Topic: Amazing Stories

Author and filmmaker Craig Campobasso joins the program to discuss his book, The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac. The guide catalogs 82 extraterrestrial species, including Greys, Reptilians, and Nordics, detailing their technology and cosmic agendas. Campobasso's background as an Emmy-nominated casting director for films like Dune and Total Recall is highlighted as part of his professional journey.

Brad Steiger reminisces about meeting Ray Palmer, the influential editor of Amazing Stories and founder of Fate magazine. They discussed the "Shaver Mystery," involving Richard Shaver's claims of a subterranean slave race called the Dero. Steiger links these accounts to ancient Hindu and Roman mythologies regarding civilizations living within the Earth's crust.

Karl Tanzler, a German eccentric in Key West, became infamous for his obsessive attempt to reanimate the corpse of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos after she died of tuberculosis. Tanzler kept her body in a specially constructed mausoleum and later his home, using various devices to maintain its integrity. He eventually published his account in Raymond Palmer's magazines, claiming he was visited by the ghost of an ancestral alchemist.

The hosts discuss the influence of Richard Shaver, who wrote about subterranean civilizations in the 1940s before the modern UFO era began. Shaver's accounts in Amazing Stories magazine predicted themes of abduction, underground bases, and disc-shaped craft. The segment notes how Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting of "skipping saucers" solidified the saucer shape in the public consciousness, which entities then seemingly adopted.

The origin of the "Shaver Mystery" is detailed, beginning with Richard Shaver's claim that he heard voices while using a high-voltage welding gun. These voices allegedly belonged to subterranean beings who mocked surface dwellers and discussed their genetic experiments. Editor Ray Palmer eventually published and embellished Shaver's letters, turning them into a sensation within the science fiction community.

The conversation shifts to the "Shaver Mystery" published by Ray Palmer in pulp magazines like Amazing Stories. Richard Shaver claimed to receive signals from an underground civilization of "Deros" or detrimental robots. Fred Chrisman was a frequent letter writer to these publications, claiming his own encounters with these entities in Burma.