Of all the strange claims made about CERN, the idea that particle physicists in Geneva, Switzerland have actually opened a portal into another world is perhaps the most compelling one.

Is there any evidence this has happened? That they’ve opened a portal, caused a tear in time and space, or even unlocked a gateway to Hell itself? Read on, and we’ll see what we run into. But first…

A Quick History of the Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland opened in 2008, with the first beam circulated on September 10 of that year. The goal of any collider is to accelerate particles at incredible speeds, smashing them together and detecting the results of those collisions.

What scientists hope to find by doing so are new particles or reactions, new information on how the universe works at a fundamental level.

The first true collisions happened in 2010. When the LHC first began operation, it reached a combined energy level of 7 teraelectronvolts, or TeV. It’s been upgraded over the years, most recently reaching 13 TeV, reportedly the “present world record.”

The greatest achievement of the LHC so far is undoubtedly the discovery of the Higgs Boson. As CERN themselves reported, “On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced they had each observed a new particle in the mass region around 125 GeV.”

The particle was “consistent with the Higgs boson,” and in 2013 François Englert and Peter Higgs received the Nobel prize in physics for the discovery. In 2011, Fermilab posted a good overview of the nature of the Higgs Boson and Higgs field.

However, aside from the scientific breakthroughs at CERN, many believe there’s more afoot there than simple forays into particle physics. Some believe they’re busy at work attempting to (or accidentally) opening portals. Well…

Is CERN Opening Portals?

In June of 2016, a series of incredible photos of the skies above CERN appeared online, courtesy photographer Christophe Suarez.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the images were captured only 10 days after the AWAKE experiment, or Advanced WAKEfield Experiment, began at its facility at CERN on June 16, 2016.

In response, some claimed that the LHC had generated a “portal above Geneva.” The images were, after all, pretty extraordinary — towering dark clouds filled with lightning, and a rainstorm underneath.

Indeed, many such claims have been made over the years. In 2015, Yahoo News reported on footage of an alleged vortex forming over Geneva, what they referred to as a “UFO gateway.” In the footage, clouds swirl into a point, as if it were a black hole, and a number of small bright orbs can be seen “entering it.” The vortex then vanishes. The UFO portal had allegedly erupted directly over the Large Hadron Collider. Unfortunately, despite media coverage, this footage turned out to be CGI.

Another alleged portal appeared over Geneva on July 5, 2016, this one in the form of clouds that created a “ring” when looked at on radar.

According to the video, the “cloud portal” coincided with an emergency shutdown of the LHC, which happened after a weasel hopped over a substation fence, bumped a transformer, and knocked out the power.

This, at least, was true — a weasel did hop the fence, and was unfortunately electrocuted by said transformer. It was eventually stuffed and put on display at the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, in their Dead Animal Tales exhibition. Whether or not its actions resulted in a portal opening up above the particle accelerator, I’ll leave that for you to decide.

A Portal to Hell?

In August 2016, a video appeared online that seemed to depict a ritual sacrifice on the CERN grounds, right in front of the statue of Shiva, the Hindu deity. In the video, you can see a number of cloaked figures gathered near the statue, surrounding a woman.

The video is taken from the point-of-view of an unsuspecting onlooker, who decides to run for it after realizing what’s about to go down.

According to the Guardian, this was a hoax, and CERN itself launched an investigation to find out who was responsible. According to their report “pranking scientists” were suspected.

Prank or not, this didn’t exactly help dispel rumors that CERN was up to something odd. In 2014, I wrote about the Shiva statue, and why some believe it’s symbolic of CERN’s quest to not only open portals, but to open a gateway for the Annunaki to return to Earth. Others believe the LHC may in fact be an attempted portal to the underworld itself.

As Metro reported in January 2017, some bloggers online believe that CERN’s experiments are in fact an attempt to build “the kingdom of the antichrist,” who will eventually step through the portal and “rule our planet.”

Blinking Out of Existence

Perhaps related to the strange activity in the skies above CERN is the incident of November 2009, when an Iberworld Airbus A330-300 allegedly vanished temporarily.

