Books We Love Insider Blog: Margaret Cavendish

Do you think science and the spiritual will ever meet? Recently, a professor of physics at Texas Tech University, Bill Poirier, proposed a theory that assumes parallel worlds exist, and they interact with one another.

This idea has been knocked around for centuries, in one form or another. Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle is considered the first to write science fiction, which is amazing because she lived in the 17^th century. Her book The Blazing World is filled with her perceptions of the universe. It contains her concepts of what we know today as chemistry, physics, all sciences. In a world where women were considered chattels, she was educated, and allowed to express her forward thoughts.


Margaret Cavendish

She wrote of a universe within a universe, set in an earring. Now, this may seem simplistic, but consider the implications. Most recently, scientists have said mathematically the idea of parallel worlds could exist alongside our own. Science fiction television shows, movies, and novels have explored this for generations. Why couldn’t this be, in fact, true?

Have you ever looked in a mirror through another mirror and see the reflection of yourself into seemingly infinity? What if each one of these reflections is another parallel life?

We believe time is secure; seconds, minutes tick from one moment to the next; moments we’ll never get back. We’ll only remember them. This idea keeps us anchored in a single dimension. We feel comfortable here because it’s not too complicated, and our lives are complex, hard, but there’s also a thought time is constant, fixed. We are in the past, present, and future, and in multiple dimensions all at the same time. We live all the experiences from the Big Bang to when the universe implodes. Our souls are tied to the universe; we are joined by a nebulous but strong tether to each other on this planet and into the cosmos. We are as one, and we are not alone.

From LiveScience Nov 19, 2014, Kelly Dickerson, Staff Writer, wrote an article titled ‘Parallel Worlds Could Explain Wacky Quantum Physics’. She explains that “an infinite number of parallel worlds could exist alongside our own called Many Worlds theory.”

Margaret Cavendish asked the question what “…of those creatures that are called the motes of the sun?” The answer was: “…that they were nothing else but streams of very small, rare and transparent particles, through which the sun was represented as through a glass… they would eclipse the light of the sun…they were thinner than the thinnest vapor, yet not so thin as the body of air.” This suggests quantum physics.

Then, she asks whether or not these sun motes were living creatures. The reply is: “Yes, because they did increase and decrease, and were nourished by the presence, and starved by the absence of the sun.” This suggests sun motes are living things. Our perception of inanimate objects are they are not alive, but dead. These objects will decay over time. They’re particles joined together during a life-cycle in which they have a purpose. Taking a walk, I trip over a rock made of carbon. I am made of carbon, so are plants, constructed of particles that will dissolve. Over time, a rock will dissolve into sand, trees into rock if the conditions are right. Are these alive?

I suppose the idea of all objects alive or dead is subjective, but mathematicians are willing to believe parallel worlds can exist with our own. Does this mean the constant upheaval occurring on this planet co-exists on all the other, parallel worlds?

Why is our world filled with so much pain? Fighting covers most of the planet; our weather charges angrily over populations; our planet’s innards explode into earthquakes and volcanoes. Are these events interconnected? Do they extend into the infinity of parallel worlds?

We know light lifts us out of darkness. Perhaps, scientists can tell us if darkness, heavier and murkier, is the absence of God, while light is buoyant, and filled with peace, contentment.

Perhaps, we can sit for a moment and meditate, feel the darkness the spews around our ankles, and envision light. Let that light fill our beings and raise us from the murk of constant gloom. Allow peace to fill us, surround us. Hopefully, this will extend over the plane of our earth and into the parallel worlds that co-exist alongside our own. Perhaps, the anger in our universes will diminish, and we will experience joy.