(© 2025 Richard J. Ruppenthal — First use of the term “Thinkiverse”)

Abstract

The concept of the multiverse describes a cosmos of infinite possible physical universes. Yet the very idea of such multiplicity emerges within consciousness. Before there can be many worlds, there must first be the capacity to imagine “many” and to conceive “worlds.” This essay proposes that all conceivable universes exist within a greater meta-dimension — the Thinkiverse — the universe of thought itself.

1. The Limits of the Multiverse

The multiverse hypothesis in cosmology attempts to explain why our universe has the properties it does. Whether through quantum branching, inflationary bubbles, or string-theory landscapes, it posits that countless universes may exist in parallel.
But even as we describe those universes, where do they exist for us?
In the mind.
Each possibility, each model, each diagram of spacetime curvature, exists only as a pattern of thought until it is given expression in consciousness. The multiverse, then, may be an artifact of the Thinkiverse — a projection from within the universe of thought.

2. The Thinkiverse: The Universe of Thought

The Thinkiverse is the totality of all thought-based constructions of reality. It encompasses every belief, imagination, perception, and conceptual framework through which we interpret existence. It is not merely subjective opinion; it is the living medium through which experience takes form.

  • In physics, this parallels the observer effect: observation alters what is measured.
  • In psychology, it mirrors cognitive framing: the mind does not see reality as it is, but as it is thought to be.
  • In philosophy, it aligns with Kant’s transcendental idealism and Husserl’s phenomenology, where the structures of mind shape the appearance of the world.

Thus, the Thinkiverse is not opposed to reality — it is the lens that brings reality into focus.

3. Bohm, Thought, and Reality

Physicist-philosopher David Bohm famously said,

“Thought creates our world, and then says ‘I didn’t do it.’”¹
Bohm saw thought not as a passive mirror but as an active participant in creation. His notion of the implicate order describes a flowing wholeness in which mind and matter are entwined aspects of one movement. Thought is not separate from what it observes; it is part of the total process.
In this sense, the Thinkiverse is congruent with Bohm’s implicate order — the inner patterning field from which all perceived worlds (explicate orders) unfold.

4. Consciousness as the Creative Field

If thought is the creative agent, then consciousness is the field in which that creativity arises. Modern research on consciousness — from Integrated Information Theory (Tononi, 2004) to non-dual awareness studies (Spira, 2011) — suggests that reality and awareness are not distinct domains but intertwined expressions of a single source.
In the Thinkiverse, this field is infinite: every possible belief, image, and interpretation coexists as potential. When we focus attention, we “collapse” one version into experience — much as a wavefunction collapses in quantum measurement.

5. The Multiverse Within the Thinkiverse

From this view, the multiverse exists within the Thinkiverse, not the other way around.
Each thought of a universe is a creation within the infinite space of mind. Every mathematical model, every speculative dimension, every “what if” branches within the living medium of consciousness.
In this sense:

The Thinkiverse is the source; the multiverse is its echo.
The Thinkiverse is the dreamer; the multiverse is the dream.

6. Implications

  • Scientific: Reminds cosmology that every model arises in mind — that epistemology precedes ontology.
  • Philosophical: Re-integrates consciousness as a causal dimension in the story of reality.
  • Human: Reclaims creative agency — our experience of life changes as our thinking changes.

7. Conclusion

Before there was any universe, there was the capacity to think “universe.”
Before there could be many universes, there was the capacity to imagine “many.”
That capacity — the boundless, generative domain of thought — is the Thinkiverse.
It is the first universe, the one in which all others arise.

References

  1. Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge.
  2. Chalmers, D. J. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press.
  3. Tononi, G. (2004). “An information integration theory of consciousness.” BMC Neuroscience, 5(1), 42.
  4. Spira, R. (2011). The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience. New Harbinger Publications.
  5. Kant, I. (1781). Critique of Pure Reason.
  6. Husserl, E. (1931). Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology.
  7. Everett, H. (1957). “Relative State” Formulation of Quantum Mechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics, 29(3), 454–462.