I don’t know; maybe I saw too many episodes of Land of the Lost when I was a kid. Anyway there’s no doubt our entertainment industry has done a good job of maintaining the fictional status of these wild ideas. Impossible, says mainstream science, for the earth to be hollow. Even those who take the UFO question seriously often doubt the Hollow Earth, we are so steeped in the solid earth and molten core of our schooling (though others claim UFOs are actually from the inner earth realms).

A few braver, more radical adventurers and researchers have spoken out against the establishment, despite the risk of endangering professional credentials not to mention their very lives. Admiral Richard Byrd couldn’t help speaking out about his controversial trip to the ‘Land beyond the poles’, and many believed he was killed for doing so. More recently, Steve Currey, the head of a planned expedition to the inner earth in 2007, suddenly died of brain cancer. He had reported having been approached by an agent of the Illuminati who wanted to finance (and control) the expedition. Without question, scientific ridicule is the penalty for bringing up the topic at all, even as historical and mythological lore contain stories from all kinds of cultural sources about missing explorers, and hidden tunnel systems leading to mysterious areas beneath the surface. Even the Mormons have their own stories.

Jan Lamprecht is author of Hollow Planets. When you research the evidence from other planets in the solar system one must admit it is curious. The hundreds of miles of earth’s crust still leaves plenty of room for surface volcanism, and the idea of an internal dynamo, a kind of plasma arc singularity at the center, seems to account for the aurorae in a profound way, not to mention the magnetic dynamics of the planet as a whole. The Hollow Earth blog contains all kinds of interesting links and information to follow on these subjects.

Why are there no more solid photographic evidence of such holes in the poles? And why doesn’t someone go check it out? Listen to Lamprecht and Dr. Brooks A. Agnew, the new head of the planned expedition now scheduled for August 2009, talk more about the evidence and future plans. The investigation notes constant polar cloud cover and missing sections of satellite photographs, as well as strange radiations from the poles of other planets and the hollow ringing of the earth like a bell after large earthquakes. And, if indeed there is a secret civilization inside with an agenda, as related by the Thule Society and other theosophical writings, one imagines this mystery may not want to reveal itself until it’s ready – and then perhaps with unfortunate results.

Hollow Earth theory may be one of the most radical of them all in terms of alternative scientific concepts. Is this all simply symbolic reference to higher truths about our inner selves? Or is there an ancient tunnel system throughout the planet, connecting secret surface entrances to a hidden kingdom within? Do mysterious guardians maintain the secrecy to keep ignorant surface dwellers from getting in – or an even more horrible race of beings from getting out? Is the inner earth inhabited by the lost tribes of Israel, or the Serpent races? Is it a magical land, like Agharta or Shambhala, inhabited by enlightened beings, or the pits of hell infested with flying shapeshifting dragons? Considering legends of earth’s inhabitants escaping massive surface cataclysm by fleeing to the inner regions, one wonders if it has anything do with all the engineered underground bases, cities and tunnel systems created by our modern governments, and the rumors of an upcoming event in 2012?

These questions and more tease and tantalize those willing to venture outside the box, and down a very, very deep hole of brain-twisting imaginings and alternative science. I can only wonder; is this rabbit hole simply proverbial, or – perhaps something much more material? Should we take note from the vermin scurrying inside the holes during these seemingly pre-apocalyptic years? Or are we being prepared for illumination by voices from below?

Or – perhaps it is simply to Know, things may not be at all as they seem, and yet, the Way will be made clear when the time is right.

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space hat makes it livable.

We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

Tao Te Ching #11