We thought we had included every bizarre story you could imagine in Lying Wonders, Strangest Things. And there certainly are many unusual accounts.

Perhaps an understatement.

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine, it has long been said.

And yet Philip Schneider, from Maryland,  an alleged geologist and engineer, somehow slipped by us. And, somehow, is too strange.

Schneider’s claim?

That he participated in the construction of huge (three-cubic-mile) secret caves far below the surface in areas like northern New Mexico and Nevada, caverns with a high-speed magnetic rail line between—and that in some of the facilities, spread around the country and in fact the world (yes, hold on tight now) are creatures from several other planets. He claimed he was once injured by the energy activated around one of them (and has missing fingers on his left hand to prove it).

It is a tale not unlike many we’ve heard in these days of what one might call the unveiling—a thinning veil between the seen and unseen, natural and supernatural, earthly and cosmic. Schneider’s story tugs hard at that veil.

Fake stuff?

Simple lunacy?

Very possibly. Even probably.

But we’ll give it air as a matter of reportage in deference to the bizarre current climate. (Haven’t you noted the strangeness that seems to grow by the hour?)

Schneider died in 1996, a couple years after coming forth publicly with the startling claims. He called the facilities he supposedly helped build DUMBs (for “deep underground military bases”), particularly an infamous site near Dulce, New Mexico, that in fact has long been the focus of UFO reports (the government now calls them “UAPs” and is holding congressional hearings).

It is here that Schneider claimed something otherworldly (or might we say underworldly) occurred.

According to his lectures—given at various conferences in the mid-1990s and often delivered in a tone eerily devoid, on the surface, of exaggeration—Schneider was part of a team drilling into a cavern when they broke through into what he described as “a base already in existence.” What followed, he said, was a deadly firefight with alien beings.

That was where he was wounded, claimed Schneider, who said he was one of only three survivors.

Make of that what you will. We think accounts of aliens are most likely, at least in most cases, deceptive spirits, when they bear credibility. But we don’t pretend to know what’s occurring in many current realms.

We’ll report; you discern.

He also claimed his health was deteriorating rapidly due to exposure to radiation during this encounter. In his talks, he would lift his shirt to show torso scars. The injuries, he said, were the price of knowing too much—and daring to speak.

According to Schneider, the purpose of the underground bases was not solely military defense. He alleged they were involved in sinister bioengineering programs—some involving human-alien cooperation, or perhaps, collusion. These facilities, he said, were part of a secret shadow government answerable to no one.

And here, the story grows even more troubling.

Schneider claimed that the government had signed treaties with alien races dating back to the Eisenhower administration. In exchange for technology, these non-human entities were allegedly allowed to experiment on humans—abductions, implants, genetic tinkering.

What?

It was a Faustian bargain, he believed, that opened a portal not just to advanced tech, but to evil. And in this, there is something terrifyingly theological. Something reminiscent of the warnings from Scripture and mystics: that in pursuit of power or knowledge, man often allies himself with forces he cannot control.

At any rate, in 1996, Schneider was found dead in his apartment. The official ruling was suicide—by self-strangulation with surgical tubing.

But many, including family and friends, have challenged this conclusion. They point out he had previously survived an assassination attempt. That his lectures had become increasingly urgent. That he warned he might be “suicided.”

As for nefarious forces from below, that’s part and parcel, of course, to our notions of spirits. Scripture has always recognized the pattern. Revelation speaks of beasts rising from the earth. Catholic mystics have warned of subterranean nemeses. The Blessed Virgin herself, in various apparitions, has spoken of secret machinations and spiritual darkness spreading across the globe.

Schneider’s claims—whether fabricated, exaggerated, true, or somewhere in between—point toward the ancient concept of the chthonic, the underworld. A place beneath the surface where ancient evils dwell. A place of secrecy and spiritual danger. His tale is thus a metaphor for what we do in fact see on the surface (with things like poor Charlie Kirk). The battle between good and evil is breaking forth in a visible, daunting way.

Oh, strange world: come into obedience to God.

Oh, Holy Spirit: let us know always what is real and unreal and protect us from the actual evil that rises in our midst.

[resources: Lying Wonders, Strangest Things]