Mark Gagnon (8:54)
Texas this goes all the way back to ancient times in old mythology. That's right, Greek mythology, Hades ruled the underworld. Where is the underworld? It is this subterranean realm where, you know, spirits of dead people and, you know, your grandma, whatever. That's where they would go. Everybody. They'd all go to the underworld, which is not just some pit of darkness somewhere. It is an elaborate kingdom with rivers, you know, like sticks, fields of punishment, you know, the blessed realm of. Of Ilysium. All sorts of cool stuff. It's like a whole. It was a whole city. It was like a. It was like a. Like a. Like a subdivision of like a. Like a town or something. And the Norse cosmos. They also had this. They had this place that was known as Svartalfheim. Svartalheim. Svartalfai. Him. It's an underground home of dwarves, basically, and craftsmen who make magic weapons and artifacts for the gods, of course. And where else are they going to live, right? Dwarves are Pretty short. So center of the Earth seems like a good spot. Eastern traditions, they talked about underground kingdoms, like the Buddhists, they talk about Agartha and Shambhala, while modern interpretations place these as, like, you know, that they're not necessarily beneath the earth's surface. You know, traditional texts describe them as spiritual dimensions, but, you know, sometimes people say maybe it's not so spiritual. Da, da, da. It's. It's contested. You know, Native Americans, even, they got their own thing. Their mythology says that some of the most direct connections to underground worlds happen through the. The native culture. That's. That's how they connect with their ancestors. Many tribes trace their origins to the emerg of the earth itself. So a lot of native tribes, like, for example, the Hopi people, they believe that there's an existence of three previous worlds beneath the current one, and humanity is climbing upwards through the hollow tree branch or the hollow reed to reach each new realm after the previous one was destroyed. The Navajo speak of the first people emerging from three underground worlds before reaching the current surface world, which, again, just demonstrates how this concept of this subterranean realm is. It's. It's persisted in human consciousness for a very, very long time. Fascinating, right? But the modern theory doesn't really take shape until, like, 19th century. All right, so 1818, you have this U.S. army officer, this guy, John Cleaves Sims Jr. Column. Johnny. He becomes the theory's most like, prominent advocate. He's the one that makes it just, you know, go. Go crazy. And he declares that the Earth is hollow. And not only is it hollow, it is habitable within, quote, unquote. His idea is known as the Sims hole theory, which is hilarious to name a theory after yourself and include hole. This is Gagnon's whole theory, like the entire theory? No, no, no. It's about his hole. And the. What he proposed in the Sims hole theory is basically that the Earth is hollow, habitable, and has openings at the north and South Poles, these polar openings, which he then termed. You know, obviously these Sims holes were about 4,000 miles in diameter. Pretty big. 4,000 miles in diameter. That's like the size of the entire United States. And on either end of the Earth, that's a portal to the middle. He claimed that these entrances, like, just gradually, like, curved inward, allowing ships to sail effortlessly from the outside to the inside without ever even realizing that they crossed the threshold. It's. I mean, it's just like. It's silly now, obviously, but people didn't know. It seems crazy. I feel like in 1818, people had some idea. You know, people are like, yeah, this, that is absurd. Like, who would believe that? Again, this guy had all these theories. He had it all worked out. And because he was military, people were like, maybe there's something here. So again, he says at the edges of these openings, there's ice and seasonal weather patterns that make it impossible to discover. Convenient. The interior of the Earth, according to this guy, was not only hollow, but habitable. He suggests that the inner surface gets enough light and warmth from a miniature sun suspended in the center of the cavity of the Earth. And this internal sun creates a temperate climate through the inner world, making like animal life and vegetation. It's awesome. He's got the sick ass, you know, internal Earth thing, which would be cool if it existed. Go on vacation in the middle of the Earth, be awesome. And the atmosphere apparently is like, clean. And, you know, there's no pollutants from the outside surface. And maybe the craziest part about, you know, Sims entire theory is that the Earth consisted of five concentric spheres nested inside of each other, separated by layers of atmosphere. Each of these shells was said to have, you know, its own gravity. And he believed each sphere harbored