No, CERN did not activate a portal during the April 8 solar eclipse

By: Siri Christiansen
April 9 2024

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Facebook post claiming CERN is activating a portal. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

The claim

Several viral social media posts claim that CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is "being reactivated" during the April 8 total solar eclipse in North America to "open a portal" as part of a demonic ritual or spiritual war.

According to such posts, CERN has reactivated its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator, with the hidden agenda of opening a doorway for demons to descend upon Earth.

"... if you take a peek under the surface it's pretty clear they are creating a portal to the underworld in order to release demonic beings during the coming tribulation," one Facebook post claims.

"Is this some enacted demonic ritual to align the eclipse with a portal of some sorts? If so, the counter effects this could cause could wreak absolute havoc on our plaNET, and could induce psychological reactions beyond the imagination of the mind (sic)," another Facebook post argues.

X post with 1.2 million views as of April 8. Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot (Collage by Logically Facts)

A similar claim appeared in July 2022 when CERN reactivated the LHC after three years of maintenance and upgrade work, as social media posts like this one claimed the timing aligned with a rare planetary alignment to open a portal to hell, the future, or another dimension. 

However, the reactivation of the LHC is due to a temporary winter maintenance stop and doesn't have anything to do with the solar eclipse.

In fact

The LHC particle accelerator is a 27-kilometer-long tube in which two high-energy beams of charged particles travel at near-light speed, guided by superconducting electromagnets, in opposite directions, until they collide. The reactions produced by these high-speed collisions are studied by researchers and can lead to new discoveries about the small matter making up our universe. 

TED-Ed video explaining how a particle accelerator works. 

Every year, the LHC is shut down temporarily during winter for maintenance and technical checks. The LHC was restarted on March 8, and while the initial plan was to get the high-energy beams up and running by April 8, the beams reached a stable state on April 5, according to a CERN announcement. A CERN spokesperson confirmed to Logically Facts that the first collision ended up happening on the same day. 

However, due to a cryo reconfiguration, the particle accelerator was not producing any beams on April 8 until midnight CET, after the solar eclipse was over. Even if the LHC had been running, the solar eclipse would not have had an impact on the beams.

Screenshot of the LHC's live webcam on April 8, CET time. The webcam can be found here.

"What we do at CERN has little to do with astrophysics in a direct way. And there is no link whatsoever between the solar eclipse today, and what we do at CERN," a spokesperson for the research organization told Logically Facts. 

Sara Strandberg, a professor in elementary particle physics at Stockholm University's Department of Physics, agreed.

"At the LHC, protons collide with each other at very high energies to study the smallest components of matter. What we learn in these experiments can explain the structure of the universe, but has no direct link to astronomical phenomena such as solar eclipses," Strandberg told Logically Facts.

666?

"The idea that demons require some sort of technological "portal" to enter our world is a very modern idea not found in the Bible or Christian tradition before the twentieth century," Joseph Laycock, an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University with a research focus on moral panic and demonic beliefs, told Logically Facts. 

He explained there are several historic examples of "Satanic attack" rumors circulating around significant dates or events.

The portal claim feeds into a recurrent idea that CERN is secretly a devil-worshipping organization. Among other things, social media users argue that CERN's logo is a spiraling 666, which is a number commonly associated with the devil or satanism. The statue of the Hindu deity Shiva at CERN's campus has attracted similar speculation. In 2016, a fake ritual sacrifice was filmed in front of the statue, showing individuals in black cloaks "stabbing" a woman. 

Social media posts suggesting CERN is an occult organization. (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts.)

"CERN is an impressive facility, so the combination of being located in Europe and having elite scientists and resources aligns with fantasies of a Satanic' global elite' running the world," Laycock told Logically Facts.

On its FAQ page, CERN explains that the shapes in its logo represent particle accelerators and that the Shiva statue, a gift from India, is a metaphor for the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the "cosmic dance" of subatomic particles studied at CERN. 

The verdict

CERN studies particle physics, not astrophysics, and the LHC particle accelerator is not impacted by or has any relation to the solar eclipse. Therefore, we have rated this claim as false.