As the story goes, the plane was carrying 170 passengers, and had been heading toward Santa Cruz, Bolivia, when it seemingly disappeared mid-flight. The plane was then reported to reappear roughly 5,500 miles away at Tenerife North Airport on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

According to an Inquisitr article published in 2016, some believe CERN’s Large Hadron Collider may have been the culprit of this mysterious turn of events, given that it had just begun circulating beams the previous year, and was preparing to do so again.

Prior to November 2009, the LHC had temporarily been out of commission due to a malfunction dubbed the “Quench incident,” which occurred on September 19, 2008. Liquid helium vented into the collider’s tunnel, damaging 53 superconducting magnets.

Purveyors of the Airbus theory believe the strange event may have happened during the preparations for the LHC’s relaunch in early November.

According to the theory, scientists at CERN had accidentally produced some kind of “time warp” during one of the LHC’s startups. They immediately shut everything down. LHC Machine Coordinator Dr. Mike Lamond said officially that the shutdown had been caused by a bird that dropped “a bit of baguette,” causing the magnets to heat up and almost result in another “quench” incident, as reported by the Telegraph on November 6, 2009.

And yet, some didn’t buy this explanation, believing instead that it was a cover-up to prevent the public from finding out that the LHC had “accidentally opened a time portal,” or so said the Inquisitr.

The so-called “time warp,” or so the story continues, was caused by the LHC distorting Earth’s magnetic field, creating a “time wave” that reverberated through the planet’s core. The wave passed through the Gate of the Sun, an ancient megalithic stone arch in Bolivia.

It’s believed by some to be a “stargate,” itself a portal to other worlds.

The “time wave” then continued, until it made contact with the Iberworld Airbus, temporarily displacing it in time and space. According to the bizarre tale, all 170 passengers, along with the plane, spontaneously teleported 5,500 miles from Bolivia to the Canary Islands, where they were able to land safely, though confused.

(The “true” story of the Airbus, or Air Comet A333, may in fact be a little less extraordinary, depending on what you want to believe. According to The Aviation Herald, the plane was meant to perform a flight from Madrid Barajas, Spain to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, but somehow wound up in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands. Reportedly, the crew had confused the two, though the story certainly leaves a lot of questions.)

John Titor’s Worldlines

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention John Titor in a discussion about CERN and the creation of portals. Titor often discussed the nature of worldlines, and how time travel would be discovered through experiments at CERN:

“The breakthrough that will allow for this technology will occur within a year or so when CERN brings their larger facility online.” – January 31, 2001

Titor’s worldlines were effectively timelines, branches in the multiverse, each representing the infinite possible courses of events. According to his story, CERN would go on to create microsingularities, which would then be harnessed to essentially open “portals” into these other worldlines, or timelines, allowing for backward travel through time.

What I found most interesting today is how the loading screen on CERN’s website reminds me somewhat of John Titor’s insignia, which he shared online back in 2000-2001. You can compare the two in the image above.

Real “Portals” to New Physics

Some question whether or not the alleged strange activity surrounding CERN is deliberate — that scientists are intentionally trying to open portals to other worlds — or if it’s all inadvertent, an unexpected outcome of dealing with forces we may not be able to control.

That is, of course, if you believe they’ve opened any portals at all. I’ll leave you to debate on the veracity of the above claims and stories. Whatever the case, particle physics is on a steady march forward, with new accelerators on the horizon that will make the Large Hadron Collider look small in comparison.

In January 2019, CERN officials revealed their potential plan for a 62 mile circular collider. The project, dubbed the Future Circular Collider, would cost around $10 billion. Compared to the LHC, it would be absolutely gigantic.

Other particle accelators are also in the planning stages, though it’s unclear whether or not any will ever see the light of day. China is looking to create a 20-mile-diameter collider, while Japan has also been in talks to host the International Linear Collider.

The LHC itself is currently undergoing upgrades that will increase its luminosity “by a factor of 10.” The collider was shut down in 2018 for major upgrades, what the folks at CERN refer to as Long Shutdown 2. Previously, the LHC had been shut down and upgrades were performed from 2013 to 2015, so this isn’t the first time the 17-mile-long collider has gone into hibernation.

The LHC is scheduled to run again in 2021, with the new High-Luminosity LHC project beginning in 2025.

The question is: As the LHC is upgraded, and as we see new and more powerful accelerators built, what new mysteries of the universe will we uncover? Time will tell.