Dreams, Delusions, and Parallel Lives: What Psychology Says About Alternate Realities

It begins with a choice.

Not a grand one—just the kind you’d face on a rainy Tuesday. Do you take the safe route, or the risky one? Do you call them, or stay silent? Somewhere in the back of your mind, a strange comfort settles in: Maybe, just maybe, another version of me is living out the other choice. That thought—equal parts escape and clarity—gives you peace. You choose your path. And walk it knowing another “you” is walking another.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s a psychological phenomenon that lives at the crossroads of dreams, delusions, and the very real, very strange ways our brains create reality, or at least it's how I’ve been living the past 16 years of my life. 

The Dreamworld: Where Our Mind Experiments Freely

Every night, your brain constructs worlds. Entire landscapes, characters, timelines—often with no input from logic or conscious intention. In REM sleep, your prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain that governs rational thinking—goes quiet, while emotional centers light up. This gives dreams their surreal, rule-breaking flavor.

But for some, especially lucid dreamers, this boundary thins. You wake up inside the dream. You fly. You time-travel. You rehearse difficult conversations or live a version of your life that reality denies. In therapy, dreams have long been a window into the unconscious, but they’re also, what modern neuroscience calls, our brain's sandbox for simulation.

Split Selves: The Protective Power of Imagination

When choices paralyze us, our brains crave narrative. One way we cope is by imagining an “alternate self” taking the path we didn’t choose. It’s a form of emotional regulation—less brutal than regret, more empowering than repression. This is something I’ve done myself for as long as I can remember. Anytime I have to make a choice even remotely harder than water or juice, I imagine another version of myself—another Urvee in another life—choosing the other path. It’s like a quiet pact with the multiverse. One version of me carries the burden of "what if" so the other can move forward with peace.

This isn't just poetic—it mirrors a psychological concept called counterfactual thinking, where the mind explores "what could have been" as a way to make sense of the now.

Fracturing of Reality (what we’d call Schizophrenia)

But what happens when the mind no longer knows where the line is? In schizophrenia, individuals often experience hallucinations and delusions that place them in realities completely detached from consensus. These are not “alternate lives” by choice, but instead intrusions of unreality that overwhelm the self.

Yet intriguingly, studies have shown that delusions often serve a purpose—they can act as a coping mechanism, helping the brain create order in the chaos of trauma, isolation, or overwhelming emotion. This does raise a particularly hard question: At what point does imagination become pathology?

The Simulation Hypothesis: Are We All Just Dreaming?

You’ve probably heard the theory: what if none of this is real? I’m pretty sure Elon Musk popularized it in our times (or you’ve already had your teenage angst phase), but philosophers and physicists have long debated the idea that we're living in a computer simulation. In psychology, this overlaps with derealization—a dissociative experience where the world feels distant, artificial, dreamlike.

Whether it's a philosophical thought experiment or a mental health condition, it challenges the same thing: how do we know what’s real?

Parallel Selves: A Comforting Illusion or Hidden Truth?

The idea that there are infinite versions of you—making different choices, living different lives—can be strangely healing. It gives weight to the life you do choose. In quantum psychology (a fringe but fascinating field), this aligns with the many-worlds interpretation of physics. While not empirically provable, it's emotionally resonant.

When people imagine parallel selves, they’re often not trying to escape reality—they’re trying to commit to it more fully.

The Therapist’s Take: Use the Illusion Wisely

Therapists aren’t really against these weird otherworldly brain theories,  sometimes they invite clients to visualize their “future self” to guide current decisions. This is, in essence, a form of constructive self-delusion—using imagination as a tool rather than a trap.

The trick is intention. Are you using alternate realities to ground yourself in your choices—or to flee them?

Choosing the Real Now

So the more I read about it the more I kind of realize,  maybe the dream, the delulus, the parallel life—all of it—isn’t about what's real or unreal. Maybe it's about perspective. Maybe every time you imagine that alternate version of yourself, you're not escaping—you're choosing. More consciously. More freely.

When I imagine another Urvee walking a different path, I’m not losing touch with reality. I’m claiming the one I want most in this particular reality. That can’t be madness. That’s mindfulness in motion (well either that or I’ve been gaslighting myself since 2.17 am).

Reference List:

Reference listBarrett, D. (2001). The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265122910_The_Committee_of_Sleep_How_Artists_Scientists_and_Athletes_Use_Dreams_for_Creative_Problem-Solving.

Bostrom, N. (2003). Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? The Philosophical Quarterly, [online] 53(211), pp.243–255. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9213.00309.

Domhoff, G.W. (2003). APA PsycNet. [online] psycnet.apa.org. Available at: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-06753-000.

Frith, C.D. (2014). The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia. [online] Psychology Press. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315785011.

Roese, N.J. (1997). APA PsycNet. [online] psycnet.apa.org. Available at: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-02112-007.