The many worlds theory has been gaining serious traction as of late within the scientific
community, and not just because it’s hard to test.
That aspect is undoubtedly true, to a degree, but there’s quite a bit of complex math
and quantum physics that suggests that our universe may be mirrored infinitely.
So, not only could there be infinite versions of the Earth and our Solar System…
But many billions of versions of you.
And it probably won’t surprise you to hear that there are many urban legends involving
visitors as well as accidental traversal from and into alternate realities.
Here are ten intriguing, if dubious, urban legends of accidental dimensional travel to
make you wonder “what if?”
10.
Cosmic Background Radiation “Bruise”
Okay.
This is more scientific theory than urban legend…
But this theory was laughed out of scientific circles until recently.
In a study submitted to “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society” Ruari
Mackenzie argues that the massive cold spot in the cosmic background radiation map couldn’t
have been created through natural events and is unlikely to be a statistical fluke.
The opposition argues that this cold spot is merely composed of galaxies that are simply
less dense than others seen in the map.
But Mackenzie found that galaxies are just as dense in the cold spot as they are in surrounding
areas.
So, believe it or not, the next best theory is that the cold spot is a bruise of sorts,
left over from when our universe collided with an another one.
What sort of chaos might have ensued from such a collision?
Would the ramifications be felt throughout time and space?
9.
The Man from Taured
Perhaps the most famous legend of an interdimensional traveler.
This story begins on a hot day in 1954 in Japan as a Caucasian tourist with a French
accent and beard arrives at Haneda Airport and walks through customs.
The man hands over his passport to be stamped, but the customs agent notices something peculiar
about it.
It’s issued by Taured, a country which doesn’t exist.
The man does his best to convince immigration officers that the country of Taured does indeed
exist; but after some arguing, they bring him a map and ask him to point the country
out for them.
Only one problem.
The portion of the map where he claimed Taured was, is already occupied by the Principality
of Andorra.
The man is puzzled.
Immigration officers detain the strange visitor, thinking he’s some kind of spy or criminal,
confining him to a room.
Two guards are placed outside the doors to ensure that he doesn’t go anywhere.
But, when they return to check on him, he’s completely vanished, along with his passport
and personal effects.
8.
Lerina Garcia
On July 16, 2008, Lerina Garcia (age 41) made a post in an online forum seeking help from
anyone that might be able to explain the strange predicament that she claimed to be in.
Garcia believed that she’d woken up in a parallel universe, one where things were almost
identical to her world, with a few noticeable exceptions.
When she woke, her bedsheets were different than they had been when she’d gone to bed.
Garcia didn’t seem too concerned with this and went on with her day.
She didn’t notice that things were really different until she went to work.
It turned out that, while she still held the same job as she remembered, it was in a different
department and she reported to a director she’d never met prior to that day.
She told her boss that she wasn’t feeling well and went home.
Garcia had herself checked out for drugs or alcohol and came back clean.
When she got home, she went through all her documents, checking newspapers, internet,
everything.
All the same as before her “jump.”
All save for one thing.
In this new reality, she was with an ex-boyfriend that she hadn’t been with for some time.
And what’s worse, the boyfriend she had been seeing for four months was nowhere to
be found.
As if he didn’t exist at all.
Garcia knew his address, where his son studied, everything, yet there was no sign of him.
Lerina reached out to a few people on the forum where she posted her original story,
asking for correspondence with anyone that might have a similar story to her own, but
has since gone quiet.
7.
The Fading Sandbar
Our next story was featured in the September 1956 issue of Fate, a magazine devoted to
paranormal phenomena.
Miriam Golding and her fiancé were riding an elevator in Chicago.
The elevator was so crowded that when the doors opened, she couldn’t push her way
through them, losing her fiancé in the commotion.
When she looked around, she wasn’t in an elevator at all, but a train station.
It was an enormous railway station, and its patrons seemed to be unable to see her.
Amid the confusion, Mariam noticed that there was a little boy who looked just as confused
as she was, who the patrons of this strange train station were also ignoring.
The two found their way out of that place, emerging into a mild, sunny Summer afternoon—rather
than the cold chill of fall in Chicago.
They wandered down the street as the residents of this city continued to ignore them, and
the boy explained what had happened to him.
He claimed that he’d been playing tennis in Lincoln, Nebraska, and had gone to the
locker room to change his shoes.
When he emerged, he was in the same train station that Miriam found herself in.
They kept walking until they reached an area that led to water, and over the waves was
a sand bar.
Several women were standing on top of it and were waving at Miriam.
One of them, she recognized as her fiancé’s sister, and she claimed she’d seen Miriam
in town and called out to her, but Miriam didn’t hear her.
The boy attempted to swim over toward the women on the sand bar.
That’s when the sandbar and the boy vanished.
