Where Are We Really From? The Prison Planet Theory

nivek

As Above So Below
Where Are We Really From? The Bizarre Theory of the Prison Planet
By Brent Swancer

Since the dawn of humankind we have sought to explain our origins and answer the fundamental, basic question: where do we come from? In every far-flung culture across every corner of the globe one can find origin myths and legends, each as different as the culture it spawns from. In more recent times we have science and the theory of evolution, a more scientific effort to explain the same age-old question that has haunted us since the first flickers of self awareness sparked in our brains, but for some this has still not been enough, and there are some decidedly more fringe ideas still floating around out there. For at least one scientist, the answer to this question is that we did not come from Earth at all, but were rather dropped off or exiled here long ago. Welcome to the bizarre world of the Prison Planet.

The main thrust behind one of the most bonkers theories on the history of human beings on this planet is an American ecologist by the name of Dr. Ellis Silver. His main idea is that our origins on this planet are not what they seem, and that perhaps we are not the product of evolution on this world, but rather visitors that, for whatever reasons, ended up here relatively recently in the geographical timescale, perhaps hundreds of thousands or even as recently as tens of thousands of years ago, after which we bred with earlier species such as Neanderthals in order to become the hybrid creatures we are today. It sounds completely outlandish, the ravings of a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, but Silver is no usual crackpot, but rather a respected scientist, and he has his evidence to try and back up this on-the-surface crazy notion.

aliens-brought-us-here.jpg


Forgetting for the moment of how we might have wound up here in the first place, Silver is more than ready to present his arguments on why, as a species, we just don’t seem to belong here. The first and foremost reason for this is that we humans are unlike anything else on this planet in terms of intelligence and mental capacity. There is no other animal that even comes close to our ability to think, philosophize, create politics, artwork and poetry, or advance in technology so incredibly rapidly. This is the most obvious argument in his case, but it is certainly not the only one, and in his opinion human beings exhibit many characteristics and physiological features that prove we are not as acclimated or suitable for this planet as our original originators might have thought, and indeed he cites a long list of differences between us and pretty much every other lifeform on this planet, which he says mark us as hilariously ill-equipped to deal with this environment and world.

According to Silver, these anomalous differences can be seen as early as the beginning of our lives. Human women have enormous complications and pain during childbirth, which he claims are not seen any where else in the animal kingdom, with births among animals natural and smooth, whereas human beings need much support and can even die in childbirth, something which still happens occasionally even to this day. Of course, this is due to the largeness of the head of human babies, but why, Silver argues, should this be if it is a normal process of evolution? After being born after an unusually short gestation period we than undergo an extremely comparatively long process of slow development, with human babies completely and utterly helpless for years after birth, which Silver argues is far from the norm in the animal kingdom. This might be raising some eyebrows already, but this is only the beginning.

Upon eventually maturing, humans display many anomalous traits not really shared by other creatures on this planet. Silver says that we are unnaturally prone to chronic illnesses and conditions such as hay fever, allergies, and others, which doesn’t seem to make sense. He also brings up our unusual weakness to the sun, saying that we are one of the only creatures that suffers from sunburn to the extent that we do, despite the fact that we “evolved” to have no body hair, and that we are additionally one of the only creatures that needs to squint the eyes when the sunlight is bright. The range of frequencies that we can audibly hear is also woefully low compared to most animals, as is our range of smell, which is argued as all being the result of being in tune on a biological level with another entirely different environment. Human beings also tend to have chronic back problems, which he says is a result of the differing gravity between our home world and Earth, and he continues with the notion that our bodies actually seem to be more in tune with a 25-hour day rather than 24, and that many of us have sleeping disorders and a general sense of anxiety because of this. Furthermore, we tend to dislike raw and uncooked foods as a rule, unlike other animals, have evolved with little body hair, are upright rather than with a lower center of gravity, unlike other animals, and he even points out our large amount of extra “junk DNA” as being evidence that we are, in fact, aliens. In his opinion we are just too different in too many ways from every other animal on the planet. Generally it is of Silver’s opinion that our bodies are just not suitable for this environment if we have actually evolved here over millions of years, and he has said of this:

My thesis proposes that mankind did not evolve from that particular strain of life (native earth organisms), but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago. Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth’s environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more. This suggests (to me at least) that mankind may have evolved on a different planet, and we may have been brought here as a highly developed species. The Earth approximately meets our needs as a species, but perhaps not as strongly as whoever brought us here initially thought.

