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00:00 Where do you go when you die?
00:02 Is there an afterlife?
00:04 Will you remember this life?
00:05 These are questions as old as humankind itself, but in recent years, we've discovered an
00:10 all-new approach toward finding the answers.
00:14 This is Unveiled, and today we're taking a closer look at an extraordinary theory which
00:18 could show that there's a new dimension when you die.
00:22 Do you need the big questions answered?
00:24 Are you constantly curious?
00:25 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:28 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:32 Death comes to us all, but is it really the end?
00:35 Some philosophers, scientists, and academics are beginning to think that no, it isn't.
00:39 One of the most prominent voices in the debate for and against some kind of continuation
00:43 after you die is the British mathematician and cosmologist Bernard Carr.
00:48 Alongside his more conventional physics background, including a reputation for black hole research,
00:53 Carr is also interested in psychic phenomenon, the nature of consciousness, and of reality
00:57 and death.
00:59 In numerous papers, articles, and interviews, he has set out his ideas on how a multi-dimensional
01:04 space could be the key element to understanding the lot.
01:08 Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Carr is "if you don't want God, you'd
01:12 better have a multiverse".
01:14 As a response to the so-called "fine-tuning problem", it underpins so much of what he
01:18 has to say.
01:20 The suggestion being that for life, the universe, and everything to exist, there either has
01:24 to be a God creating it so that it all works… or there has to be a multiverse to host all
01:29 of the endless variations, including this one that works.
01:33 In this way, we all exist in a multi-dimensional space, even if we're only aware of the three-dimensional
01:39 planes we can see.
01:40 For Carr, though, that doesn't mean we're limited to only 3D-ness all the time.
01:45 For example, he has spoken before about the nature of dreams; about how, while they don't
01:50 exist in our physical reality, they clearly do exist.
01:54 In a way, we might say that while dreams aren't three-dimensional (not exactly), they are
01:58 something-dimensional.
01:59 So, where and how do they happen?
02:02 They also unfold alongside what we do understand as 3D physical reality; the two things are
02:08 happening at the same time.
02:09 So, how is that explainable?
02:12 Carr has also spoken at length more generally about the nature of consciousness in the mind.
02:16 Of course, this has been an urgent problem for science for hundreds of years, and we
02:20 still haven't properly solved it.
02:22 But again, for Carr, the key to understanding consciousness could lie with unlocking the
02:27 truth about our reality; that there are more, perhaps many more, hyper-spatial dimensions
02:32 - that is, dimensions beyond the height, width and depth combined with time - that we understand.
02:39 When it comes to death, much of what we do know and have theorised starts with the testimonies
02:44 of those who have had near-death experiences, or NDEs.
02:47 And perhaps there are elements to NDEs that are very similar to how we would otherwise
02:51 describe dreams.
02:53 There are seeming physical impossibilities, out-of-body visions, a sense of heightened
02:57 or distorted emotion.
02:58 In papers and interviews, Bernard Carr frequently mentions a mysticism - it's not exactly a
03:03 traditionally scientific term.
03:06 But one interpretation of Carr's approach is that during an NDE we perhaps enter, or
03:10 get very close to entering, a different dimension - higher than what's physically possible for
03:15 us now.
03:16 And for those hoping for an afterlife, that could be extremely good news.
03:20 But exactly how would it work?
03:22 Carr himself never promises to know exactly what might happen.
03:25 However, he has repeatedly highlighted that not everything is explainable through the
03:29 laws and frameworks of physics as we currently have them - i.e. through general relativity
03:33 and quantum mechanics.
03:35 With things like NDEs, out-of-body experiences and hallucinations, it can be as though physical
03:41 reality breaks.
03:42 For Carr, though, perhaps it isn't broken during these times - even if it is unknowable.
03:47 And the existence of extra dimensions could be an inevitable truth in order to allow for
03:52 these otherwise impossible phenomena.
03:54 And therefore, readers of Carr might justifiably ask, if it's true of near-death moments, then
04:00 why not of the moment of death as well?
04:03 In 2021, Carr published a paper titled "Making Space and Time for Consciousness in Physics".
04:09 In it, he proposes that in order to reach a true theory of everything, we need a model
04:13 that provides "some form of unification of matter, mind, space and time".
