While the concept of parallel universes can be traced as far back as Ancient Greece,
it wasn't until 1957 that the idea really took hold. It was in that year that Hugh Everett
established the first major multiverse theory, suggesting that our universe coexists parallel
to an infinite number of other universes. From here, many came to believe that you
might be able to cross over and intersect at various points in time and space… across an
intricate web of interdimensional doorways. And, although the multiverse is yet to be officially
proven and therefore remains theoretical, there are several stories and legends of
incidents so seemingly inexplicable that there are suggestions of a glitch in this hidden structure.
So, this is WatchMojo, and today we're exploring
four extraordinary parallel universe stories to make you question reality.
For today’s first case, we’re heading to Japan, and to an oft-repeated tale of
the man from Taured. Exact dates tend to differ between retellings of this story,
but it’s generally said that sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s a man presented his
passport at a Tokyo airport, expecting to be let through the gate. All his documents
seemed to be in order except for one thing; the country that had issued the passport, Taured,
did not exist. Assuming he was some kind of criminal, the customs officers at the airport
allegedly held the man for questioning. Bizarrely, when he was asked to point Taured out on a map,
he could apparently do so… only it was labeled as what we know to be Andorra, instead. According
to the man, the unknown country of Taured was a thousand years old, though. And he was reportedly
able to show the officers several official passport stamps (as well as currencies) from
various other countries where he had seemingly had business in the past… to further prove his case.
Naturally, the officers did a little more digging, according to most versions of the story,
and called up the company the man claimed to work for. They discovered that it did exist,
but not in anywhere known as Taured. The hotel at which the man insisted he had a reservation
was also called, and again it was real… but no reservation was found under the correct name.
The officers were, then, at a loss. Everything seemed to be legitimate and in order, except for
the fairly significant fact that Taured, and by extension the man himself, just did not exist.
Pending further investigation, it’s said that the man was then sent to a nearby hotel,
where he was placed under armed guard (with the suspicion being that he may still be a criminal,
of some kind). However, after just one night’s stay, in the morning the man was gone. And all his
documents, too. Every trace of him had vanished, and he was supposedly never heard from again. So,
what happened? Perhaps unsurprisingly, this tale is seen by some as just a complicated
hoax. Official records of the mystery man don’t, after all, appear to exist.
And his story has some similarities to another case of a genuine fraudster, again in Japan,
around the same time. But still, some believe that he was really a visitor from a parallel universe
who had accidentally spliced between his world and ours. Ultimately, his fate remains unknown.
For our second story, we’re heading a century further back in time, to news of a case first
published in the UK, in 1851. Reports centered on the small German village of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder,
where a man was reportedly discovered wandering around in a confused haze.
When questioned by the local authorities, he allegedly managed to explain that his name
was Jophar (or Joseph) Vorin and that he had no idea where he was. He claimed that he had
come to Germany in search of his brother but had previously been shipwrecked in an
unknown location. The man insisted he was originally from a country called Laxaria,
though, a place that no one else had ever heard of… because it doesn’t exist.
Vorin is said to have explained that Laxaria was found in a continent-like region of Earth called
Sakria. But, again, no one had heard of such a place. What's more, Vorin couldn’t retrace
his trip to that point on a map, and didn’t recognize any of the names of the continents
as we know them. He reportedly continued to reveal more about his home world, though, explaining that
the Earth he knew was divided into five main regions in total… apparently called Sakria,
Aflar, Aslar, Auslar, and Euplar. He professed to speak fluent Laxarian, too, as well a second
unknown language of Abramian. Finally, and again according to reports at the time, he
described himself as a follower of Christianity, but of an unknown branch called Ispatian.
It’s said that authorities ultimately sent him to Berlin for further questioning… with
some retellings claiming that he escaped on his way there, never to be heard from again.
As with the man from Taured, though, there is little by way of an official record of Vorin’s
appearance, and especially of his alleged disappearance at the end of the story. So,
could this simply be another hoax? Or was there really an error in the multiverse once more,
before Vorin was sent back to his own reality?
Unlike with our first two stories, where residents of alternate universes purportedly visit our own,
today’s remaining two tales are of individuals from our reality allegedly making an accidental
visit into a foreign dimension. The first has been widely attributed to an account given by a
Doctor Raul Centeno, in Peru, concerning the country’s infamously spooky Markawasi Stone
Forest. Centeno claims to have treated a woman who accidentally passed through an interdimensional
doorway that can be found somewhere within this particular piece of the South American landscape.
Centeno’s patient, along with a group of friends, reportedly decided to go for a
night hike through the woods there, when they happened across a small wooden cabin,
clearly with people inside. So the story goes, the group soon discovered that the people in the
cabin were incongruously dressed in old-fashioned, what’s usually described as seventeenth century,
clothing. It’s then said that the hikers claimed to have quickly felt an unusual,
out-of-control desire to join in with the unexpected celebration… and so the woman,
Centeno's patient, attempted to enter the cabin, before her friends changed their
minds and pulled her back. But not before half of her body had passed through the doorway.
It was allegedly then that the woman discovered that the side of her body that had passed through
had become paralyzed. This was predominantly why she sought treatment from Doctor Centeno
in the first place, who diagnosed her with hemiplegia. But, despite the diagnosis,
the doctor couldn’t decipher a clear cause for this sudden and inexplicable condition. Instead,
reports are that he believes that the woman’s unfortunate fate may have been the result of a
brief visit into an alternate dimension. One lying just beyond that mysterious Markawasi doorway.
Finally, one Pedro Oliva Ramirez also reportedly took a wrong turn through another universe,
but this time in Spain, in November of 1986. According to another of the most
infamous (and widespread) interdimensional claims out there, Ramirez was on his usual
route home from work in the city of Seville, when he passed by an odd and previously unknown part
of the road. An instantly peculiar six-lane highway that he definitely didn’t recognize.
Along the side of this new road were tall buildings that Ramirez had never seen before,
despite traveling that way most days. It gets stranger, though, because Ramirez then
reportedly felt a hot and distinct temperature change in his car, and he heard a series of
voices… allegedly informing him that he had been transported to a different hemisphere.
Unsure of how to proceed, the story typically continues that Ramirez drove until he came to
an intersection with signs pointing in three directions. Taking one of the roads, and
believing he was headed back to Seville, Ramirez was apparently amazed when his car came to a stop,
he glanced out of his window, and found he was parked right in front of his home - where he had
been trying to get to all along. It’s said that a confused Ramirez then tried to retrace his steps
several times, but he could never find his way back to that six-lane highway. So how did he get
home, and who were the voices that spoke to him through his car? To this day, it’s a mystery.
Importantly, with all four of these cases, there’s precious little by way of an official
account. Or an official investigation. These tales predominantly exist as urban legends, but
some of them have been debated for decades now… and with no clear solutions. The multiverse waits
for no-one but, for now, those are four parallel universe stories to make you question reality.