Anyone ever heard of the Shaver Mystery?
While at one time people were seriously interested in the prospect of whether or not it was true, most people would hear it today would think it is ridiculous, but allow me to share it with you simply because the case had so many interesting twists and turns and themes that show up in modern day conspiracy theory.
In the 1940’s there was a pulp science fiction magazine called Amazing Stories edited by Ray Palmer. People would send in stories and if they sent one in good enough, Palmer would print it. One day he receives a story from a man named Richard Shaver that is 10,000 words long and really incoherent. But Shaver claims the story he has written, unlike the other stories Palmer receives, is actually true. Palmer edits it so that it makes coherent sense and puts it in the magazine. The story actually ends up spanning into a series that lasts from approximately 1945 to 1950. Here is the gist of it:
Before humans lived on Earth there was another race that came to Earth and inhabited it. However, for whatever reason, our Sun was harmful to them and not only cut their lives short, but deranged their minds. So these inhabitants moved into subterranean caverns of the Earth. They eventually lost contact with their home planet and as a result they lost resources necessary to live and began dying off. Some of the inhabitants moved up to the surface and began living off the food up here and as a result their lives were shorter and they became deranged and evil, while the others in the caves continued to die off, but even they began to become deranged because the suns harmful effects penetrated even through the Earth. Eventually the surface dwellers forgot about their own history and became modern day humans. The people in the Caverns used their advanced technology to convince the Surface dwellers that they were Gods and demanded food and sacrifices etc. They still live in these Caverns today and they have technology that allows them to control minds when they want to and basically cause all bad things that happen and corruption in our world.
Anyway, to Palmer’s surprise, people loved the story. In fact, people started writing in confirming it’s authenticity stating that they to had come in contact with the subterranean inhabitants (called Deros). Now it begins to take some of its weird twists and turns. One person that wrote in was a man named Fred Crimson (may be spelled wrong). He states that during WWII he ran into them in a cave and killed a bunch of them. Fred Crimson would show up again only a few years later claiming he saw a UFO in what is considered one of the first Modern Era UFO sightings (Read about the Maury Island Incident) and the first encounter with the MIB. Fred Crimson would come up again in the news in that he was interviewed during the time of the JFK assassination investigation as a potential suspected culprit.
Most look back in hindsight and assume that Richard Shaver was a classic case of Paranoid Schizophrenia. But Richard made one other strange claim later in his life. He says those inhabitants that escaped Earth (some apparently got away on spaceships before becoming deranged) left their history in Rocks all over the planet. He said if you cut a cross section of rock and projected light through it, an image would appear. Well he did this, but obviously no one could see any images. But he apparently did because he painted over what he saw and ended up painting vivid surrealist art. In fact his art was considered so impressive that artists around the world wanted to learn his technique and where he learned it. But he hadn’t, he was just a factory worker just painting over what he said he saw.
Fun story huh? Read about it, it’s pretty entertaining. I’ve been collecting old Pulp Magazines with his stories.
While at one time people were seriously interested in the prospect of whether or not it was true, most people would hear it today would think it is ridiculous, but allow me to share it with you simply because the case had so many interesting twists and turns and themes that show up in modern day conspiracy theory.
In the 1940’s there was a pulp science fiction magazine called Amazing Stories edited by Ray Palmer. People would send in stories and if they sent one in good enough, Palmer would print it. One day he receives a story from a man named Richard Shaver that is 10,000 words long and really incoherent. But Shaver claims the story he has written, unlike the other stories Palmer receives, is actually true. Palmer edits it so that it makes coherent sense and puts it in the magazine. The story actually ends up spanning into a series that lasts from approximately 1945 to 1950. Here is the gist of it:
Before humans lived on Earth there was another race that came to Earth and inhabited it. However, for whatever reason, our Sun was harmful to them and not only cut their lives short, but deranged their minds. So these inhabitants moved into subterranean caverns of the Earth. They eventually lost contact with their home planet and as a result they lost resources necessary to live and began dying off. Some of the inhabitants moved up to the surface and began living off the food up here and as a result their lives were shorter and they became deranged and evil, while the others in the caves continued to die off, but even they began to become deranged because the suns harmful effects penetrated even through the Earth. Eventually the surface dwellers forgot about their own history and became modern day humans. The people in the Caverns used their advanced technology to convince the Surface dwellers that they were Gods and demanded food and sacrifices etc. They still live in these Caverns today and they have technology that allows them to control minds when they want to and basically cause all bad things that happen and corruption in our world.
Anyway, to Palmer’s surprise, people loved the story. In fact, people started writing in confirming it’s authenticity stating that they to had come in contact with the subterranean inhabitants (called Deros). Now it begins to take some of its weird twists and turns. One person that wrote in was a man named Fred Crimson (may be spelled wrong). He states that during WWII he ran into them in a cave and killed a bunch of them. Fred Crimson would show up again only a few years later claiming he saw a UFO in what is considered one of the first Modern Era UFO sightings (Read about the Maury Island Incident) and the first encounter with the MIB. Fred Crimson would come up again in the news in that he was interviewed during the time of the JFK assassination investigation as a potential suspected culprit.
Most look back in hindsight and assume that Richard Shaver was a classic case of Paranoid Schizophrenia. But Richard made one other strange claim later in his life. He says those inhabitants that escaped Earth (some apparently got away on spaceships before becoming deranged) left their history in Rocks all over the planet. He said if you cut a cross section of rock and projected light through it, an image would appear. Well he did this, but obviously no one could see any images. But he apparently did because he painted over what he saw and ended up painting vivid surrealist art. In fact his art was considered so impressive that artists around the world wanted to learn his technique and where he learned it. But he hadn’t, he was just a factory worker just painting over what he said he saw.
Fun story huh? Read about it, it’s pretty entertaining. I’ve been collecting old Pulp Magazines with his stories.
