Quantum physics muddied the picture by suggesting both are true: light behaves like waves until it is observed, at which point light becomes a particle known as a photon. Furthermore, matter, too, has this split personality.

Wave behavior is typically illustrated in physics classes via the interaction of multiple waves that yields constructive and destructive interference (for more about this, refer to the double-slit experiment). It is from this interference that multiple waves are construed. However, even single photons exhibit wave behavior prior to their being observed. A longstanding puzzle had been how a single photon can behave like a wave when it has nothing with which to interfere.

That puzzle would be resolved if a single photon consisted of multiple waves. If that is true, it leads to the question of what makes up those waves. Conventional quantum physics tell us such waves represent numeric probabilities rather than anything physically real. Rather than numeric waves, noted physicist Richard Feynman famously lectured in his Brooklyn accent, "They're pahticals!"

Compare this situation to an ocean of water. Ocean waves are not a thing unto themselves, but rather reflect the actions of a large number of water molecules. The amplitude and frequency of such water waves can be calculated and represented numerically. Yet, there would be no wave at all without the particles of water. Those water molecules interact, push on each other, transfer energy and, as a result, we see waves of them wash ashore at a beach.

No one would expect a single water molecule to act like an ocean of water. A given, single water molecule exhibits physical wave behavior only when in the presence of other liquids like it.

According to MIWOI, much the same is true for light. A photon of light is a single particle. That it nevertheless exhibits wave behavior suggests other photons are nearby with which it can interact. For MIWOI, these other photons exist in other worlds. The photons within other worlds are similar to, but not quite the same as, the "dark photons" others have proposed more recently.

Upon observation of a photon, its wave behavior stops because observation stops interaction with photons in other worlds. In the water analogy, this is akin to an ocean wave that reaches a peak location on a sandy beach, then retreats. Upon retreat, the little water that remains on the sand no longer has many other water molecules nearby, so wave behavior ceases.

Under MIWOI, the wave or particle conundrum is resolved via the understanding that light is a wave OF particles. A given photon, therefore, interacts within an ocean of photons in many worlds. That interaction yields wave behavior.

The physical reality of particles in other worlds can be demonstrated via the Dark Coherence lab experiment.

Published 2025 May 15