I was checking out the Top 10 Space Mysteries for 2003 at space and came across an article outlining the Ekpyrotic Universe as an alternative to our current model of creation. Chiefly the idea that there are no parallel universes or alternate worlds, rather just one universe with multiple dimensions. Their model has essentially five spatial dimensons (the fourth being time) with the ‘big bang’ occuring as a result of four dimensional membranes colliding in five dimensional space. Three cheers for theoretical physics.
Five dimensions is a bit of a mindfuck, so I embarked on a small internet quest to find out more about the concept. This article explains the Kaluza Klien Theory that postulates a fifth dimension in an attempt to unify electromagnetism and general relativity, I don’t really understand it. This description is a little bit easier to wrap the head around, less mathy more normal english. This article’s a little bit heady but it outlines trying to grasp the ideas of hyper and ultracubes. And another article outlining the ideas behind multidimensional space (probably the easiest to conceptualize out of all of them). Many of the multispatial concepts and ideas seem to be connected with superstring theory, which just leads to the opening of another can of worms. I’ll finish this off with some diagrams that offer an attempt at visualizing 4D space.