Otherworld - Episode 115: The Mirror Realm

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

After getting lost in a quilting project that leaves her in a trance-like state, Alex reluctantly gets ready for a work event she’d rather skip. But when she arrives, she finds out it has mysteriously been canceled. Back home, she washes off her makeup, and as she studies her reflection in the mirror, she’s suddenly transported to another realm. Support Alex after losing her home in the Eaton Fire Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter For business inquiries contact: [e-mail] If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your story at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This story comes from a woman named Alexandra, and it takes place not too far from where we record this podcast here in Los Angeles. Well, at least part of her story does. The other part of her story were not too sure where it takes place. You'll understand what I mean when you hear this story yourself. When this happened to Alexandra, she was working in a bookstore and spending much of her her free time making quilts, which she told me is a very long process. One day, Alexandra was deep in a quilting project, and she was dreading the fact that she had to work later on that day at the bookstore. She was scheduled to work at a specific event. When she finally pulled herself

away from the quilting project and headed off to work, things took a very strange turn. I am very excited about this episode. This is a very unique story, one that is not like anything I've heard before. The stories that defy categorization are always my favorite. This is episode 115. The title is the mirror realm, and you're listening to Otherworld. Hello? Is this Bobby? Yeah, it is. At its core, the science, you can't argue. I'm not worried about all of a science. Up in the sky. It's almost frustrating. It's almost frustrated. I'm literally going to die. I'm going to die.

It's just looking. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them in it. My name is Alex. I am an artist and musician originally from Georgia and then Tennessee, but I moved out to LA three years ago. I moved out here because I had always lived in the South

and as a creative person, I was thinking like either New York or L.A. for a little while just to see what it's like living out here. I grew up in Georgia, which is part of the Bible Belt. There's religion everywhere. There's a church on like every block. And my mom actually worked for a Southern Baptist church when I was a kid. But my family is not necessarily a, we just don't talk about our beliefs. In terms of the paranormal, I feel like I always believed in something. And when I was a kid, it was definitely more of kind of a fear-based belief. There is this weird thing with like the women on my mom's side of the family

where we're all sort of connected in this unexplainable way. My mom, even now, she's still in Georgia, and I'll sometimes just get a text from her. I think a lot of people actually have this experience with mothers, specifically I've heard, but it gets weird sometimes. The one that really sticks out in my mind is when I was in high school, I knew I was a senior, and this is months before prom, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to, like, spin very much on a prom dress. And I wanted to find some, I think on Etsy,

like the perfect little, like vintage Gunny Sacks dress. And so I was like scouring Etsy on the computer that I would like do my homework on. This isn't a computer that my mom would ever, ever use. It was up in the loft at her house. I was looking and I found someone was selling like the exact, it was her wedding dress, but not like her dress because she still has that. But it was the same one. She had this like little lacy, hippie dress that she wore. And I didn't even know that there were others out there. But I got really excited and I went downstairs into her bedroom where the door was closed. she had no idea that I had been on this mission to find a prom dress or anything.

And I went into her room and I said, Mom, you won't believe what I just found. And she looked at me and she said, my wedding dress. We were both so freaked out. I think she, I think her immediate reaction was just like, no. And I was like, yes. And then we might have like cried because it was so weird. So sometimes I wonder if like this thing that we can do kind of makes us open to other things. Weird things would happen at her house.

Like her house is kind of haunted. Things started happening a lot more when my sister went to college and my dad moved to Las Vegas. And all of a sudden it was just the two of us living in that house. And that's when things really ramped up. Like there's still things that go on at her house. And I wonder if that's because she has this, this, like, gift. I don't know if she would call it that because it's so normal to her. But sometimes I wonder if that is sort of what makes these things more, like, probable.

In 2021, I decided to move to L.A. I think during the pandemic, it was something that I just sort of, I mean, we were all in a weird headspace. but I was like, I'm never going to get to move to L.A. The longer it went on. And I just sort of was focusing on, like, I've always been in the South. So the second that I had an opportunity, I came out here. But it was a strange time to move to a big city. I didn't really have a plan.

