[Elennar Starfire]

That is an excellent summary for someone who owes all of their knowledge to this thread and to Star Trek, Elennar.

Whew, it's good to know that I didn't seem completely stupid.

Actually, we could do with our own quantum physicist in here to explain all this stuff to us (not that we could understand it ).

I have gotten into the ideas of quantum mechanics, and started reading a few books on the subject. It is very confusing and I don't think I can explain anything right now, but maybe when I understand it a little better myself I can try to explain it. I recommend reading Alice in Quantumland for a beginning, as it is probably about as simple as a book about quantum mechanics can be.

Why should our universe be the main one? I find this, to be honest, a bit egocentric (this is NOT a personal attack on Aragorn!!). That's also why I don't understand it when people think that our universe is the only one.

Yes, it's like thinking that the earth is the center of the universe, or that there is no other life in the universe.

I do not think that, even if we hypothetically accept the 'existence' of parallel universes, that a Middle Earth-like universe could ever exist. This is because the Physical laws which allow the existence of parallel universes in the first place would surely have to apply within any given parallel universe, and the laws of Physics simply do not apply in Middle Earth.

But could there not be a universe so different from our own that the laws of physics are different? I am still quite ignorant of quantum mechanics, and physics, and all that stuff,(I'm only 14) so please tell me if that sounds really stupid.

Amarie, your post confused and, at the same uncomfortable time, enlightened me. You've articulated what I've been trying to say for a few days on this thread: free will would be missing from a parallel universe, which is the chief reason the idea makes me uncomfortable in the first place.

But why do we see ourselves as we are in this universe, why are we not in another? I don't mean physically, I mean mentally. (I'm even confusing myself here!) This to me means that there is free will, that our choices dictate the path our soul follows, and which of the infinite possibilities actually exists for us, mentally. (EEK that makes very little sense to me, I have no idea where it came from!)

I actually have a copy of A Brief History of Time, I shall have to read it soon. Currently I'm stuck on The Strange Story of the Quantum. I can't read much at a time, it gives me headaches.