When the pandemic began, I started watching all the Marvel movies on Disney Plus. I’ve never seen any of them before, thinking they are for children, but suddenly they all got a new meaning.
I could write about each and every one of them but decided to have a closer look at the new ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. Why? Because of the idea of the multiverse and parallel realities. According to Quantum Physics parallel universes exist so maybe there is a version of us in each and every one of them. And according to this movie, ‘dreams are windows into the lives of our Multiverse selves’. So whenever we dream about something, it is not really just a dream, but it is actually happening to us in another universe. That’s a very interesting theory.
Doctor Strange saves a girl called America Chavez who can travel across the Multiverse. She tells him that she only exists in one version and there are no multiple variants of her in other universes. For some unknown reason she is unique and she never dreams. She looked for herself in other universes but never found one. She also tells Doctor Strange that in other realities he is also not with the woman he loves, Christine. Looks like no matter what he does, he cannot be with her in any of them. He always finds a way to complicate his relationship with her.
America is pursued across the multiverse by Wanda who in our universe became the Scarlet Witch. Wanda is not happy in her universe so she decides to go to one where she can be reunited with her two sons. ‘If you knew there was a universe where you were happy, wouldn’t you want to go there?’ – she asks Doctor Strange. And he does not want to admit to others or even to himself but he would like to live in a universe in which he could be with Christine. ‘I love you in every universe’ – he tells her. But then he confesses that he gets scared.’ And she replies: – ‘Face your fears’.
The only way to conquer our fears is to face them. ‘The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek’. This saying by Joseph Campbell was based on various mythologies and Carl Jung philosophy. We are afraid of the unknown the most of all things. But by facing it, we get to know it. We absorb it and can transmute it into our strength. The opposite of fear is faith. Even though we do not know what lies ahead of us, we can still keep the faith that it will all turn out in our favor. And whatever the future brings, in the end will be what is the best for our higher good.
‘Are you happy?’ – Chrsitine asked Doctor Strange. We also need to ask ourselves that question. And if the answer is no, we should change something. We do not have to go to another universe to face a different reality. We can switch our reality to the one we want right here and now.
