Patterns in the Void: Dimensions Beyond Our Own

by Scott Corrales

The following account of a possible visit to another dimension in time or space was forwarded to this author by Dr. Raul Rios Centeno, an investigator of the unexplained in Lima, Peru.

"Several months ago," begins his fascinating narration, "a patient came to see me about a serious case of hemiplegia. The patient claimed to be 30 years old but was unable to prove it, stating that she'd lost her formal identification card. It was a very strange case of hemiplegia, since upon examination with a CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scan, there were no areas showing bleeding vessels nor any traumatic lesions."

When I began asking questions about the case, the patient told me the following: "I was at a campground in the vicinity of Markahuasi (the famous stone forest located some 56 km east of Lima) when I went out exploring late at night with some friends. Oddly enough, we heard the strains of music and noticed a small torch-lit shack. I was able to see people dancing inside, but upon getting closer I felt a sudden sensation of cold which I paid little attention to, and I stuck my head through an open door. It was then that I saw the occupants were clad in 17th century fashion. I tried to enter the room, but one of my girlfriends pulled me out."

"The patient was tugged out by one of her friends, and her body became paralyzed in half precisely as she was drawn out of the "shack". My conclusion is that the probable cause behind the hemiplegia is unknown. No medical test was able to ascertain its cause. Nonetheless, an EEG was able to show that the left hemisphere of the brain did not show signs of normal functioning, as well as an abnormal amount of electric waves.

"Many Peruvians claim having had contact experiences in Markahuasi, while many scholars indicate the existence of a dimensional doorway. No conclusive proof of this exists, of course. Some friends, myself, obviously, and others who have visited the stone forest can attest to the existence of a strange kind of energy. According to those persons having a knowledge of this subject, dimensional doorways tend to open and close not necessarily in specific places. The patient is currently undergoing physical rehabilitation in Lima's Arzobispo Loayza National Hospital.

"The unanswered question is, of course, what would have happened if her body had entered completely into the shack? Would she have gone into another dimension? I suppose the truth shall be known in the fullness of time."

Dr. Rios fascinating account was followed up with the following information concerning the CAT scan results on the anonymous patient. The test, he indicated, showed "Intact intracranial regions without any specific area having been compromised. There is neither swelling nor color changes which may suggest some manner of trauma. The clinician certifying this exam cannot find a justified cause for the hemiplegia in the left hemisphere, due to the fact its vascularization and irrigation fall within parameters considered to be normal. The EEG shows areas evidently paralyzed due to the lack of electric current transmission. These tests lead me to believe -- and this is my personal opinion, since my colleagues have simply catalogued it as an "unknown affliction" -- that the dimensional shift, or "partial entry" of this person into this anomalous zone, have able to produce a change in the energy flow existing in her nervous system, or perhaps even a change in the type of energy. Given that the cranial area is where our nerve impulses are contained -- in other words, the right cerebral hemisphere controls the left side of the body and viceversa -- this could be the reason why the left hand autonomous nervous system did not at all affect the operation of crucial organs such as the heart or the stomach, which are governed by the right cerebral hemisphere."

A well-known author once described talk of other dimensions as "science fiction jiggery-pokery". In the UFO field, particularly among believers of the nuts-and-bolts aliens from space contingent, belief in other dimensions is considered a sign of mental bankruptcy. Yet these other dimensions, levels or worlds beyond our own represent beliefs far older than those expressed by 20th century authors and theoreticians. Religions throughout the course of human history have expressed a belief in parallel worlds adjacent to our own, usually accessible only to tribal shamans, sorcerers or people gifted with special insight. Certain parts of the world were famous as locations in which the barrier between the dimensions or worlds was particularly slender, and were known as places where wonderful and often frightening sights could be seen, or else as locations where human intruders could vanish without a trace. Almost all traditions express a belief that there is life in these alternate universes: these are the abodes of fairies, elves, and even angels in some cases, and of monsters, ghosts and much worse in other traditions. Northern European traditions expressed the belief that elves and fairies took advantage of the right angles of human dwellings to build doorways to their own realities (and in turn, Frank Belknap Long took advantage of this idea to write "The Hounds of Tindalos", a Lovecraftian tale of extradimensional monsters who can materialize only through rooms having walls at right angles -- circular chambers offering the only kind of protection against them). Jacques Bergier believed that such gateways to other dimensions were an artificial and supernatural phenomenon created by powerful forces on "the other side" to carry out their unguessable transactions in our own level of existence.

