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 Unveiled, and today we're exploring four extraordinary parallel universe stories
to make you question reality.
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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 labelled 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 centred 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 travelling 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.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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