Support Your Local Reptoid
What started the conspiracy theory that reptilian beings control our governments?
Filed under Aliens & UFOs, Conspiracies
| Skeptoid #46 May 21, 2007 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast
Episode 46, May 21, 2007
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4046
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Collect your children and run for cover. Today we're going to look at the terrifying tale that says a race of tall reptilian beings lives among us, and even runs our government.
The concept of reptilian beings on Earth is a surprisingly widespread conspiracy theory, in which the US government and major public companies are complicit in a vast worldwide network of underground bases housing a large population of humanoid reptilian creatures called Reptoids. They speak English and are involved in every major government and corporate decision. They are variously said to either disguise themselves or actually shape-shift into humans, where they have public lives in positions of national importance. Some say the Reptoids are of extraterrestrial origin, and some say they are native to Earth, having developed intelligence before the primates, and have been secretly running things all along.
I first heard of reptilians when planning a trip to Mt. Shasta as a youth. Shasta is one of our fourteeners here in California. As I discovered, it's also something of a sacred hotbed for a whole range of New Age traditions. It not only has a lot of Native American spiritual history, it also figures prominently for any number of modern pagan religions. Shasta is said to be full of secret caverns, jewel encrusted tunnels, and whole subterranean civilizations peopled with all sorts of exotic races. Most notably, it's the home of the Lemurians, an ancient race whose original continent called Mu sank and now make their home inside the mountain, in the great five-level city of Telos. Lemurians, who are tall, white-cloaked beings speaking English but with a British accent, employ invisible four-foot-tall beings called Guardians to protect their city. Bigfoots are also said to populate Shasta. Among all this exotic company, Reptoids would hardly be noticed. The story goes that Reptoids use Mt. Shasta as one of the numerous entrances to their huge underground network of bases.
Reptoids are said to serve at least one very useful purpose: They are sworn enemies of the gray aliens, and may well serve to be humanity's last line of defense against this threat. Among the gray aliens' holdings provided them by the US government is a large underground base at Dulce, New Mexico. Some 18,000 grays are said to reside on level 5 of the base, and they perform terrible genetic experiments on humans on levels 6 and 7. Reptilian beings have been caught trying to acquire information about the Dulce base.
The most outspoken proponent of the conspiracy theory that reptilian beings in disguise are actually running our planet is David Icke, whose book "The Biggest Secret" reveals information like this:
Then there are the experiences of Cathy O'Brien, the mind controlled slave of the United States government for more than 25 years... She was sexually abused as a child and as an adult by a stream of famous people named in her book. Among them were the US Presidents, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and, most appallingly, George Bush, a major player in the Brotherhood, as my books and others have long exposed. It was Bush, a pedophile and serial killer, who regularly abused and raped Cathy's daughter, Kelly O'Brien, as a toddler before her mother's courageous exposure of these staggering events forced the authorities to remove Kelly from the mind control programme known as Project Monarch.
This is a fair sample of most of Icke's evidence that reptilian beings have taken over our government. Virtually any statement that Icke makes is easily falsified by minimal research if not simple common sense, but since his is a conspiracy theory, any evidence against it is simply regarded as evidence proving the conspiracy. Don't laugh: Icke sells a lot of these books. A lot of people believe this stuff.
Where did all of these stories come from? The earliest reference I've come across is from a Los Angeles Times news story from January 29, 1934, which is available from the Los Angeles Times archives. Geophysical mining engineer G. Warren Shufelt had been using "radio x-ray" and had discovered subterranean labyrinths beneath the city of Los Angeles, including pockets of pure gold, and taken x-ray pictures of many of the chambers. Somehow Shufelt met with a man named L. Macklin, said to go by the Hopi Indian name of Little Chief Greenleaf. Macklin told Shufelt of a Hopi legend of Lizard People, an advanced race, who built the city beneath Los Angeles to escape surface catastrophes some 5000 years ago. Their history was kept on gold tablets. It sounded like Shufelt had struck paydirt — almost. He still had to dig it up. Shufelt's crew dug a shaft 250 feet deep, well below the water table, which of course promptly filled with water, and that's where the story came to an end.
So I began looking into the various elements from the LA Times story. First on the list was Shufelt's "radio x-ray" device. Times reporter Jean Bosquet described it:
Shufelt's radio device consists chiefly of a cylindrical glass case inside which a plummet attached to a copper wire held by the engineer sways continually, pointing, he asserts, toward minerals or tunnels below the surface of the ground, and then revolves when over the mineral or swings in prolongation of the tunnel when above the excavation.
So, it turns out, Shufelt's device has little to do with either radio or x-rays and more to do with a common dowsing pendulum. This was all he had to guide his elaborate drawing of the catacomb layout, which you can see online at Skeptoid.com, along with a picture of Shufelt using his dowsing pendulum.
Shufelt stated he has taken "x-ray pictures" of thirty seven such tablets, three of which have their southwest corners cut off. "My radio x-ray pictures of tunnels and rooms, which are subsurface voids, and of gold pictures with perfect corners, sides and ends, are scientific proof of their existence," Shufelt said.