But for some reason, I wasn't really nervous about it. And I ended up getting a job working at a bookstore at the, this place, the Philosophical Research Society. It was like right across the street from my apartment. And it was a place that I had been sort of into before I even moved out here. So all of that stuff lining up was also very odd. Before that, I had been living kind of in rural Tennessee. So it was a good job to have to sort of acclimate to being around people again. In my free time, I would I would quilt. I would do whatever, whatever art that I could do without having like a studio because I just had my apartment. So quilting was something that I did a lot, like watercolor,

you know, things like that. And when I would do that stuff, I would sort of get into this, this like zone of creativity that I think is, that's another one of those like, universal experiences that people that do creative things can relate. So with quilting specifically, I have noticed that I can really get into a trans-like state. And I think it has something to do with, you're just doing these repetitive actions over and over. You're cutting these pieces of fabric so precisely, but like so many times over and over and over. And then you're piecing them together and sewing them, you know, just so. And then you have to iron the seams. And it's all this very, like it takes skill, but also you can sort of go into this like autopilot mode where you're just

like time stops moving the way that it normally does. It's almost, and then when you're piecing it all together, it's sort of like you're you're looking at this big like, kaleidoscope of fabric and moving everything around. It's just a really peaceful, meditative experience, for me at least. So when this happened, I had been quilting for a few days uninterrupted, which I didn't have that very often. If I had more than like two or three days off, I could really get hyper-focused and in this weird space. And, And so I was in one of these, like, just strange, strange zones. And I was into, I mean, I always like when that happens, but I knew that I had to work.

And the thing with that is, like, sometimes it's hard to be around people after I'm in this, like, trance. So I remember being particularly worried about this shift because I would have to, what I would do is I would go. into the bookstore and then if there was a big event happening, everybody going to the event comes through the bookstore. So I knew that there would be potentially a lot of people that I'd have to be around. So it was getting closer and closer to time for me to go in to the bookstore. And I was just hoping and praying that something would manifest that would let me stay home and quilt because you can't call out of work to quilt. I think I actually prayed, which is something that I'll do in the shower.

I don't know what I said specifically, probably just like, please let something happen where a scenario exists where I just don't have to go in and I can go back home. At the very last minute, I got ready, I put some makeup on, so I didn't. look like I'd been quilting for days and I made myself presentable. And then since the bookstore was just right across the street, I just grabbed my things and walked over there. So yeah, I was walking across the street to the bookstore and I noticed the gate was closed, which can sometimes happen. But as I got to the gate and looked in, there was a nobody there. It was completely closed. That had never happened before. If something was canceled and I

somehow missed it, we would normally get emails about it. And the event would still be on the calendar. It would just be crossed off. But I looked in my email, no emails. I looked at my physical planner where I have everything written, the event was still written on there. It just, it didn't, it didn't make sense. Things, things would get canceled occasionally, but there would, it would have been mentioned in a staff meeting or, or an email. There would be some, like, there would be something I'd be able to point to to go like, oh, I just missed that thing. Now I see. But it was just, it was just gone. So yeah, it was, it was almost like the event just never existed. I was really confused about what was going on, but more so just relieved that suddenly I didn't have to go into work just like I wanted.

I was just really happy that I was going to get to go back home and continue quilting. So I walked back across the street and immediately when I got back back, back into my apartment, I went to go, like, take off all my makeup and just get back into, like, comfortable clothing. So I go into my bathroom and I basically just wear my pajamas when I'm, like, working on stuff at home. So I change into that and I, like, am taking off my mascara taking off my makeup and washing my face. Sometimes after I wash my face, I think a lot of people do this, I get like really close to the mirror and I'm sort of just like checking my face out. So I'm standing like I'm standing at my sink and looking kind of leaning over the sink, almost touching the

mirror. I'm only maybe an inch or so away from it. And then suddenly, something happened. So one second I was in my bathroom and then the next, I'm in this other realm. It was just basically darkness that expanded in all directions. There was just like nothingness. And I, instead of fear was just sort of like, what is this? And, how did I get here? I used to live in this big warehouse. It was so big that I used to paint in the warehouse and like the lights would be on the painting and then it would, you could sort of see the light like disappear. It was like such a vast space and it would like disappear into darkness. And it sort of felt similar in a way to that. Like, it felt like I was in a, I was in some

sort of space. I didn't feel like I had like, I've, I've fainted before. I know what that feels like. It didn't feel like I, like lost consciousness. I was definitely like in, I don't know, like it felt like a different realm. I looked around. I mean, I was, the bathroom was gone. I looked down, I could see my hands. I mean, I was, I was still me. I wasn't looking down from above. I was there. I looked and maybe 20 feet in front of me suspended in this kind of nothingness, there was a mirror. It sort of like looked like the emoji mirror. Like it was just this like perfect looking kind of ornate mirror, but it wasn't hanging on a wall. It was just suspended in this darkness, but I could see it clearly. It definitely was not my bathroom mirror. It looked, it looked

like ornate. So this mirror, I mean, I could see it clearly. So it was it was illuminated by some sort of light. And I assume that's the same light that I allowed me to like see my hands. But there was no light source that I could see. There was nowhere where this light was coming from, if that makes sense. And then I noticed that there were two people standing next to the mirror. They're facing away from me, but looking into the mirror. I was sort of just like observing them and feeling uncomfortable, like, oh no, I'm in their space. And they're, um, they, actually turned and noticed me, sort of like I think when you can feel someone looking at you. So they turned and noticed me and we were all surprised to see each other.