Ancient-Alien-700x454-1.jpg


However, if any of this at all is really true, then why would we have ended up here in the first place? Well, according to Silver one possibility is that Earth might be a planet for stowing away prisoners who were unable to integrate into their normal society. Our ancestors might have been exiled here, after which they were forgotten about and interbred with native species, to form what we are now, albeit with certain quirks indicative of our extraterrestrial origins. After all, humans have had had far away penal colonies before, so who is to say aliens don’t as well? Indeed, Silver calls it all “The Prison Planet Theory,” and he says of why we are here, “One reason for this, discussed in the book, is that the Earth might be a prison planet – since we seem to be a naturally violent species – and we’re here until we learn to behave ourselves.”

He has even suggested that at one time there may very well have been some sort of overseers, and that these became the gods in the minds of our ancestors. Indeed, the UFOs that many people see today could be our real ancestors keeping an eye on our progress. Other ideas are that an asteroid destroyed our home planet long ago and we fled here, over the centuries forgetting our true origins, or that we are even refuges from the dying planet Mars. We also might have been planted here for some sort of a long-running experiment, essentially making us intergalactic guinea pigs. One could speculate on an on. Whatever the ultimate reason is, the end result is we did not come from here.

While there have certainly been ideas and theories that life on Earth might have actually begun with bacteria or other biological material arriving her on a meteor, Silver is one of the first to seriously suggest that we in fact came here more or less fully formed, with perhaps some hybridization along the way. Silver has written an entire book on the subject, entitled Humans are not from Earth: a scientific evaluation of the evidence, and it is controversial to say the least. What are we to think of these ideas that human beings did not originate from what we have long thought to be our native home world? Of course there has been a lot of criticism aimed at the theory and it all remains highly speculative, but it is nevertheless another intriguing example of our kind trying to delve into our history and extract some meaning from where we came from, who we are, and where we are headed.

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1963

Noble

Hi Nivek, this is imo a really good thread mate,
And yes of course anything is possible, ... and like a lot of people that i know , i have often pondered the possibilities of just why we are seemingly so very different from every other occupant of this planet? and without ever hearing from this chap before, this i have to say is no new theory. I would humbly ask you to believe that i too have run this notion along with many others through my idle ponderings on many occassions in the past. [as no doubt have many others] .. and yes among the many other 'theories' that have given me headaches over the years , sometimes i give the idea more credence than at other times. So no, i cannot dismiss the guy's assertions as just nonsense ... but i have to take issue with much of his reasoning ...for instance this passage is evidently incorrect....
a long list of differences between us and pretty much every other lifeform on this planet, which he says mark us as hilariously ill-equipped to deal with this environment and world.
According to Silver, these anomalous differences can be seen as early as the beginning of our lives. Human women have enormous complications and pain during childbirth, which he claims are not seen any where else in the animal kingdom, with births among animals natural and smooth, whereas human beings need much support and can even die in childbirth, something which still happens occasionally even to this day. Of course, this is due to the largeness of the head of human babies, but why, Silver argues, should this be if it is a normal process of evolution? After being born after an unusually short gestation period we than undergo an extremely comparatively long process of slow development, with human babies completely and utterly helpless for years after birth, which Silver argues is far from the norm in the animal kingdom. This might be raising some eyebrows already, but this is only the beginning.
Animal Moms Have It Tough! 8 Extreme Creature Births | Live Science


