How Apple TV’s Dark Matter Nails Alternate Realities

Photo by Eliška Motisová on Unsplash

TL;DR: The author shares their admiration for the Apple TV series and compares it to experiences they have had with alternate dimension travel.

There’s a lot to like about Apple TV’s mind-bending series Dark Matter. Indeed, a lot of people are raving about the show. It enjoys a solid 83 percent on Rotten tomatoes and IMDB rates it at a very near 8 on its user-review scale.

Admittedly, I’m only at the first season’s fourth episode. Still, the story is well-grounded in excellence. The writing and acting are great. I’m enjoying the storytelling too. But what’s blowing my mind so far is how Dark Matter’s creators have nailed the process of visiting infinite dimensions comprising what they call the Multiverse.

And while the series’ story, acting, writing and technical aspects merit accolades, I believe the series’ success rests largely in another aspect of the show. That is, Dark Matter resonates with deep knowledge humanity possesses. Its creators, consciously or not, are urging humanity to expand beyond its limiting beliefs.

There’s a lot to explore here. Let’s jump in.

What is Dark Matter (the show)

Before we get to the fun stuff, I realize some may not have seen Dark Matter yet. It first aired on May 8 this year, so even I’m late to the party. I didn’t know about it until a client raved about its premise.

Like me, the show surprised her. That’s because the show’s “technical” details of alternate dimension travels accord very much with what she’s learning in her Positively Focused practice.

She said I should watch it. I just started watching this month. So if you don’t know about the show, here’s a brief, non-spoiler explanation. At least as far as I know it.

Dark Matter is about a science teacher in our present dimension. An alternate version of him succeeded in traveling through alternate dimensions through an invention the science teacher imagined, but didn’t follow through on. When the teacher chose not to follow through, physical reality forked to where a version of him did follow through, thus creating the breakthrough in an alternate reality.

But the version of the teacher who made the breakthrough is unhappy. He regrets decisions he made. So he travels to the science teacher’s dimension and abducts him with plans to replace him in our dimension. He leaves the teacher in his reality, bewildered and alone and surrounded by people demanding his genius.

That’s all I know so far.

Evidence proves it accurate

What you just read already reveals how accurate this series is. For indeed, every move we make in this reality creates multidimensional forks in “time”.

From that fork, infinite versions of what happens next come into being. Each of those versions include choice(s) we didn’t make, thereby allowing All That Is to explore all possible versions of reality.

Now, I know, it’s hard to accept what you just read as actually happening without evidence that it’s happening. That’s why, in the Positively Focused practice advanced sessions, we introduce meditation and dream work. Through meditation and dream work, we’re introduced to all these alternate versions of ourselves. We get to experience those alternate dimensions forking from our actions. With practice, we can visit those dimensions at will.

Doing so requires pretty heroic focus. It takes an unusual desire to get this far in the practice. Several clients are at the beginning stages of that level and what they’re finding is astonishing them.

What I’ve found astonishes me still. But that’s another story.

A deeply satisfying adventure

Dark Matter astonishes me too. It’s astonishing to me because it puts out there, right in the open, an invitation for human beings to expand beyond what they are. I write about this all the time and tell my clients the same.

Those ready to receive the invitation don’t see the show the same way those not ready to receive it do. The latter group just finds the show an engaging escape, an entertaining sci-fi drama that delivers. For the former group however, they find themselves inexplicably moved. Some of the moved ones will dismiss what’s happening.

But a small number of those might question what they’re experiencing. They might go so far as to try out for themselves perceiving their alternate lives. When they do, they begin a path that is irreversible. Irreversible and deeply satisfying should they continue.

And I believe this is the deeper message behind all good art. Artists offer themselves as conduits for All That Is. And their art communicates deeply accurate messages about reality, the Universe and ourselves. Moving pictures are some of the most powerful art.

Dark Matter offers a highly accurate communication. Its premises are real. As are the possibilities. But like all communication, distortions exist in the show. I want to look at those next.

They’re not fatal

Remember, I’ve only seen four episodes. So there’s probably more in store for my experience. Still the distortions, once understood, can be dispensed with. Do that and the message becomes far more accurate.

Many distortions in film, for example, involve good intentions of the creators. They’re making entertainment after all. So they often overly complicate the story to keep it engaging. They also include a lot of violence that’s not as reflective as what’s really happening. Another thing they do is include random acts that don’t make sense in the context of what’s really happening in the world outside of the show.

For example, it wouldn’t be possible for an alternate version of me to come into my reality, abduct me and take me back to his reality. Many reasons explain why this is so.

Firstly, subatomic particles comprising our bodies are the same ones comprising our alternate versions. Such particles not only vibrate, but also blink “on” and “off” in our reality. When they’re “off” here, they are “on” in our alternate realities. And when they’re “off” in those realities, they’re “on” here.

So it wouldn’t be possible for an alternate me and me to exist physically in the same reality. And that’s where things get really….interesting.

Alternate dimension travel gets real…interesting. (Photo by Eliška Motisová on Unsplash)

We are conscious energy

It gets interesting because if that’s the case then the alternate reality in which I meet myself must not exist, which means not all alternate realities happen.

But hold on, partner. That reality does exist. It just doesn’t exist in such a way that we can do what the Dark Matter characters do in the series.

[So I’m getting more and more exited writing about this because doing so is opening so many avenues to explore. I realize I must keep this post as short as possible, so I’m doing my best not to get too excited!]

We are not our bodies. We are what Seth calls the “Gestalt consciousness” that rides in, among and through the collective consciousness that is our bodies. That collective includes subatomic particles in our bodies, each of which enjoys consciousness as well.