But not they, I immediately could tell if they're not mad. They're just like, oh, there's someone here. And they waved me over to join them. I start to walk over to them, not scared. And now I'm less worried about intruding because I feel like they're fine with me being there. And they seem very comfortable. So I think that helped me to not feel scared. I was very curious and confused about what was going on, but not worried about going over to walk up to them.

As I got closer to them, I noticed it's... this older Asian couple in regular clothing, like clothing that you would go run errands. And they had like very friendly, calm expressions on their face. And I think that they could sense that I was a little confused. But they just seemed really friendly. And almost like someone's grandparents or something. I feel like I can see their faces. But I don't like, they were, they were smiling, but not scary smiles.

They were in their like 60s or 70s. And they both had like black hair, not gray, but they were like older. They looked like somebody that you had just passed on the sidewalk, like definitely from the same time period and everything. This place seemed so nice. not of the earth, that I was, I was shocked to see just a couple of like normal looking people. But it was comforting at the same time. It made me feel like if they got out here, then I don't know. Like they seemed, they seemed like they were purposefully there, if that makes sense.

All right. We have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with the rest of the story. As I got closer to the mirror, which seemed to be where the light was sort of like shining on. So I was getting closer to the light. I could physically feel it. And it felt really, really good. And by the time I got in front of the mirror with the couple and we were all sort of under this light, It was just like this healing light was washing over me.

And I remember standing in front of it and just sort of like putting my hands to my face and telling them this light feels incredible. I could feel it like all the way to my bones. It's hard to describe because like what is it feel like to like heal? You know, and like, how did I know that that's what it was doing? I don't know. It just had, like, it had this, like, euphoric kind of feeling. Like, like, my body felt good. My, I was, like, totally.

I hadn't really been afraid, but, like, I don't even care anymore. Like, how I got to this place. It's just like, whoa, what is this? This is incredible. It was both physically and emotionally, like, incredible. in all regards. It wasn't like where sunlight can be like too bright in it and it hurts your eyes. This was something different. I didn't have to like shield my eyes from anything. Tingley is a good word for it, but it was almost like anything negative was just like melted away. It's hard to

compare it to anything else. I don't think I had felt anything like this before. So I think based on my reaction to the light, they must have sensed that I had not been there before. And so they did end up telling me that I couldn't just stay there since they could see like how how great I was feeling. Like you can't stay, but you can come occasionally. So when they tell me that that I can't just stay here in this space forever, they mention that, that, that's a lot of they only come here occasionally. And they correlated their visits with like the moon phases somehow that gave me the sense that they come to this space maybe like once a month to kind of give me an idea of like you can come here just every once in a while, but there's no

staying. I was thinking, okay, this is something that they do regularly. They must be able to access this, I assume through some sort of meditation or they have some practice that takes them here. And so if I want to access this place again, I would have to figure that out. But something about what I was doing may be like open enough to get here. So I asked them where the light was coming from, but they did. didn't tell me. They explained that that's why they come here. I don't, I don't know. Either they don't know either, or maybe it's something we're like not supposed to know, that it's just, this is the place that we come for the healing light. This whole communication, I can't remember

if we were like speaking telepathically or using our mouths to speak. There was a lot of like understanding without words, sort of like how when I was standing behind them, I felt like this is their thing that they do. Like I knew that somehow. And then they noticed me, but like none of us were scared. It seemed like there was some communication happening with just like there was just like this knowing. This whole time I was having this experience and I, you know, I was like trying to figure things out. But I was also just knowing that that was all like this is all real. I knew while I was there. Like how amazing is this?

