ATLAS

UnofficialEPSILON-1-17-2Sheet 2 of 5 of the dossier Reptilians

Abduction, sighting and legend accounts

The reports usually cited as precedents: a 1967 abduction story, a 1934 newspaper legend, the 1988 Lizard Man and ufology books.

A brown lizard nibbling at a green plant in sunlight.
Ambiance photo: a lizard in a garden. It illustrates the animal, not any account. Francesco Ungaro · Pexels license · Pexels

Summary

Beyond Icke's books, the reptilian idea rests on a scattering of accounts that supporters present as earlier traces. In 1967 a small-town police officer in Nebraska recalled, under hypnosis, being taken aboard a craft by beings with a slightly reptilian look; sceptics consider the story a hoax. The same year the paranormal writer Brad Steiger is credited with being the first ufologist to speak of reptilian extraterrestrials, and in 1990 another author, R. A. Boulay, claimed to find reminiscences of a reptilian past in cultural works. A 1934 Los Angeles newspaper story told of a legendary race of "Lizard People" living in catacombs under the city, attributed to a Hopi tale that the sceptic Brian Dunning could not trace to any Hopi source. In 1988 a wave of sightings of a "Lizard Man" in a South Carolina swamp followed a damaged car, and investigator Ben Radford says the key details do not survive scrutiny.

All of these are testimonies, legends or rumours: none has been confirmed, and several have been questioned by investigators. They show how the motif circulated, not that such beings exist.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    Within ufology, reptilian beings are said to have been caught trying to acquire information about the Dulce base, an alleged underground complex in New Mexico.

    • Support Your Local Reptoid, Skeptoid, 21 May 2007
      Reptilian beings have been caught trying to acquire information about the Dulce base.

Unconfirmed accounts

  1. Unofficial, unconfirmed

    In 1967 a Nebraska police officer, Herbert Schirmer, recalled under hypnosis being taken aboard a UFO by humanoid beings with a slightly reptilian appearance; sceptics consider his claims to be a hoax.

  2. Unofficial, unconfirmed

    The paranormal writer Brad Steiger is credited as the first ufologist to have spoken of reptilian-type extraterrestrials, in his 1967 book Flying Saucers Are Hostile.

    • Reptilien, Wikipédia
      est le premier ufologue à avoir parlé des extraterrestres de type reptilien, ou reptiles humanoïdes, dans son livre Flying Saucers are hostile, paru en 1967
  3. Unofficial, unconfirmed

    In 1990 R. A. Boulay presented cultural works as supposed reminiscences of a forgotten reptilian past of humanity.

    • Reptilien, Wikipédia
      En 1990, R. A. Boulay soutient ce qu'il imagine être le « passé reptilien de l'Humanité »
  4. Unofficial, unconfirmed

    A 1934 Los Angeles Times story reported a Hopi legend of "Lizard People" who built a city under Los Angeles; the sceptic Brian Dunning found no such Hopi legend.

    • Support Your Local Reptoid, Skeptoid, 21 May 2007
      Macklin told Shufelt of a Hopi legend of Lizard People, an advanced race, who built the city beneath Los Angeles to escape surface catastrophes some 5000 years ago.
  5. Unofficial, unconfirmed

    In July 1988 the Lee County sheriff's office in South Carolina investigated a report of a car damaged overnight near Bishopville, the start of the "Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp" story.

Official version

  1. Official version

    The investigator Ben Radford writes that the Lizard Man story is compelling "but several important aspects wither under skeptical scrutiny".

    • Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, Wikipedia
      Researcher Ben Radford states that this is a compelling story, "but several important aspects wither under skeptical scrutiny".