... and this...
Upon eventually maturing, humans display many anomalous traits not really shared by other creatures on this planet. Silver says that we are unnaturally prone to chronic illnesses and conditions such as hay fever, allergies, and others, which doesn’t seem to make sense.
... for this to be relevant we have to ignore all of the "anomalous traits" of the "other creatures on this planet" [as he puts it] such as the distemper that without human intervention effects a large number of animals , [and not just our household favourites] for instance.
... and then...
He also brings up our unusual weakness to the sun, saying that we are one of the only creatures that suffers from sunburn to the extent that we do, despite the fact that we “evolved” to have no body hair, and that we are additionally one of the only creatures that needs to squint the eyes when the sunlight is bright. The range of frequencies that we can audibly hear is also woefully low compared to most animals, as is our range of smell, which is argued as all being the result of being in tune on a biological level with another entirely different environment. Human beings also tend to have chronic back problems, which he says is a result of the differing gravity between our home world and Earth, and he continues with the notion that our bodies actually seem to be more in tune with a 25-hour day rather than 24, and that many of us have sleeping disorders and a general sense of anxiety because of this. Furthermore, we tend to dislike raw and uncooked foods as a rule, unlike other animals, have evolved with little body hair, are upright rather than with a lower center of gravity, unlike other animals, and he even points out our large amount of extra “junk DNA” as being evidence that we are, in fact, aliens. In his opinion we are just too different in too many ways from every other animal on the planet. Generally it is of Silver’s opinion that our bodies are just not suitable for this environment if we have actually evolved here over millions of years, and he has said of this:
.. of course we are not without fault, evolution and natural selection is a slow and laborious affair as any first grader scholar can attest to! ... But considering [as nobody contests] the speed at which homo-sapiens have evolved over the last around 160–100,000 years [the current theory] as compared to the 'crocodylians' at 85,000,000 years+... I think it a bit disingenuous to not give any credit to the notion that we are not doing so badly after all. ... Does he really think that we will really suffer from 'back problems' in another 85 million years?
... as i said earlier, yes it is just possible that 'The Prison Planet' as he terms it might not be so far off the mark, but also there are many other theories/hypotheses that have also run unsolicited through my head over the years that i latterly found weren't original or exclusive to my own imagination that seem just as 'possible' and some even more-so such as the 'zoo hypothesis' that i only found out years after i thought myself to be a genius had been around since the 1930's with a novel from Olaf Stapledon in 1937 named 'Starmaker'. ... and then taken a lot of steps further by [who else .. but that floored genius ..] .. Arthur C Clarke. in a couple of great 1950's novels, 'The Sentinel and Childhoods End'.
... so all in all a great topic for a thread with a brilliantly thought provoking theory. .... But not as ground-breaking as he would try to make it sound, and not a jot of new evidence in sight for it to become a particularly convincing argument, as opposed to being just an idle musing. ... Just my opinion of course Nivek, what do you or anyone else think to the 'theory'?

Cheers Buddy.



 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
I've heard of the Prison Planet Theory before, though not all the specifics. It seems very similar to the Zoo Hypothesis, which claims that we are being left alone on our planet to evolve naturally, not unlike Star Trek's Prime Directive.
 

michael59

Celestial
I remember watching a documentary about how Neanderthal died out because a more advanced species of human had migrated from the south. I remember wondering where they came from and how/why they had become more advanced.

I also remember one scene where advanced humans were sitting around a fire cooking meat. A Neanderthal woman was obviously very hungry but afraid to approach. Apparently she was alone because most of her species had already died out. The more advanced human waved a piece of meat as he approached her crouched down behind a rock. The next scene was the woman eating the meat while the advanced man had sex with her from behind. Then I thought, hmmm I wonder if that is where the extra chromosome in down syndrome comes from?