distinct civilizations and ecosystems. All right, he was crazy. I don't know how else to put it. He puts this whole theory forward and people buy it. People love the idea that there's a civilization at the middle of the Earth. And they, you know, they're like, dude, this guy's in the military. Why would he lie? Well, so this is where it gets fascinating, right? This guy Johnny Sims proposes this theory and people believe it kind of. He gains like a cult, like, following throughout, like Ohio, in Kentucky, Ohio, you know, where he's from, and goes on these speeches and does these large tours, think like, like a TED talk in the 1800s. And he's just going around, you know, having these conventions, talking about hollow Earth, and people are loving it. Sometimes hundreds, maybe even thousands of people gathering around to hear this guy talk about what he believes is happening at the center of the Earth. Of course it sounds a little crazy, but what's interesting is that it does spark a movement in a way, and I think touches on something interesting about human beings that we're interested in, you know, the unknown, that even in this time, you know, things, we got flat Earthers today. There's always been flat Earthers. There's always been people believing in, you know, just these insane theories. And at this time in history, it was no different. But what's fascinating is that he inspires a gentleman by the name of Jeremiah Reynolds. Now, again, this guy, John Sims, he's petitioning Congress, he's trying to get Congress to come forward and give him a grant to actually go to the center of the Earth through this, you know, tunnel system, through the polls, he never gets funding. United States government says, no thanks, we're good. But this guy, Jeremiah Reynolds, this guy is fascinating. So he's a newspaper editor and a public speaker, and he was a true believer of Sims and his Hollow Earth theory. And he toured the country in the 1820s, given the. Giving lectures. Basically the same thing that Sims was doing about the polar regions and about Hollow Earth and how important and fascinating the polar regions were. Were. And over time, he ended up speaking to more and more people. He ends up kind of changing his perspective away from pseudoscience and becomes an actual researcher that wants to explore the poles of Earth, specifically the South Pole. And so what does he do? He, with his, you know, his media background, creates this public fascination with polar exploration. He lobbies the government in the 1820s and 1830s, specifically Congress and the Navy, to fund a South Pole expedition. And early on, he was kind of laughed at and, you know, they. They sort of shoot him away. But his messages caught the attention of, like, naval officers and scientists that were interested in making a name for themselves. And so they kind of started putting plans together to actually do a South Pole mission. It's crazy. And Reynolds was eventually kicked off the mission due to, you know, political infighting and just kind of being a crazy person. But his relentless advocacy inspires, like, directly the Wilkes expedition, which becomes the first major global exploration mission, specifically going to the South Pole. And on that mission, they chart 1500 miles of the Arctic coast and basically proved that Antarctica was a continent and not just, you know, scattered random islands, that it was actually a solid island, you know, glob. So this one guy, John Sims, basically inspires a movement that discovers Antarctica because he was crazy. I shouldn't say he was crazy. I think that's kind of rude to call people crazy, but because he had these fringe crazy theories that obviously were wild, but he did inspire an entire movement to go discover Antarctica. So shout out to Johnny Sims legend if you want to go check out his statue. He's got a giant statue in Ohio that is his children put up for him. It's right there, right now. Now these theories from old John Sims and our good friend Jeremiah Reynolds get even more popular and actually inspire a movement, a specifically a literary movement. This guy Jules Verne probably heard of him famous author, 1864, he writes his masterpiece, a brilliant work of fiction known as Journey to the center of the Earth, which, at that point, you know, once this book drops, the entire American public is captivated with this idea of what's at the middle of the Earth. And Verne didn't really embrace the traditional, like, Hollow Earth concept, of course. His vision of vast underground caverns, prehistoric life, subterranean seas, do popularize the idea of these habitable realms underneath our feet. And his careful attention to science, although dated by the standards of today, lend credibility to this idea of, like, well, maybe there are underground civilizations. You know, who knows? And not only them, Edgar Allan Poe and Edgar Rice Burroughs, two famous authors and poets in