The Cryptoterrestrials

A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us

By: Mac Tonnies

Narrated by: Doug Greene

Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

What if the “aliens” are not from other planets?

“If evidence for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis has failed to surface—despite decades of hard work and diligent investigations—then maybe we should consider the notion that we are looking for the answers in all the wrong places. Instead of looking up, maybe we should be looking around us. And, perhaps, even below us, too.” - From the Foreword by Nick Redfern

"This book is an honest pursuit of ideas that might lead to some greater understanding of the paranormal and the existence of an apparent non-human intelligence…Mac Tonnies cuts through much of the self-satisfied, bloated fundamentalist fat of the last 50 years with the deft touch of a surgeon and the encyclopedic knowledge of a veteran." - From the Afterword by Greg Bishop

©2010 Anomalist Books (P)2021 Beacon Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“This book is an honest pursuit of ideas that might lead to some greater understanding of the paranormal and the existence of an apparent non-human intelligence…Mac Tonnies cuts through much of the self-satis?ed, bloated fundamentalist fat of the last 50 years with the deft touch of a surgeon and the encyclopedic knowledge of a veteran.” – From the Afterword by Greg Bishop

"The Cryptoterrestrials is the most refreshing speculation on the paranormal I've seen in ages. The ideas in this book will be harvested by science-action writers and TV shows like Fringe for decades. Even skeptics will have a great time reading this well written book of wild conjecture. Mac Tonnies' final Fortean landmark is the Book of the Damned for the 21st century. Fans of the paranormal: be there or be square." (John Shirley, author of Bleak History)

More cryptic than crypto

This was largely incomprehensible to me. The problem is that the author couldn't hold a sustained discussion on any one topic for more than a few minutes (a few paragraphs if you're reading it). The chapter called "Water World," for example, starts off with the proposal that ETs may actually be living in lakes and oceans, but then after one minute it devolves into a rambling discussion on a whole range of other topics--communication, psychology, perception--many of which have already been covered. And everything is presented in a very tentative way. Phrases such as "It may be that," "Perhaps what's happening is that," and "Then again, it might be that" are so consistently woven into virtually every paragraph that it's hard to know what exactly the author actually thinks it IS. The idea that aliens are actually cryptoids living in the earth is an interesting one, but this book didn't add anything to my understanding of the topic.