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Meet the (alleged) aliens of Proxima b

Almost 60 years ago, an account emerged of aliens from a planet around Proxima Centauri. It's been largely forgotten, but now that we know the planet is real, does the wild story deserve another look?

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
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Eric Mack
4 min read
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A visitor from Proxima b?

Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

This week, humans announced the discovery of Proxima b, an exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri just four light-years away, and began immediately speculating about what life it might host and how to visit. The announcement comes decades after the publication of "evidence" that "Cenos" aliens from a planet in the Proxima Centauri system had already made the trip between our planets.

According to this evidence, the aliens are about 8 to 8.5 feet tall, humanoid in shape and five times stronger than humans. They eat tasteless pills and have no need for sleep. They visited a number of ancient civilizations on Earth and were most recently spotted in Taiwan in December 2012.

Super UFO enthusiast Scott Waring posted the Taiwan sighting, which also seems easily explained as some odd light artifacts in a photograph, but you can judge for yourself by watching the local news report below.

I know what you're thinking. "Surely that can't be the only evidence of aliens from Proxima b, right?"

Of course not; this is the internet, where evidence multiplies like digital rabbits. But the origin story of human interaction with the alleged aliens from around Proxima Centauri is actually pretty interesting and not very well known across the wide, wide world of online alien visitation theories.

For seven years beginning in 1957, a team of psychologists in California had lengthy conversations with a charming and friendly alien from somewhere in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri who came to be known simply as "Hands."

The name comes from the fact that the creature was "revealed in time to be a lovable and childlike, but huge, being with a dome-shaped body and eight hands, with an intelligence that was perhaps somewhere between that of a human and a dog," according to an account in "ESP and Hypnosis" by Susy Smith.

Proxima b, the closest Earth-like exoplanet, is real (pictures)

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Of course, Hands was not physically present in the room with researchers Lee Gladden and Peggy Williams all those years ago, but instead appeared to emerge through interactions with a young woman under hypnosis.

In 1976, Gladden and Williams published a book about their research involving hypnosis and their many conversations with Hands (the identity of the woman who was under hypnosis still remains protected). Titled "Hands: The True Account. A Hypnotic Subject Reports on Outer Space," it's long been out of print.

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Though Gladden and Williams make no assertions about whether Hands and the Cenos aliens are real or products of the active imagination and subconscious of an individual young woman, a small corner of the Internet takes the words of Hands channeled through that young woman quite seriously.

Over their many sessions, Hands revealed that it knew of and was in contact with a handful of other intelligent species, including humans, dolphins and the Cenos aliens from a planet around Proxima Centauri.

Physicist Dr. Barry Warmkessel, who for decades has been developing some pretty out-there alternate theories of how planets and sentient life forms evolve, told me that the alien figure spotted in Taiwan is "possibly a Cenos alien."

Warmkessel has integrated the account of Cenos aliens from a Proxima planet into his broader theory of the universe called Astro-Metrics, which is really detailed and involved and frankly, I didn't really understand it. It's the stuff of science fiction and fantasy, with space-faring telepathic spiritual beings and such, but Warmkessel appears to be dead serious.

As crazy as it sounds, science scored a tiny point for Warmkessel and for the notion that a telepathic alien from somewhere near Alpha Centauri may have actually participated in those hypnosis sessions decades ago. That is, we now know there is a potentially habitable planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, which, according to the Hands accounts, is where the Cenos aliens hail from.

Watch this: Proxima b could be the planet Earthlings escape to

So, on the off chance that Warmkessel is right to take Hands seriously, here's what else to know about the Cenos aliens, presumably of newly confirmed planet Proxima b.

They wear grey suits and helmets, or at least they did back in the 1950s (it's possible style has evolved). There are males and females, which can give birth to up to 20 offspring. They suffer from no diseases and can live to be 120 years old.

The Cenos spaceship looks like a spinning tape recorder, and they've used their craft to visit Earth during World War II, and to help construct the Sphinx, Mayan pyramids and other artifacts.

According to Warmkessel's summary of the Hands account, "Their knowledge is stored in 'personal memory banks' available to all, and they function as one 'supergroup...' Therefore, decisions are made by a group conciseness [sic], thus no disagreements...The Cenos don't joke."

That's really just the beginning of what Hands and Warmkessel could tell you about the civilization that might be waiting for us on Proxima b. Check out more here.

So, next time you see an eight-foot tall humorless humanoid getting absolutely no pleasure out of munching his lunch pill, please ask how to get to Proxima b. Just tell them Stephen Hawking wants to know. They'll probably tell you the answer is right there for anyone to access on their telepathic internet.

We've really got to get some ESP hackers involved in getting us access to that if we ever want to get off this planet.

Watch this: What is the most exciting news on extraterrestrials? (CraveCast Extra)