Like what else is there that that I like. that I like don't know about. And I don't know. I guess I've always had like beliefs in spiritual things, but this was just like very affirming that like for me, I'm like there's no question now. There's like real stuff happening that we just don't know about, I guess. I was having this like crazy realization this whole time. So outside of the like brief exchanges that we had were all three of us were just standing in front of this mirror. And I can see myself, I can see them, but we're sort of just like standing there together like basking in this amazing feeling light. I just the whole time had my hands on my face

and I remember like kind of rubbing my arms, you know, like touching, where the light was hitting and sort of just like in amazement that like how is this how is this possible and like what is what is this so while we're all standing in front of this mirror I start to notice I think because of the brightness of the light that we were in I could sort of see more of my surroundings than just the expansive darkness it was almost like looking through a really tinted, like, car window where you can't see everything, but I could, I could sort of make out like palm trees. I got the sense that we were kind of suspended above things. So this is kind of a bird's eye view of this. There were palm trees. It looked tropical. There was like a beach,

but it definitely didn't seem or feel like it was Los Angeles. And I got the sense that maybe I was seeing where they were. And at the same time, I was wondering if they could see, like, me and, like, my little, like, Los Felas bathroom or, like, apartment. I could see that there were, like, colors. I could see the green of the leaves and, like, the blue of the ocean water. But it was, like, tinted. It was, like, I don't know, wearing, like, super dark. sunglasses or something. It's still sort of like would fade into the darkness. But I think because of

the brightness of the light that we were all under, it allowed me to see a little bit more. At this point, I mean, I felt like everything was moving in real time. But it didn't feel, it felt like maybe it had been like 30 minutes tops. Like it did not feel like a ton of. And it did not feel like a ton of time had passed. I just remember us sort of standing together, content, you know, we're like, okay, now we all kind of know we're here. We all like this light. So let's just all stand here and bask in it for a little bit. We just sort of hung out in front of the mirror, felt the light, but felt no like obligation to talk. Like you, like normally would, we were just standing kind of in silence, enjoying this.

But it didn't feel like a super long amount of time. So just as suddenly as I got there, I abruptly was back in my bathroom, standing still just an inch away from the mirror. There was no like tunnel vision. There was no like kind of like seeing stars or anything. There was no like stuff fading away. It was like snapping your fingers. Like I was there and then suddenly I was back just as quick. I'm back in my Los Felas bathroom standing in the exact same place.

There was a window in that bathroom and I noticed that it's darker outside. So I look at my watch and I realize that I must have been there for three hours. which is crazy because it felt it felt like I was there for maybe a half an hour at tops. It's not like I was in this like comfortable, relaxed position. Like I had to lean over my sink to get that close to that mirror. It's like standing there for three hours would have been, I feel like I would have been like sore almost from standing there for so long. it does not make sense.

And like that makes less sense to me than like going to a different realm. It's just like it just didn't equate at all. And so that's when I kind of got scared. So I grab like the closest notebook. I might have even been kind of shaking at this point because I noticed that like When I would look back at what I wrote down, the handwriting, I'm just like, okay, so I just did this and da-da-da-da-da-da. And it's very like chicken scratch. Like I was just trying to get it down as quickly as possible before, I don't know, I feel like our brains will try to explain away things.

So I wanted to get it all down. And then I called my friend Annie. I had to tell someone what just happened and she is a friend that I know I can tell her absolutely anything and there won't be any judgment. After everything, after, you know, calling a friend, writing it down, kind of like coming back to like, okay, I'm back. I had this like lingering like euphoric feeling for a while that day in particular, you know, like I'm pretty sure I kept quilting. But I had this like sense that there's so much more possible than I was aware of that it was I was just like I was really excited. And I also was like, I hope this feeling doesn't think. go away, which is part of why I think I wanted to write it down and tell someone. It was because it was,

like, no matter how confusing it was, it was amazing. And I don't want to forget that. I just kept quilting and then went to bed with this feeling of like limitless possibilities. And like, we're all magic. Just this really, really happy feeling. This part is, a little hard to articulate, but it was like I could feel this other knee above in this other realm. It was like a physical connection to it, but non-physical at the same time. It felt like when you're a kid and you have a balloon maybe like tied around your wrist, the sensation, you can feel it bobbing around. I had that feeling.

I kept thinking about how when I could sort of see beyond the darkness a little bit, I could see the palm trees and everything. I could see all of that from above. So I think that's what gave me the sense that like it's up there. It's just right up there. So thinking back about the experience, I did sort of speculate about the work event that Mistaking. just sort of didn't exist. Did I jump into a different timeline that allowed this to be possible? Did the whole experience begin with the work event being mysteriously non, it didn't exist anymore?

Like did something happen then? Like where did the differentiation? Like when did it start? So I did ask some people that I worked with about what happened to the event, but it was just it was just as though there was no event. And so I never got an explanation about why that happened. And I couldn't exactly tell them, like, I want to know because I went to this place. place, you know, so I didn't, I didn't really push the matter, but it was never, it's never made sense.

