Freaky Fact or Fiction: The Traveller From Taured

There are a lot of theories out there surrounding things like time travel and parallel universes and although some are convincing, there is little proof to absolutely prove or disprove the existence of either.

There is one story however that is said to be true and if this is the case it is difficult to explain the occurrence with anything but the existence of at least one parallel universe very similar to our own.

Although there are multiple versions of the story that differ slightly in small details, the important parts of the narrative seem to remain consistent in most accounts. The dissimilarities in the telling of the tale is not enough to prove the story to be fiction as a lot of true tales can be skewed over time with information being shared and some details being unintentionally twisted. Memory and word of mouth is not always the most reliable source but that doesn't mean stories shared in this way should be completely shrugged off as false.

The story talks of a man that arrived at Tokyo International Airport in 1954 and was stopped when making his way through security. The man in question was Caucasian and is reported to have spoken French as his first language. The reason the seemingly ordinary man was stopped is because upon inspection of his legitimate-appearing passport, his country of residence was called Taured.

All of the airport security officers were aware that there is not a country in existence called Taured, prompting the man to be interrogated by immigration officials. The traveller was not backing down about his country of origin and when asked to point it out on a map and explaining Taured to be between France and Spain, he became agitated to see that Andorra was labelled on the map in the place of his homeland.

The man explained that he was travelling for business and some versions of the story state that the authorities contacted the company in Tokyo that he was supposedly working for, but the employees there had no record of the individual and were not expecting him.

Authorities were suspicious of the man and didn't know how to explain the events or what to do with him. They ended up detaining the man in a hotel room while they attempted to figure out what to do about the strange situation, and they kept his belongings and documents in a locked security room at the airport. His hotel room was guarded by two security professionals so he could not leave.

The following morning when immigration officials went to talk with the man, they were astonished to find that he had completely disappeared from the room. The guards had not seen anyone enter or leave the room and there was no trace of the mystery man. As if that wasn't strange enough, it is reported that all of the mans belongings including his passport had all disappeared from the room they had been locked in at the airport.

This story has been largely explained by the existence of a parallel universe and Earth very similar to our own, with the exception of Andorra being called Taured. Bizarrely, if the story is true then this would seem to be the most realistic explanation.

Some others have tried to explain the incident with the theory that the man has travelled back in time from the future, which is a little more unbelievable. There have not been versions of the story that would suggest the man has knowingly travelled through time and their didn't seem to be any confusion over the man's date of birth or the year the incident occurred.

Of course, it is more likely that the tale is just an urban legend or a mundane incident that has been twisted by wild imaginations and exaggerated retelling.

Whether true or not it is certainly an interesting and unsettling story that challenges what we assume to be true about the world, and it gives some weight to theories otherwise widely dismissed. It is important to remember that fact is often stranger than fiction and just because something is unbelievable doesn't necessarily mean it is not true. Of course, don't believe everything you read either.

What do you think of the story of the mystery man from Taured? Do you know any other urban legends about time travel or parallel universes? Let me know @curiouslycreepy on Twitter and @creepyandcurious on Instsagram.

Stay creepy and curious, ghouls.