The Reptilian Conspiracy Theory

Origin of the Conspiracy Theory

The existence of Reptilians has been debated since the excavation of the first Ubaid figurines in Mesopotamia. The first Ubaid figurines with lizard-like appearance were found at an excavation site in Ur, where excavations were first carried out by Henry Hall in 1919 and later by Leonard Woolley between 1923 and 1924.

The subject was first taken up by authors of fictional books. Robert E. Howard published his influential book The Shadow Kingdom in 1929. It describes an intelligent, non-human species, the so-called lizard people, who live in underground tunnels. They want to infiltrate humanity with their telepathic and shape-shifting abilities. The idea of intelligent, lizard-like beings living in underground tunnels was further developed in 1934 by Georg Warren Shufelt in the newspaper article Lizard's people catacomb city hunted. Later, in the 1940s, Maurice Doreal took up the idea in his book Mysteries of the Gobi that featured a lizard-like species with shape-shifting abilities.

The Dulce Basis

The blending of fiction and reality continued in the 1980s, when Dr. Paul Bennewitz and Thomas Castello reported on alleged activities of extraterrestrial beings in an underground base near Dulce, New Mexico. Thomas Castello claimed to have worked there as a security specialist and reported that abducted humans are kept in cages for experimental purposes. Psi studies, mind control experiments and experiments to record and acquire human thoughts were allegedly carried out on them. The aliens who carried out these experiments were said to have telepathic abilities. They were referred to as the Grays and the Reptilians. The true identity of Thomas Castello is unknown. He may have been a schizophrenic who presented his delusions as reality in his interviews.

Die Theory of David Icke

The conspiracy theorist David Icke combined these ideas and expanded on them. According to Icke, the way science judges reality is nonsense. He first set out his counter-proposal in 1999 in his work The Biggest Secret. Icke claims that there is an interdimensional species named Reptilians that is infiltrating humanity. An elite group of genetically modified human-Reptilian hybrids with the ability to shape-shift is manipulating humanity. The Reptilians terrify people so that they can feed on the resulting "negative energy". Icke also claims that many public figures have already been infiltrated by the Reptilians and are driving humanity towards a new world order that will end freedom of speech.

The American writer Vicki Santillano has included Icke's conspiracy theory in her list of the 10 most popular conspiracy theories. A 2013 survey of Americans by Public Policy Polling found that 4% of registered voters believed in David Icke's ideas.

Connection with the Founder Hypothesis

There is a connection between the Founder Hypothesis and the Reptilian Conspiracy Theory in that both consider the possibility of telepathic influence on human consciousness to be real. The Founder Hypothesis assumes that this requires the technology of an advanced interstellar civilization, while the Reptilian Conspiracy Theory views telepathy as an innate ability of an intelligent, non-human species.