Shadow Biosphere’ theory gaining scientific support

Never mind aliens in outer space. Some scientists believe we may be sharing the planet with ‘weird’ lifeforms that are so different from our own they’re invisible to us.

www.rawstory.com...

I have kind of wondered about this before. If there are types of life here so different to what we think life is that we cannot see it. Well there are some strange affects happening in the desert and it has some scientists wondering why...

Across the world’s great deserts, a mysterious sheen has been found on boulders and rock faces. These layers of manganese, arsenic and silica are known as desert varnish and they are found in the Atacama desert in Chile, the Mojave desert in California, and in many other arid places. They can make the desert glitter with surprising colour and, by scraping off pieces of varnish, native people have created intriguing symbols and images on rock walls and surfaces.

The process that causes this to happen is still unknown. Some scientists think it may be caused by chemical change over long periods of time. However the causes of these changes are unknown. Others think they may be caused by unknown types of life.

Professor Carol Cleland, of Colorado University, has a very different suggestion. She believes desert varnish could be the manifestation of an alternative, invisible biological world. Cleland, a philosopher based at the university’s astrobiology centre, calls this ethereal dimension the shadow biosphere. “The idea is straightforward,” she says. “On Earth we may be co-inhabiting with microbial lifeforms that have a completely different biochemistry from the one shared by life as we currently know it.”

Maybe there are strange types of organisms that we have no science for. Maybe the legends of fairies, orbs and the likes are true and we have been looking for things the wrong way. If this turrns out to be the case we will have to change the way we look for life on other planets. Or better still try and understand the life we have on our own planet before we start looking for life elsewhere.

reply to post by purplemer


This makes a lot of sense to me, it would explain a lot of the Shadow People encounters around the world.
As read here;
ATS: Shadow People: What do they do?

If these microbial life forms could manifest themselves as human, animal, or insect forms then we might be on the something. There has been studies done on this topic before though;

From the Washington Post 3 Dec 2010:

Prompted by debate about the possible existence of a shadow biosphere, Wolfe-Simon set out specifically to see whether microbes that lived in California's briny, arsenic-filled Mono Lake naturally used arsenic instead of phosphorus for basic cellular functions, or were able to replace the phosphorus with arsenic.

She took mud from the lake into the lab and began growing bacteria in Petri dishes. She fed them sugars and vitamins but replaced phosphate salt with arsenic until the surviving bacteria could grow without needing the phosphates at all. Her research found that some of the bacteria had arsenic embedded into their DNA, RNA and other basic underpinnings.

"If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected - that breaks the unity of biochemistry - what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?" said Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow and member of the National Astrobiology Institute team at Arizona State University.

And before that: A Shadow Biosphere By Carol Cleland 12/01/06

Philosophers and scientists traditionally focus upon two characteristics that distinguish a living system from a nonliving system. First, the capacity of a system to maintain itself as self-organized unit against both internal and external perturbations. And second, the ability to reproduce and transmit to its descendants adaptive heritable modifications. Molecular biology provides an account of how our familiar Earth life realizes these abstract functional properties in a concrete physical system. Life as we know it on Earth today is based upon a complex cooperative arrangement between proteins and nucleic acids. Proteins supply the bulk of the structural material for building bodies, as well as the catalytic material for powering and maintaining them. Nucleic acids store the hereditary information required for reproduction and for synthesizing the enormous quantity and variety of proteins required by an organism during its life span.

Don't get me wrong, this is very cool information. I've been dwelling on it for sometime now, and I believe that this may have some connections with the Shadow People (even though at the face of it they seem like two separate issue)

I guess only time will tell?

Well it definitely seems plausible. It would also account for some of the reports of ghosts. Though hearing about this, I can't help but think about the Nox from Stargate SG-1.

Originally posted by Guyfriday
This makes a lot of sense to me, it would explain a lot of the Shadow People encounters around the world.

Bit of a leap isnt it?

Going from
- microbes with a different biological chemistry may exist
to
- this proves invisible humans do exist.

reply to post by alfa1


Maybe it is a leap for people that have not seen such things with there own eyes...

Quite an interesting theory. I don't know enough about it to really comment on it but I do know the desert very well and there are strange things out there you'll experience if you spend enough time in it.

reply to post by purplemer


"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Shakespeare

reply to post by Guyfriday


I think the inclusion of shadow people and ethereal type beings is still well out of remit of scientific study. These theories are small steps in the right direction though.. I am not saying there are no such thing as shadow peeps I have seen some very strange things with my own eyes. They are real but science does not seem to be able to explain them.

Well I have seen orbs before and...

although you will find this hilarious, I know I know...but it's the cold hard truth...

The tooth fairy (or faeries) does exist and I ain't trolling at all, I never do unless I say I was sarcastic.

Having first hand experience with strange phenomenas, I can say that I believe there is something more than meets the eye that's living with us, same dimension or not.

I hope we will one day prove theses anomalies scientifically.

reply to post by theMediator


I too have seen orbs on two occasions both time in very close proximity. Maybe about ten metres or so in-front of me and about a metre off the ground. They had a yellow centre and gave off a blue light. They way they moved was lovely. They glided through the air and the way they moved to me suggested they where under some kind of intelligent control. Something I will never forget.

As for fairys that is something I have never seen but there are enough myths and legends from across the world to suggest to me there is some kind of truth to the stories.

That is certainly very thought provoking and interesting!
Star and flag 4 U.

reply to post by purplemer


Ok i have some questions A: this theory comes from a phenomenon that actually can be viewed "desert varnish" so the question i have is why cant we see the results of it else where? Why are they invisible if they can create more complex organisms out of microbial life?

