When we hear the urban legends telling of strange gates that must be gone through in a certain order that lead to a terrifying hellish realm, many simply remove it to the realm of folklore. But is it possible we could actually be looking at a very real phenomenon that not only exists in the real world, but has a backing that could be drawn from what we already are beginning to understand about quantum physics? While it’s difficult to imagine for some who adhere to the older models of physics, the idea of extra dimensional travel goes to the cutting edge of current scientific understanding and pulls a dramatic theory out of the hat that we may soon be looking at a very different universe with actual gateways leading to other worlds.
On a dark creepy stretch of road a car’s engines begin rumbling as its riders speed toward its final destination for that night. It’s been a long night of field research derived from books and local legends. The occupants begin reciting the final words of an ancient ritual – perhaps erroneously as they begin their macabre journey through the final bridge underneath the train tracks as they traverse its threshold. Unsuspecting tourists into the meaning of terror find themselves suddenly transported to a strange and horrifying world where all the fears of mankind are made manifest. Hell is suddenly found to be real, or at least a paranormal world very similar to it. As the hellish landscape stretches before them in every direction they realize they have only one hope to get themselves home – go back the way they came.
It may sound like the premise of a horror film, but some legends actually propose that the hell gates are real, and that everyone unfortunate enough to conduct the search will find what they’re looking for – yet always feared. While the idea of hell may seem purely biblical, there are also several ways the idea has been interpreted both in film and literature (the media) and the real urban legend itself. You may recall our coverage of these hell gates previously when we spoke of the legend being shared with travelers in Southern Illinois. But there are in fact many different versions of the story leading all over the world of places that can be accessed only through unknown or practically unknown ritual.
The theory behind the legend is that these gates lead to a realm not simply secluded to human perception by virtue of being evil, but actually look in on a world where the known laws of physics do not actually apply – very similar to the works of HP Lovecraft in his long time classic story The Call of Cthulhu.
But what is the likelihood that gateways constructed by humans could become haunted or enchanted and actually take people away from this Earth and into a different one? In all of the legends there are very few cases where people actually made that journey and made it all the way past the two missing gates.
Could action bend the laws of physics as we know them? The interesting thing is once we’re dealing with extra dimensional space we’re no longer operating in the world as we know it with models set up by scientists using our own Earth physics. The concept has an element of the unknown that touches the very heart of the paranormal itself. And so it is practically impossible to tell just how much of this theory is undiscovered fact and how much is fiction. And that’s a troubling prospect when driving down that final stretch toward the hell gates and looking up ahead to realize you too may join the few who have discovered the secret to this disturbing legend.