Hello everyone!
I wanted to share some of my recent reflections on the "Hollow Earth" subject.
I assume some of you are familiar with the book "The Smoky God" (If not, there's a copy that's sold alongside Admiral Byrd's diary on Kindle for cheap 😉). In the book's introduction there is a quote, attributed to a Dr. Orville Livingston Leech, which recently caught my attention:
"The possibilities of a land inside the Earth were first brought to my attention when I picked up a geode on the shores of the Great Lakes. The geode is a spherical and apparently solid stone, but when broken is found to be hollow and coated with crystals. The Earth is only a larger form of a geode, and the law that created the geode in its hollow form undoubtedly fashioned the Earth in the same way."
After reading this I spent some time looking at geodes, and I made some connections to my reality that would support his idea. For instance, our planet is among the few known to have life visibly thriving on its surface; it is nowhere else in our solar system and a rarity in the galaxy. If planets are like geodes, it would make sense that most planets have a thriving internal life, while only a few are positioned such that they can support life externally. This would also support stories of the beings of inner Earth being much larger than those on the surface, since the greatest concentration of nutrients would be within the planet (think of the geode–crystals indicate nutrient density).
What a story this is! It helps me make more sense of the existential isolation humans are prone to feel on this planet. Us being surface dwellers makes us easy prey to anyone who would like to convince us we're alone–we need only look to our neighbors for proof!
Last note on the geode concept: What got me to post was a nice discovery I made today concerning the word's etymology. According to several sources, "geode" is derived from the Ancient Greek word γεώδης (geôdês), meaning "earth-like" or "earthy".
Cheers!
by East-Ad-6273