Shufelt's dowsing results notwithstanding, parts of the story seem unlikely. Gold, and metallurgy in general, was unknown among the Hopi until the mid 1700's. So was chemistry, but Macklin said that the Lizard People "perfected a chemical solution by which they bored underground without removing earth and rock."
I did make a pretty thorough effort to track down any such Hopi legend, but came up empty handed, not counting numerous modern references to Mt. Shasta and the Los Angeles catacomb story. I did find a "Lizard clan" referenced in several Hopi stories, but always among other clans (the Spider clan, the Bear clan), and never any references to underground cities, golden tablets, or any other elements from Shufelt's story. Obviously, my failure to find any evidence of such a legend doesn't prove anything: Native American legends were traditionally passed by word of mouth and never were written down, the only exceptions being those that made it into modern storybook collections. I was also unable to find a man named either L. Macklin or Little Chief Greenleaf in the public birth and death certificate databases for the Hopi Reservation in the Navajo Nation Court, but again, all this proves is that I didn't find it.
If Shufelt's dowsing misadventures truly were the genesis of modern Reptoid legends, there is an ironic aspect. Macklin never said that there was anything reptilian about the Lizard clan, they were simply one subculture of the Hopi, though just as human as anyone else. According to the story Macklin told Shufelt:
The Lizard People, the legend has it, regarded the lizard as the symbol of long life. Their city is laid out like a lizard, according to the legend, its tail to the southwest ... its head to the northeast.
Most likely, this tall tale from the early days of Los Angeles was little more than an effort by Shufelt to interest investors in his treasure hunt, in which he no doubt believed wholeheartedly. As for Macklin? Who knows, Shufelt could have made him up, or he could have been a real guy, possibly even a real Hopi, and may have even told a genuine — if undocumented — Hopi legend. What Shufelt didn't know was that his little gem in the Los Angeles Times was the kickoff for a whole generation of one of our most bizarre (and entertaining) urban legends.
© 2007 Skeptoid Media, Inc.
References & Further Reading
Bosquet, Jean. "Lizard Peolpe's [sic] Catacomb City Hunted." Los Angeles Times. 29 Jan. 1934, Volume 53: 1, 5.
Carroll, R. The skeptic's dictionary: a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. 106-109.
Icke, David. The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World (Updated Second Edition). Ryde, Isle of Wight: David Icke Books, 1999.
Lewis, Tyson, Kahn, Richard. "The reptoid hypothesis: utopian and dystopian representational motifs in David Icke's alien conspiracy theory." Utopian Studies. 1 Jan. 2005, Volume 16, Number 2: 45-74.
Rhodes, John. "Reptoids Research Center." Reptoids Research Center. The Reptoids Research Center, 31 Dec. 0001. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. <http://www.reptoids.com>
Walton, Bruce. Mount Shasta, Home of the Ancients. Pomeroy: Health Research, 1985.
Reference this article:
Dunning, B.
"Support Your Local Reptoid." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
21 May 2007. Web.
20 May 2013. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4046>
Discuss!
10 most recent comments | Show all 223 comments
can you imagine how hard it is to be a sceptic, but having had experiences that permanentely made me look sceptically at the sceptics?
In Summer 1978 - I was looked at by a reptiloid gentlemen, with his all-seeing, slightly amused and quite compassionate expression...I was only 15, and kept the "vision", or the experience that felt as "real" as everything else, as a secret. When the reptoids became a name, and later a fashion, I was first relieved, then amused.
For me the "proof" of the validity of my encounter was when I saw in 1988 a postcard in Cornwall/GB: it had some "Cornish Pixies", as the print said, on it - and in the middle HE was, smiling, with his features now known to so many. I was so stunned I did not buy it - I´ll pay you a tenner if you find me this Postcard.
John Christiansen, Berlin
February 02, 2013 2:59pm
In the meantime John, in the interests of the subject of this article, and undoubtedly one or two posters here, would you like to expand on your "visions" of the "reptiloid gentleman" e.g. description of his appearance, what he was doing, apart from looking at you, etc ?
Macky, Auckland
February 02, 2013 8:51pm
Nowadays, our familiar David Icke reptilians are called organic portals, soul-less humans. Bloggers constantly quoting G.I. Gurdjieff or Boris Mouravieff, in an attempt to wake us out of our self-induced "tunnel vision" - they even know a thing or two about logical fallacies and whenever someone from another sect tries to provoke them, they accuse him of being illogical and ridiculously naive.
(I don't know if I should laugh or cry..)
Of course there are "reptoids" among us. They're called psychopaths:
1% of the entire population who suffer from amygdalae dysfunction, characterized by lack of empathy, grandiose sense of self-worth and so on (see Bob Hare's checklist for further).
But of course, Bob Hare is a reptoid because he is a scientist. ~Mind you, I am not promoting his work or will I defend him (because there is quite alot a volume of critique to his work), I just mentioned him as an example, there are many psychopathy checklists.
