An Empty World, A Time Traveler, Another Dimension | Liminal Spaces: The Reality In-between

[Music]. in the past year or so three internet. Mysteries popped up that really got my. attention they may seem very different. but trust me they're connected the first. one is about a girl who found a door in. the basement of her Airbnb she opened it. and inside there was an abandoned. shopping mall the second story is about. Javier who woke up in a hospital in the. year 2027 in an alternate universe in. his version of the future everyone on. Earth has vanished he's the only one. left and he has the video to prove it. the third mystery is known as the back.

rooms a reality adjacent to ours that if. the conditions are just right you could. accidentally fall into then you find. yourself lost in an endless Maze of. dingy carpet fluorescent light and. yellow wallpaper and around every corner. foreign. [Music]. Mall a deserted World a maze in another. dimension what do these have in common. uh terrible places to have a vacation.

um uh good places to hide a body what. are you doing hello you asked what those. places have in common I'm answering your. question I was being rhetorical I'm. trying to build drama and suspense oh. well well you're on over on channel. buddy boy. what these locations have in common is. liminality well more specifically. they're liminal spaces a liminal space. is defined as a place of transition a. threshold between two distinctly. different points signaling the end of.

one and the beginning of another. limitable spaces do exist as physical. locations but they could also be an. emotional experience they occur during. periods of uncertainty and major life. changes events like a divorce or breakup. the death of a loved one the birth of a. child moving to a new city ending or. starting a new career all these create. liminality in our mind meaning our life. before this event is over and a new. period of life is about to begin. liminality is the unease and.

apprehension we feel during this. transition liminal spaces in the real. world are a bit more difficult to Define. but you know one when you see one think. of an airport in the middle of the night. school during summer break a house just. after someone moves out or in this case. an accidentally discovered abandoned. shopping mall. [Music].

you could tell by the video that she's. having fun but she's also a little. uncomfortable she's experiencing the. anxiety of a liminal space that while. not all liminal spaces are so unsettling. the type of space currently coursing. through the internet will have a few. common features they'll feel both. familiar and strange if you browse.

through photos on the liminal space. subreddit you'll come across many. locations that you could swear you've. been to evoking a strange feeling of. nostalgia for a place you've never been. another common trait is that places are. out of context like a waiting room with. one chair a plane with no seats a. flooded Metro station or a submerged. staircase have you ever watched a video. of the Titanic on the bottom of the. ocean when you see the staircases and. Furniture completely underwater this. evokes liminality this out of context.

imagery triggers anxiety similar to. uncanny valley the feeling that. something is just not right liminal. spaces are often places you might have. visited as a child roller ranks are. commonly thought of as liminal. bowling alleys arcades or an empty Chuck. E cheese the only. Chuck E cheese is a crowded Chuck E. cheese. [Applause].

you got that right but something you'll. notice about all these places they're. empty and that seems to be the most. unsettling aspect of all these spaces. are transitional because they're in. between places not meant for anyone to. stay very long but they're still meant. for people yet these sit empty waiting. to fulfill their use waiting for people. people that in some cases never arrive. now all of us from time to time stumble. into a liminal space a supermarket in.

the middle of the night an empty office. an amusement park off-season. but what if you woke up one day and the. entire world was deserted and every. space was a liminal space. [Music]. [Laughter]. [Music]. Tick Tock has no shortage of quote. unquote time travel accounts some are. entertaining but they're mostly just.

goofy but one account stands out from. the rest Javier a Spanish Creator whose. account is unigo sobre vivinte which. means. oh you speak Spanish now. well this account. [Music]. okay I get it do you mind if I no I. like well this account is unique because. he posts actual videos of deserted. department stores supermarkets even. entire football stadiums Javier woke up. in a hospital in Valencia on February 13.

2027 and claims to be in an alternative. Universe apparently at some point in the. near future every human on earth just. disappears he said that when he woke up. he couldn't remember his name or where. he lived he went outside and everyone. was just gone everything appeared just. like 2021 but electronic devices showed. 2027. now his videos are fascinating and. I'll link to his account down below and. when you're watching remember that. Valencia has a population of over 800.