Miriam closed her eyes in exasperation, exhaustion, and disappointment, and was reportedly overcome
with a vague sensation that she was floating.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on a stool in Chicago, outside a music store.
It appeared as though Miriam had been sitting there for several hours, and the store was
closing up.
She returned to her fiancé’s home and he was relieved to see her, explaining that he’d
lost track of her after leaving the elevator.
6.
Lost on Highway 167
An incident reported in the spring issue of Strange Magazine in 1988 told the tale of
two men driving down a long, empty stretch of highway on October 20, 1969, when something
strange happened.
A man known only as L.C. (along with an associate in the town of Abbeville, Louisiana) noted
that after a time, they came upon a rather old looking car on Highway 167 heading towards
Layafette.
It was chugging along.
When they drew closer to the vehicle, it appeared to be a vintage, turtle-back in what appeared
to be pristine condition.
The license plate had the year “1940” printed on it.
Now, one would not assume accidental time travel to be the root cause of spotting such
a vehicle, but things got stranger from there.
When they passed the vehicle, the woman driving the vehicle (and a child riding with her)
appeared to be wearing very old-fashioned clothes ripped right out of the 1940’s.
They both appeared to be dressed for cold weather, even though it was quite hot out.
The woman appeared to be in a state of distress, looking back and forth as if something was
very wrong.
L.C. called out to the woman, she responded with a nod, and when he asked her to pull
over, she did so.
But, strangely, when L.C. pulled over, the old car vanished as if it had never been there
at all.
Another car that had been on the highway pulled up next to L.C.’s and noted his surprise
at that old car not being there anymore.
Did these men accidentally travel to another time, another world where the 1940’s are
still in full swing, or did this strange woman stumble through a doorway?
5.
The Not-so Abandoned Airstrip
In 1935, British Air-Marshal Sir Victor Goddard found himself aboard a biplane going to inspect
a dilapidated old airfield near Edinburg, Scotland, in a location called Drem.
After encountering a severe storm on his way to the airfield, Goddard exited the storm
to clear skies and looked down to see something quite odd.
Instead of the barren land that he expected to find surrounding the airstrip, he found
something considerably more developed.
There were even mechanics rushing about, as if the airfield had never closed its doors
at all.
Goddard couldn’t identify the make of the planes or their bizarre coloration.
The personnel also appeared to be wearing strange blue uniforms that didn’t fit the
traditional garb that he was used to.
Many years later, Goddard would revisit the airbase and find that it had blue coveralled
workers and those same yellow planes.
Did Goddard somehow travel in time, or did he slip into some strange alternate reality
instead?
4.
Jophar Vorin
According to numerous European and American publications in the spring of 1851, a man
claiming to be one Jophar Vorin was found wandering aimlessly about the German village
of Frankfurt-an-der Oder, in the district of Lebas, in 1851, by village authorities.
He claimed that he had come from a country called “Laxaria,” that his country was
far away over the sea in a region he called “Sakria,” and that his people were Christian
and had considerable geographical knowledge.
The village authorities looked on this Jophar Vorin as a “great prize” as one such original
publication words it, and they “carried him off to Frankfort.”
When the authorities questioned Vorin, the stranger told them where he was from, and
that he had been seeking his long-lost brother.
Vorin claimed to have been shipwrecked there, in an unfamiliar place where he was unable
to trace his route on any map or globe.
One excerpt of this publication reads; “The five great compartments of the earth he calls
Sakria, Aflar, Astar, Auslar, and Euplar.”
What happened to this Jophar Vorin?
One publication claimed that the authorities believed his tale and were in the process
of escorting him to Berlin, and that he was the subject of “much scientific and curious
gossip in the Prossian capital.”
But beyond that, there is no information pertaining to what happened to this mystery person.
Maybe he lived out the rest of his years in Berlin, on this alternate Earth?
3.
Everyday Chemistry
What if there was an alternate universe where John Lennon and George Harrison never died?
What if the Beatles had never broken up?
Well, a man calling himself “James Richards” is claiming that he’s been to a world where
this is the case.
Richards even snagged a copy of one of their current albums titled “Everyday Chemistry”
as proof.
There’s been much speculation over the origin of the tape over the years.
Many believe that the tape is nothing more than a clever hoax, produced using a mashup
of Beatles solo projects to create the album.
Still, there is still some debate whether or not James Richards’s story is true.
2.
Wrong Turn at Gadianton Canyon
Janna North and her friends were taking a ride through southeastern Utah near the railroad
crossing of Modena, on the edge of the Escalante Desert.
North was driving her father’s 1971 Chevrolet Nova, and the girls were trying to get back
to the campus before their housemother, Mrs. Mortensen, locked the dorm doors.
This particular part of Utah Highway 56 is pretty desolate.
