The Different Types Of Alien Conspiracy You Should Know About | Unveiled

The Different Types of Alien Conspiracy You Should Know About

Whether in science or science fiction, there are many different versions of what we imagine alien life to look and be like. In stories and folklore it could be the Grays, or little green men from Mars… in studies and SETI predictions, it could be single-celled bacteria or non-carbon based lifeforms. No matter the type or shape it takes, though, what is its real purpose? Again, there are many ideas.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at the different types of alien conspiracy you should know about.

From a scientific point of view, “where are all the aliens?” is the question front and center in the minds of many. A phrase widely attributed to the physicist Enrico Fermi, as a foundation for his Fermi Paradox, it still has countless researchers, astronomers, astrobiologists and statisticians scratching their heads. The equally pithy retort that “aliens exist” is a kind of broad, ambiguous and non-committal go-to answer… but there’s no shortage of bizarre theory as to why that’s really the case.

Let’s start off-Earth, but still quite close to home; on the far side of the moon. Often (incorrectly) labeled the dark side of the moon, this is the part of our immense natural satellite that we never see from Earth - due to tidal locking. It has been seen a couple of times by a select few astronauts on space missions around the moon, and we do have some data thanks to orbiter and rover missions sent there to explore… but the veil of mystery still hasn’t quite been lifted. We know that, possibly thanks to an ancient collision, the far side appears far more cratered than the near side, and that its crust is thicker. We know, then, that it doesn’t look the same as how the moon from Earth does. But, still, what photos and images we do have seem to show an equally quiet and eerie place. A vast expanse of moon-dusty emptiness. But… is it empty?

One of the most popular alien conspiracies around says, no it isn’t. Instead, theorists claim that there’s an alien base built on the moon’s far side, providing as it does the closest place to Earth that can’t actually be seen by Earth - and therefore a perfect hiding place. The idea is that from here, an alien force could easily observe Earthly life… with the suggestion sometimes even extending to there being secret communication links between Earth and the far side of the moon, either between aliens on the ground or compliant, human moles. We know - thanks to rover missions like the CNSA’s Yutu-2 - that maintaining communications between here and the far side is a very difficult task… but this conspiracy can seemingly absorb that problem by suggesting that our comms might be being scrambled by the alien base. Overall, it’s more what we haven’t seen on the far side that forms the basis of this theory, rather than what we have seen on it. There are no images of the base, or anything that could be the base, and surprisingly few official UFO claims around the moon itself. The second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, is famously at the center of a popular internet conspiracy, after he recalled witnessing unusual lights outside the window of Apollo 11 on the way to the moon… but Aldrin himself has also sought to dampen the suggestion that those lights may have been from an alien craft.

Back on Earth, and there are of course countless stories of UFO encounters and alien abductions, alleged all over the world - with some of them more compelling than others. But in terms of general conspiracy theory, many of the most popular head again to the most remote and isolated places; to the so-called ends of Earth. Antarctica has become something of a hotbed for conspiracy theory in recent times, with claims perhaps energized by “flat earth” ideas. Some reckon that there’s a mighty wall out there, and that it’s only that which stops the seas from draining away, off of the edge, and out into space. Unsurprisingly, there’s some room for an alien presence within many alternate Antarctic claims.

However, two particularly intriguing cases actually draw our eye northwards, and into (or close to) the Arctic Circle. First, the underwater aliens of Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world, but it’s also one of the most mysterious… hidden, as it is, within the mostly inaccessible realms of southern Siberia. It’s little wonder then that the Soviet Union used to use Baikal for variously classified military training missions. On one such occasion, however, three soldiers who had been diving in the lake wound up dead… and four more were severely injured. According to reports, during their dive the group had come across a formation of otherworldly beings under the water… and when they went to approach them, they found themselves violently shot back up the surface, with the sudden decompression - the bends - proving fatal for some.

More than 130 years earlier, though, and there’s another brutal tale of death and loss, this time in (and around) Canadian waters, that’s also been linked by some to an alien theory. The Franklin Expedition saw two ships - HMS Erebus and Terror - leave Britain for Canada. Tragically, however, all on board were lost, over an indeterminate period of time. By most accounts, the crew became stranded and ultimately succumbed to the likes of hypothermia and scurvy. Either that or they starved, and there is alleged evidence of cannibalism in the few clues and artifacts that have been recovered. However, rumors of an alleged cover up have also gained some traction, most notably via a book by the conspiracy writer, Jeffrey Blair Latta. In general, the suggestion is that the expedition was actually sent to investigate some kind of non-human presence in the north - possibly an alien group, possibly a race of giants - and that the British authorities did so knowingly, but also wanting to keep that knowledge from the general public.

Naturally, this apparent desire to hide aliens from almost all other humans is at the heart of most alien conspiracy claims. The reasoning for this usually includes some kind of “wanting to avoid mass panic”. It’s said that world governments and leading organizations believe that proof of aliens would surely send everybody into fits of recklessness and insanity… and so that’s why we never hear of alien breakthroughs that allegedly have already been made. Famously, Area 51 in the heart of the Nevada desert is the key location for most US theories of this type.

However, perhaps the more interesting coverup conspiracies involve not allegedly captured alien creatures, but rather their possibly crash-landing alien ships. One of the most well known cases of all is the Tunguska event, which happened again in Siberia, this time in 1908. A seemingly random, massive explosion unfolded on June 30th of that year, leveling more than 800 square miles of forest and killing around 80 million trees. It’s not actually known what caused it, although the leading theory is that it was a massive meteor airburst low in the sky above. Conspiracy theorists have long reckoned aliens, though, either as a deliberate show of force… or via them accidentally smashing into our world.

There’s a growing list of other meteors that some say might actually be alien-made, too. Suggestions of ET bacteria inside the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite from Mars famously drew in the one-time US president, Bill Clinton… while it’s suggested by the Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb that a 2014 meteor across the South Pacific might also be an alien something in disguise. Loeb’s claims are perhaps more “outlandish” than “conspiracy” - and his insistence that the 2014 rock was interstellar has now been supported by the US military. Nevertheless, thanks to the likes of Loeb pushing the envelope, the watching world has perhaps never been more suspicious of space rock.

What’s your verdict on these alien ideas? Which ones leave you convinced… and which ones, in your view, are a little less probable? We’ve covered an off-Earth theory on the far side of the moon… an on-Earth theory (or two) in the Arctic Circle… and a case of something that’s possibly traveled from space to Earth, with the Tunguska event.

That’s a massive scope in just these few examples, although there are some shared similarities. All involve some degree of remote location; many focus more on the unseen than the seen; there are continual suggestions of a coverup; and most, unfortunately, involve some kind of death or danger. But those are the different types of alien conspiracy you should know about.