(This is an extract from an article in "Strange Phenomena Scotland")

The Thule Society was founded in the late 18th century and was a purely German offshoot of the Vril Society - another occult based secret society based in Vienna, though also popular within the Nazi regime. Founded by one Baron Rudolph von Sebettendorff and incorporated Islamic / Dervish esoteric lore upon which the legends of Atlantis are commonly believed to have originated from.

The name Thule, refers to the capital of the legendary polar country Hyperborea. Also referred to as "Ultima Thule", it was supposedly the gateway to another world. Thule was therefore recognised as a place where humans could, by whatever means, "leave the earth", it also reputedly stood at the portal of the "Hollow Earth". Interestingly , the major players in the 20th century, the USA and the Russian Federation have ELF (Extra Low Frequency) transmitters sited in this area. These transmitters are supposed to communicate with submerged submarines, but worryingly, they broadcast these messages at brainwave frequencies, around 18 to 20 Hz.

Traditionally, the Hyperboreans were in contact with extraterrestrials or "alien cultures", in some versions of this, there was interbreeding. In common with the legendary inhabitants of Atlantis, they engaged in war with neighbouring civilisations. This escalated into the use of atomic weapons, resulting in a pyrrhic victory for the Hyperboreans, who, as well as defeating their enemies, virtually destroyed themselves in the process. In common with radiation damage in recent times, the surviving Hyperboreans were soon faced with the prospect of mutated and otherwise damaged offspring. Showing remarkable resolve, those who had not sustained any apparent genetic damage, banded together and effectively removed themselves from the gene pool, a variety of self imposed quarantine. Any "Damaged" offspring from this group, were neutered. This early example of eugenics was practiced until they were sure that any defective genes had been bred out. The other mutated group eventually died out, whether they were assisted" in this, is open to debate. This may seem like, and indeed is, a harsh, clinical line to adopt, but being faced with the extinction of their entire race, they had little other option.

The descendents of this seminal "mother race" were the Celts, who, like the ripples on a pond, spread out, colonising various northern areas of the planet. Scots, Irish, Basques, Spanish, Scandinavians, Icelanders and the Portuguese, all these people are of Celtic origin. These disparate nationalities have one common genetic trait, a large percentage of RH negative blood types, which according to the beliefs of the Thule society was a characteristic of the Hyperboreans and their extraterrestrial associates. In recent times the majority of alien abductees are reportedly from RH negative blood groups. Is this a possible indication that UFO cultures are tracking their cross-bred progeny? Other races and peoples who possess a positive blood is thought to be contaminated by contact with the ape evolved strand of human DNA."

As far fetched as this may seem, in the 19th and early 20th centuries these beliefs were taken very seriously - Particularly in Germany, home of the Thule society.

"The director of "the Hollow Earth Research Society" claims that "After the (second world) war, the allies discovered that more than 2,000 scientists from Germany and Italy, along with almost a million people vanished to a land beyond the pole". According to another popular myth, Admiral Richard Byrd is reported to have discovered an anomalous, almost sub-tropical land when he over flew the South Pole in 1947. The actual purpose of this flight was not to conduct - as was reported - a geographical survey, but to search for the people of this exodus and ultimately destroy them. The log of this flight flight reports that "Flugelrads - wingwheels, - were sent to the surface to investigate the first nuclear explosions".

Following the flight, Byrd led an expedition consisting of 100,000 armed troops, an aircraft carrier and a battleship to the south pole. If he achieved anything, then it was not publicised, by all accounts he came back a chastened man."