Spotlight: Otto's Portal by Nathan Jorgenson
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Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Genre: Fiction/Thriller/Suspense
Publisher: Flat Rock Publishing
While considering his own death, 91-year-old Theoretical Physicist Otto Helfritz posits that if our soul leaves our body when we die, there must be a force that holds body and soul together while we’re alive on earth. Even Einstein never contemplated such a force. And not only does this force exist, it can be measured.
Real history begins to blur with conjecture and myth in Otto’s Portal by Nathan Jorgenson. From post war London in 1946 to LBJ’s ranch in 1964, and then to a small Catholic church in northern Minnesota, Otto’s Portal rests between the abyss of man’s fears and the apex of his science, while a disparate cast of characters seeks redemption.
Excerpt
Excerpt from Otto’s Portal by Nathan Jorgenson (Flat Rock Publishing, 2026) Republished with permission.
“Do you believe that you have a soul?” Otto’s tone made it clear that he knew what Vince’s answer would be, and that he was going to use Vince’s answer to reach for something deeper.
“Certainly,” Vince replied.
“Of course you do. And you believe that it’s somehow connected to your body, correct? Until you die? Am I correct?” Otto asked, already certain of what Vince’s answer would be.
“Yes.”
“Okay, then how, exactly, is it held on to your body? What actually holds it on to your body at this moment, right now, while you’re alive? Why doesn’t it just drift away?”
Vince looked at Otto for a moment, and Otto read in his face that he was stumped. Otto could see that the search engine in Vince’s brain was not going to deliver an answer. But Vince gave it a try. “Well, when Jesus was on the cross, he turned to the criminal beside him, and—”
“Wait.” Otto held up his right hand and smiled. “Hold it, Father Vince. I know you’re searching for some sort of theological answer, and that’s not what I was getting at. I know that I sort of put you on the spot. And with all due respect, I did it on purpose. For just a moment, I want you to think about something else. I’d like you to forget Catholic theology, or maybe I should say religious dogma, and focus on the actual, physical process of death…and life.” Otto gave a shrug and repeated his question, “What happens, to your soul, when you die?” Otto waited for several seconds, then answered his own question. “It leaves your body, correct?”
“Yes. I guess that’s true,” Vince agreed.
“Sexton, would you like to weigh in on this?” Otto asked.
“Sure, Otto. I know what you’re getting at. Your soul leaves your body when you die,” Sexton added. “So what?”
“So, here’s the question, again, the thought that led me down this road…” Otto turned a sly, almost defiant grin toward them, paused, then continued, “What’s been holding your soul on to your body for your whole life? Why doesn’t it drift away before you die?”
Vince and Sexton remained silent, considering the old man’s question, and unable to answer. That challenge was what Otto had planned all along.
“You know that I’m a theoretical physicist, right? And for my long career, my job was to imagine something, some physical principal, and then design a way to prove, or disprove, my theory.” Otto glanced back and forth between Vince and Sexton.
“Yes,” Sexton said.
“Think of Einstein’s famous thought experiment, the one that led to his theory of special relativity. He was staring at a clock, and the clock told him that it was two o’clock. Then he imagined that he was seated on a train, and moving away from that clock at the speed of light. And he wondered if the train he was on was moving at the same speed as the beam of light that came from the clock to his eyes, telling him that it was two o’clock…would it always be two o’clock for him? Would there be no passing of time for him on that train?”
Again, Vince and Sexton waited for Otto to continue.
Otto breathed slow, labored breaths when he spoke, and Vince heard his chest make a tiny, watery gurgle every time he inhaled. “Einstein questioned scientific dogma in a way that no one else ever had. I always wished that I could think like that, and examine things in the way that he did. I couldn’t do it, but then no one else could, either. Anyway, a few months ago, as I was considering my life—more accurately, the end of my life—I began to wonder, to imagine, what the moment of my death would be like. I imagined my soul just leaving my body after the last beat of my heart. And then I thought, what’s holding my soul on to my body right now? I mean, there must be some force that holds it in place…until it doesn’t. Right?” Otto looked at Sexton, then at Vince. “Then I began to wonder…it must be a real force, a force that has always existed, but a force that no one had ever looked for; one that could actually be measured, maybe. My thoughts began to track along a different path, one I’d never considered. In physics, we know that there are only four forces: the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity. That’s it! That’s all there is. But what if there was one more…that had remained undetected?”
Otto’s eyes opened wide as he looked at his friends now. “What if there has been a force sitting right there in front of us forever, and we never noticed? And that force—it would have to have an effect on the four other forces. A weak effect, certainly, but still, any mathematical equation in the search for Einstein’s unified theory, the theory of everything, would be incomplete without it, right? So, every search for the theory of everything would lead to a dead end.”
Otto looked back and forth between Sexton and Vince and saw a gradual awakening in their eyes.
“And you know that scientists still run tests to measure the values of these four known forces, and the values actually do fluctuate from time to time. The values of the forces in physics are not fixed.
“There’s one more thing,” Otto said, easing his narrative to its end. “This force would have to exist between something with mass—our bodies—and something with no mass—our souls. It’s sort of unimaginable, until someone imagines it. And then the tricky part is describing and quantifying that force. Think about it. It might serve as a bridge between our world and the next; a window that might give us a look into other dimensions.”
Otto’s words came faster now. “What if those other dimensions that string theory demands, but are so tiny, are right here!” He waved his hand over his head and in front of his face. “Maybe those dimensions are actually Heaven, and Hell, or the places where angels live, or demons?”
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About the Author
Nathan Jorgenson grew up in rural Minnesota where he cultivated a passion for athletics and the outdoors. He earned a DDS degree from the University of Minnesota, and began practicing dentistry in rural Minnesota. While running a business and raising a young family, he found time to write, having articles published in several outdoor magazines.
Jorgenson’s first novel, Waiting for White Horses (2004), started as a story that he told his ailing father and was eventually completed after his death. After winning the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for the Best New Voice in Fiction, Jorgenson continued writing novels, producing two more – The Mulligan (2007) and A Crooked Number (2011) – while working full-time as a dentist. Since his retirement, Jorgenson published Contrapasso (2019) and Otto’s Portal (2026).
Jorgenson lives in the north woods of Minnesota with his wife, and they enjoy visits from their children and grandchildren.
Connect: https://www.nathanjorgenson.com/
