverse as some hypothetical realm of existence that is in some sense connected to our universe in a way that allows information and causal influences to flow between our universe and this other realm of existence. 

The two main differences between the multiverse concept and the paraverse concept are as follows:

1. The multiverse concept postulates many other universes, while the paraverse concept postulates only a single other realm of existence (without excluding the possibility of additional universes). 
2. The multiverse idea typically postulates universes that are completely isolated from each other, without communication or interaction between any two of the universes; but conversely the paraverse concept says there may indeed be interaction or communication between our universe and some other realm of existence, with perhaps causes and effects sometimes flowing between the two.

The visual below illustrates the difference between the two ideas. The arrows represent interaction or communication. 

In the diagram above the arrows ---> and <--- represent causal interaction. 

In imagining a paraverse we should be as flexible and open-minded as possible. A paraverse might be a very physical place such as we know. Or it might be some ethereal state of existence very different from our existence. Beings living in a paraverse might be biological beings, or they might be beings of energy or purely spiritual beings. Maybe some of these beings once lived on Earth. 

Given the limits of our knowledge, it would seem to make little sense to try to make a map of the paraverse. There are those who claim that after you die, you go to an afterlife realm that has seven levels. But the basis of such claims seems to be too thin to allow any map of the paraverse to be created. 

However, there is a different type of "map of the spooky" that could be made with some empirical warrant. It is what we might call a map of paraverse interactions.  A paraverse interaction may be defined as some occurrence in our world of some inexplicable paranormal phenomenon that seems to be some interaction involving causal agency between a paraverse and our familiar world. 

A map of paraverse interactions would simply be a map showing where on planet Earth the most inexplicable paranormal phenomena have been observed. I will not attempt to make such a map. But I can mention a few places that should probably be marked by anyone creating such a map. 

One such place would be London, England, the site of some of the most well-documented paranormal events in history, such as those discussed in my posts here, here,  here, and here. Another such place would be some spots in upstate New York state, USA corresponding to the phenomena reported in my posts here and here. Two other such places might be Fatima, Portugal and Lourdes, France. Another such place might be the city of Boston in the USA, where lived the medium Leonora Piper, whose case is described here. Another such place might be New York City, USA, particularly Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan, where I have photographed more than 1000 mysterious orbs, as you can see by using the link here, and continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right. Below is one of the photos, from 2015.

The same city has been the sight of a long series of extremely spooky events described in my post here and my series of 100+ posts you can read here by continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right of each page. 

A thorough attempt at a paraverse interaction map might well also include various locations in India and Brazil where paranormal events have been reported. Unlike the "dark matter map" which scientists groundlessly boasted about, a paraverse interaction map would be a map listing the locations of baffling sights that people actually saw or photographed. 

Higher Reality Intrusions: Some Examples

 The average person does not well understand the idea that our familiar reality may experience a sudden intrusion from a vastly different reality.  The idea is that adjacent to our known familiar reality (or accessible to it) there may be some radically different reality, and that there may occur interactions between the two. The idea is best explained by giving some examples of such events we may call Higher Reality Intrusions. I use the word "intrusion" to mean a sudden unexpected appearance of something, something that may or may not be welcome. 

Example #1: An Octopus Experiencing Strange Anomalies

Let us imagine an octopus living at the bottom of the sea. Such an animal has a familiar world of experience that rarely changes much. But occasionally some anomaly may arise that may be a hint of some world of experience vastly different from anything known to an octopus.  For example:

• A boat may travel above an octopus causing ripples that a very observant octopus might detect above him. 
• Passengers in such a boat may toss something overboard, which may sink down and land very close to the octopus: maybe a coin or a tin can. To the octopus this is an unprecedented anomaly, unlike anything he has ever seen.  An octopus would be unable to imagine any theory explaining such an event. 
• Scuba divers from such a boat may travel down to the bottom of the sea, and be seen by the octopus. To the octopus, this would be an unprecedented anomaly, something that might seem like a supernatural event. 

We may note here the utter incompetency of the octopus to explain any of these events. In each case we are seeing an intrusion from an octopus-unimagined world of experience (the world of land-dwelling creatures) into the vastly different world of experience that is the world of experience of the octopus. 

