The Archaeus Hypothesis

N. Reiter and L. Schillig

February 2, 2002

Forward:

In late 2001, references came our way that prompted us to do some serious reading on a new and highly debated topic in biology and Earth science. The topic was "nano-bacteria", single celled life forms found to be capable of dwelling deep within the heat, pressure, and chemically violent background of our planet's crust and mantle. Some forms of nano-bacteria, such as blue-green algae, have been known for decades, without a full and recent understanding of just what extreme conditions these organisms can actually thrive in. Others have been recovered from undersea sulfur vents, deep caverns, and anaerobic hot springs. Others still are only now being identified as being living units, as their sizes and forms are smaller and more bizarre than it has ever been supposed that life could exist in! All of these "terrestrial but alien" organisms fall under a fairly new (recently established) category of life on Earth - the Archaean class.

One of the watershed texts on the topic is "Dark Life", by Michael Ray Taylor, 1999, Scribner, NY, NY. It is an engaging read, and represents a blend of speleological adventures recounted by the author along with a huge dose of (frankly) very scary New Science. The author takes one along through the halls of universities where maverick scientists are beginning to piece together evidence that the vast majority of life on this planet is Archaean, and exists under conditions that organic life was simply never supposed to exist in! According to some researchers in the field, the nano-bacterial life of our world literally infests and thrives in the very rock, water and mineral compounds of our planet's structure. The matter of diversity is no less shocking! There conceivably exist more variations of Archaean life in a single deep cave than among all organisms of the other two primary divisions of life on Earth (Bacterial and Eucaryotic).

Processes as common as iron rusting, or the depositing of calcite from spring water have now come under scrutiny as being ultimately catalyzed and caused by bizarre nano-bacterial life, so small that until advanced electron microscopy was developed it could have never been discovered or seen.

Ecologists and biologists have no problem looking at the waters, land, and skies of our planet's surface as being a beautifully interwoven web of life and living interactions. Few, however, seem to be capable of eagerly accepting a premise where the very rock and chemical furnaces of the planet are alive as well! In a sense, though, we can look to some of the very oldest of human belief systems to find that the idea is not so awfully alien. Animist cultures used to ascribe living properties to mountains, caves, and every small pebble.

Within the pages of Dark Life, as well as other on-line papers we perused, was found a very particular observation that was the inspiration for this document. To say that we were excited would be incorrect. We were excited and terrified at once!

Since 1998, we have involved ourselves in the analysis of anomalous or difficult to identify residues from Crop Circle cases around the world. The majority of our work has been for BLT Research, headed up by Nancy Talbott of Cambridge, Massachussetts. During this time, Nancy and her associates also shared with us many of the results of previous analyses of these residues as well. There also appear to be similarities between residua found in Crop Circles (in and on the soil) and residua found and analyzed from UFO landing sites, cattle mutilation sites, and even homes of people claiming anomalous personal (alien encounter) type events.

The residua found in many of these anomalous / Fortean cases seem to be generally mineral in nature. Glassy aluminosilicate micro-spheres, micron sized iron spheres, unexplained deposits of nearly pure calcite, odd silicate rods and spiral structures, sulfur rich slimes are among these forms and materials. The compositions have never tended toward the alien - to the contrary, they often seem to be roughly the composition of the Earth itself! Yet the forms, and size of the forms, have been oft-times enigmatic.

As we eagerly ate up pages and websites on the topic of nano-bacteria, we discovered that many of these same forms - found at locations of anomalous events - were very synonymous with the residues, waste products, or skeletal structures of Archaean life-forms!

A hypothesis was formed. It is speculative, and we claim no evidence for it except that already discussed here. However, the arguments for it arrange themselves in a very logical manner. We do not claim this to be the truth - it is a possible truth. The reader is left to do further speculation and research - we certainly will be!

Do not take this too seriously. Yet.

We invite the reader now to follow along here. The free form thoughts we offer beyond this point - put down in no particular order in December of 2001 and January of 2002 - are based on a premise. The premise is this. The Archaean life of Earth likely predates even the most ancient of Eucaryotic life (us). It was here before us. What if the Archaean life forms began to form a coherent, collective intelligence of a type unknown among the multi-celled surface life forms. Like the fungus stretching for miles beneath the forest soil of Upper Michigan - a single thriving organism comprised of a vast number of single celled units acting in a state of coherency. The Archaean life branch as one entity...The Archaeus.

A Deep Earth Sojourn...

The Archaeus: a collective, globally dispersed life form consisting of colonies or aggregates of nano-scopic cellular bodies. The cellular components of the Archaeus may resemble or even include forms only recently discovered, such as cyanobacteria, iron and sulphur metabolizing bacteria, silica bacteria, or nanobacteria responsible for travertine and deep cave calcite. It is native to the lower reaches of the Earth's crust or upper mantle and exists in deep water, caverns, and possibly even within heated rock itself. The cellular units exhibit life in conditions of heat, chemistry, pressure, cold, and vacuum that life as we know it (soft carbon-based) would find intolerable. It is not unreasonable to presume that it can exist and travel through deep space.

In a sense, it has infested the planet. In another sense, it may well be the original life form of the planet, and we on the surface are a mold-like infestation. In yet another sense, perhaps surface life is like a bloom or mushroom of the deeper Archaeus organism. It may frequently assemble temporary individuated aggregates that rise to the Earth's surface and interact with surface life.

