Cryptoterrestrial hypothesis

The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis, also referred to as intraterrestrial,^[1] or inner-earth,^[2] proposes that unidentified flying objects are a sign of a technologically advanced population living on Earth alongside humans.^[3][4][5] The idea has been around since the beginning of the 20th century and was associated with the Shaver mystery and Walter Siegmeister. It underwent several reformulations, most notoriously by American journalist John Keel, French scientist and ufologist Jacques Vallée and American novelist and blogger Mac Tonnies. It is often associated with the concept of a Hollow Earth and the Silurian hypothesis, however the three are not equivalent and other theories have been put forth to account for the UFOs’ nature and origin within this framework.

This hypothesis is considered pseudoscientific in nature, just like the disciplines concerned with its study such as cryptozoology and ufology. Furthermore, in spite of its early popularity, the concept that UFOs could be indigenous to planet Earth is considered unconventional even amongst ufologists.^[6][7][8]

Unusual phenomena in the heavens have been observed and reported since ancient times, including flying ships,^[9][10][11] chariots^[10] and wheels,^[12] moving lights and "circles of fire",^[13][14][15] and more recently “anachronistic airships”. Historically, these prodigies were seen as omens, angelic apparitions and divine acts, and are now being reinterpreted within the framework of modern ufology.^{[16][citation needed]}

Stories and legends about beings living underground, underwater and in the sky are present in folklore, mythologies and religions all around the world. The concept of a physical underworld shifted throughout the ages, adapting and evolving into an entire corpus of subterranean fiction and speculations about a hollow earth, the idea that the planet’s interior is either completely hollow or harbors a system of caverns and tunnels.^[17][18] Although largely abandoned by the scientific establishment, the hollow earth theory was integrated into UFO religions and conspiracy theories related to flying saucers with underground origins.^[19]

In modern ufology, the idea that "the phenomenon" could be terrestrial in nature was pioneered by computer scientist Jacques Vallée and journalist John Keel.^[20][21] UFO abduction reports often include underwater or underground journeys to futuristic-looking cities and alien environments, populated by advanced humanoid beings.^[22] Political scientist and professor Michael Barkun reports that in some theories UFOs built these bases underground for security reasons but remain fundamentally extraterrestrial in origin, in other cases they are believed to be native to the inner-earth.^[23]

The concept of UFOs coming from inside Earth has been associated with legends of Lemurian and Atlantidean cities under Mount Shasta and other locations,^[24][25][26] as well as New Swabia, Nazi UFO conspiracy theories of secret bases in Antarctica, and Esoteric Nazism in general, all of which have been largely debunked.^[27][28][29] Canadian neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel advanced the idea that Hitler and his Last Battalion had fled to Argentina, then to Antarctica, where they entered the hollow Earth and dedicated all their resources to the construction of advanced technology which came to be known as UFOs.^[30][31][32]

Author and film-maker Owen Egerton claims that conspiracy theories involving the hollow Earth and advanced civilization can be dangerous in a post-truth era.^[33]

The science fiction pulp magazine Amazing Stories promoted one such idea from 1945 to 1949 as "The Shaver Mystery". The magazine's editor, Ray Palmer, ran a series of stories by Richard Sharpe Shaver, claiming that a superior pre-historic race had built a honeycomb of caves in the Earth, and that their degenerate descendants, known as "Deros", still live there, using extraordinary machines abandoned by the ancient race to torment surface-dwellers.^[34] Later, Shaver formulated different scenarios to account for the origin of UFOs, including raids from other planets as well as from inside the Earth.^[35] Similarly, Palmer promoted the extraterrestrial hypothesis for a few years, until he re-engaged with the idea of UFOs from the Hollow Earth in his magazine Flying Saucers (1957-1975).^{[36][37][38][39]} In 1958, he stated his belief that UFOs were not from some other planet but rather "a secret civilizations with paraphysical or psychic ties to the human race".^[40] Both Shaver and his editor and publisher Palmer claimed that, behind the fictional embellishments, his stories were fundamentally true, which made the whole event extremely controversial.^[41]

Shaver's accounts are considered hoax.^[42] It has been speculated that the Shaver Mystery may have influenced modern conspiracies such as those related to underground alien bases related to the Majestic 12,^[43][44] as well as groups like QAnon.^[45] Skeptic Daniel Loxton criticized the Shaver Mystery and Palmer's view on the subject.^[46]