Example #2: Pacific Islanders Experiencing Aircraft and Air Drops for the First Time

During World War II the United States had many bases in remote places in the Pacific Ocean. Such bases were normally supplied by sea, although sometimes they might be supplied by air drops.  Sometimes the air drops would go to the wrong place, landing on some island where there were no US soldiers, but only tribesmen who knew nothing about the United States, and nothing about the existence of aircraft.  

You can imagine how such primitive tribesmen would have reacted to such air drops.  They may have thought that they were seeing visitations from gods, and that they were blessed by divine providence. Apparently many thought this, because there arose "cargo cults" based on such anomalous droppings of cargo.  

To such tribesmen, the droppings of cargo from the air must have seemed like the most paranormal event imagine, something supernatural. 

Example #3: The "Apocalypto" Finale

The 2006 movie "Apocalypto" has a very striking ending. We watch a Mayan escapee and two of his pursuers reaching the sea coast, at which time they experience what to them must seem like the most paranormal or supernatural experience. It is the arrival of voyagers from Europe, in ships unlike any the Mayans have seen. You can watch the finale below:

The end of the movie gives us a striking visualization of a kind of Higher Reality Intrusion.  Before the depicted event the Mayans never dreamed that there existed such a reality as a Europe capable of launching transatlantic voyages, but suddenly such a "higher reality" intruded on the reality of the Mayans. 

Example #4: Visits of "Daughter Craft" From an Extraterrestrial Mothership

Travel between stars is very difficult, and as far as we know there is the limitation that no expedition can travel faster than the speed of light. Such a speed limit should mean that interstellar travel should always take at least years. Partially because of such a limit, UFO theorists do not imagine that each unexplainable UFO is a separate UFO expedition from another star. They instead typically imagine that some very large extraterrestrial spacecraft has arrived (one called a mothership), and that such a mothership launches much smaller "daughter craft" to explore our planet. Where is this hypothesized mothership? Some speculate that it is hiding behind the far side of the moon, or maybe hiding too far away to be seen by our telescopes. 

The underlying theory gives us a good hypothetical example of a Higher Reality Intrusion. The very large mothership is like a little world of experience vastly different from human experience. Visitors from such a mothership may intrude into our reality, being seen by humans as strange UFOs. More dramatically, there may occur some "Close Encounter of the Third Kind" in which humans get a close-up look at the inhabitants of such "daughter craft" launched from a mothership. Regardless of whether such encounters do or do not occur, the scenario is useful for illustrating the concept of a Higher Reality Intrusion. 

Example #5: Mysterious Interactions From Some Spirit World or Paraverse

Now we come to a discussion of Higher Reality Intrusions relevant to the photos on this blog, and the discussions on this blog of people who saw mysterious orbs with the naked eye. There may be a Spirit World or paraverse that can interact with our world. Such interactions may have various forms:

• There may be extremely fleeting and low-energy interactions, which show up as mysterious orbs in people's photos.
• There may be more long-lasting and higher-energy interactions, which show up as visible mysterious orbs that may last for a minute or two.
• There may be mysterious movements of matter that sometimes occur on our planet because of actions by intelligences in such a Spirit World or paraverse, who have the power to briefly manipulate matter in our world, or rarely make dramatic physical manifestations such as those described here and here.
• There may be ghostly forms that appear on our planet, because of brief visitations from such a Spirit World or paraverse. 
• The inhabitants of such a Spirit World or paraverse may be able to communicate with us by showing up in our dreams, or sending us dream messages cloaked in symbolism, or by communicating with mediums. 

You could use the term "Spirit World" to describe the source of such interactions. But some might prefer to use the term "paraverse" that I introduced in my 2016 essay "The Possibility of a Paraverse" that you can read here. In that essay I gave the diagram below, contrasting the idea of a multiverse with the idea of a paraverse. 

The idea of the multiverse is that there are many other universes which have no causal interaction with our own. Such an idea has no explanatory value. But the idea of a paraverse does have explanatory value. Using such an idea, we can postulate a mysterious radically different reality adjacent to our own, which can interact with our reality, and be the source of Higher Reality Intrusions such as the mysterious phenomena listed above. The arrows in the diagram above represent causal interactions or communication.  Human souls may make sojourns to such a paraverse or Spirit World during a near-death experience, and such a paraverse or Spirit World may be the destination of our souls after our earthly life ends. Just possibly (as suggested by many dreams and near-death experiences) all our souls may have originated in such a Spirit World or paraverse, an idea that I have described as the hypothesis of nonearthly pre-existence.