This is just a bit of fun speculation, try not to take it too seriously.
The fact that parallel universes exist has been proven beyond much doubt, though the nature of their existence is still the subject of fierce scientific debate. Many people think that they are merely reflections, that 'hold no water', so to speak, and do not exist in the physical and spiritual sense that our own universe does. Others believe that there are infinite universes in which lives are carried out trillions and trillions of different ways, one for every conceivable and even unimaginable variable that could occur at any given point in the history of time.
First, I will demonstrate the basic knowledge behind the vastly studied and (mostly) scientifically approved theory that parallel universes exist. It is not yet dogma in the world of physical scientists, but its basic principal is generally accepted.
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What is a parallel universe? Like an everyday universe it is a region of space and time containing matter, galaxies, stars, planets and living beings. (Fred Alan Wolf, Parallel Universe)
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Parallel universes can range from near exact copies of our own universes (these would be the ones where only a minor observed variation occured and this meaningless variable was branched into a separate universe) to radically different universes where millions of inexplicable variables came into being and which altered the entire worldscape and even universal structure. It is a vast spectrum of different universes, each containing multitudes of anomalous and indescribable worlds.
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This spectrum includes quantum physics, unification of new ideas about universes, relativity, cosmology, a new notion of time, and psychology--or the effects of the human mind on all of this. (Wolf)
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The last part of the sentence is one that is debated more among philosophers than scientists, although Wolf at least gives it a talk in his mostly scientifically-grounded book. The idea that the workings of the human mind can constitute variable changes that would produce an entire alternate universe is one that is oft discussed among philosophers, less so among scientists, although the idea is certainly plausible in the minds of many (my own included).
Here is an example of what quantum physicists by and large see to be an example of proof that parallel universes exist.
In 1967, physicist Pietr Largon (note: he was not the first nor the last to conduct this experiment) shined a high-watt lightbulb at a sheet of wax paper. Using sophisticated techniques, he mapped the range of the light ions that touched the paper. After making a comprehensive map of the light that hit the paper, he observed and concluded that there was not enough light touching the paper for it to be considered a 'wave', which is the form that light from such a bulb would certainly travel in. He concluded therefore that there must be other universes acting on our own, creating the effect of a wave of light when in actuality there were not enough ions to comprise a wave. This is a theory that you and I may have some deal of trouble grasping, but the way it has been explained to me (by Pietr and by other books concerning the subject), I am forced to believe that it is proof enough for physicists (a hard bunch to prove anything to) that parallel universes exist and digress from our own world, at an arguable rate of several trillion per second. They exist in their own 'reality', accessible only through quantum foam, a material so minute that a millionth of an atom would have a hard time squeezing through.
If there are any physicists here, feel free to correct any mistakes or incorrect judgements I may have overlooked or been ignorant of, but I have been brought to grips with the subject through a longtime friend and through (skimming) a few books, so I feel at least somewhat qualified to analyze the above theories and experiments.
I am sure by now you are wondering, "Where is he going with this?" Indeed, I may well win an award for longest post that nobody read, as I have not even touched upon the subject of Middle Earth or Professor Tolkien in the entire length of this post. Hopefully you have guessed at the title of this thread at what I am trying to get at.
This is not a belief of mine, merely a bit of speculation to eat up a slow Sunday morning. Hopefully it is grounded in fact enough so that I may not be considered by the extremely knowledgeable members of this site a crazy loon. The theory I put forth is simply this; since Professor Tolkien imagined and created in writing a world of his own, and gave it such a depth as to seem real, then (if you choose to see pyschology and variables within the human mind as a criterion for a new universe) Middle Earth could well exist as one of the trillion-variable worlds beyond our own sight and thought. It seems likely that within an infinite array of variables possible, an infinite prism of different universes and worlds would appear, and that every possible way of life and every possible variable on any possible action could be represented in another universe. If this was so, it would be possible for a Middle Earth to evolve, in the same way that Professor Tolkien saw it growing and evolving as he poured countless hours into over the course of his life.
I doubt many people have actually bothered to scroll down this far. I hope this post will be of some interest to at least a few of you, so that my breath is not needlessly wasted.
-Angmar
<font size=1 color=339966>[ 8:29 PM January 12, 2004: Message edited by: Lord of Angmar ]