It has to be true that we’re not our bodies, because at death, we continue existing even though the body deconstructs.

TThis is obvious in what humans call dreaming. There, we can see, hear, taste, communicate and even think and move around. We’re obviously doing all that outside our bodies. For as we engage in what we call the dream, our bodies are back under the covers in our beds!

What we are is conscious energy. We are vibration beings living a much bigger and more interesting experience than the ones we put ourselves into through these bodies.

In the dream state then, and in other altered consciousness experiences, we can visit our alternate selves. We do that every night when we dream. And Positively Focused clients are also learning to do that consciously, while awake.

But there’s even more happening. Something that also makes the Dark Matter plot fall apart. Let’s look at that next.

Nesting doll reality of All That Is

Each of our selves, living in each of these dimensions, live there while simultaneously connected to every other self. Not only that, each of those selves are constantly communicating and influencing one another. That makes sense when we consider the nature of our Broader Perspective.

Our Broader Perspective is that part of us that gave birth to us from a fork in its experience. It is that larger part of us remaining in nonphysical and guiding us through our human experience. It is us, as we are us in our bodies. It’s just a broader part of us.

That broader part of us also has a Broader Perspective. Like Russian nesting dolls, this lineage of Broader Perspectives run incessantly, all the way “back” to the original being that got all this All That Is started. Of course, there was no beginning. All That Is has been and always will be.

The point of all this is that there’s no need for one of our selves to come take over another of ourselves. That’s because each of us experiences viscerally in the dream state and other consciousness levels all that the other selves experience. We literally can feel their experiences. And that’s why living positively in this experience has such huge ramifications.

How we be in this life affects every other “life” that is ours in these other dimensions. And when we live this life positively, not only do we enjoy positive experiences as reflections of that inner state, we also influence all our other selves in their dimensions. Indeed, they affect us too, which is why sometimes we might find ourselves inexplicably sad, or pensive…or happy.

Our Broader Perspective relationship resembles Russian Nesting Dolls. (Photo by Didssph on Unsplash)

Thoughts are powerful, but momentum more so

There’s another distortion that happens I’m almost sure was because the show creators wanted to make the show exciting. In another part of the show, the teacher and a mental health practitioner begin exploring alternate dimensions through the device the other version of the teacher created. Their travels are chaotic and harrowing. Every alternate reality they find is a post-apocalyptic rendition of Earth.

The characters realize at one point that their thoughts just before opening a door are what causes them to enter said renditions. This is hogwash. To understand why, we must consider momentum.

Momentum is the basis of thoughts turning to things. That includes any kind of thought about experiencing supernatural abilities. Everyone naturally understands momentum. We talk about how it takes a long distance to stop a freight train, or how a cargo ship can’t “turn on a dime”. In other words, the more momentum an object has, the less likely that object will change direction.

The same is true with thoughts.

Since every human is first a pure, positive energy being, each enjoys an extremely strong momentum of positive orientation. This especially holds when considering most of us have lived very large numbers of previous lives. Our thoughts and intentions have a lot of momentum therefore.

This includes beliefs about whether it’s even possible to visit another dimension. Most of us don’t believe that’s possible. That explains why most don’t recognize having such experiences.

So a blithe thought one moment isn’t going to have enough momentum to move someone into another reality, especially one that is frightening, like a post-apocalyptic alternate reality.

But there’s a caveat.

Thoughts and momentum work together

In nonphysical, where alternate realities intertwine, very little resistance exists. As a result, it is very easy to get momentum going within the relatively small resistance levels there. But even then, it would take more than a passing thought, while in that altered state, to manifest or draw to us a harrowing alternate experience.

We can experience such experiences, but they usually happen after we’ve focused a bit on an unpleasant scenario. Another way such an experience can easily happen is if a lot of negative momentum exists around dominant negative thoughts and beliefs. This explains why in our practice we strive to live as positively as possible. Because when we do transition, whatever thought-momentum we possess we take with us in our return to nonphysical. That can be a problem.

For example, a Christian who fears going to hell and is unsure whether they lived a godly life will experience the content of their focus: hellish conditions. Someone who believes strongly that there is no afterlife, that life just ends and we blink out of existence when we die, will experience that too. They will have no experience of an afterlife.

The good news is, this is temporary. After a time guides will come to assist such people out of their torment and beyond their limiting beliefs.

The point is, it’s not possible to visit a hellscape version of reality off the bat. Unless the explorer already has a lot of thought-momentum about such realities. Thoughts alone can’t buck our existing momentum. And both characters seem to be somewhat positive people.

A gift All That Is inspired

As you’ve read, there’s no reason for one of our selves to take over another self’s life. Even if it wanted to, which it doesn’t, it can’t. But it sure makes for an engaging show!

Each self enjoys an intimate, visceral experience of every other self. Those selves also are in communication. That’s right, even though we don’t usually have conscious experience of this communication, it’s happening constantly.

In the Positively Focused advanced practices we learn how to hear this communication. With practice and tests, we can come to trust such communication. Indeed, it’s that communication that has me living the life I currently live, free from working for a living and enjoying the spiritual life I enjoy as a spiritual “teacher”.

Thoughts, beliefs and momentum are, in a sense, the basic building blocks of All That Is. We enjoy this reality because of them. But there’s so much more we can explore!

There are many other distortions we can talk about in Dark Matter. But I think it’s more important to enjoy the show for entertainment’s sake while paying attention to any cues one might have urging one to lean in the direction of exploring alternate realities. Those cues are not only important, they can be an immense source of deep, profound satisfaction.

Dark Matter is a gift inspired by All That Is consciousness. It gets a lot right about what’s really going on in the multiverse.