Yanis K, Grevena, Hellas
February 03, 2013 7:35am
Yes, Macky. Upon your friendly request - the whole story. I am now 50, a respected professional in the medical/social field. It was on this summer afternoon in 1978 in the better part of a small German city, a minutes walk to the first ridge of the Black Forest.
My parents were out, I was on my bed in my room on the upper floor, listening to music. The window and the door, both led to the porch, were open. I turned my head, and saw fucking scary clawed scaly fingers - and then a head came up - as if the guy had ducked under the windowsill. A head and a figure came up - tall as a tall man, strong, slightly scaly, definitly closely connected by appearance to the reptile part of our nature, but as intelligent and able as a human, even more, it seemed in this moment - and he looked at me, with a kind of amused look - and looking deep inside my little teenager person, with some compassion, as I felt and remember. I do not remember robes, but he had pointed ears!
I turned away in horror - let it end! - and had then for years the conception that I had (for no good reason) seen the devil. The postcard in Cornwall broke the spell, and then I saw a picture in a Hippie-hut painted by some acid-head, and then - the internet came up and with it this issue. So the evolution of the whole Reptoid-theme was for me relief and amusement. Since I fear them not anymore. Not more than the humans or the wild dogs at night.
Stay sane, the world is big.
The story I told you is true.
Keep peace!
John Christiansen, Berlin
February 03, 2013 2:32pm
Thank you John, for your candid account.
A sighting (or happening) of an unusual event or object/being may only happen once in a lifetime to an individual.
It makes it impossible to provide any sort of proof to those who have never seen/experienced such things, and probably never will.
Macky, Auckland
February 06, 2013 12:53am
...and having met a person of this peculiar breed did not at all make me a believer in the numerous concepts and ideas about their involvement in the world of humans.
But I like to read whatever is there about it, and momentarily I am especially interested in the alien-hybrid issue - since I found out that someone´s fantasie is that folks with certain features are hybrids...
and I am freckled, have the bloodgroup B rh-, and so on, maybe the visitor just wanted to check on his, ähh, nephew...?
And even if - why not? And what would be sooo special about such in this big universe?
The "proof" issue is utmost boring. But talking about the validity of certain perceptions - that makes sense.
I, for instance, believe stubbornly that everyone who claims that he/she is a "channel" is just a more or less clever cheater for selfish reasons. But I would be happy to meet one and have perceptions that would change my belief. All the best, thanks for being interested in my story! jc
John Christiansen, Berlin
February 06, 2013 1:32pm
Well John, some things may happen in our lives that only WE know.
I'm sure you have thought about your sighting and tried to think of other explanations for it, only to simply end up taking the sighting for what it was in your eyes, especially when you saw the same on a postcard years later.
Obviously such beings are scientifically unproven, and will probably always be so, by their occasional and transient nature.
I suspect that there are "skeptics" posting to this site who have seen things that they can't explain, or are generally regarded as bunk.
In fact there are a couple of posts on Skeptoid that state exactly that.
At least one of them hastens to add that they of course are "not-real", which is a shame really, as these "ex-woo" individuals are deliberately denying their own personal experiences, blocking them in fact, simply on the grounds that they are not (currently) scientifically provable.
It's a rigid adherence to an otherwise valid system which requires repeatable evidence to many, when such a sighting as you experienced may only happen to one person in thousands, and then only once in a lifetime.
Take care.
Macky, Auckland
February 13, 2013 12:40am
Macky,science is just a name, and yesterday the scientific approach to sickness was unthinkable without taking the witches in the neighbourhood in account...
Yes, surely and a million times I wondered, if it was the boy from next door in a costume, if it was a "hallucination" or whatever...
By the way, in the book "True Hallucinations" by McKenna he meets (under drugs, but even this matters not much) "Gods", and they look at him in the same way as I was looked at - when I read this some years ago it made me even more sure about the validity of my perception (using "validity" to leave out the word "Real", because reality seems to have many facets, and not all are always visible for each and everyone.)
Best wishes!
John Christiansen, Berlin
February 13, 2013 11:16pm
Thank you John for the profound derivative....
Mud, Pho\'s Slave palace, Gerringong the Brave, NSW
April 01, 2013 5:25am
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I agree with Mud's discussion on fallacies.
I have to say that when Mud is "on", he talks bonza.
If Reptoids are mere inventions with no substance or evidence in the physical world, then they certainly seem to have become quite real for a great many otherwise intelligent persons.
How real God is, to many people, goes without saying, with a similar degree of unprovability, notwithstanding the physical/metaphysical comparison.
My questions to BigSoph were for his/her thoughts on such a comparison between Reptoids and God, not for any argument for the existence of Reptoids, but simply for BigSoph's views on two unprovable entities, as a matter of interest.
I like hearing other people's points of view in such matters, whether I agree with them or not.
As to going to church, why not? If one is happy doing that, then do it.
One does not have to endorse the whole doctrine to benefit from such visits.
Especially when there is no service, sitting quietly in a church can be a refreshing break from the noisy outside world, a time to reflect on life and collect one's thoughts.
Macky, Auckland
January 25, 2013 1:57pm