their own right. They take different approaches. Poe writes the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym in 1838 using the idea of polar openings to create, like, this, you know, mystery horror. Well, Burroughs creates a series that imagines a complete world on the inner surface of the Earth's crust, internally lit by this, you know, central sun. Okay, so this is the part in the Hollow Earth story that gets fascinating. So, 1946, you have a little thing known as Operation High Jump. This is awesome. You should absolutely read the Wikipedia page on this. Okay, this is a classic conspiracy. This happens in 46, under the command of this guy, Admiral Richard E. Byrd. And this is basically the largest Antarctic expedition in history. The mission involves, like, almost 5,000 people, 13 ships, a bunch of aircrafts, and the stated purpose is to establish an Antarctic research base. That's. That's what they're doing. They're going down there, they're making Little America 4. And this is just a spot where they can, you know, test out some military equipment and polar conditions, you know, just in case there's a war with Russia or something. Give them a little playground that's freezing. And the scale of this operation is insane. It's larger than any typical research mission ever, right at this point. Like, it, you know, it's. It's massive. And with these massive expeditions to bizarre and unusual places, of course, it is going to fuel a lot of speculation about the true purpose. So, again, there's a lot of rumor and conspiracy and myth with a lot of this. So I'm going to try to parse down exactly what is real and what's not as best I can. So the expedition, while officially, you know, it's successful in its mapping and research objectives, it ends six months earlier than they planned. Now, if you're wondering, like, hey, how is that possible? What research? What Federal Research Mission ends earlier on time, under budget. Never happens. Everything always goes later. But this one, six months earlier than planned. Official reports cite that the deteriorating weather conditions and, you know, that's the reason that they had to, you know, pack it up. But this premature conclusion has become a cornerstone of many conspiracies, specifically the Hollow Earth conspiracy theories. Believers suggest that the mission encountered something unprecedented beneath the ice, forcing its early termination. They point to all these different scattered reports of unusual aerial phenomena and, you know, UAPs, unexplained equipment malfunctions during the expedition. Maybe the most controversial aspect is it emerges from an interview with Admiral Byrd published in El Mercurial, a Chilean newspaper, where he allegedly big, allegedly warned about flying objects capable of traveling from pole to pole at incredible speeds. While this interview's authenticity remains, you know, disputed, it has become a foundational text for those who believe the expedition discovered evidence of, you know, some civilization, maybe at the South Pole, maybe in the center of the Earth. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because we have a new sponsor of the show that I'm so excited about that I need to tell you, so listen up. Our food is important. What you eat is who you are. It's how you think, how you feel, how you work out. It basically encompasses everything. But unfortunately, our food doesn't have the nutrients we need to be our best. And that's where Symbiotica comes in. Symbiotica is the greatest supplement brand in the world, and here's why they got all these different supplements. I actually take these every single day. Specifically the magnesium L threonate. I take this before I go to sleep, and it helps me sleep better. Magnesium is amazing for helping me go to sleep. Look it up. There's studies everywhere, and this is great because it tastes amazing. Not some pill. This is the L3 and 8. It's sublingual. It actually gets in your blood system faster and will make you sleep better, perform better the next day. And when you sleep better, your hormones reset better, you get stronger, you work out better. All that vitamin C, same thing you need that it should be in your food, but it's not. And that's where Symbiotica can be the cure. And then, of course, you got liquid colostrum. You probably had colostrum right when you were very first born, if you were breastfed, your mom made colostrum. It is nature's first superfood. It is super dense in nutrients, and right here it is in this package. It'll make you feel amazing. So if you want to perform better at the gym, if you want to perform better at work, if you want to think faster, if you want to be more social, even talking to women, oh, I don't know what to say. I jam up. I get nervous. It's possible some of that anxiety is because you are nutrient deficient. You feel bad you don't have the adequate stuff in your body to make you be at your best.
