Cryptoterrestrials and the Nephilim

As part of my research for a future project, I’ve been reading The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us by Mac Tonnies. It’s quite fascinating, but definitely “out there.” Tonnies is a recently deceased UFOlogist who veered from the more traditional interpretation of “space aliens” as extraterrestrial entities and conjectured a humanoid species indigenous to the Earth, a sister race that has adapted to humans’ numerical superiority through deception and technology. This has come to be known as the Interdimensional Hypothoses.

Wikipedia describes the theory thus:

The interdimensional hypothesis (IDH or IH), is an idea advanced by Ufologists such as Jacques Vallée that says unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and related events involve visitations from other “realities” or “dimensions” that coexist separately alongside our own. It is an alternative to the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH). IDH also holds that UFOs are a modern manifestation of a phenomenon that has occurred throughout recorded human history, which in prior ages were ascribed to mythological or supernatural creatures.

In this video, Tonnies goes into more detail suggesting that the cryptoterrestrials (CTs) may be a “genetically impoverished species” who actually need humans for the replenishing of their genetic stock. In doing this, he seeks to reconcile the many ancient folktales and legends surrounding “little people” — tricksters, gnomes, elves, and changelings — that allegedly co-inhabit the world around us.

While the IDH theory contains some fascinating elements, it’s also a black hole of conspiracy, myth, urban legend and occultism. For example, some see the UFO phenomenon and “alien encounters” in  what the Gnostics saw as first-hand encounters with inorganic beings called Archons:

Gnostic teaching explains that these entities arose in the early stage of formation of the solar system, before the Earth was formed. Archons inhabit the solar system, the extraterrestrial realm as such, but they can intrude on Earth. Interestingly, this Gnostic insight accords closely with the view of Jacques Vallee, who maintains that ET/cyborgs probably belong to the local planetary realm. Vallee also proposes that the ET/UFO enigma is a “spiritual control system,” a phenomenon that “behaves like a conditioning process.” (Messengers of Deception). This is exactly what Gnostics said about the Archons: they can affect our minds by subliminal conditioning techniques. Their main tactics are mental error (intellectual virus, or false ideology, especially religious doctrines) and simulation. Archons are predatory, unlike a wide range of non-human and other-dimensional beings also know to the Gnostics, beings who are benevolent or neutral toward humanity.

While the above piece is a tract for Gnosticism, it shows the extent to which some have extrapolated the IDH. Of interest in this discussion is how the author ties his theory to UFOlogist Jaques Vallee, an early advocate of IDH. This blending of Gnostic ideas with UFO research (particularly IDH) is emblematic of the florid off-chutes spawned by the research. 

Christian researchers have also lent some credence to the theory. In their book,Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and Extraterrestrials, Hugh Ross and Ken Samples note how some Christian researchers see “the origin and nature of such phenomenon belong[ing] not to extraterrestrial spacecraft but to another realm of reality beyond the space-time continuum.” They conclude:

The IDH is thus sometimes described as the paranormal or occult view of UFOs. Some ufologists (especially Christians) have ascribed an angelic or demonic interpretation to this interdimensional presence. Even a number of secular ufologists have argued for a correspondence between UFO and the occult or demonism.

In this way, CTH potentially intersects with a number of biblical scenarios. For one, it places sentient beings (both benevolent and malevolent) alongside the human race. Though largely unseen, these beings seek to influence and manipulate the affair of men. Although CTH advocates do not typically define these intelligences as demons, they do invoke a more multidimensional perspective to the phenomenon. Likewise Scripture, rather than gazing out to the stars for life other life, describes a universe already teeming with angels and demons. Not only are such entities not light years away, they do not require technology or spacecraft to “make contact.” Indeed, “close encounters” may occur in countless undetected ways.

But CTH also potentially veers into Nephilim territory. Though controversial and the subject of wild speculation, the Nephilim adds a fascinating spin to the idea of cryptoterrestrials.

Bible teacher Chuck Missler defines the Nephilim as,

…a strange union of fallen angels with women to produce a hybrid race called the “Nephilim,” or fallen ones. (italics in original)

Missler (and others) traces this “hybrid race” to the recurrent mention of “giants” in the Old Testament.

There were a number of tribes such as the Rephaim, the Emim, the Horim, and Zamsummim, that were giants.¹ The kingdom of Og, the King of Bashan, was the “land of the giants.”² Later, we also find Arba,³ Anak, and his seven sons (the “Anakim”) also as giants, along with the famed Goliath⁴ and his four brothers.⁵

When God had revealed to Abraham that the land of Canaan was to be given to him, Satan had over 400 years to plant his “mine field” of Nephilim!⁶

When Moses sent his twelve spies to reconnoiter the Land of Canaan, they came back with the report of giants in the land.⁷(The term used was Nephilim.) Their fear of those terrifying creatures resulted in their being relegated to wandering in the wilderness for 38 years.

When Joshua and the nation Israel later entered the land of Canaan, they were instructed to wipe out every man, woman and child of certain tribes.⁸ That strikes us as disturbingly severe. It would seem that in the Land of Canaan, there again was a “gene pool problem.”

Seeing the Nephilim as human-angel hybrid lends interesting credence to Mac Tonnies’ theory that CTs may be a “genetically impoverished species” who must replenish their genetic stock through various “abduction” events. Missler, on the other hand, might consider this simply part of a “gene pool problem.”

Of course, this speculation can take on fringe proportions. For example,  Paul McGuire in  BABYLON CODE, ANDROID SOLDIERS & THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL NATURE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE suggests that “interbreeding of an interdimensional species with human women” was the purpose of Noah’s Flood:

…the Flood of Noah was not just an account of God judging Man for wickedness and violence upon the Earth; the Flood of Noah was a targeted DNA judgment upon human, animal, and other species that was genetic/holographic, digital, and Transhumanist in nature. The Flood of Noah was designed to wipe out the corrupted DNA in both Man and animals who were subjected to interspecies breeding and genetic experimentation by the “B’nai Elohim,” which means the “Sons of God” or the “fallen angels.”

Whether or not the Flood of Noah and the Canaanite genocide was “genetic/holographic, digital, and Transhumanist in nature,” the IDH allows for some strange parallels between extraterrestrial theorists and a biblical worldview. While popular culture has been so seeded with images of ETs as “little green men” from distant galaxies, it may be more accurate to envision such entities as existing much, much closer.