Lloyd Pye and his investigation of the Starchild skull attempt to answers our deepest questions, such as where we come from, who are we... and where are we going? George Noory's skillful handling of the delicate subject of aliens on Gaiam's Beyond Belief with George Noory gives the subject the dignity it deserves. Not only does the hypothesis that the Starchild skull is that of an alien get respect, Pye's presentation is laced with cliffhanger-like drama -- Pye says the results of DNA testing and genome mapping may be available as soon as the end of this year.
Plus, the back story of the skull, how it was found, and why it ended up in Pye's hands is loaded with human interest. Check out this excerpt from Pye's book, The Starchild Skull: Genetic Enigma Or Human-Alien Hybrid?
Nine-hundred years ago, two beings died in an obscure mine tunnel in northwest Mexico. One buried the other, then she lay down beside the freshly turned earth and committed suicide. In 1930 a teenage girl found their skeletons, one lying supine on the mine tunnel floor, the other only visible as a "mis-shapen" hand emerging from the grave to wrap around the exposed skeleton's upper arm bone.
The skull took a circuitous route to end up with Pye, who at first just thought of it as "weird." But soon he became convinced it was distinctly not human. Pye's already had extensive testing on the skull that confirms its extraterrestrial origins. Here are a few of his findings:
- The skull is much lighter than a human skull but much more durable.
- The wear on the teeth suggests it is a skull of someone much older than a child, although similarly small in stature.
- Fibers and residue in the matrix of the bone remain unexplainable.
Although the tests continue to corroborate the skull's uniqueness, Pye explains in the show why there has been so much resistance from the mainstream. He compares the slow acceptance of alien life as comparable to the way people initially resisted the idea that the Earth was not a center of the universe. Many scientists, such as Galileo, were ridiculed for their vision of the universe and the earth's place in it. In the same vein, Pye suggests, recognition of aliens would "move humans away from the biological center of the universe." Pye says he always had the vague sense that humans are the black sheep of the planet, never truly fitting the environment.
Getting the funding to test DNA and map the skull's genome has been harder to accomplish than Pye first thought, although he does think that adequate funds will be forthcoming soon. But even with his limited budget, Pye has managed to get some of the biggest science facilities--and scientists--to examine the skull. Most recently, the Stanford Research Institute, which has the world's most powerful scanner at its disposal, was able to confirm the presence of red fibers in the skull, a distinctly un-humanlike attribute.
Pye's scholarly demeanor imbues the whole idea of alien life as a legitimate possibility. Coneheads, Greys, telepathy, intervention theory and terraforming all come up in the interview in a way that invites consideration rather than ridicule.
It takes some cojones to take a stand on the existence of aliens. "Most mainstream scientists don't have what it takes," Pye says. He encourages his audience not to be cowed. Getting the full genome sequenced, Pye suspects, will offer irrefutable proof that we are part of a larger galactic community that extends back billions of years. Do you, dear viewer, have the cojones to at least listen to him explain why?
Elizabeth Marglin is a freelance writer for GaiamTV.com. She writes on everything from acupuncture to temper tantrums. Marglin is the co-author of The Mother's Wisdom Deck and co-writes the blog Mothering with Soul.