If you have been watching Netflix's excellent series, Stranger Things, then you will be aware of the Upside Down: the central theme to the movie. Yet a question on the minds of many fans is what exactly is the Upside Down? Is the Upside Down a parallel universe?'
I should say that if you haven't as yet seen this series, then I would highly recommend watching it. If you don't fancy purchasing Netflix, you can always purchase the boxsets of Stranger Things.
I won't go too much into the plot of Stranger Things in this article, as this would go way beyond the scope of the article (especially as we now have season 4 coming up). However the following video outlines everything that has happened up until now in the Stranger Things timeline.
Anyhow to the main point at hand:
Is The Upside Down A Parallel Universe?
If you'd seen Stranger Things, then you'd know that the upside down is a copy of our world, except in that world everything is in a state of decay. The buildings are all falling apart, as well as being covered in these long, tangled weeds.
The sky in the Upside Down seems to be permanently overcast, often with the odd storm taking place. And the air is filled with tiny spores which seem to float along in the wind. There aren't any living people from the Upside Down (that we know of) but there are the odd monsters. Mainly the Mind-Frayer (seen is seasons 2 & 3, as well as the Demogoblin which was the main monster from season 1.
There are also the Demodogs, though in my opinion it seems that they are just younger versions of the Demogoblin. For as we see from the end of Season 1 and throughout season 2, the slug which was inside Will (and he spat out at end season 1), developed small legs and began to grow into a Demodog by mid season 2.
Now it is debatable as to whether the Demodog is a different monster from the Demogoblin. I disagree, for both creatures look exactly the same; the only difference is the Demogoblin walks on two legs. And whilst the portal is open between our world and the Upside Down, the Demogoblin has the ability to make its own small portals and cross over between worlds: grabbing people and taking them back to his world.
From the changes that occur which makes the slug into a Demodog one can see how if this progression continued, the Demodog would soon turn into a Demogoblin. So assuming they are one and the same monster, then it means that the Demogoblin and the Mind-Frayer are the only monsters that inhabit the Upside Down.
One thing that is made clear is that the majority of the wildlife in the Upside Down, from the spores and weeds, all the way up to the Mind-Frayer, is part of a collective mind. So if something happens to one of the species, all the others soon know about it.
At the end of Season 2 when Eleven closed the portal, all the matter (organic and inorganic, like soil) instantly dropped dead. This could be seen when Eleven finally closed the portal and all the Demodogs on our side of the now closed portal dropped dead.
Also all network of weeds which had grown out of the portal and made a tunnel system under the town of Hawkins all dropped dead.
Yet in Season 3 when the Russians had snuck into Hawkins, converted the abandoned Laboratory (used by the American government in previous episodes) and reopened the portal, something strange happened. Some of the dead matter left in our world from the Upside Down at the end of Season 2 became alive again.
As such most of Season 3 was our main characters battling with a Mini Mind-Frayer in our world, which began converting matter from our world (in the form of dead rats bodies) into Upside Down matter. Yet at the end of the season when the machine which the Russians had used to reopen the portal was destroyed, the mini Mind-Frayer died, and all the Upside Down matter became lifeless matter once again!
So it appears that for the hive mind to enter our world (and remain connected to the Upside Down) a portal needs to be open. If the portal shuts down, the link is lost and all Upside Down creatures who are in our world instantly die.
Yet did the hive mind connecting everything in the Upside Down always exist there? Did the Upside Down even exist before the portal was open? Or was the Upside Down once a parallel world to ours that got infected by the hive mind.
What I Believe
As an avid viewer of the series, I have my own theory which I would like to share. Basically I think the Upside Down was once a parallel Earth, just like our world. And it was inhabited by humans and all the things that occupy this Earth.
Then somehow the Mind-Frayer and all the monsters came through into that world. And within a short period of time, the hive mind had devoured all the humans and animals (plus plants) on that Earth. Doing so seemed to also have an adverse effect on the climate: causing a permanent overcast and storms on that Earth.
This can be explained by the fact that in the Upside Down, there are still cars and buildings (exact replica of Hawkins actually). In season 1, we even come across a full skeleton of some resident, which too rotted to being from one of the people just taken by the Demogoblin from our world into that one. Hence my theory is that the skeleton is the remains of an original resident from that world.
If this is the case, then it fits the theory that the Upside Down was a parallel Earth, just like ours until the Upside Down hive mind took over. Since then, it had pretty much all consumed all original life of that world. Only the human's buildings and cars are left, slowly decaying.
Another interesting thing to take into account is how from when the portal was first open, how desperate the hive mind has been to enter our world. This would make sense if the hive mind had pretty much stripped the parallel Earth of all its original life, and so sat there dormant, waiting.
Hence when Eleven was remote viewing on the Russians and psychically made contact with the Demogoblin at the start of season 1, the portal between our world and the Upside Down opened. And throughout the rest of the seasons, the hive mind in the Upside Down has attempted to enter our Earth.
The fact that the Demogoblin has the ability to sit in the void between worlds (where Eleven goes when she is remote viewing) implies to me that the hive mind has an interdimensional angle to it. In that it spreads through one parallel world, absorbing all there is of that world and killing off its inhabitants.
Once it has nearly completed this, it than gives rise to a Demogoblin, which has the ability to psychically sit in the void between worlds. Hence a remote viewer from another parallel Earth makes contact with it, a link is made between the world the hive mind occupied and the remote viewers Earth. From there the hive mind has a fresh world to spread into, occupy and conquer.
And the cycle repeats.
So this hive mind is some sort of multi dimensional gobbler up of parallel Earth's. And due to Eleven making contact (and Russians reopening the portal) our world is next on the list!
It should be said that this is only my theory however, and with the arrival of season 4, more information about the Upside Down will surely come out. And maybe this would contradict my current theory.
But until then, I hold onto the parallel Earth theory of the Upside Down!
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