Chapter 1: An Expedition into the Unknown

What lies beneath the Earth's surface? Imagine embarking on a voyage through ancient landscapes...

If I were to say that I recently sailed the Mirovia Sea towards Rodinia's southern edge, after navigating the vast plains of Laurentia and Ur and crossing the Poseidon Ocean, you might assume I was channeling the imaginative realms of authors like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien, depicting a magical world from a distant epoch when humans were mere flickers amidst the stars.

Conversely, if I recounted a trek from Kioram through the regions of Egyplosis and Tanje, passing Mylosis and Calnogor, ultimately reaching Hilar in the expansive Atvatabar, you might think I was reminiscing about the journeys of writers such as Bruce Chatwin or Paul Theroux, adventuring through the wilds of Patagonia or exploring the Oceanic Islands in a makeshift vessel.

You would be justified in deeming both of these journeys implausible. For one, I would have needed to exist billions of years ago on a nascent Earth, struggling with an inhospitable atmosphere, and I hardly appear ancient enough for that. Secondly, I would have had to align with the beliefs of one of history’s greatest scientific minds, the Astronomer-Royal Edmond Halley, who proposed a hollow Earth theory.

Indeed, a hollow Earth.

Notably, C.S. Lewis also pondered the concept of a hollow Earth, but merely as a whimsical notion for Prince Rillian, who nearly ventured into the Really Deep Realm, situated six thousand feet below ground, while escaping the Underland's Fall and the mind-bending Silver Chair—all in his fantastical Narnia.

Many cultures possess legends about subterranean realms, from Greek Hades to Nordic Svartalfaheimr, from Hell to Sheol, and from Tibetan Shamballa to Celtic Cruachan. However, it took an 18th-century American to bring this peculiar theory to prominence.

Enter John Cleves Symmes Junior, a man who, at the age of thirty-eight, entered the realm of pseudoscience, a domain many of us are now all too familiar with.

Born amidst a revolutionary uprising, on the very day that Chief Little Turtle outsmarted Colonel Augustin De la Balme, Symmes used his influential uncle, John Cleves Symmes Senior, to rise to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army. While his uncle was a distinguished colonel during the Revolutionary War and a Continental Congress delegate, Symmes Junior is chiefly remembered for asserting that the Earth's crust measured approximately sixteen hundred kilometers thick, with openings to the hollow interior at both the Arctic and Antarctic poles.

While we may chuckle at the absurdity of Symmes’ assertions, it’s crucial to recognize that he formulated these ideas while managing a struggling general store in St. Louis, Missouri, rather than while vying for an esteemed academic position, as Halley did when he proposed that the Aurora Borealis was a byproduct of gases escaping from the Earth's inner layers.

Returning to the present, we find Symmes receiving a mix of ridicule and intrigue following the distribution of his Circular No. 1 in 1818, which he sent at his own expense to various notable figures and institutions, including foreign governments, philosophical societies, and members of the National Legislature.

In this circular, he boldly claimed, "the earth is hollow and habitable within, containing solid concentric spheres, one inside another, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my life in support of this truth and am ready to explore the hollow if the world will support and assist me in this endeavor."

It's important to note that both Symmes and Halley, along with Jean-Antoine ‘Louis Milfort’ Le Clerc, advocated for the Earth being hollow yet spherical, which would logically allow for its interior.

During the time when Symmes was formulating his theories, Le Clerc was exploring caves near the confluence of the Red and Mississippi Rivers, which were said to be the emergence points of the original Creek people from deep within the planet. He spent two decades living with the tribe and became close to their chief, Alexander McGillivray.

The discussion of the Earth’s spherical shape contrasts starkly with the beliefs held by the Flat Earth Society, whose members dismiss photographic evidence and scientific data, claiming that the Earth is a disc with the Arctic Circle at its center and Antarctica forming a towering ice barrier around the edge.

Symmes lacked the advanced technology available today to confirm his theories, and while many responded to his circular with laughter similar to how we react to flat Earth claims, he embarked on a campaign to defend his ideas by distributing more pamphlets and delivering lectures about the Hollow Earth.

However, he did not stop there. Symmes was determined to explore the polar entrances he envisioned, picturing slopes that would allow for a straightforward descent into the Earth, contrary to the volcanic tubes depicted by Jules Gabriel Verne. These entrances became known, albeit somewhat unfavorably, as Symmes Holes.

But these were not dark voids. Unlike the artificial light illuminating the Underland, Symmes believed the Earth's interior would be bathed in sunlight reflected from the surface of the next inner sphere, rendering the land habitable. He even proposed that all planets were hollow, a notion that certainly intrigued Halley during his alchemical pursuits.

His pamphlet, The Light Between the Spheres, reached a wider audience after publication in the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser. This exposure propelled Symmes into the limelight, leading to his lectures on the Hollow Earth Theory, for which he used a wooden model of the Earth with removable ends—now preserved at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Symmes gained traction in his quest for support for an Arctic expedition, even drawing the attention of notable figures like John James Audubon, who famously sketched him in 1820, labeling him "The man with the hole at the Pole."

As is often the case with fundraising efforts, securing the right sponsors and influential backers took time, yet Symmes remained steadfast in his ambition to validate his theory. After nearly a decade of relentless advocacy, writing, and lecturing, he ultimately took a step that left no room for further action.

He passed away.

And with that, the search for his fabled holes ceased, and no one ventured to explore the Earth's sunny core. Symmes never published a comprehensive account of his theories, and while some of his ardent supporters attempted to share his ideas posthumously, he never had the chance to substantiate his claims.

Among those who continued his legacy were James McBride, who published Symmes’ Theory of Concentric Spheres in 1826, and Jeremiah N. Reynolds, author of Remarks on Symmes’ Theory in 1827. A spectral Professor W.F. Lyons released The Hollow Globe in 1868, and Symmes’ own son, Americus, compiled Symmes’s Theory of Concentric Spheres: Demonstrating That the Earth is Hollow, Habitable Within, and Widely Open About the Poles, in 1878.

In the end, after dedicating his life to the Hollow Earth theory, we can at least conclude that Symmes ultimately reached the underworld—albeit not in the manner he might have envisioned.

Chapter 2: The Legacy of Symmes and the Hollow Earth Theory

The video titled "Noel Harrison The Windmills Of Your Mind" explores the connection between imagination and the vast mysteries of our world, much like Symmes’ theories about the Earth's inner realms.