I also was wondering if, I mean, I got, I got the sense that that couple had gotten to the space through meditating. So I, so I did wonder if, if the quilting put me in the right meditative space to be able to access this realm. So I did eventually tell my mom. I think I told my sister maybe a year after everything happened. And then I told my therapist like a year or so after. I waited a while to share the story with anybody besides Annie. But I just recently told my mom about it.

I was definitely worried that, I don't know, she would just be worried about me. Like, oh, no, my daughter, she's out in Los Angeles. What is? She's going crazy. But instead of that being her reaction, she just said, when I told her, I like, when I was at the part of the story where I said, and then I was somewhere else in this other realm, she just said, were you in hell? Like, I don't know why that would be her first reaction.

But, but yeah, that was funny. And it actually, like, led to us having, like, a conversation about spirituality and stuff that I don't think we normally would have had. So, yeah, that was nice. My main concern was just, like, I don't want her to think I, like, went over, like, some edge. but I get the sense that she knows I still have like two feet planted on the ground, but I did have this like amazing experience. Whatever this place was, I think it's definitely someplace real that it exists just like we're here existing and maybe we're all connected to it at all times in just a way that

we're like unaware. the healing light, that seems like maybe it's something that like we all get or we all have access to, just not on like a conscious level. I do sometimes wonder if I like ran into that couple like at the grocery store or something if I would like recognize them. But whatever that place was, I don't even know if I'm like supposed to understand. You know what I mean? But it definitely has like affected me in a positive way. I've continued to lead like a pretty normal life. But I like someone at work told me like once there's a crack in that wall, there's no closing it. And that like that stuck with me where I was like, okay, I don't want to, I don't want to push anything. I believe that there's like,

there's more going on than we're aware of, but I'll know more when it's time to know. You know what I need? I'm not actively trying to access it. I feel like I've been given this gift of this experience was a gift. Now I know that they're without a shadow of a doubt, that there's way more going on than I'll ever know. And that's cool to me. All right, thank you to Alexandra for sharing this story. I really, really like this one. And I have found myself thinking about it quite a lot. I actually interviewed her multiple times about this because I had so many questions.

To me, the fact that she was standing there bent over the sink for three hours is the weirdest part of the story. It's hard to explain something like that away. Standing in a position like that is a very hard thing to do for an extended period of time. Another aspect I'm fascinated by is that she told me she was genuinely transported somewhere else. It's not like she was imagining being somewhere or seeing this in her mind's eye. One minute she was in her bathroom, the next she was genuinely somewhere else. Alexandra speculated that maybe the people in the mirror were able to get there through some kind of meditation.

And she wondered if she herself managed to get there on accident due to the repetitive nature of her quilting and entering a kind of trance-like creative flow state. I am not discounting that possibility at all. But I will say that the types of meditation that can make you experience, the feeling of being transported to, a different place or anything even remotely close to that are ones that take years of practice and focus, a lot of dedication to get anywhere close to that. Something like that might happen deep in a meditation. However, Alexandra was not meditating. She had just walked around her neighborhood. I mean, she took a shower and then washed her face, and this happened out of nowhere.

I have practiced transcendental meditation myself. I have never. heard of somebody getting transported to a mirror realm for three hours out of nowhere. This story is so striking to me. I can't think of a simple explanation for this and yeah, I've just really never heard of anything like this before. I'm also not

sure what to make of her disappearing work event. I went over this with her a few times and together we tried to figure out what might have happened to that event or what it was, but sad, Sadly, this is quite a difficult thing to do because Alexandra recently lost almost all of her belongings in the Eden Canyon fires, including her old notebooks and planners, and unfortunately also the quilts.

I know that she wonders if whatever this was maybe started earlier in the day, like maybe reality sort of split for her long before the mirror incident. maybe sometime before the work event that disappeared. I'm not sure. Like I said before, I get really excited when we encounter something that seems really different. The story in the mirror realm is totally new for me. And of course, I'm curious if anybody else has experienced something similar.

So maybe one day we will hear from somebody who has also been to the mirror realm. If that's happened to you, send it in. Stories at Otherworldpod.com. Once again, I want to thank Alexandra for sharing this story. This has been episode 115. The title is The Mirror Realm, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal. This episode was edited by Haley Pearson and engineered by Theo Schaefer. Our artwork is by Coldestack Studios. Nikki Kate Delgado is our associate producer,

production help by Haley Pearson. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends about Otherworld. If you want to hear bonus episodes, you can become a patron at patreon.com slash Otherworld. Our social media is at Otherworld Pod. Thank you to the team at Odyssey.

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