Art Bell captured the raw essence of the midnight hour.

During his lengthy run on Coast to Coast AM, he interviewed guests and bravely took unscreened calls, leading his audience on bizarre and often humorous adventures through the fringe and unknown. Even if you, like me, didn’t always believe what you heard, you still had fun with it.

That was the unique talent of Bell: taking something unbelievable and turning it into “absolute entertainment,” minus the ridicule that most believers would face in more traditional settings.

My favorite episode? October 4, 2002 – Dallas Thompson, which introduced me to the Hollow Earth Theory…

October 4, 2002

Another night, another episode of Coast to Coast AM.

This, though, was the Kingdom of Nye. You never knew who you were going to run into.

So it was on October 4, 2002, when Art Bell welcomed Dallas Thompson onto the program. Thompson, 31, was a character: a legally blind personal trainer who had studied under a Kahuna in Hawaii.

Sound odd? You don’t know the half of it.

“Next May, Hollow Earth researcher, Dallas Thompson is planning on journeying to the center of the earth in a mini-helicopter… Thompson claims that the holes into the hollow Earth really exist, and that monks regularly travel through the holes in order to visit a Tibetan village called “Sham-bala.” – Coast to Coast AM Guest: Dallas Thompson

On May 24, 2003 — his birthday — a film crew would follow Thompson to the North Pole.

There, he would locate a dimensional portal, originally reported by Admiral Richard E. Byrd, and descend into the center of the Earth using a modified SoloTrek personal helicopter. Here’s a short clip of a SoloTrek in action:

“February 19, 1947. Admiral Byrd traversed the hole. He no longer had to use his fuel in the plane. He was navigated, guided to the crystal cities….” – Dallas Thompson

Thompson would traverse this very portal and voyage into the “crystal cities of Shambhala,” where he would seek shelter from the coming pole shift.

A Prophetic Vision

This pole shift was the genesis of Thompson’s mission.

Years before his appearance on Coast to Coast AM, Thompson nearly died when his car hydroplaned off a cliff — backwards — at 70 miles per hour. The wreck sheared the top half of his car off, and responders to the scene thought he was dead.

But miraculously, Thompson survived.

“There’s no way a human could survive that…” – Art Bell

Transported to a “safe zone,” Thompson then had an incredible Near-Death Experience, or NDE. He had visions of the past. He saw the coming pole shift, and a terrible transition.

At least two billion people were going to die.

“People are feeling it…they know something is going on, but they can’t put their finger on it…” – Dallas Thompson

But he also saw the openings at the poles, a hint from the tribes of old that a safe haven existed deep beneath the surface of the Earth. In Thompson’s words, he “remembered what was forgotten.”

From that moment, he made it his mission to ensure that at least some tribes on the surface would survive the coming pole shift and the increasing threat of Wormwood, otherwise known as Planet X.

They could find shelter within the Hollow Earth, and he could guide them there.

Dallas Thompson’s Hollow Earth

“Once you get to the mantle, there is an open, huge cavern…” – Dallas Thompson

Dallas Thompson’s vision of the Hollow Earth was a complex tapestry of portals and caverns, reptilians and “tribes of old.” At the very center, a “bright light.”

You could think of Earth as a hive, he said. Aliens from other worlds — other hives — would travel from planet to planet, from hive to hive, and occasionally visit Earth.

The civilization below was, of course, an amalgamation of various tribes, peoples, and supernatural creatures. It was also home to gods like the Annunaki and the Nephilim, as well as the fated antediluvian civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria. There, they existed beyond the third dimension, hidden and protected from those of us on the surface.

This, you see, was a land of glowing moss, of negative and positive caverns. A world unlike anything we on the surface have ever known.

A One-Way Road?

“You can’t call AAA when you’re down there…you might not be coming back, Dallas…” – Art Bell

Of course, Thompson had his detractors. Several callers phoned in to share their opinions, calling Thompson “crazy as a loon” or “manic and delusional.” Others were more concerned for his safety.

One caller in particular wondered about the Well to Hell, the mysterious recording of terrible screams allegedly picked up by Russian geologists drilling a borehole in Siberia.

“Aren’t you a little worried about that, Dallas?” – Caller

Yes, replied Thompson, there were negative spaces, negative caverns, but he’d just avoid those. One caller, Darlene from North Carolina, even volunteered to do a “play-by-play” of the adventure, narrating Thompson’s trip into the Hollow Earth.

But no worries: he’d already have a camera mounted on his helmet, and the civilization within would no doubt put on a spectacular display for the audience watching at home.

A Fated Journey

“They know I’m coming…” – Dallas Thompson

Within the Earth, according to Thompson, “time becomes now.”

The people there exist in a different passage of time, living for thousands of years, protected from the harmful cosmic rays and other pollutants that exist on the surface.

He also claimed that an interdimensional security system existed around the poles, and the intelligent civilization within knew he was coming.

Once he successfully lowered himself into the hole, he would then be navigated, like Admiral Byrd, in an electromagnetic bubble, which would protect him the rest of the way down.

This, he simply knew.

“I know because I know because I know…” – Dallas Thompson

But Dallas Thompson wasn’t the first to have visions of an inner world. In fact, he was following a legend that dated back to the dawn of mankind.

So, Whatever Happened To Dallas Thompson?

“The things that are hidden are going to be seen…” – Dallas Thompson

If nothing else, Dallas Thompson was enthusiastic.

Of course, his voyage never panned out. On December 29, 2002, he posted his final message to the Cosmic Manuscript Yahoo Group. Perhaps that’s the fate of many Coast to Coast AM guests. The most interesting ones, anyway.

Some believe the Powers That Be prevented him from completing his voyage to the North Pole, that there truly was something up there that they didn’t want him to find. Most think it was just a story, best left alone in that hazy midnight over a decade ago.

Even so, the story goes on. Today, groups are mounting alleged expeditions into the Hollow Earth, through the very same dimensional portal said to exist at the North Pole.

As far as I know, no one has made it, much less found the gaping chasm that will lead them to paradise. But as Thompson said, we each have a script we follow, some more peculiar than others.

If you’re interested, there are still several communities on the Internet, including a Yahoo Group that Dallas Thompson himself once contributed to, where you can discuss and plot the next great adventure into the Hollow Earth.