"Listen, there's a hell of a universe next door: let's go!"
Imagine for a minute that the Universe had another dimension to it... Not the hypothetical, you'll-never-see-it dimensions of string theory or M theory, but an actual dimension that you could move through much as you move through space, provided you knew how to manipulate the forces that propel you through this dimension.
Naturally this extra dimension would have to be 1) integrated with our perceivable temporal and spatial dimensions, 2) capable of explaining more of our everyday experiences than the current 4-dimensional model, and 3) on friendly terms with Occam.
This 5-dimensional picture of the universe can be conceptualized as a multiverse - a Universe containing all possible parallel outcomes. And rather than rehash quantum physics, parallel universes, etc. in the necessary level of detail, for now let me give you this illustration of the multiverse... Suppose, when you flipped a coin, that it was possible to navigate your way to the universe where the coin landed on Heads, and that it was equally possible to steer yourself toward the universe where the coin landed on Tails. The outcome of the coin flip is not random at all; rather, our movement toward the final state of the coin is governed by laws and dynamics of force, just as our movements through the spatial dimensions are.
When you can understand and use these dynamics to plot a course through the sea of possible universes that is the multiverse, you have entered Smearland.
