What they’re really doing on July 5th

Starting 3 July 2022, CERN is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, with collisions at “unprecedented energy levels” planned for the 5th – note: the good scientists at CERN are not expecting to “open a portal”, as some have suggested.

TikTokers of a particular persuasion have taken the opportunity to warn their listeners of “timeline shifts”, “Mandela effects”, “vortexes in the sky” and “things of that nature”.

It is true that CERN’s flagship accelerator will be home to a major particle smash on 5th July. However, talk of “spiritual entities” passing through “portals” may be less helpful than explaining the science.

So, what is CERN planning for 5th July and why are people obsessing over the notion that the nuclear research organisation is planning to open a portal to another dimension?

What is CERN celebrating on 3rd to 5th July?

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has been home to numerous experiments since its construction in 2008.

The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle. Peter Higgs was the first person to suggest it might exist, hence its name. 

Physicist Leon Lederman called it the “God particle” in 1993, which gives you an idea of its significance to those working in the field.

Higgs bosons are hard to find. It takes a lot of energy to make one, and they don’t last very long. On 4th July 2012, scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider declared they had discovered a particle they thought was a Higgs boson. They confirmed the discovery the following year, after more testing.

So the events CERN has planned for three days in July celebrate the tenth anniversary of that discovery.

What is CERN planning for ten-year anniversary of Higgs boson discovery?

CERN is inviting people all over the world to join them in a “historic week” for particle physics.

On 3rd July 2022, the Globe of Science and Innovation will host a special evening with filmmakers Mark Levinson and Walter Murch, who made the documentary Particle Fever. A panel discussion will follow the film screening; a live webcast will be available online. Find more information here.

Then, on 4th July, a full-day scientific symposium will take place in CERN’s main auditorium. Speakers include CERN’s director-general. Find information relating to the event and its webcast here.

And finally, on 5th July, CERN will start “Run 3”. This is a new period of data-taking at the Large Hadron Collider, after three years of upgrade and maintenance work. You can also tune into this via CERN’s social media channels or via satellite link. Find relevant links here: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn.

What is the CERN 5th July 2022 portal theory all about?

Social media users on TikTok and YouTube have taken the opportunity presented by CERN’s 5th July 2022 Run 3 initiation to propagate unfounded theories about a “portal” opening to “different dimensions”.

TikTok and YouTube video-maker Spiritual Battle has compiled a series of videos, including from other users, making various claims about what CERN plans to achieve on 5th July.

“Get ready for timeline shifts, Mandela effects,” says one. “You’re about to see a lot more than you’ve ever seen.”

“Start looking for a lot of different types of Mandela effects,” warns another, “vortexes in the sky, things of that nature. They’re going to restart CERN at the highest energy levels ever in that reactor.”

Are any of the claims about CERN opening a portal or building Jacob’s Ladder on 5th July 2022 true?

Parts of what some conspiracy theorists say about CERN are true. For example, it is true the ATLAS and CMS detectors at CERN expect to record “more collisions” during Run 3 “than in the two previous LHC physics runs combined”.

The collider will reach a new energy world record of 13.6 trillion electronvolts (13.6 TeV) in some of its collisions. An electronvolt is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy. A flying mosquito has about one trillion electronvolts of energy, according to CERN’s own glossary of terms.

But claims regarding a supposed “plan” to “open portals” through which “spiritual beings” might pass on 5th July 2022 – and that relate CERN’s activities to Biblical prophecies – do little to help us understand what is actually going on inside the Large Hadron Collider.

Reddit users have been discussing it in a forum on the topic. And, as several note, huge numbers of high-energy cosmic rays have been hitting the Earth for as long as it has existed. Generating a few more inside an underground tunnel is unlikely to affect us en masse.

Another drolly observes: “I’ve never heard anyone explain why this would happen, apart from ‘because CERN’.”

Bruno is a novelist, amateur screenwriter and journalist with interests in digital media, storytelling, film and politics. He’s lived in France, China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, but returned to the UK for a degree (and because of the pandemic) in 2020. His articles have appeared in Groundviews, Forge Press and The Friday Poem, and most are readable on Medium or onurbicycle.com.