Recently Gene Steinberg, host of the Paracast and myself, had guest Robert Spearing of MUFON on who mentioned a hypothesis that the greys could be a human-plant or human-fungus hybrid. He wondered if this was the result of biotechnology experiments, presumably by government or Big Pharma. But could it possibly be the result of natural symbiosis?
I’ve read that most mass of the human body is comprised not of human cells but of micro-organisms. Fungi in particular have amazing capabilities. They appear to be a form of distributed intelligence – think flock of birds in flight – that can act individually or as a unit, as circumstances require. With nothing resembling a brain, they exhibit learning, memory, decision-making, prediction, sensory awareness, and complex networked communication. Some researchers now speak of the forest’s “Wood Wide Web.” Thread-like filaments called hyphae span large areas underground to exchange nutrients, water, enzymes, and pheromones among plants in the area. Chemical and electrical signals coordinate responses to environmental changes.
With the possible exception of some termite colonies, the largest organism on Earth is thought to be the Humongous Fungus that spans over 2,400 acres – the size of 165 football fields – in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. (“Unfortunate Forest”? What happened to earn it that name?) Most of the fungus is underground, with only small clusters of mushrooms on the surface. It’s estimated to be 2,500 to 8,000 years old. Plants and even single cells demonstrate memory, some of which can be passed down to descendants. Even if their collective intelligence works very slowly, that’s a LOT of historical time!
Fungal spores are hardy under deep space conditions and may have been the first life forms to travel between planets. Giant fungi colonized Earth long before plants and animals, or even algae. Mushroom spores can affect the weather, particularly rainfall. (So can powder from the harvest on large tea plantations!) Fungi and bacteria are now being mixed with desert sand in an effort to produce soil for crops; this concept is still unproven.
Many readers will know of the slime mold, which lives as single cells where there is water, but when a pond dries up, the cells coalesce into a slug-like creature that crawls off in search of another pond. They’re intelligent enough that they surpass both humans and computers in finding the most efficient routes through a maze, so they are now used by some city planners!
Many scientists, fishers *and* fish in the Carolinas have been poisoned by dinoflagellates in their waterways. Depending on the environment, these microorgainsms can take 17 different forms, which appear on the surface to be different species. Most forms are harmless, but a few contain a deadly toxin that can cause permanent brain damage just from breathing the air near it. Transition to the toxic form has been triggered by warmer water and pollution from pig farms that spilled over during hurricanes. Of course, publicizing that toxin could mean an end to the states’ tourism and fish economy! The pig farmers already have to observe sanitary precautions almost as extreme as high-level research labs. One coronavirus is more deadly to pigs than Ebola is to humans!
Some mushrooms glow in the dark with a green light. The ones with psychoactive properties may have quickened the brains of our apelike ancestors. One of their psychedelic substances can produce encounters with entities described as “self-transforming machine elves,” who seem eager to communicate. Could those manifest as gray aliens when they appear to humans in other contexts?
It’s hard to imagine how such frail spindly creatures, with their huge heads and lidless wrap-around eyes, could have evolved naturally. That head would never fit through the tiny pelvis even as a newborn, so infants would need to develop outside of their apparently genderless body – but no pouch is evident. Some contactees seem to have experienced the removal of pregnancies. This could be symbolic of a repressed memory from childbirth, where the helpless newborn is poked and prodded by terrifying creatures wearing masks and goggles. To an infant, sexual abuse and a medical procedure could feel equally traumatic.
Some say that the grays resemble starving children, of which our planet has plenty (especially since DOGE has eliminated government aid programs). Contactees often develop an interest in saving the planet, but saving the children? Not so much.
Recently I’ve noticed a spate of AI-generated tales on YouTube about people who belatedly realized that their parent, roommate, coworker, or some lost child seemed nonhuman. They’re usually described as having cold, gray, clammy skin. They’re polite and helpful but taciturn. They avoid sunlight, age slowly, and eventually go away. How did AI learn to write these stories?
You may have seen the videos about “zombie” ants and caterpillars, whose brains have been replaced by a fungus that controls their movements to favor its own replication. Fungal possession of a human being would open up even more possibilities. The human might not realize that it was hosting another entity. Biologists say that the greater mass of our body is already made up of nonhuman microorganisms and parasites. They are known to affect our mood and general personality, but what if the control were more specific? Already our brains don’t always operate as a unit, as anyone is aware who has tried to diet or quit smoking (or any other addiction), or has had split-brain surgery for seizures. We could be hosting many different microscopic entities, some having conflicting agendas. Our ancestors called them spirits or demons. Most people notice their presence only during hypnogogic states or out-of-body experiences. But occasionally someone does something totally out of character, and later isn’t able to explain what happened.
Our frontal lobes are always ready to concoct a plausible explanation for our own behaviour, but occasionally some action seems just too strange. I’m thinking of the executive who was recently flying first-class when he suddenly began strangling the passenger next to him, and cursing at the flight attendant who tried to intervene! Passengers and crew had to restrain him with duct tape. He’d only had one drink on the plane, but no one knows what he consumed before the flight, or in the washroom. Some people just can’t hold their liquor or tolerate the Sacred Herb revered by so many.
Come to find out, the victim was a religious fanatic promoting his latest book, so I feel a bit of sympathy for the strangler, who has just lost his job and is now unemployable. Maybe that duct tape could have been better used over the mouth of the cult leader trying to promote his books, who is now convinced that his attacker was possessed by a demon! A saner person could have just asked a flight attendant to move one of them to a different seat. But most of us can recall being seated next to an infuriating individual who would NOT shut up about some obsession that we didn’t share!
It would be interesting to compare the microbiomes of religious people vs. atheists, or MAGA voters vs. progressives. I have seen people change so suddenly, and so extremely, that it did seem like a plummet into the Uncanny Valley! Communion ceremonies often entail members consuming the same substance, referred to as the “host.” But if that is the host, who is the guest?
Knock-knock… Is anybody home?
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