Supposed openings between places, dimensions or times. Portals are a common idea in myth, fiction and paranormal lore, but there is no evidence that any physical portal exists; places said to have them often have more ordinary explanations.[1],[2]
By the Project Strange team · Not yet reviewed line by line · 3 sources
On this page
At a glance
- Also known as
- Vortex
- Subject
- Speculative hypothesis
- Sourcing
- 3 sources listed · 3 cited inline. Not yet reviewed line by line.
Background
BackgroundHistory, folklore and cultural context.
Gateways to other worlds appear in many mythologies — the Norse Bifröst bridge, Celtic "thin places" — and throughout fiction. In paranormal lore the idea is attached to particular places with reputations for strange lights or events.
Physicists have explored theoretical structures such as wormholes, which are permitted by some solutions of general relativity, but none has ever been observed.
Places often cited as portal sites have, on investigation, more ordinary stories. The Hessdalen lights in Norway are real and studied, but some have been identified as aircraft, car headlights, astronomical objects and mirages, and one proposed explanation for others is the combustion of airborne dust.[1] The "Utah monolith" that caused a sensation in 2020 had been placed in the desert by unknown people in 2016.[2]
What witnesses describe
Witness claimsFeatures that recur in accounts. These are claims, not established facts.
- Visual: luminous oval or circular opening, often described as a tunnel with light at the end
- Preceded by unusual electromagnetic readings at the location
- Animals refuse to approach the area
- Witnesses experience nausea, dizziness, or time distortion nearby
- Objects thrown through do not return
- Recurring at the same geographic location across decades
- Associated with UAP entry and exit — craft appearing from or disappearing into a point
Notable cases
Each case is labelled by the kind of account it rests on.
1996Skinwalker Ranch, UTLater retelling
NIDS tunnel encounter
Accounts from Skinwalker Ranch describe a luminous tunnel opening in mid-air. These come from the ranch’s promoters and investigators, who themselves admitted "difficulty obtaining evidence consistent with scientific publication".[3]
Read the story as commonly toldHide the story
Unverified: this is the traditional telling of the case. Its details have not been checked against sources and may be inaccurate.
A NIDS researcher reported a luminous tunnel opening in mid-air above a field. A large humanoid figure was observed climbing through from the other side before the opening closed.
1981 onwardHessdalen, NorwayDocumented
The Hessdalen lights
Unusual lights have been reported in Norway’s Hessdalen valley since at least the 1930s, peaking between December 1981 and mid-1984, when they were seen 15–20 times a week. Project Hessdalen has studied them since 1983.[1]
Read the story as commonly toldHide the story
Unverified: this is the traditional telling of the case. Its details have not been checked against sources and may be inaccurate.
Researchers at the long-running Hessdalen light monitoring station documented a luminous object that appeared to emerge from and return to a specific point above the valley floor, behaving in a manner inconsistent with ball lightning or drone behaviour.
Disputed or contrary evidence
There is no consensus on what causes the unexplained lights; some sightings have been identified as aircraft, car headlights, astronomical objects and mirages. Nothing in the research describes them as "portals".[1]
Material: Photographs, video and spectral measurements from monitoring stations
2020Utah, USADocumented
The Utah monolith
In November 2020, Utah wildlife officials surveying bighorn sheep by helicopter found a metal monolith in a remote canyon. Satellite imagery showed it had been put there between July and October 2016; it was made of riveted metal sheets, and its makers remain unknown.[2]
Read the full accountHide the full account
After its location was published, many visitors drove to the site, damaging the area. On 27 November 2020 it was covertly removed by four Moab residents, including slackliner Andy Lewis, who later handed it to the Bureau of Land Management.[2]
Disputed or contrary evidence
The monolith was a human-made object placed illegally on public land; nothing about it suggests a portal.[2]
Images
Photos often cited in connection with this subject. Inclusion doesn't mean they are authentic; many are disputed.
Archival photograph · cited as evidence; authenticity not established
Long-exposure photograph of a light over the Hessdalen valley, Norway, with its spectrum recorded below. Lights in the valley have been monitored by Project Hessdalen since 1983.
Credit: SuperWikiaBros · Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
Image sourceExplanations
InterpretationGrouped by the kind of explanation, not ranked by likelihood.
Unconfirmed natural or human explanations
Would require an undiscovered species, an unrecognised natural effect, or secret human activity. Possible in principle, but not demonstrated.
- Natural plasma phenomenon creating localised electromagnetic singularities
Paranormal and speculative ideas
Depend on entities, forces or physics that no evidence has established.
- Genuine traversable wormhole — a permitted solution to Einstein's field equations
- Dimensional gateway between parallel realities or adjacent dimensions
- Extraterrestrial technology for rapid transport between locations
- Psychic projection — collective unconscious opening perceived gateways at meaningful sites
References
Numbered as cited in the text; sources not cited inline are listed afterwards as background reading.
- 1.Hessdalen lightsWikipedia
- 2.Utah monolithWikipedia
- 3.Skinwalker RanchWikipedia
Known gaps
- Earlier versions of this entry described the Utah monolith as "perfectly machined" with "no tracks", claimed portal behaviour by the Hessdalen lights, and cited a declassified 2009 document on "stargates". Our sources contradict or do not support these claims.
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Strangepedia is maintained by the Project Strange team. If you have a correction, a source, or a case to add, send a suggestion and we’ll review it.
Suggest an editCommunity reports
Top-voted reports from Project Strange members in the Phenomena category. These are first-hand accounts, not verified events.
Missing 4 Hours — Woke Up 60 Miles Away With No Memory
I left my flat in Leeds at 7 PM to drive to my parents' in Harrogate. It's a 45-minute drive I've done hundreds of times. I remember joining the A61 and then nothing — absolute…
- Location
- Ripon, North Yorkshire, England
- Date of event
- Happened Feb 21, 2025