Most of the scenery is composed of sand, sagebrush, ocotillo, and Spanish bayonet.
The red sandstone bluffs feature prominently in the northern horizon.
The girls were happy to find the Union Pacific railroad crossing at Modena.
But after crossing the railroad, Janna noticed something odd.
Two sets of blacktop highway extended off into the desert.
One heading to the southeast, and the other heading northeast toward the canyon country.
The road looked inviting to Janna.
Thinking this would be a more direct route, Janna took it.
But, thirty minutes later, she’d find herself slamming on the brakes when encountering a
dead end in the form of a massive rock wall.
The girls chastised her.
There was no way they were going to make it back to the dorm before Mrs. Mortensen locked
the doors.
Janna turned around and tried to trace her path back to Highway 56...
At some point in the drive, the black asphalt transformed into a road composed of white
cement.
One of the girls pointed forward and screamed for Janna to stop.
The road ended in a cliff.
Janna slammed on the brakes and the car fishtailed to a stop.
As the girls complained at Janna for getting them lost, she noticed that...somehow...the
desert had completely changed.
Now, as they drove, they were surrounded by grain fields and ponderosa pine trees and
wheat under a crisp, moonlit sky.
Janna noted that the moon should not have been visible that night.
Thinking they’d simply gotten turned around, the girls started heading back the way they
came.
A building came into view.
At first, the girls thought it might be some kind of roadhouse or restaurant.
The place was in the middle of a large parking lot and featured a bright neon sign which
the girls couldn’t read.
They described the letters as squiggles and curlicues… the patrons in the parking lot
seemed to be irritated at the sudden arrival of Janna’s Chevy Nova.
Later, they would describe their demeanor as “shocked” and “frightened.”
One of the girls rolled down the window, thinking she could get some directions back to Highway
56.
Janna’s friend screamed for her to drive as fast as she could moments later.
Once they were back on the highway, three egg shaped vehicles on three wheels started
to pursue them.
“They weren’t human,” one of the girls kept saying.
After a heated chase, the car emerged from the canyon, passing into familiar desert—headlights
revealing nothing but sage brush and ocotillo.
The car fishtailed uncontrollably.
They hit an arroyo.
The engine died.
After walking to a nearby town, one Trooper Victoria “Vic” Lindquist took the report,
which tends to support the girls’ testimony of what transpired that strange night off
Highway 56 in the barren desert near Modena.
There were no tire tracks showing where the Chevy had left Highway 56 in Modena.
Tire tracks from the wrecked Chevy extended only 200 yards back into the desert and ended
abruptly.
No one could explain how the Chevy had gotten nearly two miles north of Highway 56 without
leaving any trace of its passage through the rough desert terrain.
Although volunteers searched diligently, no trace of the Chevy’s right front hubcap
was ever found.
1.
Riverside’s Bad Twin
Our last story takes place in Riverside, California, the same location that Mind’s Horizon is
set in.
Carol Chase McElheney was driving from home with her dog in San Bernardino to the sheep
dog trials in Perris, California in March of 2006.
Emerging from a hill, she took an exit to Riverside.
Her family had a long history there, dating back to the early 1800’s.
Her grandparents were buried in one of the local cemeteries and her grandmother and aunt
had homes there.
Carol herself lived there for a while after college.
Carol thought that it would be nice to visit the old familiar places on the way home and
visit the cemetery where her family was buried.
McElheney claims that’s when she smelled a whiff of cigar smoke, just like the kind
her grandfather used to smoke when she was a child.
She continued on to Perris, checking into a motel.
After the first sheep dog trials, she decided to visit her old home.
She put her dog in the car and headed for Riverside.
First, she stopped at the old cemetery.
Something was seriously out of place.
Carol claimed that she couldn’t find her childhood home or those of her other family
members.
None of the houses there looked familiar.
Riverside City College and Central Middle School were still there…but the rest was
nowhere to be found.
“Some of the other stuff was right.
The college looked right, the middle school looked right,” she’d said.
But when she came upon University Avenue, things took a darker turn.
“I looked for the Mission Inn and it wasn’t there.”
Carol believes she’d stumbled upon a parallel world, one where Riverside was in far worse
shape than it is even now (and I’m from that city, the Mission Inn is a very prominent
part of the city, you just can’t miss it.)
She kept driving, looking for the street where her grandmother and aunt used to live.
The neighborhood had many bungalows that were built in the 1920’s.
Her grandmother had lived in a large tudor home with a tall eucalyptus in the front.
Both her grandmother’s and aunt’s houses weren’t there.
The surrounding homes in that visit were newer ranch style with bushes out front.
Even the house she lived in after college was nowhere to be found.
Carol wouldn’t return to Riverside until her father died years later.
Fortunately, it had reverted to the town she’d known as a child.
She never encountered the alternate version of Riverside again.