The modern version of the hypothesis is generally ascribed to the 1964 book by Dr. Raymond Bernard The Hollow Earth,^[47] based on his earlier book Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior,^[48] Dr Bernard is credited for marrying the Hollow Earth theory with beliefs about UFOs,^[49] although his work is generally treated as pseudoscience.^[50] Bernard drew inspiration from a book found in a bookstore in São Paulo, Brazil named From the Subterranean World to the Sky: Flying Saucers by Orlando Carlomagno Huguenin, who in turn, received his information about flying saucers and the inner Earth from members of the Brazilian Eubiose Society (formerly Brazilian Theosophical Society).^[51][52]

During his years living in Brazil, Bernard furthered his research and theories about UFOs emerging from tunnels leading to the hollow earth, which he claimed were present in Brazil.^[52][48] In his book The Hollow Earth, he writes that these beings had reached the interior of the planet by piloting mythological aircraft known as vimanas through openings near the Earth's poles, using them to travel between different points of the Earth's interior, and that only after the atomic explosion at Hiroshima during World War II they resurfaced, leading to the 1947 flying disc craze.^[47] Siegmeister's hollow earth ideas are mentioned in detail in Alan Baker's Invisible Eagle.^[53]

After Bernard's work in Brazil, the theory of the subterranean origin of the flying saucers was popularized in the United States, also thanks to Palmer's magazine “Flying Saucers”.^[54][55]

In his 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers and on “The Saucerian Bulletin” author Gray Barker reproposed various stories and concepts related to the Shaver Mystery, Men in black, UFOs and Inner Earth,^[56] a connection also explored by Albert K. Bender in his 1962 volume Flying Saucers and the Three Men.^[57]

In 1961 American UFO commentator James W. Moseley admitted that the journal Saucer News favoured the terrestrial origin of flying saucers.^[58][59] He debated the same idea with talk radio show host Long John Nebel in LP recording Strangers from Space, which featured the two discussing UFOs and the Shaver Mystery.^[60]

In 1974, ufologist, Irish peer and Dutch nobleman Brinsley Le Poer Trench published his book Secret of the Ages: UFOs from Inside the Earth.

Jacques Vallée is often credited for inspiring many modern ufologists to branch away from the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and for providing a more Earth-bound analysis of the UFO phenomenon,^[61] alongside Keel's theory of ultraterrestrials as native to Earth.^[21] Later in life, Keel became fascinated by the idea that a breakaway branch of humanity could account for sightings of UFOs and other cryptids.^[62][63][64] In his 1990 book Confrontations, Vallée reported an apocryphal account of "'holes in the pole' allegedly found by Admiral Byrd", quoting Clint Chapin of the Copper Medic case stating that UFOs allegedly originate inside the Earth.^[65] This urban legend was later popularized by the episode “Secrets of Inner Earth” of History Channel's series Ancient Aliens.^[66]

UFO Investigators League founder Timothy Green Beckley reintroduced the Shaver Mystery in his 1992 volume Subterranean Worlds inside Earth, following his 1967 book The Shaver Mystery and the Inner Earth.^[67]

In his 2000 book Extraordinary Encounters, An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings, American writer Jerome Clark collected several reports of cases involving accounts of inhabitants from the underground civilization remnant of the mythical Lemuria and Atlantis, visiting Earth's surface as well as space aboard saucer-shaped crafts, also highlighting their connection with MIB.^[68]

In 2017, the New York Post ran a story claiming that there's a growing community, spearheaded by Utah conspiracy theorist and author Rodney Cluff, who support the idea that a superior race of "alien" humans live at the center of the Earth, consider themselves “guardians of the planet” and spy on humans using spacecrafts and flying saucers to prevent nuclear war.^[69]

In 2022 entertainment company Rooster Teeth explored the idea that UFOs and other cryptids originate inside the Hollow Earth in an episode of their Red Web podcast series, also citing similar anecdotes such as Mel's Hole.^[70]

In 2023, on The Pat McAfee Show, American politician Mike Gallagher speculated that UFOs could be signs of an ancient civilization lurking on Earth.^[71][72][73]

