Aliens might be living among us, Harvard academics are suggesting, perhaps residing in an advanced technological civilization deep underground or, maybe, in a base inside the moon.
That’s right — a new paper by researchers at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program posits that “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP), more commonly referred to as UFOs and extraterrestrial beings, could be living underground, on the moon or even walking among humans.
And, yes, the authors are fully aware the report will raise eyebrows and likely be met with skepticism by the scientific community, but encourage “consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness.”
The new study, titled The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis: A case for scientific openness to a concealed earthly explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, provides four possible explanations for the ongoing “concern regarding UAPs.”
“Hypotheses for such phenomena tend to fall into two classes: a conventional terrestrial explanation (e.g., human-made technology), or an extraterrestrial explanation (i.e., advanced civilisations from elsewhere in the cosmos),” they said.
“However, there is also a third minority class of hypothesis: an unconventional terrestrial explanation, outside the prevailing consensus view of the universe.”
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The authors, Tim Lomas (Harvard University), Brendan Case (Harvard University) and Michael Paul Masters (Montana Tech of the University of Montana), make the case for the possibility of so-called “cryptoterrestrials” to explain unidentified and unexplainable observations made around the world each year.
They suggest a number of “cryptoterrestrial” hypotheses (CTH) to argue that aliens could walk among us, including:
- Cryptoterrestrials came to Earth from a different time period or planet, and concealed themselves in stealth
- A form of intelligent species evolved separately from humans on Earth and are hiding on our planet. The paper suggests these could be an ape-like descendant or descendants of “unknown, intelligent dinosaurs”
- A “remnant form” of ancient civilization exists on Earth, despite being largely destroyed long ago, possibly by a flood or other natural disaster
- The possibility of something likened to “earthbound angels” — creatures that are, perhaps, of a magical supernatural origin, like “fairies, elves, nymphs”
The authors, however, do concede that these theories — and especially the suggestion of elves or fairies — will be a hard sell in most of the scientific community and beyond.
“The principal weakness of CTH 4, by contrast, is its utter strangeness, particularly for readers schooled to limit themselves to modes of explanation within the bounds of, say, the standard model of physics,” the paper admits.
“While belief in extraterrestrials is tenable, belief in (something like) fairies is simply not a live option for many scientists.”
UFOs and UAPs have garnered quite a bit of attention in recent years, as lawmakers and top brass worldwide have pushed for more research, often painting the issue as a matter of national and planetary safety.
Last year, career intelligence officer turned whistleblower David Grusch testified before Congress and claimed that the country has been concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse-engineers UFOs — something he witnessed, he said, when he was asked by the head of a government task force on UAPs to identify all highly classified programs relating to the force’s mission.
The Pentagon denied Grusch’s claims of a coverup. In a statement, Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said investigators have not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”
NASA, too, has weighed in on the topic, saying in a statement last year that it has yet to witness any alien life in space.
“One of NASA’s key priorities is the search for life elsewhere in the universe, but so far, NASA has not found any credible evidence of extraterrestrial life and there is no evidence that UAPs are extraterrestrial.
“However, NASA is exploring the solar system and beyond to help us answer fundamental questions, including whether we are alone in the universe.”
This most recent paper addresses the U.S. government’s response to UAP sightings, saying many people feel federal officials are “deliberately downplaying the topic or at least obfuscating the extraordinary nature of many UAP-related events.”
The paper has yet to be peer-reviewed. If accepted, it will be published in the journal Philosophy and Cosmology.
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