000 people and the surrounding area has. almost 2 million people. and despite Valencia being a big city. there are no people in these videos he. goes to random Apartments. he crashes at exclusive hotels.

he accepts challenges to go to places. that most people can't go fire and. police departments. even steals a few police cars. he goes to a military base. some Skeptics claim he's recording all. this early in the morning he responds by.

recording himself walking by public. signs with a Time on them. there aren't many tick-tockers who can. reprogram a public digital sign he's. challenged to go to a hospital not an. old deserted one an actual modern. hospital and he does it. a lot of the places he visits do have. off hours but hospitals are full of. people 24 7 but not these Javier also. claims our two worlds are connected he's.

able to interact with objects in his. world which affects objects here for. example a Spanish television show. challenged Javier by leaving a book. hidden on their set and told him to find. it and move it he did. this is.

and when the studio went back to watch. the security footage you can see the. door open and close and just for a quick. moment you see some kind of figure flash. by. um. [Music].

that would be terrifying to wake up. alone in the world where every place you. visit is a different liminal space but. worse than that would be waking up in a. single liminal space that goes on. forever and that place has a name in the. back rooms. [Music]. foreign.

is an internet mystery that began like. many internet Mysteries do on 4chan. someone asked members to submit. disquieting images that just feel off an. anonymous user posted this Photograph. everyone who saw the image agreed it was. strangely familiar but unsettling though. nobody could explain why finally a. follow-up comment described it if you're. not careful and you know clip out of. reality in the wrong areas you'll end up. in the back.

or it's nothing but the stink of old. moist carpet the madness mono yellow the. endless background noise of fluorescent. lights and maximum humbas and. approximately 600 million square miles. of randomly segmented empty rooms to be. trapped in God save you if you hear. something wandering around nearby. because it sure as hell has heard you uh. no clip well no clip is a video game. term when two objects overlap that's. clipping no clipping means crossing. boundaries in a game that you're not.

supposed to cross and ending up an area. is not meant for the player the back. room's Theory says it's possible to no. clip into a different reality adjacent. to ours a reality you're not meant to. ever see remember Limitless spaces are. transitional you're not supposed to stay. there very long you instinctively want. to get out to move on the back rooms are. unnerving because you can't it's an. endless liminal space with no Escape. something about the back rooms connected. with people and an entire culture was.

organically developed around the concept. completely Community Driven the back. rooms has become crowdsourced IP with. its own Cannon and lore there are now. hundreds of levels of back rooms each. with their own stories their own rules. inhabitants objects even hazards fans. can contribute to the lore through a few. different wikis completely dedicated to. the back rooms still the back rooms. lived in dark corners of the internet. what brought the concept to the. mainstream was a series of short videos.

by a Creator named Kane Parsons using an. ingenious combination of live action and. 3D animation wrapped in a low-tech. package these videos give us a glimpse. of what being trapped in the back rooms. would feel like the videos also prove. that liminal spaces are not a fringe. Theory millions of people have watched. these clearly the concept of liminality. is universal the video series begins. with a group of kids shooting what looks. like a student film in 1996 the camera. operator suddenly no clips through the.

ground and and falls into the back rooms. yeah yeah. hello. it doesn't take long for us to realize. that we're not alone in the back rooms. there's some entity aware of us and. seems to follow us through the Maze of. empty yellow office space hello. some moments are definitely scary but.

even when not being outright terrifying. the entire series is unsettling As You. Through The Eyes Of The Lost cameraman. explore the back rooms you have a sense. that you've been here before I certainly. have there are certain angles and ways. the walls are arranged that remind me of. offices that I've worked at at different. points in my life I work jobs where the. only light was overhead bulbs and the. only time you'd see the Sun or the sky. was if you were lucky enough to run out. for lunch that was my job last year.

actually for anyone who's worked in an. office like this there's a feeling of. claustrophobia of being trapped like a. prisoner where time seems to slow down. and hours feel like they last for days. unfortunately for people trapped in the. back rooms time doesn't exist at all. there is no past and no future so no. brief respite for lunch no exhilaration. at the end of a long boring day the only. time is the present and like the space. itself the present is infinite. eventually our hero discovers graffiti.

on a wall which tells him to stay still. that turns out to be a terrible idea. after fleeing from The Entity were taken. to various locations which are. essentially Recreations of common photos. of liminal spaces The Empty Apartment. the deserted quad and Kane's short film. then Builds on tried and true horror. movie tropes like Pursuit claustrophobia. disorientation and of course the jump. scare.

oh. foreign. subsequent videos build on the lore of. the back rooms the tone shifts from jump. scare horror into more of a dystopian. sci-fi thriller it seems that there are. ruptures in our world that allow people. to accidentally pass into the back rooms. this explains why the number of missing. people is on the rise eventually a. corporation creates a prototype machine. to access the back rooms and this is. hailed as a world saving technology.

because the back rooms are so large. hundreds of millions of square miles. they can be used for storage housing. even transport now of course things go. wrong along the way we have researchers. trying to map the back rooms getting. lost and falling into different levels. and all kinds of Chaos. oh my God everything okay. um across. Curry. okay.

the series is still ongoing so subscribe. to Kane pixels if you want to see what. happens next but you don't have to wait. for Kane other creators have picked up. the mantle and attempted to continue the. story. anything who just saw someone running.