I think it is very likely that we were seeded here. Can't say I know why tho.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
I'm not convinced I agree with someone like David Jacobs, however. It's plausible to me that we're naturally evolving but the notion of an alien hybrid program is little more difficult to swallow.
 

pepe

Celestial
I remember watching a documentary about how Neanderthal died out because a more advanced species of human had migrated from the south. I remember wondering where they came from and how/why they had become more advanced.

I also remember one scene where advanced humans were sitting around a fire cooking meat. A Neanderthal woman was obviously very hungry but afraid to approach. Apparently she was alone because most of her species had already died out. The more advanced human waved a piece of meat as he approached her crouched down behind a rock. The next scene was the woman eating the meat while the advanced man had sex with her from behind. Then I thought, hmmm I wonder if that is where the extra chromosome in down syndrome comes from?

I think it is very likely that we were seeded here. Can't say I know why tho.

Burger me Jesus that is a disturbing image. It's suggested that sapiens and neanderthals did coexist for thousands of years, no question that this would be our first case of slavery and a trend setter for our modern day condition.

Some of the gals I know would do anything for a quarter pounder.
 

Kchoo

At Peace.
Judging by some people I meet in public, I would say it is easy to spot ones that take most of their heritage from the Neanderthals. The explainations make perfect sense to me. I have more respect for monkeys than the 99.9. Percent of the 'people' I have met.

On the other .1 percent, kudos to your intellects, your art, and your evolution!
 

Rick Hunter

Celestial
Ellis Silver's ideas square with the creation story of Genesis fairly well. Remember, Adam and Eve were exiled from paradise for their own disobedience. Their sons then proceeded to have children with women that were already living here. There were also Nephilim walking around in those days, children of the sons of God and daughters of men.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Hi Nivek, this is imo a really good thread mate,
And yes of course anything is possible, ... and like a lot of people that i know , i have often pondered the possibilities of just why we are seemingly so very different from every other occupant of this planet? and without ever hearing from this chap before, this i have to say is no new theory. I would humbly ask you to believe that i too have run this notion along with many others through my idle ponderings on many occassions in the past. [as no doubt have many others] .. and yes among the many other 'theories' that have given me headaches over the years , sometimes i give the idea more credence than at other times. So no, i cannot dismiss the guy's assertions as just nonsense ... but i have to take issue with much of his reasoning ...for instance this passage is evidently incorrect....
Animal Moms Have It Tough! 8 Extreme Creature Births | Live Science


... and this...

... for this to be relevant we have to ignore all of the "anomalous traits" of the "other creatures on this planet" [as he puts it] such as the distemper that without human intervention effects a large number of animals , [and not just our household favourites] for instance.
... and then...

.. of course we are not without fault, evolution and natural selection is a slow and laborious affair as any first grader scholar can attest to! ... But considering [as nobody contests] the speed at which homo-sapiens have evolved over the last around 160–100,000 years [the current theory] as compared to the 'crocodylians' at 85,000,000 years+... I think it a bit disingenuous to not give any credit to the notion that we are not doing so badly after all. ... Does he really think that we will really suffer from 'back problems' in another 85 million years?
... as i said earlier, yes it is just possible that 'The Prison Planet' as he terms it might not be so far off the mark, but also there are many other theories/hypotheses that have also run unsolicited through my head over the years that i latterly found weren't original or exclusive to my own imagination that seem just as 'possible' and some even more-so such as the 'zoo hypothesis' that i only found out years after i thought myself to be a genius had been around since the 1930's with a novel from Olaf Stapledon in 1937 named 'Starmaker'. ... and then taken a lot of steps further by [who else .. but that floored genius ..] .. Arthur C Clarke. in a couple of great 1950's novels, 'The Sentinel and Childhoods End'.
... so all in all a great topic for a thread with a brilliantly thought provoking theory. .... But not as ground-breaking as he would try to make it sound, and not a jot of new evidence in sight for it to become a particularly convincing argument, as opposed to being just an idle musing. ... Just my opinion of course Nivek, what do you or anyone else think to the 'theory'?

