Portals - Science Fiction or Science Fact?

Thanks to film, television, books, video games, and other entertainment mediums, the term “portal” is a household word nowadays. Most people know what portals are, or at least have a general idea of what they are. But, there is no way they could be real… right? Well, not according to NASA. NASA might not have made the leap to organic and/or inorganic matter travel, but they have been studying portals in space for years in an attempt to understand phenomena like space weather and the interaction between Earth’s and the sun’s magnetic forces.

For the not-so-scientific humans that most of us non-NASA folks are, however, we are more interested in the ability to travel through time and space. After all, what is more entertaining than daydreaming of going back in time to experience one of Earth’s many historic events? Or, strapping on an oxygen tank and a backpack with some MREs and porting through space to an unexplored planet? The reality is that portals are an interesting overlap of science-fiction and reality.

Aside from NASA’s immensely-long and brutally-boring study of portals, what have we learned of these supernatural gates? For one, many disparate, past civilizations from around the world believed in portals to other realms. For example, the Incan Gate of the Gods, located near Lake Titicaca, Peru, was believed to be a portal through which Incan heroes entered the realm of the gods. Another hypothesized portal is Gobekli Tepe in Turkey. This site, dated to about 12,000 years ago, is said to have functioned as a stargate that the ancient residents used. One final example comes from Lake Michigan. In 2007, underwater archaeologists who were tracking shipwrecks discovered a stone formation 40 feet below the surface. The formation bears a great resemblance to the popular Stonehenge formation in England. Archaeologists do not know what purpose the formation served when it was created, but many people posit that this underwater, American Stonehenge was constructed as a portal or stargate.

Other purported gates exist on Earth, and there is no shortage of proposed sites. Even some curious hieroglyphics have been interpreted by some to show things that have never existed in the Earth’s ancient past, such as gates, aircraft, and submarines. Where did these glyphs come from? Could they be from the future? 

We are hopeful that one day mankind might actually develop or harness the technology of portals. In the right hands, think of all the good that could be done with access to all of time and space. Until then, though, we can live vicariously through, and watch reruns of, Richard Dean Anderson and his intrepid team porting through the universe. Maybe that will be us one day. Maybe.