There is a possibility that the different forms of nano-bacteria thus far observed, such as iron eaters, sulphur metabolizers, blue green algae, and deep water calcite catalyzers might be analogous to the different types of cells that exist synergetically in the human body. Are we not collective organisms as well? It may be a matter of size scale and perspective. To a foreign cell, the human being is an unknowably huge aggregate, and only individuated smaller structures make sense. With the cellular components typically being less than 5 microns diameter, aggregates active at the Earth's surface may be vaporous in nature.

The Archaeus comprises a collective or hive mind intelligence. One of its primary goals may be self-preservation and concealment. It or its components may display very precise, problem solving intelligence, and it seems to be capable of intricate logistics. In this sense, it would be analogous to a very powerful version of Havelock's Gaia entity.

In its manifestations and interactions with surface life, the Archaeus seems to sometimes leave behind physical traces:

Crop circles:

• Iron and iron rich microspheres
• Silica microspheres
• Iron oxide
• Calcium Carbonate (calcite) spherules or powders
• Nanostructures, rods, tubes, etc - primarily silica

Cattle Mutilations:

• Iron rich microstructures
• Silica microspheres
• Nanostructures

Abductions:

• Iron rich residues
• Sulphur rich residues
• Claimed silica microstructures (Levengood)

UFO landings:

• Silica microspheres
• Iron rich microspheres

All of these types of materials are acknowledged residue found in conjunction with the aforementioned types of nano-bacteria found in deep springs and caves. The universal presence of such life is suggested by traces found (and still debated) in Martian meteorites from Antarctica.

It is not a new concept in science fiction and mythology, and may even resemble the "black oil" alien life form of X-Files fame. Or perhaps they are like the dreaded Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos, who filtered down through deep space from stellar material. Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson used a similar conceptual being in their Illuminatus! trilogy - Leviathan.

Because the cellular units of Archaeus are typically below a few microns in diameter and far smaller in many cases, they may well exist in a world where quantum mechanical properties permit strange physical actions! Among these might be quantum teleportation, tunneling, and absorption of zero point energy from the quantum vacuum (thus producing light phenomena and plasmas?). Could this explain the weird and seemingly impossible abilities of "aliens" or crypto-zoological creatures?

Vaporous suspensions of Archaeus units might show up as ectoplasm or orbs in flash photos - giving rise to suspicions of ghosts. There may be some hope for illuminating them with intense UV light - they may fluoresce when excited. (Claims of ghostly ecto showing up yellow-white in blue or violet light?).

If Archaeus suspensions are vaporous, are they breathable? If they are breathable, can they temporarily or permanently inhabit or "possess" humans or other living systems? Could they be carriers for auditory or visual hallucinations previously thought to be the hallmark of psychosis or schizophenia?

Perhaps greater numbers of anomalies, both physical phenomena and photographic, occur in the vicinity of deep wells, springs, volcanic vents, and caverns. What about the oracle of Delphi - positioned over a fuming deep earth vent? These places were favored sites for ancient culture rituals. Is it an easier avenue of communion with Archaeus there?

Smoke is fractal and contains nano-scopic particles. In this form, could the smoke from burnt offerings have been sustenance for Archaeus or at least an acceptable offering or treat? American Indians felt that smoke communicated to the "Spirit World".

In an even greater scope, could some of the legendary interactions of "Gods" with various ancient cultures have been interaction / manipulation by the Archaeus?

In Cryptozoology, one of the most baffling and bothersome traits of Bigfoot or other mystery beasts is their propensity for vanishing spontaneously, as supposedly evidenced by anomalies like Sasquatch prints that stop suddenly in the mud or snow. Could crypto-beasts be temporary "cloaked" Archaeus aggregates that then dissolve when their purpose is achieved? If so, we would suspect that in residues gleaned from Bigfoot cases there should exist a disproportionately larger background count of the aforementioned nano-scale mineral residue.

In encounters with apparent UFO aliens, abductees have given testimony on occasion that there are typically two scents that are associated with the encounter - one is similar to wet or moldy cardboard. The other is the pungent smell of burning carbon or sulphur.

Both of these scents have been described by deep cave explorers. Traditionally, they were attributed to wet minerals. Recent speculations have been growing that these scents are actually the smells due to inhalation of deep earth nano-bacteria.

There may be other connections possible. Do sightings of UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot, or mystery beasts take an upswing when in a localized region, there is seismic activity, volcanic activity, or possibly some man made activity that intrudes upon the deep earth strata. One might look at the famous MothMan flap in the late 1960s. Was there accompanying seismic or perhaps mining or drilling activity in that geographical area at the time? Something to stir up the Archaeus to a major level?

Some might be inclined to speculate as to whether Archaeus is benevolent or malevolent toward surface life. This is likely an incomprehensible question. Archaeus would seem to be utterly beyond any arbitrary human tags of good or evil. It exists, and thrives, and does what it must in order to fulfill its primary purpose. There would seem to be no real evidence that Archaeus is antagonistic to surface (Eucaryotic) life. Maybe, as speculated earlier, we truly are a bloom or mushroom of Archaeus anyway.

Archaean life likely exists in enormous quantities throughout the universe, perhaps free floating in nebulae or dust clouds, or tied to the warm inner reaches of planets - terrestrial and gas giants alike. It may, in fact, be the primary form of life in the universe. If Archaeus on Earth exhibits collective properties of intelligence, what levels of coherency and mind might exist within whole structured nebulae of nano-bacterial cell units? Is consciousness a property of particle individuation?

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