The term “aliens” plays a different perspective for a scientist and a UFO researcher. One considers that aliens can be microbiological entities probably present in the Earth’s atmosphere while the other is a staunch believer that aliens are human-sized species from space. Moreover, in 2019, members of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), a San Francisco-based research organization, convened in Paris and suggested that we could all be living in a Galactic Zoo run by aliens.
Florence Raulin Cerceau, who is the METI director as well as an astrobiologist explained: “This puzzle of why we haven’t detected extraterrestrial life has been discussed often,” adding, “But in this workshop’s unique focus, many of the talks tackled a controversial explanation first suggested in the 1970s, called the ‘zoo hypothesis.’” METI president Douglas Vakoch weighed in by saying, “Perhaps extraterrestrials are watching humans on Earth, much like we watch animals in a zoo.”
This is an outgrowth of Charles Fort‘s claim that some non-human intelligence essentially operates Earth as a prison or an ant farm to watch us, and it is the basis for the “prison planet” claims of some contemporary ancient astronaut theorists. He was also perhaps the first person to explain strange human appearances and disappearances by the hypothesis of alien abduction, and was an early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, specifically suggesting that strange lights or objects sighted in the skies might be alien spacecraft.
MIT researcher John Ball presented the zoo hypothesis in his 1973 paper. He wrote, “Extraterrestrial intelligent life may be almost ubiquitous,” adding, “The apparent failure of such life to interact with us may be understood in terms of the hypothesis that they have set us aside as part of a wilderness area or zoo.” He later wrote in another research paper: “ETI may be discreetly and inconspicuously watching us but not dabbling.”
In 2016, Josh Hrala told ScienceAlert that while the zoo hypothesis does assume that aliens exist, perhaps the reason why they are not interacting with us is because they do not want to have any influence on our society and just want to keep observing us from far away.
Additionally, former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, UFO advocate, and media personality Luis Elizondo explained his reasoning behind claiming that UFO mysteries have made him “somber.” His speculative ideas are straight out of middle 20th-century science fiction, particularly the so-called “zoo hypothesis” that appeared in a number of stories at that time, imagining that Earth was essentially a zoo run by space aliens. (Click here to read full article)
“What if it turns out that there’s another species that is even higher on that ladder than we are? Do we need the social institutions that we have today, do we need government and religious organizations that we have today, if it turns out that there is something else or someone else that is technologically more advanced and, perhaps from an evolutionary perspective, more advanced? Have we been wasting our time all this time? Or are we doing exactly as we are supposed to be doing?
if it turns out that mankind is in fact just another animal in the zoo? If we saw ourselves as the zookeeper before, maybe we’re just another exhibit inside the zoo? What would that mean to us?
So, when I say ‘somber’ or ‘sobering’, I mean there’s going to come a point in this conversation when we’re going to have to do a lot of reconciling with ourselves, whatever that means, from whatever philosophical background you have. This is going to impact every single one of us. And I think that’s important. Do we find ourselves in a situation that history may have to be rewritten? So that’s what I meant.”
A similar hypothesis can also be seen in the case of Matilda O’Donnell McElroy, Senior Master Sergeant Women’s Army Air Force Medical Corp. She claimed to have interviewed an alien named “Airl,” who supposedly survived the 1947 Roswell crash. The entity told her where they had come from and why they came to the Earth.
In the letter, MacElroy wrote: “Mankind needs to know the answers to questions which are contained in these documents: Who are we? Where did we come from? What is our purpose on Earth? If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe why have they not contacted us? It is vital that people understand the devastating consequences to our physical and spiritual survival if we fail to take effective action to undo the long-standing and pervasive effects of alien intervention on Earth.”
In her footnotes, Matilda wrote:
“Earth is a small planet of a rim star of a galaxy. This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy. These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for it’s current use as a prison – but not much else.
Before 30,000 BCE — Earth started being used as a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged untouchable, meaning criminal or non-conformists. IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps, and transported to Earth from various parts of the “Old Empire”. Underground amnesia stations were set up on Mars and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, in the Pyrenees Mountains of Portugal, and in steppes of Mongolia.”
The zoo hypothesis is one of many theories involving alien life, but it is definitely an interesting hypothesis to consider. “It seems likely that extraterrestrials are imposing a ‘galactic quarantine’ because they realize it would be culturally disruptive for us to learn about them,” stated researcher Jean-Pierre Rospars from the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), who attended the METI workshop.
