The Shaver Mystery: deros in the caves
In March 1945 'Amazing Stories' printed Richard Shaver's 'I Remember Lemuria!', presented by editor Ray Palmer as fact: degenerate beings called deros living in vast caverns used ancient machines to torment people above.
1945 CE · 41.88, -87.63 · status: claim
The account
Shaver said an ancient race had left the caves, where their descendants, the sadistic 'deros', projected harmful thoughts and voices into human minds and caused accidents. The issue sold out and thousands of letters followed, some claiming personal encounters. 'Shaver Mystery' clubs formed, and the story fed directly into the flying saucer craze of 1947.
The sceptical view
Shaver had spent years in psychiatric hospitals, and his tormenting 'voices' closely match auditory hallucinations. Palmer heavily rewrote the stories. Science fiction fans protested at fiction being sold as fact.
Connections in the atlas
- The 'Well to Hell'
- Bulwer-Lytton's 'The Coming Race' and Vril
- Agartha, the kingdom inside the Earth
- Symmes's hollow-earth circular