Fact Check

Did Researchers Find a Mummified, Three-Fingered Alien in Nazca, Peru?

The purported discovery was backed by individuals with a history of making false, pseudoscientific claims.

Published June 21, 2017

Updated June 23, 2017
 (Gaia)
Image Via Gaia
Claim:
A corpse found in Nazca, Peru, is that of an alien.

On 20 June 2017, the web site Gaia.com published a video purporting to show the excavation and examination of a mummified body in Nazca, Peru:

In the spring of 2017, Gaia filmmakers joined researchers and scientists just outside of Nazca, Peru to investigate an unearthed mummified body. Independent scientists and universities are currently analyzing findings, with initial examinations suggesting the possibility of material that is unlike anything found in the fossil record.

Could this be a primitive human with an intentional or developmental deformity, or undeniable evidence that a non-human species exists?

Although Gaia.com at least posed the idea that the mummy was an alien as a question, the Disclose.tv web site definitively reported the headline "New Alien Mummy Discovered in Peru Near Nazca Lines."

The Nazca Lines are a set of geoglyphs (lines drawn by removing rocks and digging up earth) near Nazca, Peru. Some are drawn in the shape of animals (biomorphs) and are between 50 and 1,200 feet long, according to National Geographic. The absence of a single definitive explanation for their origins has prompted speculation that aliens were somehow involved in their creation.

However, no evidence has ever definitively proved the existence of alien life, and countless "alien" discoveries have later been shown to be hoaxes or to have far more mundane explanations.

In 2015, Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan, who reported the existence of the Nazca mummy to Gaia and is featured in the video, led an event called Be Witness, at which a mummified body — purportedly that of an alien — was unveiled. Later, though, that "alien" discovery was debunked, and the mummified corpse was shown to be that of a human child.

Forensic scientist José de Jésus Zalce Benitez was one of the lead researchers behind the (debunked) 2015 discovery, presenting his findings at the Be Witness event. Benitez also took part in Gaia's Nazca project and can be seen in the video claiming that the three fingers of the mummy "makes us think that this does not belong to a human species."

The previous discovery of mummies with elongated skulls in Peru, like that shown in the Gaia video, has prompted similar wild speculation about alien species. But anthropologists have explained that elongated skulls are the result of an ancient practice of artificial cranial deformation, in which young children had their heads bound in cloth, rope, or even wooden boards, possibly as part of a religious ritual.

Dr Konstantin Korotkov, who says with certainty in the Gaia video that the Nazca mummy "belongs to another creature," also claims to have invented a camera that can photograph the soul and has previously made a host of pseudo-scientific pronouncements about the measurement of "auras," such as this one:

If we send positive emotions, if we send love to each other, then we increase not only the other person's energy field, but our own energy field.

Finally, Gaia.com (formerly known as Gaiam TV) web site has a long history of providing a platform for false and spurious pseudo-science, conspiracy theories, and paranormal claims. The company charges $95.40 per year for unlimited access to videos about remote viewing, contact with angels, alien abduction, crop circles, and the like.

It remains to be established whether the Nazca "mummy" is actually an excavated corpse or simply a hoax, what its origins are, and how its apparent deformities came about. But we are willing to say with certainty that it will not succeed where thousands of previous "discoveries" have failed, and present definitive, scientifically verifiable proof of alien life.

Sources

Golomb, Jason.  " Nasca Lines."     National Geographic.   8 November 2010.

Bragalia, Anthony.   "The 'Roswell Alien Slides' And My Apology to a Dead Child of the Mesa Verde."     KevinRandle.blogspot.co.uk.   10 May 2015.

Palma, Bethania.  "We Come from France."     Snopes.com.   13 January 2017.

Updates

23 June 2017. Correction: Gaia was formerly known as Gaiam TV, not Gaiam. Gaiam continues as a separate subsidiary of Gaia, Inc., providing yoga and meditation-related video content.

Dan Mac Guill is a former writer for Snopes.