04:20 He suggests that we require a new paradigm of physics to accommodate for consciousness.
04:24 And he discusses the current distinction in scientific thought between physical time - i.e.
04:30 as it plays out in the outer world - and mental time - i.e. as it happens in the inner world,
04:36 in our consciousness, through experience.
04:38 The paper in itself is something of a culmination of all of Carr's thoughts and theories on
04:42 the subject to date.
04:44 What's seemingly key for the potential of life - or something after death, however - is
04:48 the possibility for what Carr calls "psychophysical space-time", proposed as an explanation for
04:54 the relationship between physical and perceptual space.
04:58 Carr writes, "The prime feature of our proposal is that perpetual space exists in its own right
05:04 rather than just inside of our heads."
05:08 Perceptual space is then a major, independent and fundamental facet of reality as a whole.
05:13 More broadly, for those who support Carr's model, the perceptual space is where anything
05:18 that apparently isn't physically possible would be allowed to unfold.
05:22 In the context of today's question, could it be where the afterlife is waiting?
05:27 It's tied up with another key concept called the "specious present", which, in short,
05:32 relates to the timescale through which we experience reality.
05:35 For humans, it's typically predictable enough to be unnoticeable in our everyday lives…
05:39 but every so often it can speed up or slow down.
05:42 For example, in a near-death experience, you might live your entire life in a second.
05:47 Or, if you're ill with a fever, it might feel as though reality moves faster or slower.
05:52 Our perceptual space becomes significantly blurred during these times, but it's difficult
05:56 to explain why using just the physics we have.
05:59 Carr builds on this by suggesting, toward the end of his paper, that consciousness may
06:03 not even be only an individual thing; that it might not be confined only to any one person,
06:09 independent of everything else.
06:11 He posits that after human consciousness, there could be a terrestrial or planet-wide
06:15 level of consciousness, and then galactic, and then cosmic.
06:19 In the paper, he doesn't reveal exactly how these levels might be linked, but he later
06:23 describes them as a "hierarchy of compactified extra dimensions".
06:27 In his conclusion, Carr writes that his proposed model regards "physical space and perpetual
06:33 space as slices of a five-dimensional space, with the fifth dimension being associated
06:38 with mental time as distinct from physical time."
06:43 Throughout the essay, he suggests that there could be more than five dimensions, though;
06:46 that the fifth dimension is really only the minimum that would be required, if we ever
06:50 wanted to incorporate mental, perceptual phenomenon into a unified theory of everything.
06:55 Carr doesn't specifically mention life after death in the 2021 paper, although he has spoken
07:00 about it at length in various past interviews and pieces.
07:03 More broadly, though, his insistence in a fifth dimension at least - a plane to host
07:08 mental time - implies that suddenly we aren't bound by just the 3D or 4D physicality of
07:14 our bodies.
07:15 And so, when we die in the third and fourth dimensions, could it be that we continue in
07:19 the fifth?
07:20 There's no doubt that the 3D matter that makes us is finite.
07:24 It will decay, fail, and disappear.
07:26 There's only so long that the human brain can last, despite its incredible complexity.
07:31 But again, as Carr writes, the prime feature of this new proposal is that perceptual space
07:36 exists in its own right, rather than just inside our heads.
07:40 So, when the brain is no more, could consciousness just move on?
07:44 Has it always existed in a higher dimension?
07:47 So is death actually not that important to it at all?
07:50 What's your opinion on the wider implications of Carr's alternate model of reality?
07:55 Do you believe that it is possible that some part of us will remain after our bodies have
07:59 perished?
08:00 Let us know in the comments.
08:02 For now, these are intricate, at times speculative, but potentially radical ideas.
08:07 Carr himself concedes that his extra-dimensional theories certainly don't represent mainstream
08:13 physics, and that most physicists would be very sceptical.
08:16 But, nevertheless, if what he proposed is right, and if it could offer an explanation
08:21 for not just known phenomenon like dreaming and NDEs, but also for what will ultimately
08:25 happen at the end of our lives, then that's why there really could be another dimension
08:31 after you die.
08:32 What do you think?
08:33 Is there anything we missed?
08:35 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
08:39 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.