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The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis proposes that reports of flying saucers or UFOs are evidence of a hidden, Earth-based, technologically-advanced civilization.[1][2]
Aaron John Gulyas, a scholar of conspiracy theories, characterized the so-called hypothesis as "really more of a thought experiment designed to raise questions", while others note that "even people open to [the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis] remain sceptical".[1][3] In 2024, authors in a philosophy journal described the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis as a suggestion that "sounds absolutely crazy".[3][4][5]
During the late 19th century, a variety of authors promoted ideas of an undiscovered superior civilization, variously located in mythical places such as Shambhala, Atlantis, Lemuria, or inside a hollow earth. In 1864, Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth imagined a hidden world beneath the Earth's surface. [3][6] In 1871, the novel The Coming Race was published anonymously; it discussed a subterranean superhuman race with psionic powers. In subsequent years, Theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky spread tales of superhuman masters hidden in the mountains of Tibet. In the ensuing decades, occultists alleged the existence of secret superhuman societies in a variety of mythical places including Shambhala, Atlantis, Thule, Hyperborea,[7] Mu, Lemuria, or even the interior of a Hollow Earth. [8][9][10]
In his 1895 novel The Time Machine, H.G. Wells wrote about Morlocks, a hidden, subterranean race of technological humanoids who feed on helpless surface-dwellers.[11] The 1933 novel Lost Horizon and its 1937 film adaptation depict Shangri-La, a Tibetan paradise inhabited by peaceful, nearly-immortal people. The 1935 serial The Phantom Empire starred Gene Autry as a singing cowboy who stumbles upon an ancient subterranean civilization living beneath his own ranch.
The Shaver Mystery
During the mid-1940s, an obscure sub-culture developed around the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories and its tales of Richard Sharpe Shaver, claimed to be non-fictional.[12] Since 1945, the magazine had published Shaver's claims to be in communication with subterranean beings concerned about atomic pollution who piloted disc-shaped craft.[12]
In the October 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, editor Raymond Palmer argued the flying disc flap was proof of Richard Sharpe Shaver's claims. That same issue carried a letter from Shaver in which he argued the truth behind the discs would remain a secret.[13]
Wrote Shaver: "The discs can be a space invasion, a secret new army plane — or a scouting trip by an enemy country...OR, they can be Shaver's space ships, taking off and landing regularly on earth for centuries past, and seen today as they have always been — as a mystery. They could be leaving earth with cargos of wonder-mech that to us would mean emancipation from a great many of our worst troubles— and we'll never see those cargos...I predict that nothing more will be seen, and the truth of what the strange disc ships really are will never be disclosed to the common people. We just don't count to the people who do know about such things. It isn't necessary to tell us anything."[13][12]
After Shaver's death in 1975, his editor Raymond Palmer admitted that "Shaver had spent eight years not in the Cavern World, but in a mental institution" being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.[14]
On June 24, 1947, during the first summer of the Cold War, civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold gave a report of seeing hypersonic disc shaped craft flying over Washington State. Arnold's claim was reported in papers nationwide, igniting a craze of copycat reports. mainstream experts concluded the reports were caused by social contagion. By July 7, Arnold was suggesting the reports might caused by extraterrestrial spaceships.
While some interpreted UFO reports as evidence of extraterrestrials, a few authors suggested non-human terrestrials were responsible. During the 1947 flying disc craze, Theosophists like Meade Layne suggested that flying saucers came from Earth's 'etheric plane' while Hollow Earth conspiracy theorists suggested that the UFO reports were being caused by a technological civilization beneath the surface of the Earth.[15] Others suggested the UFO reports might be caused by animals indigenous to Earth's atmosphere. In the mid 20th-century, authors like Morris Jessup and Erich von Däniken suggested extra-terrestrials might have arrived on Earth in pre-historic times, a possibility depicted in the 1969 Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In his 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers author Gray Barker suggested the saucers might come from an inner Earth, [16] a connection also explored by Albert K. Bender in his 1962 book Flying Saucers and the Three Men.[17] In 1960, Raymond Bernard's book Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior further popularized the idea. Beginning in the 1970s, authors like John Keel and Jacques Vallee suggested UFO reports might be linked to supernatural beings they termed 'ultra-terrestrials'.
The term "Crypto-terrestrial"
In the 2000s, author Mac Tonnies coined the term "crypto-terrestrial" to describe theoretical hidden indigenous humanoids. Tonnies compared his "Crypto-terrestrial Hypothesis" with what he termed the Null Hypothesis of UFOs, the idea that "UFOs can be universally ascribed to misidentified natural phenomena and sightings of unconventional earthly aircraft". Tonnies contrasted his cryptoterrestrial hypothesis with the 'ultraterrestrial hypothesis' of the 1970s, writing: "Keel and Vallee have both ventured essentialy 'occult' ideas in cosmological terms; both ... require a revision of our understanding of the way reality itself works. But the cryptoterrestial hypothesis is grounded in a more familiar context. I'm not suggesting unseen dimensions of the need for ufonauts to 'downshift' to our level of consciousness. Rather I'm asking if it's feasible that the alleged aliens that occupy historical and contemporary mythology are flesh-and-blood human-like creatures that live right here on Earth."[18]
Tonnies and his cryptoterrestrials were featured in the writings of fringe UFO authors like Nick Redfern, Jerome Clark, Paul Kimball, and Hal Puthoff.[19][3]
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The 1973 science-fiction story Chains of the Sea features apparently-extraterrestrial visitors who are essentially indifferent to humans but interact with hidden intelligent beings native to Earth.[20] In the 1989 film The Abyss, deep sea divers investigating the wreck of a nuclear-armed submarine make contact with an advanced civilization indigenous to Earth's oceans. [21] In a 1996 episode of The X-Files titled "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", a UFO contactee is revealed to be a fantasy-prone personality when he conveys a message from "Lord Kinbote", a creature who comes "not from outer space, but from inner space... from within the Earth's molten core".[22]
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