Those beings I call the others. If they want to be seen they can, putting an image and also sounds and other sensual data into our head to represent them. I'm not sure that the image is what they really are, it is something created by the knowledge and beliefs we hold. I believe these beings are some sort of energy, not what we consider matter. But who am I to know this, I have no degrees in this nor am I religious. I believe these spirits exist but do not believe they were ever human except to interact with humans. I think the angels and maybe the Jinns are these beings and even the fairies and elves. Is the person you talked to yesterday even real? Did the car that nearly ran you off the road really exist. Did you really go out with a pretty woman last night and was the waiter that waited on you real? Are you real or just are you just an image created by one of these creatures, capable of being a puppet for them to interact with this reality.

reply to post by digital01anarchy



Maybe we will see results for it elsewhere it is possible we are looking in the wrong way. I do not think they are invisible just undetected so far with modern technology and science. If we found anything like this I think it would open a Pandoras box.

They don't mean shadow based life when they say shadow biosphere though do they?
Shadow Government doesn't mean shadow people run it.

I think this article about arsenic based life found in Yosemite is pertinent to the discussion:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk...

if life can evolve twice on earth, why no another time?

I would caution against extrapolating from the hypothesis that there might be microorganisms which incorporate arsenic into their DNA, to arrive at the much less well supported position that this hypothesis might lend support to belief in complex ethereal or alien beings living among us. The evidence for even the microbial hypothesis is controversial and in question. More research seems necessary. And there is no evidence in the research to suggest that this model could apply to more complex life forms hiding in plain sight (although I suppose it is within the realm of extremely speculative conceivability. Beyond that you get into personal belief, not science found in this research. Which is fine of course, but we must be careful to distinguish between the two.)

I also think the term "shadow biosphere" and references to these postulated organisms as "invisible" gives people the idea that we're dealing with something of an almost magical nature. But all they're really saying is that because it hasn't really occurred to us that life may have evolved to do this long ago, there might be microorganisms living in certain parts of the world that we have yet to discover and confirm because we simply haven't been looking. They aren't suggesting that there are fully fledged animals or faeries creating desert varnish. They're talking about scientifically evaluable microorganisms with different biochemistry, not a whole ecosystem of complex life forms that are invisible to us. They're postulating a scientific blind spot, and that's important. But it doesn't mean what some seem to have interpreted it to.

Now, that doesn't mean such entities don't exist, or can't exist. It doesn't mean we know everything or that I'm closed minded to the possibility of life forms, processes, and dynamics that are so invisible to us as to only be glimpsed by a few people, if any. That idea intrigues me, as I'm sure it does most people, and I'd love to find evidence of it for which no other possible explanations exist. I'm just saying I don't think we should take what is an extremely narrow, very specific hypothesis and apply it to much more fanciful concepts and try to support them with this research. There is nothing in the research to suggest that that's warranted in my opinion.

Beliefs, on the other hand, are everyone's prerogative. I have my own beliefs. But I couldn't argue that there was much scientific basis for them, let alone any in this particular research.


Peace.

Originally posted by MaxSteiner
They don't mean shadow based life when they say shadow biosphere though do they?
Shadow Government doesn't mean shadow people run it.

I think this article about arsenic based life found in Yosemite is pertinent to the discussion:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk...

if life can evolve twice on earth, why no another time?

If a life form can evolve along with the life forms we do know about, but the two life forms are completely different from one another, then it truly is one life form shadowing the other. I've stated before that I believe that the Shadow People might be able to cloak themselves as a shadow like form as a possible survival trait. If this is the case them my original thought on this might not be wrong.

Originally posted by AceWombat04
I would caution against extrapolating from the hypothesis that there might be microorganisms which incorporate arsenic into their DNA, to arrive at the much less well supported position that this hypothesis might lend support to belief in complex ethereal or alien beings living among us. The evidence for even the microbial hypothesis is controversial and in question. More research seems necessary. And there is no evidence in the research to suggest that this model could apply to more complex life forms hiding in plain sight (although I suppose it is within the realm of extremely speculative conceivability. Beyond that you get into personal belief, not science found in this research. Which is fine of course, but we must be careful to distinguish between the two.)
Peace.

The simplest life forms to detect, and believe are simple lifeforms. After all we humans sprouted out from simple one celled life forms. The part of this that excites me is that science is still looking into the possibility that we live here on Earth in junction with a completely different life form.

I understand that there hasn't been any connection between this micro-organism and these Shadow People and their culture, but it does open the door to the possibility that real scientific research could be done that may uncover "IF" there is a connection.

I've been looking into this possibility since I first heard about it a few years ago, and there may be a connection (though I have to say the I don't have funding from anyone so all I have to go off of is Carol Cleland research for the most part)

"IF" I have to point this part out.

"IF" there is a connection between Shadow People and these hidden living structure, then the continuing research will show this.

On the other hand "IF" there is no connection between these two events, then I can fully remove this thought from my own research into Shadow People.

reply to post by purplemer


Jumping from desert rock varnish to fairies is a little to much for me.

But im sure many will eat it up.

could be
all the phenomenons... ufo, orbs, (ghosts?) etc
plasma lifeforms were discussed a long time ago - maybe they know a lot more than they say and are giving us just some basic info
plasma can form basic cells (+ our shadow-plasma biosfere goes far beyond the earth atmosphere)
scifi - maybe even earth, sun etc can be a sort of plasma evolved life forms?

edit
I remember many good sf books: about life on a sun, plasma aliens, living clusters etc
its all about getting out of the box
there are many possibilites and it can be really amazing
maybe there are intelligent forms of life that we will never even know of - now matter how advanced both will become - and live beside each other

it can be basic life, animal like and even intelligent one
we just look for 'aliens' with our eyes shut
and they can be here in our backyards
(living on our aura type of energy roflmao - like eating us alive )