Cheers Buddy.

I do like this topic, its certainly not a new one and its certainly been discussed on various circles in the past...It seems to me that each planet one its own with its own types of lifeforms could be considered a 'prison'...Life on earth for instance cannot escape the planet and find an new planet to live on...Sure our technology now gives us a limited ability to leave our planet and explore the other planets in this solar system but we cannot survive on any other planet as we do on earth and we cannot explore the galaxy to find other suitable planets that could support our species....So this world 'could' be considered a prison for all the inhabitants that evolved here...

I have to ask then, why would an advanced species from another planet take a species from one planet and place them on another if not for the purpose of propagating and spreading that species across many planets to ensure its survival?...Entertaining the notion that a species was too destructive on their home planet so advanced aliens took them to another planet to isolate and 'imprison' them, it seems a great effort but a wasted one...If that destructive species cannot leave its planet of origin, then for all intents and purposes they are already in a prison of sorts, just leave them to destroy themselves...Why take that species to another planet, a beautiful planet like earth for instance just so that species can breed and spread across the planet and ultimately destroy earth?...Seems a great waste of resources and efforts by those advanced aliens and seems very illogical of a reason...

Another possible reason to make this effort in my mind would be if some advanced aliens were exploring the galaxy and came across some primitive but intelligent creatures and the aliens saw some qualities or something that could be of use to them...They might want to take some samples of these primitives and bring them to another planet closer to their own home world for the purpose of study and research...So going with that, they snatch up some humans and bring them back to a planet near their home world, in a system of planets close to their star system, on a planet called earth...They let this species multiply and evolve on this new planet and interact with and breed with the other primitive intelligent species all the while monitoring these humans for thousands of years, taking some of them occasionally, and regularly abducting some of them and releasing them, for the continuation of the research...This is something I could see as a possibility, transplanting humans or other species to planets closer for research purposes...If the research was important enough to them then they could have multiple planets planted with humans for research, so this earth 'could' be a prison of that sort, a research preserve...

What also comes to mind is the possibility of humans evolving on another planet and over the course of time that planet was doomed through no fault of the humans residing there, perhaps its some natural calamity was destined to wipe out most if not all the lifeforms on that planet...Aliens who already knew of the existence of these humans and have studied them decided to help them out and find another planet so they could survive...They find a planet we now call earth and drop off a few hundred or so humans off on this new planet thousands of years ago and here we are today discussing this theory lol...

I assume there could be other reasons for transplanted humans to this planet that I haven't thought of or considered, I personally think its likely earth is our planet of origin, but if we were originally from some other planet then I lean towards the notion we were brought here for research purposes...

...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
the notion of an alien hybrid program is little more difficult to swallow.

We do this here to other species, creating hybrids of animals and plants, to me its a distinct possibility that a very old and advanced alien species would perform hybrid experiments, maybe not with their own DNA but mixing other species together they have encountered in their galactic travels...

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Standingstones

Celestial
I am re-reading the series of books by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke. The books involve Native Americans and their contact with the Star People. One story was about one Indian male’s direct contact with an extraterrestrial. The extraterrestrial said there were three violent races in our galaxy that he was aware of. One was the human race and one other were the Reptilians. It would be a small wonder that we are on a prison planet and are being restricted to our planetary system.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I am re-reading the series of books by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke. The books involve Native Americans and their contact with the Star People. One story was about one Indian male’s direct contact with an extraterrestrial. The extraterrestrial said there were three violent races in our galaxy that he was aware of. One was the human race and one other were the Reptilians.

Sounds like an interesting read, I might get those books, thanks...

It would be a small wonder that we are on a prison planet and are being restricted to our planetary system.

It's not difficult to do since we do not have any way of leaving our solar system anyway, it's not like we have the advanced technology to traverse the stars, I kind of doubt we once possessed such tech and had it taken away from us, but I could be wrong...

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