For centuries, Hollow Earth conspiracy theorists have tried to prove that there is another world beneath ours. But first, they have to find an entrance.
Since time immemorial, people have believed that there is another world just beneath the surface of our planet. For many cultures – such as the age-old Greeks – it is a obscure place filled with the souls of the dead. However, most of these early beliefs were metaphorical or mythological in origin.
Modern science holds that the Earth is an unbroken series of layers, crusts, and liquid magma surrounding a dense, sizzling core made mostly of iron and nickel. But not everyone is convinced. In the 17th century, some of the leading scientific minds of the time came up with a fresh theory—that the planet is actually hollow. This idea has proven remarkably enduring.
Even today, there is a miniature group of Hollow Earth believers who fight valiantly to legitimize their ideas through books, websites, meetings, and wildly ambitious travel plans.
“My concept of the Hollow Earth, based on my research, is that the Earth’s crust is about 1,300 km thick, from the outer surface to the inner surface,” says Rodney Cluff, author of World Top Secret: Our Earth IS Hollow.
He went even further: half of the planet is occupied by surface weight, then there is empty space, and then something else.
“In the center of this cavity is suspended an inner sun divided into a day side and a night side,” he says. “Another part of the Hollow Earth theory is that there are significant openings near the north and south poles leading to the interior.”
We have read legendary stories about Nazis who explored the southern regions of our planet and even created secret bases in Neuschwabenland. Some also talk about Operation Highjump and Admiral Byrd's travels, during which extremely advanced airships were seen flying and exploring fresh territories.
We recently discovered a map of the Third Reich that marked several secret passages that German U-boats used to reach mysterious underground areas, as well as a complete map of both hemispheres and the mysterious kingdom of Agartha.
Perhaps the first person to scientifically speculate on a hollow Earth was none other than Edmund Halley of Halley’s Comet fame. Proposed in 1692 as a way to explain compass anomalies, Halley’s theory holds that the planet is a series of nested, spherical shells, rotating in different directions, surrounding a central core.
According to his estimates, based on magnetic field readings and what he knew about the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on Earth, this model could account for any inaccuracies in the planet's magnetic field readings. He also assumed that the space between each shell could have glowing atmospheres capable of supporting life.
In the early 1970s, as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce's ESSA project, photos of the North Pole taken by the ESSA-7 satellite on November 23, 1968, were made available to the media.
One of the photos showed the North Pole covered in plain cloud, while the other showed the same area without clouds, revealing a huge hole where the North Pole should be.
In 1946–1947, he and his team conducted a large-scale operation called “High Jump”, during which he discovered and mapped 1,390,000 km² of Antarctic territory.
Byrd's renowned expeditions first entered the Hollow Earth controversy when several articles and books, such as Worlds Beyond the Poles by Amadeo Giannini, claimed that Byrd had not flown over the pole, but inward through enormous holes leading to the Earth.
From Science to Science Fiction
In 1864, Jules Verne published Journey to the Center of the Earth, in which he proposed a strange world inside us, and although it was not the first work of fiction to propose such a thing (it can be argued that the first such fictional work about the strange world inside us is Dante's poem ” Inferno”), Verne's work quickly became a reference point for such fantasy stories, giving momentum to an entire subgenre of underground science fiction.
Many of these stories used the theories of Halley and Symmes as a starting point for tales of strange prehistoric jungles and highly advanced, lost races of people.
The 1892 novel The Goddess of Atvatabaru, or The Story of the Discovery of the Inner World, used Symmes' model as the basis for a story about a opulent inner world inhabited by a race of spiritually enlightened beings. This vision of the Hollow Earth appears to be one of the main inspirations for many of the current tropes of up-to-date Hollow Earth theory.
Evidence of the existence of the “hollow earth” can be found in the history of countless age-old civilizations.
The Babylonian hero Gilgamesh visited his ancestor Utnapishtim in the depths of the earth; in Greek mythology, Orpheus tries to save Eurydice from the underground hell; it was said that the Egyptian pharaohs communicated with the underworld, which could be accessed through secret tunnels hidden in the pyramids; and Buddhists believed (and still believe) that millions of people lived in Agharta, an underground paradise ruled by the king of the world.
So just when you think these theories might be nothing more than far-fetched notions, you actually come across evidence in age-old history that points to the possibility of a world existing inside the Earth.
A fresh study recently came out that showed that UFOs may possibly belong to the non-human intelligence (NHI) with whom we share the earth. Who knows, maybe there are actually places on our planet where a highly developed civilization could hide?
What do you think about the Hollow Earth theory? Is it possible that there is another world beneath the surface of our planet? And is it possible that there is actually life there?
Image Source: Pixabay.com
