Vintage Hollow Earth
From the mid-1960s to the mid -80s, former fans hungering for more Richard Shaveresque hollow earth stories subscribed to a charmingly titled magazine called the The Hollow Hassle. Publisher Mary Martin explained that the name derived from the hassle involved when trying to explain their theories to non-believers.
Another magazine called Shavertron carried the tradition into the mid-1990s, but hollow earthers are still around, and a new generation can enjoy the heady days of yesteryear with a collection of Hollow Hassle articles published recently by the ever-ingenious Timothy Green Beckley.
The Best of the Hollow Earth Hassle is reviewed over at UFO Digest by writer Sean Casteel (strangely also a contributor to the book):
The original pioneer, Richard Shaver himself, contributes a fascinating chapter in which he argues that UFOs really come from the Hollow Earth and not from outer space. Shaver puts forth the disconcerting notion that the scariest thing about UFOs is how the mainstream simply doesn’t believe in their existence. He argues that that disbelief is pre-intended by the aliens and compares it to the soporific a mosquito injects before it bites. The aliens, according to Shaver, use a device called a “TELAUG,” short for telepathic augmentive device, which permits the aliens to read and direct human thoughts. He blames the TELAUG for the Kennedy and King assassinations, and claims the device also prevents the UFOs from being exposed to human scrutiny and will lead eventually to a total mental enslavement of mankind at the hands of the subterranean fiends.
This of course is suspiciously similar to tales that were spread by Paul Bennewitz starting in the early 1980s. Were the government people who encouraged Bennewitz also subscribers to the Hollow Hassle? Was Bennewitz himself prey to the same subcosncious channel as Richard Shaver? No one can say for sure, but the tradition of UFO-inner Earth connections has a long and strange history, which while bizarre, is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
…but then again, most UFO theories aren’t either. It’s a question of how voiciferously you defend your pet model. There isn’t really any evidence that conclusively points in one direction (to the sky or underground, heaven or hell) but Shaver, Mary Martin, and their friends certainly had some of the most entertaining ideas.
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Oct 28 2008 
October 30th, 2008 at 2:25 am
“Entertaining Ideas” is pretty much where I file the concept in my mental
warehouse…I had the good luck to find
the reprint of a couple of Shaver’s
books a few years ago, and while I enjoy the illustrations, I have yet to make it through the text.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:30 am
But Craig, just think of the thrills you can have just by wholeheartedly believing in evil brings who live under your feet!