In the same year, Harvard professor Avi Loeb claimed that UAPs could be automated flying relics of a hypothetical advanced ancient civilization that was wiped out during the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Dutch philosopher and Scientific American contributor Bernardo Kastrup proposed a similar thesis.^[74] Loeb also argued that this possibility would solve the practical constraints of interstellar travel generally associated with the extraterrestrial UFO hyopthesis.^[75] Scholar and author Jason Colavito criticized Loeb for his claim, drawing comparison with the Shaver Mystery.^[76]

In 2024, positive psychologist Tim Lomas from Harvard University and bioanthopologist Dr Michael Masters from Montana Technological University published a paper about the cryptoterrestrials hypothesis.^[77][78]

Various aspects of the general hypothesis were explored and reproposed under the neologism "cryptoterrestrial" by blogger and author Mac Tonnies. The book was then published posthumously as The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us, with a foreword by Nick Redfern. The volume was praised by author John Shirley as a “Fortean landmark” and “the Book of the Damned for the 21st century.”^[79]

In addition to rechristening and providing a more in depth framework for this specific UFO interpretation encompassing abduction and encounters phenomena, Tonnies' recapitulation of the idea attempts to incorporate the psychosocial hypothesis by positing that these beings may use strategies of deception to keep their presence and identity hidden. Tonnies also claimed that the genetic and medical aspects of the abduction phenomenon could represent evidence that the cryptoterrestrials are a vulnerable society and that they may be undergoing genetic failure due to isolation, inbreeding and mutation, relying on our genome to survive.^[80]

Tonnies' version of the theory is analyzed by author and professor Jeffrey J. Kripal and American writer Whitley Strieber in their 2016 book Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained, as well as by Mark Pilkington on his 2010 book Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs.^[81]

The website HowStuffWorks reports that a few days after Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting in June 1947, John Philip Bessor wrote to the Air Force that the flying discs were a "form of space animal propelled by telekinetic energy".^[82]

Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend author Joshua Blu Buhs also argues that as early as 1949, Bessor sent a letter to the Saturday Evening Post in response to Sidney Shalett’s article “What You Can Believe about Flying Saucers", in which he speculated that flying saucers may not be spacecrafts, but some kind of atmospheric or space animal.^[83] Bessor published an article for the December 1955 issue of Fate magazine called “Are the Saucers Space Animals?”.^[84][85] In his 1959 third book The UFO Annual Morris K. Jessup called attention to Bessor’s ideas about saucers actually being animals of some kind, noting in particular his article for Fate.^[83]

In 1955 Countess and parapsychologist Zoe Wassilko von Serecki proposed that UFOs are "vast, luminous bladders of colloidal silicones" capable of feeding on electrical energy.^[82]

In his 1958 book They Live in the Sky! author Trevor James Constable interpreted signs of discoloration in his pictures with ultra-violet lens and high-speed film as evidence of gigantic amoeba-like biological organisms living in Earth's atmosphere.^[86] Zoologist and cryptozoologist Karl Shuker talked about Constable’s theory and gathered more alleged reports and accounts on his blog and in his book Dr Shuker's Casebook. Constable further speculated that these critters should be classified as "macrobacteria", they do not exist outside of the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, they belong to a different offshoot of evolution and that they had been around since the planet was more gaseous and plasmatic than solid.^[87] According to Constable, the creatures could be the size of a coin or as large as half a mile across.^[47]

Marine scientists have talked about the deep ocean as an alien world as a sociocultural and scientific issue.^[88][89] Many USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects) have been reported by Navy, Marines and Air Force personnel since the 1950s.^{[90][91][92][93]} According to the US Naval Institute, USOs rather than UFOs have presented the Navy with the greatest hazard.^[94] In December 2022, the Pentagon updated the UAP terminology from "unidentified aerial phenomena" to "unidentified anomalous phenomena" to include "submerged and trans-medium" objects.^[95] British biologist Ivan T. Sanderson and French-American author David Hatcher Childress co-wrote Invisible Residents: The Reality of Underwater UFOs, published in 2005.^[96]

Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote The Coming Race: Vril about a subterranean super-race with advanced technology.

