Whether you believe in spiritual realms -- e.g., Heaven or Hell -- I think we can all agree that we cannot see them in our universe. We will never see far enough using telescopes to physically observe the existence of some other dimension or universe. However, there exists an entity that may point toward the presence of other universes, which we call "dark matter." Allow me to elaborate on what exactly dark matter is before moving on.

As you may or may not know, our sun is actually orbiting around the center of our galaxy. Now, our galaxy is huge. In fact, it is 100,000 lightyears in diameter. It would take our sun 230 million years to complete one orbit around the center of the galaxy. Astronomers can use the orbital speed of the sun to calculate how much mass is inside its orbit. That makes sense, right? Since more mass creates a stronger gravitational pull, a faster orbital speed means there is more mass within the orbit. Based on the amount of mass that astronomers are able to detect inside the sun's orbit, the sun itself orbits the center of the galaxy at a much higher velocity than astronomers predict. The question is, why is it moving so fast? Answer: we aren't sure. At this point, we have no absolute explanation for the cause of this phenomenon. The most sufficient theory so far is that there exists some matter that we can't physically detect -- matter that is completely dark, reflecting no light at all. This seems to be the most realistic explanation in terms of our universe's laws of physics.

OK -- so what's this "stuff" made of?

At this point, we only have evidence of its gravitational effects and not much more. Therefore, astronomers and physicists have come up with a few different theories as to what causes this strange phenomenon. Many believe that there may be other universes that exist, and that dark matter is the physical effect that those universes have on ours. If other universes do exist, the reason we can only feel their effects is because they exist in other physical dimensions. In other words, rather than space being three-dimensional as we understand it, there could be a fourth dimension in which other physical matter exists that we can never see. But what are these multi-dimensional universes like? And what could exist in them? I have developed a theory of my own, stemming from this idea of multi-dimensional universes.

In the Bible, Heaven and Hell are depicted as places that one can never physically reach in our universe. At this point, most people probably think they're just entirely separate from the world we know -- that each is not a physical dimension at all, but rather some type of spiritual realm. But, what if they are physical? What if those other universes that scientists are postulating are actually the universe that exists as Heaven, and another that is Hell?

Feeling the effects of Heaven.

The Bible leads us to believe that Heaven is going to be so amazing that we could never begin to fathom its glorious beauty. Similarly, in our three-dimensional universe, it is physically impossible for us to ever make sense of what a fourth spatial dimension would look like. Though not in any way definitive, the correlation is staring us in the face. Based on these parallels, it would make a lot of sense if Heaven were to be a universe consisting of more physical dimensions than our universe, whether that be four or four hundred. It doesn't matter how many spatial dimensions it may or may not have. The key to this theory is that I am suggesting that Heaven is a realm with physical properties.

"So, what if it is? Why do I care?"

Great question! Remember that dark matter I was discussing a couple paragraphs ago, that we have no definitive explanation for? Well, this could be the answer! If Heaven and/or Hell exist as multi-dimensional universes, dark matter may very well be the matter within those universes. Step back for one moment, and allow me to make a comparison. Picture a two-dimensional coordinate system on a piece of paper, with x and y-axes. Let's say you look at a dot located at a point with specific values of x and y. If you continue to stare at that point, but the dot moves off the paper, in a third dimension, you will never see that dot unless it returns to the exact spot in that third dimension. Likewise, if something exists in that fourth dimension of space, and it is always moving in that fourth dimension, we will never be able to see it. So, if anything exists in another dimension, it would only make sense that we don't see it. So this effect that our universe is feeling from "dark matter" could potentially be the gravitational effect of the matter that exists in Heaven and/or Hell. Think about it. Just as the sun holds the planets in our solar system together through gravitational force, God may be quite literally holding our galaxy together while in Heaven.

Heavenly matter theory.

I will call my theory the heavenly matter theory. At least, that's what I'll name it for now. To conclude what I've discussed, what follows is a concise form of my entire theory.

In order to explain the phenomenon of accelerated expansion in our universe, I propose that what astronomers now refer to as '"dark matter" could actually be the physical effects of Heaven and Hell. This suggests that these realms are physical, and that they exist in multi-dimensional space around our universe. Therefore, the "dark matter" that we refer to would actually be matter that is simply not observable within our three-dimensional universe.

I hope you understand what it is I'm suggesting, here. At this point, you likely either think I'm off my rocker, a downright idiot, or you don't understand what I'm talking about. But if you think I may have something going here, you can probably understand how excited I am about this idea. I am entirely aware that this might be totally ridiculous, and that someone may very well come along and take a theological crap on my theory. Astronomers may even prove this to have no physical possibility of being true. And I'm okay with all of that. I just hope that reaching out to the world with this theory will at least lead scientists toward studying the potential validity of my claims. Who knows? Someone may tackle this idea before we know it. If no one else does, I'll do it myself once I'm out studying astrophysics.