The late Carlos Castañeda wrote that the (real? imaginary?) sorcerer Don Juan Matus believed in the existence of an area best described as a "crevasse between realities" in which the material world imperceptibly gives way to the spirit world and other dimensions. However, only someone well versed in the hidden lore may recognize these gateways for what they are and make use of them. In his book Guía a la España Mágica (A Guide to Magical Spain) Spanish author Juan G. Atienza has pointed out that the Grail Epics are in fact a quest for this particular place where the mortal world meets the undying lands or heaven.

Dimensional Portals in Mexico?

Ing. Marco Antonio Reynoso is the director and founder of Fundación Cosmos A.C., an investigative organization dedicated to investigating UFOs and other unusual phenomena. The following reproduces the entirety of a communication received from Ing. Reynoso concerning the possibility of an interdimensional gateway existing in Mexico.

"During the course of our research in the state of Coahuila (Mexico) between 1993 and 1997, around the communities of Villa de García, Icamole, Paredón and the community farms of La Azufrosa, El Delgado, El Milagro and Mesillas, we interviewed a number of local residents and heard their testimonies on UFO sightings. They told us that upon occasion they had been pursued by these vehicles and that their cattle had been stolen from them. All of these reports led us ever deeper into the wilderness, to a point smack-dab in the middle of the desert.

"In an isolated region, encircled by foothills that appear to be protecting a plateau similar in appearance to Masada in Israel and Devil's Tower in Wyoming, there rises the upland area known as La Mesilla. This formation was a marine volcano thousands or perhaps even millions of years ago. The entire region was once underwater, covered by an ancient sea we have dubbed the Sea of Thetys -- a fact confirmed by the myriad fossils of marine life, left behind when the seabed turned into dry land. Erosion and time have carved out the location's current appearance.

"Our hypothesis concerning these mysterious geological formations is that they perhaps constitute an exit point for the planet's geomagnetic energy, which is employed by unidentified flying objects as a power source or possibly even to cross some dimensional vortex formed as these energy escape points, which cause a deformation of the planet's magnetic flow lines, causing "portals" to open. Our group has been able to confirm this through the detection of a disk approximately one hundred meters in diameter, having red and yellow lights at each end. The object penetrated the "doorway" with a burst of white light that lit up the plateau's entire outline in the dark desert night. We also saw it re-emerge and move away at considerable speed.

"On that occasion we attempted to record it on videotape, but problems emerged regarding the tape itself. These anomalous events transpire frequently: on the five times that our group has visited the area, we have been able to make successful recordings at a distance of approximately twenty kilometers from the plateau itself, which stands at fourteen hundred meters. Reaching its base poses considerable hardship due to the nature of the terrain: during only such effort on our part, we came within five kilometers of our goal before having to turn back to our observation point fifteen kilometers behind us, due to a series of events which took place as we approached the plateau. It was when we decided to retreat that we witnessed the arrival of the enormous disk which landed right where we stood, only to rise and hide behind the plateau, with the great luminous manifestation occurring next, which bathed the entire area in light."

Skeptics may simply dismiss Ing. Reynoso's account as contemporary myth-making, but the possibility that certain parts of our planet may harbor points whose nature provides natural "gateways" to and from other dimensions cannot be dismissed.

Forbidden Books

Spanish journalist Alfonso Serra tells the story of Spanish psychic Eulalia Casanovas, who investigated a case during which a young woman disappeared under extremely mysterious circumstances in the early 1980's on the peak of Monserrat in Catalunya. Much like a piece of supernatural fiction, the case begins on night at a Benedictine monastery, where a young man conducted his studies. At one point, while doing research at the monastery's library, he came across a number of old books which turned out to be treatises on magic. Joined by his girlfriend, the young man decided to follow the instructions given in the unusual texts and engage in a magic ritual held elsewhere on the same peak.

