Clearing Confusion on the Multiple/Single Dimension Theory

My insight, not theory, but insight on this all, is that it’s more about WHAT TYPE of realm the otherworld is (as in material vs. immaterial thought with embodiment). Remember that Silent Hill is more on supernatural terms than perceived science-fiction ones. A twitter post that Jeremy Blaustien made pretty much shows that the Japanese characters Team Silent uses can presumably also be interpreted as "Dream World", which makes sense under its nature and alternative name, Nightmare World. It fits perfectly with the official 1999 Japanese Konami guide's Q and A's (and I do believe its canon...so more on that below).

Twin Perfect, in that mind frame, is being a nuisance. This is because, its more or less about the spread of unofficial explanations that's twisting the character or type of realm the otherworld is, as if it always sat there with world slots for James and Eddie to just slide their own delusions in. It’s this that gives off questions such as "so, how many worlds max?”. I'm sure TS didn't think about this. Their mind being clouded with alternate dimensions would not result in the character of game we've been given (which gets me thinking, more below). That's why you usually do one or the other, not both (in terms of there being more than one dimension or something plainly psychological). The present wikipedian MDT interpretation is quite different and gives less of "entering a mind" and more of "wow, this is a strange world, captain".

I think this was their point, as their explanations do ring true to some official information on the game, but they gave it under the guise of their own SDT. Well, there is a difference between MDT, 2DT and SDT. In fact, a REAL SDT should be more about the bending of one's senses, quite like what's done in films like X2, where Jason puts Storm and NightCrawler into a projection whilst they're moving about. I liken the SDT to be more like The Mannequin, an indie game, and more about the force's manipulation of everything. I'm very open to this too, and it works on a 2DT level as well (real world vs a single dream/nightmare/other world), which was my original preference from what I gathered more discreetly (as in, I don't go in to it any more by myself, making a bunch of stuff that's only my opinion). It makes me think about the state of SH fans' theories. Do they really believe that the town doesn't occasionally warp the human senses? It’s always about gates ("again, strange world, captain").

In summary, you cannot be literal with real-life definitions of what a dimension/other is (yet that's what they're doing on a lot of info sites for SH). For example, Freddy being pulled out of the Dream Realm where he lives. A pure science-fiction explanation would be that we go off to another plane or dimension while sleeping, with two different selves. Both NoES and Silent Hill have more supernatural tones in it than casual sci-fi, so it’s possible that the said realm stays immaterial yet conscious. Fred kills you from your sleep, easy as that. It’s more to do with forces at work, but you aren't supposed to think about it, just like Jeremy Blaustein stated. The game delivers it with a better character than anyone's waste of time on explaining it. As I've seen, Silent Hill is more on playing it vague and making it more out to be insanity itself when it comes to the Nightmare shifting.

If I could sum it all up, it would be like Freddy and another monster having their own domain within the dream realm. You still say otherworld/dreamworld not otherworlds/dreamworlds, quite like another stated on this thread. It is an immaterial embodiment.

No, Alessa didn't create the main constitution that is the "otherworld/dreamworld" itself. No, not at all. However, it wasn't yet the way we commonly perceive it as. So, perhaps people went off into it and vanished in the past, but it wasn't to the caliber of any of the games. I doubt everyone on that ship were dark individuals, and yet it took everyone. The town simply had a warped nature and strange things began occurring as of this. In The Book of Lost Memories, yet another official Japanese only Konami guide (which I love for its informative set of creator comments), it states that SH1's events yet again changed the nature of the town, allowing it to call to those with darkness in them.

Owaku states: "The otherworld in the first game is a world manifested from the depths of Alessa's consciousness."

The official 1999 Konami guide book's Q & A states that the events of SH1 "took place in the world of Alessa's nightmares", and that her nightmare was amplified by the impregnated god. Neither 'side' is reality (e.g. day/fog & night/nightmare). However, these 'sides' aren't to be attributed as additional worlds, but simply changes within that same nightmare world, representing the cycles of sleep itself. The Book of Lost Memories places simply that "it would seem that in the otherworld, time and physical limitations are transcended and people's thoughts are communicated".

So again, it’s more accurately depicted as if a more natural, universal "dreamworld" where time and space doesn't exist, separate from physical reality (it just depends on the forces at work and the events, which why its most prominent in the town of Silent Hill). Again, I agree with Jeremy in not trying to explain thing like this any further, as its character better shines through this way.

This completely makes sense in how the world changes around each protagonist. Mostly it’s "place to place" or "room to room" and ambiguous, as if either you or the environment is the problem. Bigger changes involve what we saw in SH1 and 3 on rare occasions. These probably signify a locked spike in one's mental state.

Lastly, i'd like to point out that every bit of this can be applied to Walter's world(s). He's involved with the same religion and power. Simply, by killing himself, he was taken from the limitations of the flesh and his thoughts were embodied as their own world.