They kind of pointed out it wasn’t our world when Rumple said that Whale’s world had witchcraft…it had a form of magic but it was weak in comparison to the magic from FTL. I believe on the podcast the writers even said that one of the reasons that Whale’s father harbored such ill will toward Whale was that he thought that Whale was dabbling in witchcraft by trying to bring back the dead. I don’t guess he got the science concept.
I guess it is just a parallel world with minor magic.
[adrotate group="5"]