William R. Bradshaw wrote Goddess of Atvatabar, about an underground utopian advanced civilization with flying machines and airships.^[97]

In the Marvel Comics the Deviants are a fictional race of mutated humanoids native to Earth created by the Celestials as a natural antagonist to Man and the Eternals. In the modern era they inhabit the underground world of Subterranea and were once the rulers of the empire of Lemuria. They are sometimes depicted as possessing advanced technology like crafts and genetic engineering since before the evolution of homo sapiens.

Japanese visual artist Tadanori Yokoo depicted a UFO on the back cover of Miles Davis' 1975 album Agharta, flying in a spotlight over the subterranean kingdom of Agartha.^[98] Tadanori was partly inspired by Raymond W. Bernard's book The Hollow Earth.^[99] An inscription in the LP's gatefold sleeve explained the connection between the UFO and the images of winged supermen guarding the city's entrances and secret tunnels, printed on the album's inside packaging:

During various periods in history the supermen of Agharta came to the surface of Earth to teach the human race how to live together in peace and save us from wars, catastrophe, and destruction. The apparent sighting of several flying saucers soon after the bombing of Hiroshima may represent one visitation.^[100]

In their 1997 single Alien Attack the Swedish synthpop band S.P.O.C.K talk about a superior terrestrial race who fled to space long ago to escape a natural catastrophe and now is coming back disguised as aliens to claim their planet back.^[101]

In the intro of the music video for the 1998 single Agharta - The City of Shamballa, 1998 by American rapper Afrika Bambaataa and German DJ WestBam (under the compound artist name I.F.O. - Identified Flying Objects) the titles read "there are good forces that live inside the Earth sending out UFOs to free the world." Afrika Bambaataa, in the role of a black "UFO priest", sings the words "Don't you wanna go on my UFO?" and "I went to the North Pole I went to the South Pole I stepped in the Congo I stepped in a Hollow Hole they took me to another world the subterranean world it's called Agartha." Towards the end of the music video the point of origin of a fleet of flying saucers is revealed: a foggy gap within the mountains, and as the camera zooms out, planet Earth comes into full view and a big luminous hole in the ground can be seen at the pole of the Earth, out of an into which the UFOs fly.^[102][103]

In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl saga, the Fairy People are portrayed as a diverse civilization possessing saucer-like flying crafts, weapons and advanced technology. In the first volume of the Fowl Adventures series in 2001, Artemis researches alien abductions, UFO sightings and similar phenomena in his attempts to discover more about "the People".^[104] In Eternity's Code is revealed that, although in Colfer's fictional universe the Mud People (humans) have many theories concerning the true purpose of Stonehenge including a spaceship landing site, the structure originated as a pizza parlor for the People and was later repurposed as the exit for a pressure elevator for a hidden fairy shuttle.^[105]

In Day of the Descendants, a 2019 book by Tony Brunt, a boy named Tim Baker saves a woman in danger while hiking the mountains in New Zealand, who later takes him to a saucer-shaped craft. She's part of an advanced ancient civilization known as the Descendants, who live hidden from mankind in vast underground facilities monitoring humans to detect threats to the planet and to their secret community.^[106]

Throughout Jordan Peele's 2022 movie Nope, protagonists OJ and Emerald discover that the UFO isn't a ship, but a flying cryptid, whom they dub Jean Jacket.^[107] Caltech professor John O. Dabiri worked with Peele and his team to design the UFO monster, specifically its final "biblical angel" form, to make it look like an undiscovered previously extinct aerial predator, with anatomical and locomotive elements inspired by jellyfish, octopuses, squid, electric eels and ghost knifefish, as well as the Earth-bound angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion.^{[108][109][110]}

In the MonsterVerse multimedia franchise, the term MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) is used to refer to creatures native to Earth (King Ghidorah being the only extraterrestrials in the series) that have eluded classification, hiding for centuries in the Hollow Earth, their underground homeworld. MUTOs have been dubbed “the UFOs of monsters” by Godzilla’s director Gareth Edwards.^[111]

• Hollow Earth
• Mac Tonnies
• Men in black
• Narrative of the abduction phenomenon
• Ultraterrestrials
• Silurian hypothesis
• Time-traveler hypothesis
• Psychosocial hypothesis
• Extraterrestrial hypothesis