So far we have all the elements of a classic thriller, but the true horror was about to begin.

Casanovas was allegedly told by the nameless young man that no sooner had the ritual started, he noticed that his girlfriend was ever so slowly fading away from him, disappearing until all that was left was an amulet she had been wearing for protection (which--we are to suppose--must have fallen to the ground. The authorities apparently suspected the sorcerer manqué of murdering his hapless companion, but their research did not turn up evidence nor indeed a motive. Did the ritual, in fact, "gate" the woman to another dimension?

Now You See Them...Now You Don't

Some of the chestnuts of the "mysterious disappearance" casebook have been written off as hoaxes, such as the Oliver Lerch/Oliver Thomas incidents and the supposed vanishing of farmer David Lang, which was considered as proof that it was indeed possible to accidentally side-step into another dimension and never be heard from again.

Unfortunately, there are other cases which cannot be written off so easily as fabrications or misunderstandings. The following mind-bending case was featured in veteran Spanish ufologist Antonio Ribera's Secuestrados por Extraterrestres ("Abducted by Extraterrestrials") (Planeta, 1981):

On Easter Week, 1976, a well-to-do couple, their infant daughter and the child's nanny were at Barcelona's Prat Airport getting ready to take a flight that would take them to the island of Mallorca on a brief holiday. After parking the family vehicle, the husband left his family in a waiting area while he went to the Iberia ticket counter to secure the necessary boarding passes.

Upon returning to the waiting area, he found his wife but no traces of the nanny and the two-year-old daughter. The wife indicated that she had not seen the nanny, whose name is given as "Maria", leave at any moment, but assumed she had gone to the rest rooms and taken the baby with her.

Time passed and there was still no sign of the nanny. The nervous young mother went to the ladies' room and did not find her there. At that point, airport security was notified and María was repeatedly paged over the PA system; the airport was then shut down and the control tower ordered all departing flights to remain on the ground while the police conducted a forty-five minute long search of the terminal.

At a given point, a humble old woman approached the distraught mother, gently advising her to pray for the return of her daughter.

Before the grief-stricken mother could say a word, two amazing things happened simultaneously: the elderly woman vanished into the encircling crowd of onlookers, and the mother realized that the nanny, holding the child, was sitting right next to her.

In an understandable mixture of joy and anger, the young mother asked the Maria where she had gone all this time. The nanny replied: "Me? Why, I've been here all along!"

Something stranger still occurred when an effort was made to take the baby girl from the nanny's arms--the child appeared to be physically stuck to the nanny. After a prolonged struggle, the husband literally tore his daughter from María's arms, noticing that the part of the nanny's arms that had remained concealed had acquired an unnatural shade of red.

With the situation seemingly back to normal, the shaken family boarded the flight to Mallorca. The nanny erupted into hysterics midway through the crossing, having to be restrained by flight attendants until they arrived at Son San Juan airport. Once on Mallorca, the family decided to return home, given that the nanny's condition was rapidly deteriorating. Back in Barcelona, María was placed in a private hospital and sedated.

Clinical hypnotist Francisco Rovatti would later hypnotize the nanny in an effort to recover her memories from the time in which she was apparently not physically present in the airport or in our reality, for that matter. The sessions with Rovatti revealed that the nanny had heard "an unpleasant-sounding male voice" summoning her as she sat next to her employers at the airport. Efforts to go beyond that point caused the patient to erupt into hysterics. "One could say," Rovatti observed later, "that a tremendously powerful post-hypnotic block had been put in place from the moment that María claims to have seen "a red light" on the floor...this is an extraordinarily dramatic experience, but any attempts to pursue it would jeopardize the patient's life."

Conclusion

In both Western and Eastern cultures alike we are told to believe in a spirit world or parallel universe in which our deities, their minions and their adversaries appear to dwell. This belief is so deeply rooted that to even question it is an exercise in futility. However, even when mathematicians and quantum physicists insist that such levels of existence are not only possible but probable, 20th century humanity refuses to believe that it could well be at the mercy of forces beyond its comprehension.