Juanita Estevez now age 16 last team. Yuba City California November 27 1984. call 800. hello can you help me get down there's. something up here please.

baked right where you are we're gonna. try and get you down to me all these. versions are equally interesting and. unsettling the back room's concept has. spawned other media as well a viral Tick. Tock shows someone using Google Earth to. zoom in on a location in Japan as they. move inside the building we see the. familiar wallpaper carpet fluorescent. lights and this time different objects. and entities Indie developers are. publishing video games based on the back. rooms and liminal spaces animalopolis is. one that looks interesting it combines.

The Uncanny liminal space concept with. classic first person horror and puzzle. solving elements liminality may seem. like the cool new thing and it's no. coincidence that its popularity surged. during coveted lockdowns when everyone. was feeling isolated but the concept has. been around a long time the phrase was. created by Arnold van gennep in his book. Rites of Passage released in 1908 and. getup was more focused on life. experiences like transitioning from. childhood to adulthood graduating high. school or moving to a new city this.

concept of an in-between place whether. physical or emotional has been explored. in media and pop culture for years Rod. Serling famously said it is the middle. ground between light and Shadow between. science and Superstition and it lies. between the pit of Man's fears and the. summit of his knowledge The Shining is. an entire movie based around the idea of. liminality the abandoned Hotel spooky. hallways that go on forever and you.

never know what lurks around Each corner. thank you. [Music]. horror movies like it follows and Silent. Hill also used liminal spaces to amp up. the creepiness and recently the Apple TV. sci-fi thriller Severance uses liminal. spaces as a backdrop for the entire. series the large empty spaces hallways. that create such a confusing maze that. you have to draw maps to find your way. around and the Dual reality concept of. severance is similar to The Back rooms.

you have one reality where you live your. life as you normally would but when you. get to work you are severed from this. reality and transition to a new reality. a reality comprised completely of. liminality and you can't have a. post-apocalyptic story without. liminality that feeling of being the. last person on Earth walking through. spaces once teeming with life now left. abandoned and forgotten the human brain. is not wired for this kind of isolation. which is why these tropes are so. effective and speaking of the Apocalypse.

let's Circle back to our two other. Mysteries and see if we can figure out. what's really going on. Javier the lonely Survivor in Spain. he has a very interesting and compelling. Tick Tock account and people are. constantly trying to debunk him some say. his hands look different in each video. implying that he's actually a team and. there may be something to that you have. to dig really deep but it turns out that. Javier is working with the city of.

Valencia on a media project called The. Lonely Survivor which is why he has. access to all these places and why he's. able to clear out entire stadiums busy. streets even sections of hospitals so. it's not some future reality it's just a. TV production team with filming permits. now Javier won't admit his account as. just a project and I don't blame him. it's fun to maintain an air of mystery. but if you watch enough of his videos. you realize it would be so easy for him. to prove that he's in a different. reality or in the future he could show.

the dates on tombstones he could time. lapse an entire weekend at a typically. busy airport or just fly his drone. around the city at rush hour he never. does this his environments are highly. controlled but still the videos are fun. and the young lady who discovered an. abandoned Mall in the basement of her. Airbnb the video has a supernatural feel. to it but it's really not that strange. her Airbnb is actually a hotel that. shares a building with the Ocean Walk. Mall in Hollywood Beach Florida an Ocean. Walk is what's called a dead Mall though.

a better name for a dead mall is. probably a zombie mall it's a shopping. mall that nobody really goes to anymore. but it's still open and somewhat. functioning and dead malls are. everywhere all over the country and it's. not hard to understand why malls are. dying Amazon well pretty much online. shopping and the online economy but when. I was a kid you bought your groceries at. the supermarket and you bought. everything else at the mall clothes. Electronics Sporting Goods toys. everything and in many Suburban towns.

like the ones I grew up in the mall was. a community social Center families would. spend all day there you'd shop eat shop. and eat some more all day and as a. teenager we'd hang out at the mall we'd. go around lunchtime we'd see a movie. lurk in the arcade and talk to girls you. you I wanted to but I wasn't very good. at it. well high school and college kids from. the area often work at these shops in. fact this is the mall that we went to. when I was a kid and worked at all.

through high school and college back in. those days the mall was always packed. when was that the 1950s. not that long ago but close enough but. now look at it that's not the mall I. remember there is a sadness to these. spaces there's Nostalgia there's the. reminder that everything moves forward. Everything Changes what once was will. never again be these Transitions and. Rites of Passage are an important part. of life they show our courage our. resilience our perseverance they make us.

who we are but whether a location in the. world or a transitional moment in our. lives every liminal space has the same. point. to find your way out. thanks so much for hanging out with me. today my name is AJ that's Heckle fish. this has been the y-files if you had fun. or learned anything do us a favor and. like subscribe comment and share that. stuff really helps out the channel and. if you have a story you'd like covered. or information you want to share you can. email tips at the yfiles.com and.

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thank you. [Music].