Imagine you’re driving down the highway, talking on your phone, when suddenly a truck cuts you off. You swerve just in time to avoid hitting a bridge support. You think, That was close! The next few minutes are spent in silence, reflecting on how near you came to a potentially fatal accident.

The potential for you to have died in a terrible crash existed with equal validity as your not dying. There is no fundamental difference between the two possibilities. Whether you survived or perished, both potentials existed, but only one probability materialized into your current reality. What happened to the probability of you dying? It still exists. By imagining the scenario where you died, you also collapse that reality in your mind. The only difference is that the potential for death is collapsed into an alternate reality—perhaps a daydream or mental construct—but in this alternate reality, you are dead. Interestingly, no reality is inherently more or less real than another; in the inner world, there is no judgment.

Now, consider a less extreme scenario. Suppose you were late for work because you got a flat tire. You pull over, thinking about how bad your situation is, and start imagining worst-case outcomes: I’m going to get fired! I’ll lose money for being late! Oh no, I don’t have a spare tire! Each of these thoughts exists as a form of mental creation, with as much validity as your waking life. They are like thought-forms—copies of yourself brought to life through your thinking—that go on to have an independent existence.

In essence, you have outcomes that could have happened but didn’t, outcomes that did happen, and potential future outcomes. All of these “probability databases” exist simultaneously in the present moment, each with equal validity. They can all be accessed or collapsed into alternate realities through the power of thought creation. These alternate realities are what quantum theory refers to as multiverses. Ultimately, everything begins with thought—whether in this reality or in others.